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What are the main differences between anime in the 90s and in 2000s in terms
of technology used (like on twos, on threes, etc)?


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2015-03-10T09:31:21.790
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2017-09-01T07:57:57.163
2015-03-11T08:36:43.643
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question
anime-history
What are the differences of anime in 1990s and 2000s in terms of technology used?


This is a fairly tough question to answer, as most changes did not just apply
to Anime, but to how movies, series and even advertisements as a whole, and
the way they got made.

It is however an interesting time period you picked, considering the economic
slump of the 90's, which they only started to recover from in 92

> _A slump in advertising revenue, dwindling birthrates, and the popularity of
> alternative forms of entertainment like video games and cell phones have led
> to sluggish prime time ratings and a decline in the number of anime since
> the peak in 2006... ...The Japanese anime industry is at a turning point._
> \- [Nippon, 2013](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/)

## Rise of 3D animation and CGI

All though [3D
animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_animation#3D_animation_software_in_the_1990s)
was already existent around the 1940's. It had a 'said' _breakout_ year in
1991. As more and more studios started to adapt the technology, we can slowly
see it replace older, more [Traditional
Animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation) techniques
throughout the 90's and during the beginning of the millenia.

Due to these changes, there where also significant advances in the field. Such
as the 2000 breakthrough in capturing the reflectance field over the human
face, being the final breakthrough to making digital look-a-likes of actors,
Or the 2001 Motion capture, photorealism, and uncanny valley.

The later of which was applied on the 2001 Japanese-American [Final Fantasy:
The Spirits
Within](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within),
which was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and remains
the most expensive video game-inspired film of all time.

Besides obtaining a _first_ in Photorealistic computer animation, Japan can
also claim the title for being the _first_ in using [cel-shaded
animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel_shading), with
[Appleseed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed_\(film\)).

> _"innovative use of out-of-the-box animation software to create Hollywood-
> style effects at a tiny fraction of Hollywood budgets."_  
>  **_Mark Schilling, The Japanese times &  
>  Toshio Suzuki president Studio Ghibli_**

## Death of traditional animation

[Traditional Animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation),
also known as hand drawn animations, or cel animation.

During the 90's as more and more studios started to adapt digitalized
animation, the art of traditional animation started to slowly die out. Some
studios dived straight into the deep, leaving traditional animation behind
almost immediately, while others started by mixing the digital and traditional
ways.

This would continue till [FujiFilm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm),
one of the major cel production companies, announced they would stop cel
production, leading to a industry panic, hastening the switch to digital
processes

Around the early 2000s most studios left behind traditional animation for the
more modern, digital animation.

There was however 1 exception to this, [Sazae-
san](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san). But even though it was the
[sole survivor](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-08-29/sazae-san-is-
last-tv-anime-using-cels-not-computers), they also gave in to the modern age
in 2013. When even they said [goodbye to cel
animation](http://www.japanator.com/sazae-san-says-goodbye-to-traditional-
animation-29800.phtml).

> _"It's the culture of Japan. We want to continue making the paints even if
> that cuts into our profits."_ **_Taiyō Shikisai head Shigeji Kitamura_**

<http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/>

begin 90's turning point facial animation Historically speaking, the first
SIGGRAPH tutorials on State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990
proved to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and
consolidating multiple research elements and sparked interest among a number
of researchers <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation>


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