The Evolution of Ice

A few days ago I was watching a sequence from the 1999 Disney animated feature "Fantasia 2000," which is fairly similar to the original "Fantasia" except with new music and stories.  The sequence I was watching is called "Pines of Rome," after the song that plays during the story.  For those who don't know, the idea behind the "Fantasia" movies is to start with a powerful song - usually some famous classical piece - and then use visuals and color and animation to create some story from that music.  Some stories are more developed than others, but the overall effect is very, very imaginative and evocative.

The "Pines of Rome" sequence lives up to its predecessors in terms of imagination and beauty.  Here is a link to the clip with the correct musical accompaniment: https://vimeo.com/7819629.  It has both 2D and 3D animation.

Something I thought about while watching it this past week was how innovative this animation was at the time, when widespread 3D animation was still fairly new.  Yet even a few years from the release of "Fantasia 2000," 3D animation improved immensely.  Watching this clip from "Frozen," a 2013 film also featuring ice and water and bubbles, shows a stark contrast in terms of quality of images and animations.

Which of course leads to the assumption that if the visual technology in "Pines of Rome" can look so old and obsolete ten years after its creation, the visuals in "Frozen" will probably look equally antiquated in only a few years.  It is both strange and exciting to think that 3D animation will eventually evolve so far as to make this look tacky.

Not quite as technologically intricate as "Frozen," but still very lovely and moving, especially the ending - I do recommend watching it!

Their lighting effects reflected in the ice - beautiful!  Notice the tiny droplets/ice chips when they break the ice block?  But how will this look to us in 2025?