Follow TV Tropes

Following

Shifted to CGI

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asterix_shifted_to_cgi_7.png

In the 2000s traditionally-animated works fell out of fashion due to blockbuster hits like the Pixar films and Shrek along with the simplicity of animating in CGI compared to traditional animation. While 2D style animation is popular in France and Japan (though many use CG elements occasionally, and CGI cartoons are also prominent) and amongst televised cartoons (though they're usually produced through digital animation programs like Adobe Flash or Toon Boom), All CGI Cartoons have been rising in popularity over the years, and Western-produced traditionally-animated theatrical films are rare. Thus many series that used to be done in traditional animation have changed to being CGI over the years.

Naturally, this is highly controversial amongst long-time fans and animation buffs. Many people will invariably complain whenever a franchise switches to CGI.

Compare to the Video Game 3D Leap for a video game counterpart where games went from mostly sprites to 3D models.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Zig-zagged with the Energizer Bunny, the American mascot for Energizer Batteries. From 1989 to the early 2000s, the Bunny was a remote-controlled model that ran on the batteries it was advertising. This proved difficult for the company during filming due to how much power the model consumed (40 batteries, all in the drum of the model, were used to power it). In the early 2000's, the Bunny was animated in CGI as part of Energizer's "Do You Have the Bunny Inside?" campaign, in which he would dance inside an Energizer battery. After the campaign ended in the mid-2000's, the remote-controlled model of the Bunny was brought back for commercials. As of the 2010's, the Bunny is animated in full CGI, with an Art Evolution happening in 2016.
  • The end card of commercials for the American carpeting company Empire Today featuring their famous Phone Number Jingle was hand-animated from 1984 to 2004 before becoming computer animated starting in 2005.
  • The mascot to Kid Cuisine has switched to being CGI animated.
  • M&M's commercials were traditionally animated since 1962. In 1994, one year before the first Toy Story movie hit theaters, the M&M's started to appear in CGI, partially so they could interact with real people, and have been depicted as such ever since.
  • In 1998 Tony the Tiger, the mascot of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (Frosties in some countries) cereal, switched from being traditionally animated to being CGI for a while. He was switched back after it was decided he looked better traditionally animated. In the 2010s they revived the concept though.
  • This would eventually happen to fellow Kellogg's cereal brand, Froot Loops in 2013, with the commercials from that point onwards switching to to fully being CGI animated, with Toucan Sam later being switched to full CGI on Froot Loops boxes later on that year.
    • Surprisingly, despite the commercials switching to being full CGI, Toucan Sam remained as a 2D shaded character on Froot Loops boxes from some international countries (like Germany, South Africa, Philippines, Australia (until later switching to CGI Toucan Sam in about the early-2020s) and the Latin Americas, until some Latin American countries started to ban mascots from sugary cereals starting later in the 2010s, which saw Toucan Sam removed from some Latin American Froot Loops boxes as a result).
  • UK-exclusive Kellogg's brand, Coco Pops mainly used traditional animation in its commercials until fully rebooting to be CGI animated in 2011.
  • Chuck E. Cheese was originally human-sized and 2D animated in commercials, but in July 2012 he was given a 3D redesign and changed to the size of a normal rodent.

    Anime 

    Asian Animation 

    Films — Animation 

    Web Animation 
  • The original AstroLOLogy shorts were done in Flash while the later prototypes and final products are in CGI.

    Western Animation 

Top