Computer animation refers to animated or audiovisual expression generated through computation and program execution. It is presented less as a fixed sequence of predesigned images and more as a generative form in which algorithms and local rules are designed, then repeatedly executed so that visual and sometimes sonic changes emerge over time. A clear example is the use of cellular automata: multiple elements interact continuously, and the resulting computation produces ongoing transformations of image and sound. In this approach, the artist does not simply draw a final image in advance. Instead, they define neighborhood relations, interaction conditions, and other rule sets, then allow diverse and often unpredictable phenomena to arise from those rules.
This way of working is also linked to broader ideas in media art, such as real-time computation, bodily interaction, and procedural generation. These connections frame computer animation not as a mere succession of still frames, but as a dynamic system whose motion is produced by computation itself. The most accurate description is that computer animation here denotes animated visual or audiovisual works whose movement and change are generated by algorithms, simulation, or other computational processes.