animation clarification

[Mark Mayerson]

As somebody who works in the animation industry and who has friends at
Disney Features, I want to clarify the use of computers on the features.

All the cel painting and what used to be camera work is now all done on
computer.  The CAPS system is used to paint and composite the art into
final scenes, and is then output to a digital film recorder.

Computer animation has been used for background elements (The Big Ben
sequence of The Great Mouse Detective, ships in The Little Mermaid,
the poacher's vehicle in Rescuers Down Under, the ballroom in Beauty
and the Beast.

Some computer character animation has been used.  In Aladdin, the carpet
and the tiger cave were both done on computer, after the animation was
first done on paper.  In The Lion King, the wildebeast stampede was done
on the computer, but the run cycle and flopping manes were based on
drawings.

The vast majority of art for the features is still done on paper.  The
character animation is drawn, cleaned up and inbetweened on paper.  The
backgrounds are laid out and painted on paper.  All this material is
scanned in to the computer, where animation drawings are colored and
the whole shebang is composited.

Disney is financing a feature done entirely on computer called Toy Story
and made by Pixar.  That is supposed to be out for Christmas '95.  There
are rumors that parts of Fantasia Continued will be done entirely on
computer.  However, there is still a big need for people who can work
with pencils at Disney and other animation studios.
___________________________________________________________________
Mark Mayerson				Catapult Productions
Internet:  mayerson at sidefx.com          Toronto, Ontario, Canada
					(416) 504-9876