The Scanimate systems were used to produce much of the video-based animation seen on television between 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 By the mid-1980s it was superseded by digital computer animation, which produced sharper images and more sophisticated 3d imagery.
How it works
A special high-resolution (around 800 lines) monochrome camera filmed high-contrast artwork. The image is then displayed on a high resolution screen. Unlike a normal monitor its deflection signals are passed through a special analog computer which enables the operator to "bend" the image in a variety of ways. The image is then shot from the screen by either a film camera or a video camera. In the case of a video camera this signal is then fed into a "colorizer", a device which takes certain shades of grey and turns it into colour as well as transparency. The idea behind this is that the output of the Scanimate itself is always monochrome. Another advantage of the colourizer is that it gives the operator the ability to continuously add layers of graphics. This makes possible the creation of very complex graphics. This is done by using 2 video recorders. The background is played by one recorder and then recorded by another one. This process is repeated for every layer. This requires very high quality video recorders.
