ABSTRACT
As the twentieth century faded into the twenty-first, a broad shift has taken place in visual culture: the shift from analog to digital. As a technological and cultural transformation, the incorporation of the digital into every aspect of visual communications has been much remarked upon. 1 With respect to the practice of animation, the development of new digital technologies for image production and manipulation has affected everything from the creation of animated texts, to their distribution, reception, and aesthetic characteristics. In order to explain the variety and scope of the changes that digital techniques have brought about in the field of animation, it is necessary first to understand something about the nature of the technologies themselves. Accordingly, this chapter will proceed by explaining the basic function of a number of relevant technological developments. The technical explanations will then provide the foundation for an analysis of the impact of recent technological developments on animation as a practice of visual production, as well as its reception.
