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 and make sure you're subscribed. I'm also

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