The Lion King

This weekend I went to see The Lion King in 3D at the cinema and I began to look into the animation of the film. I had read when I was younger about the stampede scene taking years to complete.
The use of computer animation was still relatively new at the time and this helped the animators present their ideas in new and innovative ways. Similar techniques had been used earlier in Beauty and the Beast ('Be our guest' teacup scene) and Aladdin. In the scene several distinct wildebeest characters were created in a 3D computer program. They were then multiplied into hundreds and 'cell shaded' to look like drawn animation. Finally they were given randomized paths to simulate the realistic movement of a herd.
CGI supervisor Scott Johnston explains:

"Since the scene called for a stampede, we had to come up with a way that our animators could control the behavior of herds of wildebeests without having them bump into each other," says Johnston. "We developed a simulation program that would allow us to designate leaders and followers within each group. We were also able to individualize and vary the movement of each animal within a group to give them a certain random quality. Effectively they could all be doing different things with the library of behavior including slow and fast gallops, various head tosses and even a few different kinds of leaps."

Five animators and technicians spent over two years creating the two-and-a-half minute stampede sequence.

(Quote and Info taken from http://www.lionking.org/text/FilmNotes.html)