Latest trends and innovations in the animation industry

Animation is the art of creating moving images. It has been around for centuries, but it has become increasingly popular in recent years. This is due in part to the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, SonyLIV, ZEE5, Hotstar, Hulu and more, which have made it easier for people to watch animated shows and movies.

There are many different animation trends that are popular today. Some of the most popular trends include:

Virtual Production 

Traditionally, film making was relied heavily on physical sets, which also involved the work of location hunting. The advent of virtual production has introduced a paradigm shift in this entire industry. Virtual production (VP) is a filmmaking process that combines live-action footage with computer-generated imagery (CGI) in real time. In this system, 3D digital environments and characters can be seamlessly integrated into live-action footage. 

David Morin (Chairman of the Virtual Reality Committee and the Virtual Production Committee, and head of Epic Games’ Los Angeles Lab) has defined Virtual Production as the competency to merge live video shooting footage and computer graphics (3D / CGI) together, at once to get real-time opinions and feedback and to make decisions on the set about the VFX and Animation used. It is the procedure of seamlessly merging the digital world’s 3D elements with the live plate of film and conclude with the final Visual Effects, whose core is around the real-time interaction on set. The ground breaking technology of in-camera VFX is truly a disruptive one.

In simple terms, VP allows directors to create realistic environments and effects without having to build physical sets or travel to expensive locations. It is useful for producers to implement certain filmic elements in the plot of the film. Virtual Production will help you to perfect your vision into a digital ecosystem long before your kick-off with the set. At the very start of the procedure, you will be able to show your team exactly what you want to be delivered and depicted in the film plot with the help of Virtual Production technology.

There are so many in capacity of small shots to big sequences. But, some of the most notable movies which used VP are The Mandalorian, Avatar series, and Top Gun: Maverick.

AI (Artificial Intelligence), AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality)

Rafael Nadal did tournament with David Ferrer. More than 1500 people saw it this sports broadcasting live, but it was with a twist.

Virtual set of tennis tournament was created and has AR scenes were inserted in it. The on-air engine for broadcasting of real shooting and AR data together, Tool for live production, to manage all graphics and texts. The realtime tracking was done as per various camera positions and movements, with insertion of 3D objects and texts in Augmented Reality scenes.

Photoshop, 3ds Max and Unreal Engine were used in from the Animation pipeline.

Adobe Firefly is a new AI-based tool that can be used to create and edit animations. It has the potential to revolutionize the animation industry. Here are some of the things that Firefly can do:

• Generate images from text descriptions

• Remove objects from images or add new objects to images

• Apply styles and textures to text and objects

• Recolor vector artwork

• Generate 3D images from 2D images

• Change the aspect ratio of images

Autodesk has also announced use of AI based tools in the upcoming versions of their key softwares including Maya and 3ds Max.