Bridging the gap between 2D and 3D: a stream of digital animation techniques

The author presents the digital techniques and know-how that have been motivated, created and tried out through our work for cel animation. The techniques focus on extracting three-dimensional characteristics from two-dimensional images of the scene to be animated, or on merging 2D and 3D animations. Several animation examples are also demonstrated to show our practical skills, such as those for camera projection mapping for 3D structuring the 2D drawing scenes, and implicit/explicit use of 3D CG techniques for visual effects.