Today, anime is a digital medium. Every year
we have projects that push the boundaries of computer animation. But it wasn’t always
computerised and the adoption of digital animation hasn’t been a smooth one. Because of the
colossal increase in the quantity of anime after the introduction of digital animation,
we have a skewed perspective on how recent its implementation was. Chances are, your
favourite anime shows were created in the digital era, but it’s introduction and normalisation
isn’t as far in the past as you might think, and there’s a lot of misconceptions. Relative
to the lifespan medium, digital animation is still a new and unexplored technology.
There are a number of events that trigger the digitalization of the medium, and some
of my favourite works coincide with these periods. In this video, i'm going to explore
when anime turned digital and how it has shaped the medium today. The benefits and the damages. Now you might date the start of digital animation
in anime to the early 2000s where most studio first implemented computer suits, or you might
even date it back to the 90s were a number of movies used pioneering digital techniques.
But digital animation actually has its roots in the early 80s, 1983 to be exact. This is
a special year for two milestones. Firstly, Kojika Monogatari or The Yearling,
a world masterpiece theater series composited a whole episode inside a computer and added
various digital effects like beams of light from the sun. Although it maintained a predominantly
traditional aesthetic, without any prior knowledge, you could watch the series and not even notice
any digital input. The second and far more obvious milestone was in Osamu Dezaki’s
Golgo 13 film. He used digital animation to create the film’s opening sequence and helped
with shots of a helicopter in an action scene towards the end. Looking back this looks pretty
bad, it hasn’t well at all. But at the time, this was revolutionary. 3D animation like
this had barely been used at all, never mind in an anime film. And btw, don’t let this
scene put you off watching the movie, it’s also a fantastic action flick. These projects were done at the the Japan
Computer Graphics Lab. And we actually have a demo reel from the lab that exists on YouTube.
There’s a bunch of logos and basic 3D animations. This was from 1984, you can see they were
already testing what a computer could do with animation. With these projects came the birth
of digital animation in anime. Daicon IV is important to note from this period
too. It was an opening sequence for a sci-fi convention by studio Gainax and it’s become
a sort of legend. A lot people bookmark Daicon IV as the turning point of anime turning into
its own medium, the start of the fandom. It used a very short digital sequence but its
importance comes not from that but from who was involved in it. Gainax became one of the
most important anime studios after this and a lot of the audience at the sci-fi convention
were industry workers. These early years were a goldmine of experimentation.
Not everything came out the other end intact, most of it looks extremely dated now. Regardless
it’s such an interesting period to look at and incredibly important to the medium.
Although, digital animation wasn’t all blocky 3d scenes. Infact, this becomes one of the
big misconceptions about the topic. In 1988 the groundbreaking film Akira showcased
a computer system called the Quick Action Recorder in its Making of documentary. This
was a computer system that allowed animators to put together a drawn version of a scene
while working to see how scenes would flow, the concept is more well known over here as
an animatic. Despite Akira claiming it to be a new technology, the system had been in
use in Japan for most of the 80s. And some people actually consider it the first instance
of digital animation in anime. This, i imagine, was invaluable to production, saving so much
time and resources. The one problem with digital animation in
the 80s, and the reason it took a whole decade to really kick-off was the price of hardware.
Most studios just didn’t have the funding to throw massive amounts of money at technology
they didn’t quite understand. That all changed in the 90s were hardware costs plummeted and
suddenly, studios could afford to try out digital animation. We can look at all smaller examples that dipped
their toes into the water, but it was in 1995 that Mamoru Oshii threw himself into the deep
end with his film Ghost in the Shell. Quite rightly noted as a pioneering work for digital
animation in Japan. Fascinated by the new technology, Oshii and his team composited
the whole movie with computers. Using what’s referred to as a nonlinear editing suit. Before,
anime would be made on film, which becomes a very destructive process. A nonlinear system
doesn’t work frame by frame, instead it connects elements like 3d scenes, layers and
effects together. This was revolutionary in how anime could be developed. Hours and hours
of precious time could be saved with absolutely no quality loss. Specifically, digital effects like computer
systems or dynamic text could now be created in seconds. The iconic opening sequence for
example would've taken months to animate by hand, but with the digital process, it could
be completed in a fraction of the time. Allowing them to do cool things like making those numbers
the binary code for each staff member’s name. Lens effects like the distortion on
the edge of the frame here could be easily made without having to animate each frame,
this allowed them to replicate real cameras with ease. You can see how sequences like
these could only be possible with the help of computer animation. This made Ghost in
the Shell one of the most intricate and progressive films in the medium. It was using techniques
that nobody had seen before in almost every scene. This revolutionary jump actually became a
main influence on the thematic content of the film too. Oshii was always interested
in how technology and computers will enhance our lives, and he was at the heart of one
of those revolutions with digital animation. He used his experiences with the new technology
to guide the film’s story. Ghost in the Shell grows a meta narrative in this sense. Although Ghost in the Shell had become a successful
digital anime, it still wasn’t an industry standard. Prices would have to drop considerably
before most studios could invest in the technology. And a lot of studios weren’t all convinced
about the movement to digital. Anime at this point was a very traditional medium and the
people who controlled it were happy with it staying that way. So the rest of the 90s becomes
a testing ground for various studios trying out computer animation. A few years later, the TV production Yuusha-Ou
GaoGaiGar used various digital elements throughout its episodes. The team would create CG elements
for the show and would add them into the series throughout each episode. Allowing them to
have complex animation throughout the series with little effort. This idea of sprinkling
digital effects into traditional animation became the standard, with bigger projects
like Escaflowne compositing digital artifacts into a very traditional aesthetic. But some studios were taking extra steps to
digitize their projects. Alice was released at the very end of the decade and became the
very first fully CG anime film. And it’s a real artifact of 90s computer animation.
Very few studios had the courage to produce full projects like this because of the judgemental
anime audience, and looking at Alice, i’m not surprised. Obviously there was a whole
new level of freedom in how they could frame shots. Moving a digital camera around a 3D
environment was easy, and action scenes could pull of complex choreography, but elements
like textures and VFX were years from what they needed to be. Characters didn't blend
with the backgrounds and facial expressions seemed robotic. This project as a standalone
piece of anime wasn’t great, but it was an example of the possibilities computer animation
could unlock. One of the compromises of this period was
called Cel-shading. This used computers to take advantage of all the time saving benefits
but imitated traditional cel animation. A lot of the time you wouldn’t be able to
tell the difference. One of the early examples of this idea was at Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki
has always been a fan of the traditional animation process, but even he couldn’t resist the
benefits of computers. After experiments in Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away in 2001 became
their first film to be composited fully in a computer. This increased the studio’s
productivity immensely, having the film completed in just 18 months. But Miyazaki took extra
care to almost trick the audience into thinking otherwise. He even added in artificial movement
into static objects to replicate traditional cel animation. This says a lot about how the
industry was looking at the new technology. They were eager to embrace the new era of
computer animation, but unlike Disney or Dreamworks they were reluctant to let go of the old aesthetic. Katsuhiro Otomo was one of the early innovators
in this field with his film Steamboy in 2004, using a handful of digital techniques to enhance
his production. Although, Otomo has voiced his concerns about the new technology. He
discusses in a 1998 interview in Animage that the explosive amount of new options animators
get can distract them from the basics. Despite his concerns, Otomo embraces digital
animation for Steamboy and created some of the most intricate animation i’ve ever seen.
It not only excelled in creating amazingly complex scenes with 2D animation, it utilised
3D animation in a way that had never been done before. The production team would storyboard
traditionally, then create a basic 3D version of the scene, then animate over that to produce
the final concept. Much like how Akira used the Quick Action Recorder to create an animatic.
This allowed them to produce camera movements that 2D animation would never be able to without
sacrificing detail. Although, this obviously wasn’t a realistic standard as only a handful
of projects since have been able to use these techniques successfully. Outside of using computers to recreate a traditional
look, some studios were dipping their toes back into the idea of rotoscoping. This has
been used throughout the years. Even going as far back to 1958’s Hakujaden that filmed
live action sequences for referencing in animation. With the help of computers, studios could
use motion capture to enhance movement. In traditional pieces this ended up looking out-of-place.
Falling into the uncanny valley. But became an opportunity for CG movies. In 2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
was released, the film lost millions due to its poor box office performance but visually,
it was one of the most advanced pieces of CG animation in the industry. And to be honest,
it still holds up today. Character models were extremely realistic and everything blended
together quite nicely. It’s certainly not perfect, but Cg was viable for creating a
good movie if in the right hands. A huge improvement on Alice. Unfortunately, the massive amount
of money Spirits Within took to make meant Cg movies wouldn’t be making regular appearances. A few years later, in 2004, Appleseed was
released. This improved visually again, with some of my favourite CG action scenes. The
world was presented seamlessly with fantastic detail. But the bottom line was these movies
were never going to make money. They took far too much capital to produce and the market
just wasn’t accepting them. Unlike Disney and Dreamworks who were making CG movies some
of the most successful box office releases ever. If two already established franchises,
Final Fantasy and Appleseed couldn't make it work, then nobody could. But something far more important was happening.
In the year 2000, a young Mokoto Shinkai, having just left the video game industry was
working on a solo project. He took on the task of writing, directing and producing his
very own short film. Voices of a distant star. Shinkai created it all on his own computer
using software like Photoshop and After Effects. He didn’t have a production team or studio,
in fact he didn’t even have voice overs. Him and his wife initially played the two
characters. It took 7 months to create and became the catalyst to a new way of thinking
in the industry. By this time, every studio had a computer
suit. And as Shinkai proved in 2001, animation was now limitless. Anyone with the talent
and dedication could now produce high quality animation. This led to what we’re currently
in, the digital era. The amount of anime being produced every year skyrocketed, and niche
projects that previously wouldn’t have found funding now have audiences in the 1000s that
could fund multiple seasons. Studios like Science Saru were being founded with small
teams using accessible software to make complex works. We’re living in a really interesting
age and it’s only just starting. With organisations like Netflix now funding full series, there
seems to be no limits to what might come next. And it’s all thanks to the pioneering work
of the individuals involved in anime. Reluctant to let go of the anime aesthetic, the industry
has used digital animation to keep anime… well anime. And I think that’s one of the
main reasons we love the medium. I’m going to make another video soon exploring
the new landscape of digital animation, but for now, i hope this video has been a helpful
overview of when anime went digital. So thank you, all my subscribers for watching this
video, and for the continued support on all my projects lately. I’ve really been putting
the hours and and i’m making some of my all time favourite videos. And that’s not
stopping anytime soon, so thanks for watching. Be sure to share the video around if you can
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But for now, thanks for watching.
