The Rising Popularity of 3D
Animated Cartoons

chillibreeze writer — Summer_Rain

Do you know who Nemo is? If you are the average movie-goer, chances are that you do. Nemo is the clownfish in the movie "Finding Nemo", a computer-animated film that topped the charts in 2003.

Nemo and a growing number of animated characters are the new age heroes on screen. They are slowly gaining a vast ground around you - on the movie screen, on the game console, on the computer, on the phone, on TV; as films, videos, games, toys, cartoon strips, shows, advertisements, wallpapers and other consumer products.

This world of 3D animated cartoons is growing fast and how! A look at the lists and earnings of various players in this world is telling indeed.

Computer-Generated-Imagery (CGI) Studios are the key players and their numbers are shining: The top companies - Pixar Animation Studios (bought by The Walt Disney Company last year), DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Feature Animation being the top dogs, along with a host of others - have declared top line growth in recent years.

The products from these companies are breaking records all the way as expected. The lists of best selling movies and television series in the recent decade have included CGI cartoon movies to a noticeable degree. The ‘Top 20 US movie list of all times’, for example, includes three animated cartoon movies (‘Shrek 2’, ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘The Lion King’. source: http://www.thenumbers.com/movies/records/#alltime).

Pixar spun out the ‘Toy Story’ series, ‘Monsters, Inc’, ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Cars’ with box office grosses totaling more than $3.2 billion worldwide (source:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/news/companies/disney_pixar_deal/index.htm). Its shares have doubled over the last three years (source: http://in.advfn.com/p.php?pid=ukfinancials&symbol=LSE%3APIXR)

DreamWorks Animation has produced or distributed more than ten films with US box-office grosses alone totaling more than $100 million each (source: http://www.the-numbers.com/). DreamWorks created the ‘Shrek’ series, ‘Shark Tale’, ‘Sinbad’, ‘Chicken Run’, ‘Small Soldiers’, ‘Antz ‘ and a clutch of other movies titles in the last few years.

Walt Disney Feature Animation which ruled the 2D film world for most of the last century moved into the 3D one with alacrity after seeing the new upstarts stealing the thunder. The company drew out ‘The Lion King’, ‘Pocahontas’, ‘Hercules’, ‘Tarzan’ and dozens of others.

Blues Sky Studios did the hyper cool ‘Ice Age’ series (2006 and 2002) and ‘Robots’ (2005). Another player is Big Idea Studios who created the ‘Veggie Tales’ series and ‘3-2-1 Penguins’. DNA Productions churned out the ‘Jimmy Neutron’ movie (2001) and the long running television series on the same character, ‘The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron’ (2001 to 2006).

While an average title yields about $100 million in US box-office collections, the hit titles go on to the $500+ million mark. Take a look at Pixar's product figures: The ‘Toy Story’ series earned $362 million in the US box office collections in 1995 and $485 million in 1999. ‘Monsters, Inc’ made $525 million in 2001), ‘Finding Nemo’ did $865 million in 2003 and ‘The Incredibles’ saw $631 million in 2004 (source: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/news/companies/disney_pixar_deal/index.htm).

While this may be commendable, what is mind-boggling are the incomes from other revenue streams. Take a look at DVD figures; typically these numbers - via sales or rentals - are 3 to 4 times bigger than the movies sales figures!

Consider 'The Lion King's performance: while the movie's total US Gross was $328 million (the world wide Gross stood at $783 million), the worldwide video and DVD sales plus rentals is now a staggering $1,500 million! (Source: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1994/0LNKN.php)

TV is another channel which yields fantastic revenue for these 3D creations. Here the characters turn into brands on their rights over the years, via long running series and advertisements. Established cable network companies such as Turner Broadcasting (owns Cartoon Network, POGO and Boomerang), Disney-ABC Cable Networks Group (owns Disney Channel) and emerging companies such as Prof-Media (owns "2x2", the first animated TV channel in Russia) tie up with Animation Studios to pipe cartoon shows – which are ever increasingly 3D in nature these days – all across the world.

The tool makers in this trade are benefiting from this ongoing tidal wave as well. Autodesk - which owns '3ds Max' and 'Maya' among other tools - have set new earnings numbers growing from $823 million in 2003 to $1.84 billion in 2007 (source: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/11/117861/earnings/5Year_FactSheetFinal.pdf). So has Avid - owners of ‘XSI’ and ‘FaceRobot’. They have grown from to $471 million in 2000 to over $775 million in 2005 (source: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/82/82844/reports/05_Avid_Annual.pdf). Studios themselves are creating custom tools and are successfully finding a market for the same. ‘Renderman’ from Pixar is one such example.

Another indicator of the growth ahead is increasing partnerships that are taking this world of 3D cartoons all across the globe. A recent instance is Chinese firm Wuhan Digital Media Tech Engineering Co., Ltd teaming up with Joee Studios in Vancouver to make a CGI animated film for about 2.7 million U.S. dollars, with the Canadian firm primarily responsible for marketing (source: http://en.ce.cn/Industries/Consumen-Industries/200610/31/t20061031_9209019.shtml).

More and more work is also being generated by companies in countries such as India, Japan and Korea for large studios. Italian company Rainbow Productions tied up with Toonz Animation Studio, India to create its film called ‘Tommy and Oscar’ (which included both 2D and 3D effects). The same Indian company is also creating 3D animation TV series for major US and European producers including Disney and Cartoon Network (source: http://www.technopark.org/toonz.htm). Korean company AKOM produces its own TV series and has been executing exemplary work such as ‘X-men’ and ‘The Simpsons’s 22 minute episodes (source: http://www.answers.com/topic/akom)

So in the days ahead we will start to hear of more CGI studios from other parts of the world, all boldly striding in to make their mark.

Beyond the numbers, it is conversations around us that reveal the true impact of this fantasy world in our real one: hearing "the kingdom of far far away" and "I laugh in the face of danger ha ha ha ha" from kids and recounting of incidents in these movies by friends and colleagues is proof enough that the friendly monsters, the colorful animals, the talking cars and athletic toys have earned their place in the world of entertainment and in your hearts.

 

 

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—About our writer: Summer_Rain, Spotting the sun shine each precious day, defending Function over Form, ever learning to be Still, this engineer at work sees Teams as the greatest work of art and Ships in Harbours as unsafe.

 

 

 

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