Fall and winter of 1998 brought the release of three major animated motion pictures: Dreamworks' and Pacific Data Images' "Antz," Pixar's "A Bug's Life," and Dream- works' "The Prince of Egypt." Although released in a span of months, all three animations represent ground-breaking technological advancements in the field of the animated full-length feature film.

Of the three films, "Antz" was released first on October 2. It is the second feature film created entirely in the relatively new medium of 3-dimensional computer animation, the first being Pixar's "Toy Story." The leaps and bounds that available technology has made in the time period between the release of "Toy Story" and "Antz" are immediately evident from the opening scenes of the film. The artists at Dreamworks and PDI (Pacific Data Images) did a fantastic job in designing and modeling the ant characters, turning what are normally smooth, round creatures into angular, surreal conglomerations of people and insects. Well-planned and -executed surfacing resulted in realistic textures for the ants' skin and eyes, helping to make the odd-looking creatures believable. The entire movie plays out in dimly-lit scenes of dark, dramatic shadows with a cold blue saturation. This effect helps create the contrast between the orange-reddish ants and their backgrounds. The character animation is incredibly expressive and lifelike; again, attention to detail was the key. Animators gave full ranges of muscular motion and facial expression to all major characters in the story.

In terms of major technical innovation, "Antz" brought with it a revolutionary form of crowd simulation animation. Using proprietary in-house software, as most major animation companies do, animators and software developers were able to bring huge crowds to life without the incredible amount of work once thought necessary. At PDI , a crowd is defined as a group of characters too large to keyframe (animate) individually. At times in "Antz," this meant as few as seven ants or as many as 60,000. By creating a library of motion sequences, PDI developed a simulator that randomly assigned motions to the ants at different time intervals. This new technique gives the effect of separate, individual movement for each ant. Other technical effects were also used for the first time, such as a proprietary water-renderer that created highly realistic and detailed flowing water for several key scenes in the movie. Water is one of the effects that, thus far, computer animators have had difficulty simulating. "Antz" makes the first large-scale use of water in computer animation.

Regardless of the art, almost any animator will tell you that if the story is weak, it doesn't matter what kind of art or technology you have. This is where "Antz," whether you appreciate the animation or not, sets itself apart from almost every other large-scale animated film ever made. The story is very adult-oriented and surprisingly sophisticated. It deals with issues such as conformity and communism, and in many respects the film can be seen as a political statement for democracy. The battle scenes are brutal and violent, not exactly children's material. By pushing the animation envelope in terms of target audience, "Antz" is daring the animation industry to stray from the usual serving of kiddie humor and shallow storylines.

Artistically, "Antz" is brilliant in many respects. However, for all its creativity and quality, there are many aspects of the film that reflect a rather lackluster effort on the part of its creators. It is very likely that "Antz" was initially conceived by Dreamworks and PDI to be direct competition for Pixar's insect film, "A Bug's Life." In the rush to release "Antz" ahead of Pixar's movie, and thus steal potential Pixar audiences, the artists sacrificed quality by using shortcuts to get to their finished product. Unfortunately, a few of them show. The most obvious time-saver used by the artists are the backgrounds. Most of the intricate and detailed backgrounds in "Antz" are matte paintings, not three-dimensional renderings. By using paintings, the artists eliminated the tedium and complexity of modeling such scenes as the inner workings of the anthill and the grassy outdoor scenes of insectopia. But it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pass off a painting as a 3D computer graphic image, and compos-iting these painted images behind the detailed, perfectly lit CGI objects is so blatantly obvious that it's almost an eyesore.

"A Bug's Life" was released on November 25. In terms of story-line, it is a far cry from the edginess of the more adult "Antz." It is far more kid-oriented and family-safe, reflecting Pixar's co-production with Disney (Pixar made the film; Disney distributed it). The colors are bright and happy, and in general the film is successfully engineered to be a family movie.

This friendly appearance is quite deceiving, however. Despite the conscious efforts to conform to traditional Disney standards, "A Bug's Life" is just as cutting-edge, artistic, and technically sophisticated as "Antz," and probably even more so. Fans of the uniquely adult story of "Antz" are quick to trash "A Bug's Life" as just another cartoon film straight from Disney's blockbuster formula, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Pixar's incredibly talented artists, while understanding the necessity of conforming to Disney standards, created a striking visual experience in "A Bug's Life," and harnessed technology's power with far more enthusiasm and creativity than did the creators of "Antz."

"A Bug's Life" is a much more complex project than "Antz" for a number of reasons. The main characters in "Antz" are basically all ants, and while there are variations among individual characters, animators had the luxury of using a blueprint for almost every major role in the film. "A Bug's Life" has a much more diverse supporting cast around Flik, the ant protagonist. There are scrawny, menacing grasshoppers, springy fleas, fat caterpillars, stocky pill bugs, spindly praying mantises, and many others. Managing these characters and giving them each unique movements and gestures was an incredibly ambitious task for Pixar animators, but it was executed with brilliance.

Overall, Pixar's technology is much more developed than that of PDI/Dream-works, allowing Pixar to bring characters to life in ways that the rest of the field can only dream about. Many rumors buzzing around the industry tell of Pixar's legendary subdivision surfaces, a modeling technique which allows the computer to calculate the necessary complexity of each object during rendering, based on its distance from the virtual camera. "A Bug's Life" is also brimming with advances in water simulation and shaders (surface textures). Even to the viewer with little knowledge of computer graphics, the amazing lighting captured by Pixar artists will make an impression. The soft, airy feel of the plants and grass totally revolutionize the typical 'look' that computer animation has so long been criticized for.

The cinematography in "A Bug's Life" is captivating, to say the least. Co-directors John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton along with their team of artists maximize the opportunities created by having a 'virtual camera' in a film: it can be placed anywhere, on anything, and move along any path conceivable. Intriguing camera work is employed to heighten the tension during the hostile entrance of the grasshoppers, and to stimulate excitement during the ant uproar near the movie's end. It is tactics such as this, that apply brilliant artistic visions to computer visualization, that set Pixar head and shoulders above the competition.

The next highly anticipated feature film to hit the big screen was "The Prince of Egypt" on December 18, another product of Dreamworks. Nowhere in the film is there evidence of rushing as there was in "Antz;" Dream-works artists went all out for this one. "The Prince of Egypt" is an important film in the world of animation for two reasons: its bold attempt to animate one of the most esteemed and highly regarded stories ever created, and its seamless integration of two- and three-dimensional elements.

The Bible is obviously one of the most sacred writings on the planet. Adapting its material in any way, shape, or form is a risky endeavor; the slightest misinterpretation could set off an explosion of anger from the religious community. At Dream-works, they decided the risk was worth it, and went ahead full force with an animation adaptation of the story of Moses. They made sure, though, to be as cautious as possible, and researched every intricacy of their story to remove any generalizations or stereotypes that might have occurred. And so far, the movie has been a success without major protest. The story of Moses translates beautifully into a moving film, as has been demonstrated before, but even more so into animation. Dream-works animators were able to throw all of today's technology at the formidable task of breathing life into the mystical tales of God's miracles. To a certain degree, they succeed in capturing the monumental miracle of many of the film's events, especially the parting of the Red Sea.

On first viewing, the film appears to be done in the traditional method of two-dimensional cel animation. "The Prince of Egypt," however, is a careful and sophisticated blend of cel animation and three-dimensional computer visualization. The animators saved the tedious effects for the computer, such as water and particles, and made most of the characters using traditional methods. In one action scene, a few characters are involved in a chariot race. The camera swivels around the chariots and the horses, thus requiring the use of three-dimensional space to make the shot feasible. Without that knowledge, however, the chariots look as stylized as the hand-drawn people inside them. Overall, "The Prince of Egypt" is a highly successful film that offers up brilliant artistry and dazzling animation effects to aid the progression of a classic story.

All three of these releases have their advantages as well as their downfalls. All three are worth seeing for different reasons. Any way you spin it, it was a tremendous few months for the world of the animated feature film.