In the early days animation was sketchy at best. The most we could have hoped for was less than realistic images of giant lizards and insects that terrorized the country side. That all changed when computers came into being. The computer age helped to blur the line between fantasy and reality to give us the movies that we love so much. Using the newest technology allowed film makers to bring to the screen that which was deemed impossible in the early days of movies.
The forerunner of the animation movement was George Lucas. When he envisioned Star Wars he planned to make a movie like no one had before. This would require him to break new ground when it came to animation and special effects and he was able to come through in fine style. The animation of his characters in the first film gave people their first glimpse of the future and was an overnight sensation.
George Lucas laid the ground work for new movies with his advancements in movie animation technology that allowed other movies to move into the future. This was seen in many of the science fiction films of the early and middle eighties as they used the Star Wars model to bring new concepts to the screen. This also spawned many companies based on the new technology that are still sought out to make dreams and imagination come true.
The movie animation business is now a billion dollar a year industry that employs some of the best animators and computer specialists in the entire world. This is how the world was brought the hit movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This film was the first of its kind where animated characters or cartoon characters interacted with the human characters in the entire story line. This was a new concept that was a smash hit in its time. The world had never seen anything like it and the trickery of the camera made everyone believe that they could touch and see a cartoon character like they did in the movie.
Today the animation in movies is far more advanced. Where film makers were once limited to making only two dimensional animated characters the norm now is three dimensional, fully interactive animated characters that dominate the screen. The first real advancement in this technology was the movie Toy Story. This film was created on a computer and featured no human presence in the film itself besides the voice over. The world was treated to the future of animation and movies with this film and it became an over night success.
