When I was a child I made an animated movie using modelling clay and an old cine camera. It was slow, time-consuming, tedious work, and the end result was barely a couple of minutes long.

Fast forward to today and what took me days to make back then can be achieved in a matter of moments with the right software, and I wouldn’t even need to touch a block of modelling clay. A much less messy way of doing things to be sure, but has this technological revolution come at a price?

Some say that today’s artists are relying too heavily on tech at the expense of creative input. For my part, I have to disagree. True, technology has had an effect on my artistic work, but if anything, it has made me become more creative rather than less.

In my latest animation I’m actually using motion capture; a technique that was once available to only the biggest movie studios. But those days of exclusivity are gone – recent advances in technology mean that almost any of us can have a movie production studio in our own living room if we really want to.

While this can speed up our creativity, it also requires us to broaden our horizons. I am no longer simply an animator. Thanks to the technology I use, I have been forced to become an actor as well.

Physically acting out the scenes for my digital actors has given me a greater insight into the whole creative process, and I see no reason for this trend not to continue.

It’s entirely possible that far from stifling our creative spirit, more technology will actually broaden our creative horizons. Who knows what wonders the artists of the future will make?