Scanimate is the name for an analog computer animation system developed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

The Scanimate systems were used to produce much of the video-based animation seen on television in the late 1970s and early 1980s in commercials, promotions, and show openings.

One of the major advantage the Scanimate system had over film-based animation and computer animation was the ability to create animations in real time. The speed with which animation could be produced on the system because of this, as well as its range of possible effects, helped it to supersede film-based animation techniques for television graphics. By the mid-1980s it was superseded by digital computer animation, which produced sharper images and more sophisticated 3d imagery.

Animations created on Scanimate and similar analog computer animation systems have a number of characteristic features that distinguish them from film-based animation: The motion is extremely fluid, using all 60 fields per second (in NTSC format video) rather than the 24 frames per second that film uses; the colors are much brighter and more saturated; and the images have a very "electronic" look that results from the direct manipulation of video signals through which the Scanimate produces the images.

Television programs and films that featured Scanimation

• The Electric Company
• Star Wars

External links

• Old-School Electronic Animation Central - Formerly the Scanimate Files
• Scanimation in the Analog Days (An explanation of the Scanimate system)

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References

• Carlson, Wayne (2003). Section 12: Analog approaches, non-linear editing, and compositing (from A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation). Retrieved Mar. 13, 2004 from http://accad.osu.edu/~waynec/history/lesson12.html
• Sieg, David W. (2003). Old-School Electronic Animation Central - Formerly the Scanimate Files. Retrieved Mar. 13, 2004 from http://scanimate.zfx.com.