The Disney film "Rescuers Down Under" was the first 2d animated
film to incorporate CGI. Also it was the first feature film to be completed with
digital software, such as coloring and computer amimation.

Pixar was heavily involved in parts of the movie such as the New York City scene,
where buildings and cars were modeled in 3D. Mcleach's Truck was a huge
achievement in expressing character in 3d animation.

Cel-shading helped to disguise the meshes in the otherwise 2D environment.
The opening scene of Rescuers Down Under uses layers of trees in a
digital environment to create the feeling you are traveling forward; foliage
grows in size as huge buttes on the background increase in size as you get closer.

This summarized the CAPS process that subsequent Disney movies would follow;
computers would facilitate compositing, digital art processes, and camera movement
to speed up production.

Ub Iwerks

Ub Iwerks was the animator that came up with Mickey Mouse during Disney's dark ages, when the rights to Oswald the Rabbit got taken taken from Waltt Disney.

He first began animating with Walt Disney on the Alice Comedies; where a real life girl was shot in a cartoon world. Iwerks also made Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar for the Disney cast. He was very prolific, being able to animate 700 frames a day. He also completed the cartoon short 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit' all by himself.

He was a good animator, but he is most famous for his work in special effects and camera work. He made the special effects for Alfred Hitchcock's movie, 'The Birds'. He also helped develop the disney animation pipeline by making better versions of the multiplane camera and using celluloid for copying animation on paper.

He and Walt Disney were good friends, and both died within several years of each other, Walt Disney first. He was beside himself knowing his life-long friend and boss was dead.

Spore utilizes Impressive Animation

The video game Spore is fairly old now, but it was ambitious in creating a world where the player can design his own creatures with a unique amount of appendages and body shapes. The player's choices would determine how the creature would behave when it walks, runs, picks things up etc.

The developers studied arc movement and how it is affected by the length of bones and positioning of joints. The height of the character determined the length of his stride and sway. Also they took into account mass, so if you have a really top heavy creature, it would walk in a way that would teeter back and forth in order to maintain balance.

It's incredible what Spore did when it came to customizing animation; add an extra pair of legs, you have an animal, add another and you have an insect, you could even add more if you wanted.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of glitches in the game that limit the possibilities of animation. There's plenty of mesh-clipping that ruins suspension of disbelief. 4 legs animate like 2 seperate people instead of an actual animal walk. Weight and balance is an issue at times especially when it comes to sitting or idle poses.

EA and other companies should continue to support Spore's innovation in animation since it still needs development.

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge successfully captured human and animal movement using photography in the late 19th century.  He would place cameras in a line attached to a series of strings. These strings would be tripped by the animal or human in order to set the camera off. The pictures were then viewed through a zoopraxiscope.

Muybridge gave lectures and wrote books on animal locomotion. He helped solved the dispute to whether a galloping horse is suspended in midair in part of its run. Many artists would use this as reference for poses, and eventually animation. The great disney animator Milt Kahl used Muybridge's photography to study animal motion.

You can argue Muybridge was the final force in creating animation as it is today. His work inspired innovation in moving pictures as well as making drawings move.