Animation: Giving life to imagination

When John Lasseter came up with his latest flick 'Cars 2', audience were thrilled to see the ground breaking techniques. Pixar's Cars 2 has driven animation to new heights.
But when did animation in films came into existence, moreover, what animation actually is?
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term is Computer Generated Imagery(CGI). It encompasses both static scene and dynamic images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics are still used for stylistics.
Animation in films dates back to 1973, when 'Westworld', the first animated movie was released which had used 2D computer animation. It was a science fiction film about a society in which robots lived among humans.
In 1995, first feature length computer animated film 'Toy Story' was released by Pixar, which used 700 specialised animation controllers. Another animated movies which have made a benchmark are 'Avatar', 'Shrek', 'Superman' and many others.
Fox Animation Studio which came in 1994 gave movies like 'Alladin' and and 'The lion King' which were appreciated by the kids.
In 1998 Steven Speilberg came up with his Dreamwork Animation which has produeced 'Shrek'.
Winners of 7 golden globes awards, Pixar, is the biggest animtion film production comapny, which has given movies like 'The Incredibles', 'Toy story 3' which came in 2010 is the highest grossing animated flm till date, and the latest 'Cars 2'.
Even in India, animated movies are growing both in popularity and quality. Movies like 'My Friend Ganesha', 'Hanuman', 'Ghatothkach' all are well accepted by the audience.
Roadside Romeo was the first 3D animation movie in India but it didn't perform well. The main problem is with the advanced techniques not being used because of which the final product is not very attractive.
There are many animation film productions in India which include Toonz Animation India, Pentamedia Group ,etc, but it will require a lot of hard work and new techniques to produce such animation films which could meet the standards of Hollywood.