Golden Age Cel Animation vs Pixar 3D Animation
Pixar 3D Animation evolved from Golden Age Cel Animation — carried appealing rounded character design and full motion into CGI.
Golden Age Cel Animation
The lush hand-painted cel animation of the classic Hollywood studios, defined by full fluid motion, painted backgrounds, multiplane depth, and warm storybook color.
- Full animation at up to 24 drawings per second for smooth, weighty motion
- Hand-inked character outlines and flat painted fills on transparent cels
- Lush painted gouache and watercolor backgrounds with atmospheric depth
- Multiplane parallax depth from layered artwork moving at different rates
- Warm, harmonized saturated color and rounded appealing character design
Pixar 3D Animation
The polished computer-animated feature look defined by warm global-illumination rendering, rounded appealing forms, soft shallow-focus 'virtual cinematography,' and bright bounce light.
- Physically based global-illumination rendering with soft realistic bounce light
- Rounded, appealing, gently caricatured character forms with large eyes
- Shallow depth of field, bokeh, and lens-like virtual cinematography
- Rich surfaced textures, subsurface skin glow, and ambient occlusion
- Warm, saturated, scene-by-scene art-directed color and key lighting
At a glance
| Golden Age Cel Animation | Pixar 3D Animation | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1937–1967 | 1995–present |
| Discipline | Cinematography | Cinematography |
| Region | United States | United States, Worldwide |
| Family | Animation, Hand-drawn | Animation, 3D CGI |
| Formal traits | full-animation, painted-background, multiplane, warm-palette | global-illumination, rounded-forms, shallow-focus, warm-palette |
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