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Scanimate
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<p>Scanimate is an analog <a href="/facts/Computer_animation/rPW63nm0">computer animation</a> (<a href="/facts/Video_synthesizer/jxBa0vFs">video synthesizer</a>) system created by <a href="/facts/Lee_Harrison_III/WzBvmG5P">Lee Harrison III</a> of <a href="/facts/Denver/KWUnuDSu">Denver</a>, <a href="/facts/Colorado/IgIHrJI5">Colorado</a>. Harrison had developed its predecessor, ANIMAC, which generated used a motion capture system, based on a body suit with potentiometers. In contrast, Scanimate included TV technology. Scanimate's successor was called Caesar, and used a digital computer to control the analog system. </p><p>The 8 Scanimate systems were used to produce much of the <a href="/facts/Video/F1AV8ben">video</a>-based animation seen on <a href="/facts/Television/X4YG5nT1">television</a> between most of the 1970s and early 1980s in commercials, promotions, and show openings. One of the major advantages the Scanimate system had over <a href="/facts/Film/wM3b9Kk3">film</a>-based animation and computer animation was the ability to create animations in <a href="/facts/Real-time_computer_graphics/jrILnb0K">real time</a>. 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 By the mid-1980s, it was superseded by digital <a href="/facts/Computer_animation/rPW63nm0">computer animation</a>, which produced sharper images and more sophisticated 3D imagery. </p><p>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 <a href="/facts/NTSC/HYWIvxCR">NTSC</a> format video) or 50 fields (in <a href="/facts/PAL/t8TugcxK">PAL</a> 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. </p>