CG vs. Traditional Animation: The Battle to the Big Screen

To Draw or click-and-drag, that is the question that animators and films have been contesting on the screen since the emergence of Pixar's revolutionary technology. With the debut of films like Toy Story (1995) independent and big time studios were beginning to question the future of stop-motion and drawn animation. Although Disney, Treehouse, and countless other studios and networks have embraced this technology their still remained the beating heart of the Anime giant. With visionary directors like Hayao Miyazaki fighting the CG empire's of the west Anime was still able to span some of Europe and North America on the film festival circles as a higher visual art than that of the mainstream CG animations. This small demand for traditional animation sparked directors like Wes Anderson to use stop-motion for his adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox and for Disney to release a traditionally animated fairytale The Princess and the Frog. Many in the industry as well as critics hope that traditional methods will start a renaissance in the film industry.

While the film industry is playing with the idea of balancing traditional animations with CG ones, the television industry seems to still be in different directions on the debate. For some children's stations it is still easier and cheaper to continue using traditional animation rather than converting to CG animated shows. On the other hand, hit claymation studios that brought classics like the Wallace and Gromit series are looking and experimenting with CG integration for their hit franchise. It seems like the battle over CG and Traditional Animation has only begun, I look forward to seeing the work of the next decade, will CG prevail? Or will vintage creativity stand its ground? Only time will tell.

Christian A.V. Petrozza

Articles on the ongoing battle
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2009/11/25/wes-anderson-s-fantastic-mr-fox-may-signal-end-of-cgi-craze.aspx

http://www.helium.com/items/617141-animation-3d-versus-hand-drawn?page=2

An original 3D animation test from 1983 when Disney still owned the rights to Where the Wild Things Are. Putting together hand drawn animation with 3D framing and atmosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIDRoO8KnM

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