Creature animation

{{Short description|Animation process}} {{One source|date=October 2021}} '''Creature animation''' is a specialised part of the animation process which involves bringing realistic animals and creatures to life. It is often distinguished from character animation, which involves breathing life into animated characters and creating the illusion of thought, feeling and emotion.

==Definition== Creature animators create highly realistic motion in animals or creatures; examples include the dinosaurs animated in the 1993 Steven Spielberg film ''Jurassic Park''.<ref name="Bean, pp.6-20">[https://books.google.com/books?id=62FrKLO2M3AC&dq=creature+animation&pg=SA6-PA20 Beane, pp.6-20] Retrieved September 2012</ref> Since dinosaurs cannot be filmed or observed in motion, the animators studied other living creatures such as birds and lizards in order to re-create how a dinosaur might move and behave.<ref name="Bean, pp.6-20"/>

Fours year earlier, in 1989, the pioneering digital animation studio Industrial Light & Magic created a water creature for the James Cameron film ''The Abyss''. Again, not knowing how a water creature might move, considerable effort was required by the animators to imagine how such a creature might perform and behave.<ref name="Bean, pp.6-20"/>

==References== * [https://books.google.com/books?id=62FrKLO2M3AC&dq=creature+animation&pg=SA6-PA20 Beane, Andy, pp.6-20, ''3D Animation Essentials''] Retrieved September 2012

==Notes== {{reflist|2}}

==External links== * [http://animationateam.com/ Animation A Team - Creature Animation School] Retrieved September 2012 * [http://www.animationapprentice.org/ Online Character and Creature Animation School] Retrieved September 2012

Category:Animation techniques