Animationtakes off

A Man rover wrapped tn protective balloons bouncti across Ihe surface ol Man in an animated scei|IMIWAIID[5N£TCO]

from (he Diiney documentary '

The increasingly popular art form is evolving in many directions

BT ANDREW RATHER[1UH ItrOlTtl]

T NEW YORKwo visitors were smiUnlzma a paint-Ing at the Museum of Modem Aitand pondered aloud the artist'sthought process.

On another evening, they mighthaw been studying the museum'ssignature pieces — Van Gogh's lumi-nous Starry Night, Andy Warhol's

iconj; Campbell's soup pop an and Picasso's eartycubist Lei Demoorila d'Avtgnoti. which is said to bereproduced tn mace ait history tecs than any oth-er 20th-century work. But those ovation* were allseveral floon above them. 'he compuler-animaled Woody Gelt) and Bun

No, this winter's night they were marveling over Lightyear in Toy Story.*Buzz Ughtyear and Woody [ I H E W A L I O I I N E Y C O . I

The recent MOMA exhibition of the cartoon anlmatlon of Pixar drew some of the biggest crowds ityears to the museum to sw its largest-ever anlmatlon display The show, and the puhtk response, undcncond the advances in the craft In recent years.

Groundbreaking work in animation is takin)many fomu, From video game) to its use in reconstructlons for courtroom arguments. Computergenerated characters in movies — Crom Golhim aloci's The Lord of the Kingt- TV Ttuo Toarrs to thelatest Xing long — have set a high bar for whaviewers expect

Last weekend, the computer'anlmatcd film lc>Age The Uettdown, by 20tn Century Fox and BluiSky srudlos, earned nearly 170 million In NortlAmerican tneaten, a record for a March movtiopening. It was the fourth-best opening for any antmated lilm. behind DreamWorks SKC' Shnk 2 anPlxar'i The tncrediblo and Finding Nrmo. all durintthe past three yean, according to box-oL'kc trackc:IPIeaaf x* AtiWATlON, 6FI

FROM THE COVER

Animation here, there and everywhereExhibitor Relation! Co.

Animation In TV commercials duringthis > IMT'S Super Bowl and Winter Otym-p.cs Included United Airlines' *Draf{on*ad that transformed paper shards Intomedieval knights, and Charles Schwab'sTalk to Chuck* spois. The Schwab adsused a tracing technique called rotoscof>Ing that Walt Disney used for $now While70 yean ago and that George Lucas origi-nally used for his 'tight sabers.'

In IMAX theaters this year, the Disneyproduction Roving Man garnered praisefor lls eerie compulcrgenerated deple-tions of an unmanned craft bouncing to-ward a landing on the red planet. Evenforms of animation that have beenaround for decades are wowing audi-ences, such as the Japanese anime IntUyjo Miyazakl's Hoitfs Mowing Quileand the British claymatlon creation "';.'•face & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, whkh won an Academy Awardlast month.

Cartoons aren't Just Tor Saturdaybreakfast anymore. The ni July featureknown as 'adult swim* on cable TVsCartoon Network cultishly draws ymingpeople to such fare as Aqua Teen HungerForce, about the bizarre exploit! of ameatball, a milkshake and tome fries.Ptzar*s Can and Monster House, a studentfilm that caught the eye, and backing, ofRobert Zemeads and Steven Spielberg,are among the latest crop of computer-animated films expected to create somebox-odlce buzz this summcc

Perhaps not since the iwos — whenWalt Disney's famed mouse and compa-ny were chalknged by a group of strikingDisney cartoonists who'd launched theirown studio with their own stylized form— has the art of animation entered suc;ia diverse and creative era.

"The way young people consume ani-mation has changed. You dont see bor-

ANIMATION HISTORY1906 Jimei Stuart OUcklun mikuthe Humorous Phases offunnj ram, theflnl known example of animation, lib

den between things.* said MaureenFumiss, a professor at the California In-stitute of the Arts, whose alumni IncludeJohn A. Uuelcr. widely described as thecreative force at Ptxat *lt used to be allDisney, and everything else was consid-ered bad animation.*

Fumlss meant a long time ago. AfterWalt Disney died In 1966, his company'sgrip on animation loosened. The studioregained stature during Mkhad D. Eisn-er's leadership, with a string of animatedblockbusters that even transformedBroadway, most nuUbty The Lion King.But It took a back seat In recent yean toPtxar

After wowing audiences with Its 3-D de-pletions of Buzz IJghtyear. Woody andthe other characters In Toy Story. Ptxarhelped transform public expectations forcartoons. Audience* weren't merely en-tertained by computer-generated depic-tions of toys, and later bugs, monstersand fish; they were transfixed by them.

Disney conceded that tt needed toadopt t'wa.-'s creative edge — so it'sabout to buy the company for s: : bll-lion. Some animation fans fear thai theHollywood giant could end up smother-ing the irartocUstic culture that Ptxar cul-tivated in Silicon Valley. But Steven Jobs,the Apple Computer Impresario whobuilt Pixar out of the computer graphicslab he'd bought from George Lucas'famed Industrial Light and Magic In the1960s, said he agreed to the deal only af-ter he and Lasseter were assured they'llbe able to preserve their approach.

Some hope that the combination ofPixar and Disney will propel an alreadyfertile period for animation. Poor's suc-cess has also tempered the traditional-

ists' view that computer animation wasless pure and artistic than cartoons pro-duced wholly by the human hand,

Pixar's Impetus in providing its workfor the Museum of Modem An exhibitwas partly lo demonstrate tu artisticbona fides. The exhibit, whkh movedthis month to the Science Museum InLondon, includes vivid watercolor story-boards and polyurethane busts of themovie characters that were the founda-tion for the computer designs. Intricatepastel studies of flora and fauna that be-came the wellspring for Pour's A Bug'slift would have done Auduhon proud.

*ln our world, the computer is a tool,the tame as a pencil or a crush,* Lasset-er said In a statement before the exhib-it opened. *Our artists ovate so muchbeauulul art Tor each film that mostpeople never get to see. ..."

But Plxars artistry b secondary to Itsstorytelling, animation pros say. Pixarhas been vintage Dlsnevesque In Itsability to create beloved and memora-ble characters, as have some other com-petitors, like DreamVferks.

•It's not about the technique. It's thestory, stupid. Shnk could have been ani-mated with matchstldu,* said LeonardMaJlin, a longtime Um critic for Inter-

uimmmt Tonight who wrote an anima-tion history. 0/Mice and Hope, in 1980.

It's Impossible, however, to overlooktechnology's Influence on the art, drivenby lister, cheaper and more-accessiblecomputing power. Even Pixar has a sidebusiness generating about 114 million ayear by selling Its proprietary animationsoftware (albeit a fraction of its nearly1290 million In revenue last year).

The GE1CO gecko, star of the Washing-lon-based Insurer's ad campaign. Is thelizardly embodiment of the rapid ad-vances in animation computing. Withimprovements in shadowing and ana-tomical detail, the character has becomeincreasingly lifelike during six yean ofcommerdals. The character has evolvedfrom one with flattened physical fea-tures in the initial ad in 2000 to appear-ing near-human in recent spots, with fa-cial expression, musculature and a cock-ney accent to boot

*lf you're going to play In this era, the[computer-generated ] world, people ex-pect the next thing. They expect a certainamount of realism,* said Steve Bassett.creative director at the Martin Agpncy ofRichmond, Va.. the ad agency for CHCQ

Animators at the Framestorc. a Britishspecial-effects studio that helped pro-

duce the GEICO spots, bought a gecko aa New York pet shop for inspiration aremodeling as they designed the mascot 01the computer They eventually sent theiwork ID a Tender farm* — hundreds ocomputers that process the Immeiuiamount of data to make a computer-generated scene.

It takes about an hour to process onframe of computer animation, and eversecond of film requires about 24 framestwice as many as 2-D animation. So on-computer needs about a day to full1

process one second of computer anlma

Pixar said a iis-mlnule animated Teature film such as The fncralibfes requireabout 165,000 Individual frames.

•films like Toy Story come out and sewripples through the advertising industryand people use the feature films as a rderence,* said David Hulin, head of computer generation at the Framestore':New York office.

His firm's animation credits tncludiscene* in several of the Harry Potfcifilm*. Including the big make in Th>Chamber nf Secrets and the magical hallbird, half-hone hlppognffin the Pruonro/AzJtnban. Its commercial work Inctuded the FedEx caveman spot that scornbig during this year's Super Bowl, whkl

•What was unfeasible to attempt on .commerdaJ deadline three or four yearago, now can be done,* Hulin said.

But some say animators have crcatectheir own Frankenstein of expectations.

This emulation of life will continue ttbe a huge trend,* uk) James Duesling. aiEmmy Award winner and anlmatioiprofessor at Carnegie Mellon Uniwrwt'in Pittsburgh. The more realistic yoiget, the more people notice the thing:that are wrong.*

andrewj-atner^Wttunxom

1923 Walt DlMwy-s UuKh-O-r.raimFilms studio in Kansas goes bankrupt.IHMH.-Y moves tu Ij» Angeles and opensa new studio In his uncle's ftaracr-

1928 After a feud over his fee formaking 'Oswald Ihe RabtHi* shorls,

-.«..".,. o.TTk.-l.f I-.:. ^..-i.JHi Hi.'..i-;'.;.f. J i nn ) i. I:-.,-:.-

method was to draw comical faces on ablackboard, f i lm them, slop the film,erase a f.m- lo draw another and thenHim the newly drawn face.

1908 rmlle cohl. a Frenchman.

Disney sketches a mouse on hi*rciurn train Irlp to California fromNew York. He adds the new effect ofsound lo the third of his MickeyHouse shorts.Steamboat Wllllr, larave reviews.

1950 An Academy Award goes toCtrold MrBcins BO/.TR.created by UnitedProductions of America wllh animators

who Wl IXsney during a 1911 strike.

1960 lUnna flarberrt The'•:.::'•••-• b prime-time tek-viston^ firstsuccessful cartoon series.

1990 Richard Williams receives aSpecial Achievement Oscar fordirecting the animation In Who FramrdRojs-r Xobbil . I hi* first lime I hi- award

b given for animation since Disneyreceived II for Snow white and theSeven Dwarfi.

takes In more bin oCTkr receipts thanany other i Mr i that year,

2002 Shrek (above) wins first-everOscar for an anlmaled feature.

ANIMATION IS MOVING IN MANY DIRECTIONSCOMPUTER-GENERATEDIMAGERYIn 3-D computer animation such asPixarl Toy Story (below) and theupcoming Con, computers createthree-dimensional models based ondrawings and sculptures. The anima-tion work involves lighting andcamera angles like a live-action film.

MOTION CAPTUREActon arc filmed performing In suitswith dots al the joints that providedata points for a computer to form arealistic but animated version of theperson. The Mar £rpresi (beJowXwhich starred a digitized Tom Hanks,and the upcoming Mom w House aretwo examples.

CLAYMATIONFor films like the Wallace and Crwnitmovies (below) and Chicken Run,sculptures made of clay or other mate-rials are arranged on a set, filmed,then moved slightly and shot again tocreate the illusion of movement.Roughly 12 changes are usually made

id of film.

ROTOSCOPINGSometimes called *paintlng onmovies,* animators trace over live-ac-tion movement to create oddly realis-tic Imagery. Walt Disney used the tech-nique lo animate Snow While and theSeven Dwarfi in 1937. George Lucasused It to create light sabers fromsticks in the first Star Wars trilogy, andCharles Schwab Corp. used It for a re-cent serin of Talk to Chuck* ads(below) featuring typical Investors.

DIGITAL PUPPETRYA United Airlines commercial duringthe Super Bowl (below) used puppetsthat were filmed to create movement,then cleaned up digitally to create a"dream sequence* of gladiators, a boy)dream and a father1! business trip.