<p>This is a fairly tough question to answer, as most changes did not just apply to Anime, but to how movies, series and even advertisements as a whole, and the way they got made. </p>

<p>It is however an interesting time period you picked, considering the economic slump of the 90's, which they only started to recover from in 92</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>A slump in advertising revenue, dwindling birthrates, and the popularity of alternative forms of entertainment like video games and cell phones have led to sluggish prime time ratings and a decline in the number of anime since the peak in 2006... ...The Japanese anime industry is at a turning point.</em> - <a href="http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Nippon, 2013</a></p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Rise of 3D animation and CGI</h2>

<p>All though <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_animation#3D_animation_software_in_the_1990s" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3D animation</a> was already existent around the 1940's. It had a 'said' <em>breakout</em> year in 1991. As more and more studios started to adapt the technology, we can slowly see it replace older, more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Traditional Animation</a> techniques throughout the 90's and during the beginning of the millenia.</p>

<p>Due to these changes, there where also significant advances in the field. Such as the 2000 breakthrough in capturing the reflectance field over the human face, being the final breakthrough to making digital look-a-likes of actors, Or the 2001 Motion capture, photorealism, and uncanny valley.</p>

<p>The later of which was applied on the 2001 Japanese-American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within</a>, which was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and remains the most expensive video game-inspired film of all time.</p>

<p>Besides obtaining a <em>first</em> in Photorealistic computer animation, Japan can also claim the title for being the <em>first</em> in using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel_shading" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cel-shaded animation</a>, with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed_(film)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Appleseed</a>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>"innovative use of out-of-the-box animation software to create Hollywood-style effects at a tiny fraction of Hollywood budgets."</em><br>
  <strong><em>Mark Schilling, The Japanese times &amp;<br> Toshio Suzuki president Studio Ghibli</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Death of traditional animation</h2>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Traditional Animation</a>, also known as hand drawn animations, or cel animation.</p>

<p>During the 90's as more and more studios started to adapt digitalized animation, the art of traditional animation started to slowly die out. Some studios dived straight into the deep, leaving traditional animation behind almost immediately, while others started by mixing the digital and traditional ways. </p>

<p>This would continue till <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FujiFilm</a>, one of the major cel production companies, announced they would stop cel production, leading to a industry panic, hastening the switch to digital processes</p>

<p>Around the early 2000s most studios left behind traditional animation for the more modern, digital animation. </p>

<p>There was however 1 exception to this, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sazae-san</a>. But even though it was the <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-08-29/sazae-san-is-last-tv-anime-using-cels-not-computers" rel="nofollow noreferrer">sole survivor</a>, they also gave in to the modern age in 2013. When even they said <a href="http://www.japanator.com/sazae-san-says-goodbye-to-traditional-animation-29800.phtml" rel="nofollow noreferrer">goodbye to cel animation</a>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>"It's the culture of Japan. We want to continue making the paints even if that cuts into our profits."</em> 
  <strong><em>Taiyō Shikisai head Shigeji Kitamura</em></strong> </p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/</a> </p>

<p>begin 90's turning point facial animation
Historically speaking, the first SIGGRAPH tutorials on State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990 proved to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and consolidating multiple research elements and sparked interest among a number of researchers
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-11T03:31:16.413Z
3D animation in the 1940s?  Before the first computer?  I'm guessing that's a typo since you later refer to the 1990s...
YetAnotherRandomUser
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-11T11:47:15.813Z
@YetAnotherRandomUser 1940's is not a typo. I am not sure what you are reffering to with first computer, but there have been computers before 1940. A good sample would be the Z1 from 1936 and 1938
Dimitri mx
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-01T07:57:57.163Z
2017-09-01T07:57:57.163Z
Dimitri mx
<p>What are the main differences between anime in the 90s and in 2000s in terms of technology used (like on twos, on threes, etc)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-10T09:43:47.730Z
I think this question might be a little too broad or opinion-based, but I'm really curious to know, so not voting to close it yet.
Gao
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-11T15:03:35.807Z
"on twos" vs. "on threes" is less a matter of technology and more a matter of budget. The obvious big change on the technology end of things is the move towards CG that began in the early 2000s, I guess. Maybe somebody can write a good answer about that.
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-22T13:34:31.863Z
Yea, I agree with senshin that there really is no difference in technology between "on twos" and "on threes". [What are "on twos" and "on threes"?](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=61).
Gao
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-17T19:51:19.633Z
I would expect the technology to advance slowly and only maybe have the occasional jump here and there. But there is no reason why such a technological jump should occur exactly at the turn of the decade. Is there any reason why 90's vs 2000's?
Jan
<anime-history>
What are the differences of anime in 1990s and 2000s in terms of technology used?
# What are the differences of anime in 1990s and 2000s in terms of technology used?
Posted by: username_0 on 2015-03-10
What are the main differences between anime in the 90s and in 2000s in terms of technology used (like on twos, on threes, etc)?
**Tags:** anime-history
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think this question might be a little too broad or opinion-based, but I'm really curious to know, so not voting to close it yet.  
> **username_2**: "on twos" vs. "on threes" is less a matter of technology and more a matter of budget. The obvious big change on the technology end of things is the move towards CG that began in the early 2000s, I guess. Maybe somebody can write a good answer about that.  
> **username_1**: Yea, I agree with senshin that there really is no difference in technology between "on twos" and "on threes". [What are "on twos" and "on threes"?](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=61).  
> **username_3**: I would expect the technology to advance slowly and only maybe have the occasional jump here and there. But there is no reason why such a technological jump should occur exactly at the turn of the decade. Is there any reason why 90's vs 2000's?  
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_4 on 2017-09-01. Score: 3 | Accepted answer
This is a fairly tough question to answer, as most changes did not just apply to Anime, but to how movies, series and even advertisements as a whole, and the way they got made.

It is however an interesting time period you picked, considering the economic slump of the 90's, which they only started to recover from in 92

> *A slump in advertising revenue, dwindling birthrates, and the popularity of alternative forms of entertainment like video games and cell phones have led to sluggish prime time ratings and a decline in the number of anime since the peak in 2006... ...The Japanese anime industry is at a turning point.* - [Nippon, 2013](http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/)

## Rise of 3D animation and CGI

All though [3D animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_animation#3D_animation_software_in_the_1990s) was already existent around the 1940's. It had a 'said' *breakout* year in 1991. As more and more studios started to adapt the technology, we can slowly see it replace older, more [Traditional Animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation) techniques throughout the 90's and during the beginning of the millenia.

Due to these changes, there where also significant advances in the field. Such as the 2000 breakthrough in capturing the reflectance field over the human face, being the final breakthrough to making digital look-a-likes of actors, Or the 2001 Motion capture, photorealism, and uncanny valley.

The later of which was applied on the 2001 Japanese-American [Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within), which was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and remains the most expensive video game-inspired film of all time.

Besides obtaining a *first* in Photorealistic computer animation, Japan can also claim the title for being the *first* in using [cel-shaded animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel_shading), with [Appleseed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleseed_(film)).

> *"innovative use of out-of-the-box animation software to create Hollywood-style effects at a tiny fraction of Hollywood budgets."*  
> ***Mark Schilling, The Japanese times &  
>  Toshio Suzuki president Studio Ghibli***

## Death of traditional animation

[Traditional Animation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation), also known as hand drawn animations, or cel animation.

During the 90's as more and more studios started to adapt digitalized animation, the art of traditional animation started to slowly die out. Some studios dived straight into the deep, leaving traditional animation behind almost immediately, while others started by mixing the digital and traditional ways.

This would continue till [FujiFilm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm), one of the major cel production companies, announced they would stop cel production, leading to a industry panic, hastening the switch to digital processes

Around the early 2000s most studios left behind traditional animation for the more modern, digital animation.

There was however 1 exception to this, [Sazae-san](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san). But even though it was the [sole survivor](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-08-29/sazae-san-is-last-tv-anime-using-cels-not-computers), they also gave in to the modern age in 2013. When even they said [goodbye to cel animation](http://www.japanator.com/sazae-san-says-goodbye-to-traditional-animation-29800.phtml).

> *"It's the culture of Japan. We want to continue making the paints even if that cuts into our profits."*
> ***Taiyō Shikisai head Shigeji Kitamura***

<http://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00043/>

begin 90's turning point facial animation
Historically speaking, the first SIGGRAPH tutorials on State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990 proved to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and consolidating multiple research elements and sparked interest among a number of researchers
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation>
> **Comments:**
> **username_5** (2018-11-11): 3D animation in the 1940s?  Before the first computer?  I'm guessing that's a typo since you later refer to the 1990s...  
> **username_4** (2018-11-11): @YetAnotherRandomUser 1940's is not a typo. I am not sure what you are reffering to with first computer, but there have been computers before 1940. A good sample would be the Z1 from 1936 and 1938  
---
