Do you remember the early years of personal computers? How about the graphics and animations, or lack thereof? Ask anyone who has any interest in this type of technology and they will likely be able to relate step by step the evolution of computer animation and graphics. Yet there will always be some new problem to overcome or some detail that can be improved upon in the world of computer animations.

Animation actually refers to any kind of animated graphic, not just the 3D animations. Animation has historically been produced in two ways. The first is by artists creating a succession of cartoon animations frames, which are then combined into a film. A second method is using physical models, such as in King Kong. The model is positioned, the image is recorded, then the model is moved, the next image is recorded, and the process continues. At times a simple rendering machine is used to produce successive frames to create animations, where the image is slightly changed in each one. It is hard to believe that it all started as basic cartoon figures in a book and flipping the pages over.

Most of the early computer systems did not have the power necessary to preview and interactively control computer animation, which depends heavily on motion control. Since many of the early animators were scientists rather than artists, more often than not a script, or program, was written to help control and create animations.

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