Impacts
"Animation is the one type of movie that really does play for the entire audience. Our challenge is to make stories that connect for kids and adults." (John Lasseter) |
In the beginning of the creation of computer animation, there were people who were against it and there were people who supported it. Those who opposed it were managers, but they would allow for computers to be used in animation projects when they were not used for “real and serious” (Garcia) work. However, even though these managers opposed computer animation, there were much more supporters. For example, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) and universities like MIT and Harvard supported computer animation and imaging and received grants. Although there was consideration if one should use computer animation or not, the end result of the animation projects today is evidence that it was worth it.
When CGI, which is short for computer generated imagery, and computer animation improved, it helped entertainment to be more enjoyable. With the improvement, it was able to generate and animate photo-realistic scenes. Moreover, instead of taking years to render, it only takes about a few minutes to finish a scene in a film after the improvements. This made more people use CGI for animation and animating films more efficiently. The computer game industry also benefited from enhanced computer graphics. In order to make a game or movie realistic, animators had to cope with reflection, refraction, shading, and texturing which all made objects such as trees or hair look more authentic. This is shown by the movies Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Final Fantasy: Spirits Within. After CGI and computer animation got popular and improved drastically, computer animation started to make more impacts. Many different genres of movies benefited from CGI or computer animation. For example, fantasy movies were able to make the fantasy world more believable with computer animation. In order to make the fantasy world more genuine, animators and special effects artists are crucial to making the writer’s vision reality. In action movies there are usually a lot of explosions, and with computer animation, they can be done safely without any risk of people getting hurt or being blown out during the shoot. Additionally, blood and fight scenes can be more realistic and detailed. Moreover, computer animation affected horror movies as well. For instance, using computer animation to make spirits, monsters, possessed beings, and etcetera. However, computer animation does not only help with big blasts and spirits. For example, in romance films a simple background change with CGI enhances to make the movie more romantic and magical. Thus, CGI and computer animation made movies and games much more realistic and more fun. Furthermore, major companies such as Walt Disney were influenced by computer animation. Walt Disney movies changed drastically due to computer animation. With a new medium, they were able to have new formats available to filmmakers. After they entered the growing trend of 3D movies, Disney started to demand more movies in 3D from their filmmakers. Thus, traditional hand drawn movies started to fade gradually. Pixar also earned great success with computer animation. Pixar is known for having a short, quality film before the main movie. Both the short films and the movies are usually in 3D, and have proved to be successful. Also, Pixar received awards for technical rewards, fantasy, etcetera. They prove that combining technology and creative talent is important to an animation film. They also provided memorable characters and heartwarming stories which attracted all ages. To conclude, companies were impacted by computer animation. Between traditional animation and computer animation, there are conflicts about which is better. Before computer animation became popular, animating a film took hundreds of people to accomplish the job, but with computer animation computers can achieve the same results in cheaper and faster ways. Traditional animation is a slow process that can be stop-motion or hand drawn. Computer animation films can be cheaper to make movies with this technology, it can be more expensive too depending on how much detail the filmmaker desires to use. In the end, traditional and computer animation do not have much differences in price and quality, except that traditional animation takes more time and effort. Today, both traditional and computer animation coexists with each other. Sometimes they are used together. Computer animation is not a replacement, but rather another tool to make animation more pleasurable. Besides computer animation affecting movies, games, and companies, it has also impacted children. According to Wilson T. Sebastian’s research, he found out that computer animation affected children in many ways. He found the use of computer animation increased academic performance and better problem solving. However, a negative impact on children is their ability to make and maintain a relationship with their family and friends. The main reason for this is because computer animation made graphics on games more interesting, causing more kids want to play these games. With more computer animation, there is less time with family and friends. The increase of animation made kids more aggressive and overweight. They also may have loneliness and depression. However, the social effects of computer animation on children varies and depends on the content, type, and time. For example, children who play violent video games are more likely to behave the same way in real life, and children who play educational games will be able to learn effectively without any consequences. As a result, the impact of computer varies from movies to children. |