Animation Industry Barrels Along.(Industry Trend or Event)

Web and game development are coming on strong, but film and television applications continue to dominate

Though the computer animation industry seems to change unceasingly, one constant has been its relentlessly strong growth. The latest year analyzed in The Roncarelli Report on the Computer Animation Industry was no exception, with the total value of global commercial computer animation production at $25.4 billion in 1999, a 25 percent increase over the previous year's total. Though not as large as 1998's increase over 1997 (29 percent) or 1997's over 1996 (35 percent), the growth is still impressive, especially considering that the raw cost of computer animation production has been reduced by improved technology.

Within this overall growth, changes have occurred among the 14 different use categories we employ to track computer animation: advertising, architecture, broadcast, corporate communications, design engineering, education, film and television content, games, legal and insurance, medical, personal, scientific, location-based entertainment, and the Web.

Games grew aggressively in 1999, for example, with a 63 percent increase in market dollars. The total amount now being spent on game animation is $2.8 billion, which makes it the second largest computer animation category in terms of sheer dollars, accounting for 11 percent of overall production. Web animation, with a hefty 89 percent increase over last year, still accounted for only 4.3 percent of the total market share. As in former years, the creation of imagery and special effects for television programs and movies leads the pack in terms of dollars, with close to $10 billion spent this year, accounting for 37.5 percent of the total CG animation market.

Looking Ahead

Indications are that these growth patterns are continuing into 2000 and 2001, and will last for more years than we care to forecast here. ...