ABSTRACT
Conclusion This book originally ended with an image from Peter Foldes ’ pioneering computer animation piece, Hunger (1974). Its images look amusingly crude by today’s standards. Halas and Whitaker mentioned the future potential of animating with a computer — that ‘ it inevitably and eventually will become an added tool in the hands of animators ’. This present volume takes the prophesy of the potential to the reality of now. Computer animation, digital, 3D, whatever you care to call it, is the reality of our age. No longer theoretical, it is vital in the production of any animation today, including that which is still done by pencil and brush. The challenge to us in our present, and for our future, is to keep using the basic lessons taught to us by past masters like John Halas and Harold Whitaker. For their continued relevance is as vital to us as learning the latest software package. Being able to wield a hammer and chisel does not make you a Michelangelo; nor does raising a camera to your eye make you another Ansel Adams. So learning how to handle a specifi c software program, mastering the right buttons and levers to push, is only a small part of your animation education.
