[userbinator]

A lot of demo effects are almost like magic tricks --- before you understand how they're done, they seem like impossible magic; but once you do, you think "that's so simple, why didn't I think of that?"

Animation by essentially "panning" inside a larger pre-rendered image is one of those tricks:

http://norecess.cpcscene.net/the-elders-scrollers.html

[bostik]

Old-school demos have another common trait with magic. Like the best stage magic, you know you are being fooled - but even after seeing how the trick is done, you remain amazed by it.

The best one I have seen: Cubase-64 [0]

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=artEQkifGG0

[StavrosK]

I'm not so sure how simple the example you mentioned is. I've seen it many times and I'm still not sure how I would generate the source image.

[digi_owl]

> Animation by essentially "panning" inside a larger pre-rendered image is one of those tricks

Hand animated cartoons would often used that trick as well.

The anime Bubblegum Crisis used a massive cityscape painting for their panning shots.