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 Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors ...

, 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

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film ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

''.Beane, pp.6-20
Retrieved September 2012 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. Fours year earlier, in 1989, the pioneering digital animation studio

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

created a water creature for the

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film ''

The Abyss ''The Abyss'' is a 1989 American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. When an American submarine sinks in the Caribbean, a US search and recovery tea ...

''. 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.

References

Beane, Andy, pp.6-20, ''3D Animation Essentials''
Retrieved September 2012

Notes

External links

Animation A Team - Creature Animation School
Retrieved September 2012
Online Character and Creature Animation School
Retrieved September 2012 Animation techniques {{animation-stub