3D Animation - Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks

3D animations are a relatively new idea, and I feel lucky to be born in the decade I was; it's been easy to see the transition from 2D to 3D animation for a lot of companies as I've grown up and watched childrens' films and cartoon; being a part of the target audience of some of the biggest animated features has been very good for keeping up with the trends in the animation world.



Toy Story was the first fully computer animated film by Pixar, and released by Disney. It's nearly as old as I am, and it's interesting to see how technology has changed, but also how it has stayed the same in that space of time. CG animation is still very similar now, and the movement and expressions and designs are still great nearly 19 years later. There are definite changes to what the animations look like now from these studios, but a lot of what looks different, I think, is the things they would have tackled in post-processing to make the characters and objects fit in with the background a lot more. It is still a lot more advanced than I would have expected from the first proper CG film.




Antz was the first 3D feature film by Dreamworks in 1998, although not one of the most memorable in my opinion - when I hear Dreamworks, I always think about Shrek, from 2001. I do love the character design in this film, with the amount of character and expression in faces and simplified limbs that makes the movement of their characters easier to animate. Again the animation is better than I had previously thought from this point of time. I do like the use of lighting in this film as well - the warm tones work very well and the shadows are quite realistic.




Chicken Little was Disney's first actual 3D animated film, and looks very different from the films they traditionally made. Chicken Little (Title character) is one of the most adorable character designs in 3D animation, and makes me really want to watch the film. You can see how much life and expression is in the dance sequence at the end of this trailer, and it looks like they must have put a lot of effort in with the character animation.