In 2001, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within became the first feature film to use motion capture to creature characters. Motion capture is the practise of recording humans and using that to animate digital characters. This can be done with 2D or 3D models. It can also be called 'motion tracking'. Advatages: The effects are close to real time, making the animations appear relaistic to the audience. - Complex movements and stunts can be easily followed, so the animation is only limited by the talent of the actor or stunt artist, as opposed to the animators. Disadvantages: The cost of the hardware may make it more difficult for filmmakers with smaller budgets to utilise this specific technique in their films. - Movements that do not follow the laws of physics cannot be captured. - Very specific hardware and software is required to process the data. This is similar the the consequence mentioned above. Motion capture was used in Avatar (2009), which then won an award for best visual effects at the Academy Awards in 2010.
Spirited Away (2001) became the first anime film to recieve an Academy Award for best animated picture. Russian Ark (dir. Alexander Sokruv) was the first film to be shot in uncompressed high definition video (2002) HD became more popular with the fall of analog media, as broadcasts began to be in this format only.
