research paper

VIS 201 Research Paper
Leung Pui Hei (Elsie) 1060136
Topic: “Has animation become a more popular film genre in recent years? Support argument with relevant facts and figures.”

Today is a digital era. Various media would use computer as their necessary technique to improve their products. Even in film and cinema, they also rely on high technology for the key to success. Animation can say to be achieved a completed triumph. With the advancement from time to time, it becomes a more popular film genre nowadays. It has great moral power either in television or in website.

What film genre is? It is the film categorization to define which type of film is. There are three main elements to define the film: setting, mood, and format. Science fiction, adventure, romance, thriller, live actions are all the example of different genre of the film. Animation is also one of the film genres since 1950. The very first animation showed in the cinema are “How Jones Lost His Roll”, and “The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog” (1905) by Edwin Porter. It was the “single frame animation” style and it was immature. It was not so popular at that time. However, it opened an initial format to later animations.

During the mid 1940, animation came to a peak. It is the time for “The Golden Age of American Animation”. The famous characters are Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Betty Boop….. They are still very popular in today. Animation creates a character and character makes animation come off. So, what animation is? It is the most creative category of making film today. It involves the massive large scale production. It is expensive and time consuming. The tradition making involved lots of people and procedures.

All films, is essentially an optical illusion, a trick of the eye, known as "persistence of vision"[1]. The human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it. It joins sequence drawings together and runs in the projector. The rapid motion seems like moving. For instance, when perform an animal running repetitive motion, it left and right leg would repeat sequence ceaselessly. This movement consists of 8 drawings and looped together. When the animal runs, it has 12 frames per second so as to distract audience. By the way, this traditional technique has the limited actions.

Animation creates the illusion the frame by frame movement through lots of technical applications. Animator Richard Taylor claimed that “The quality of the sequence is more important that the quality of the images. It is possible to make a bad film with beautiful drawings or models- the art animated film is in the action”.[2] It shows that animation puts great emphasis on sequence making, whether it is smooth or not. Timing and fluency are the vital element to form a good movie.

In the past, almost all the animations used traditional -animation methods, which are hand-drawing animation, cel animation etc. They have the storyboard as the main idea of the film. Post video recording for the sound track. The board drawing would have a glass board on the top, and a light box under it. Four or five papers are then put on the board which is as thin as possible to gauge the next drawing. The split drawing would be combined together to form a movement and therefore make a story. They still put great emphasis on the smoothness of the sequence.

The very first animated film is called “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” (1906) which produced by J. Stuart Blackton. The storyboard was very simple. It was a silent cartoon with the simplest elements. The characters were drawn on the chalkboard with lightliy different facial expression. At the beginning, we can also see the animator `s hand was drawing the figures, but cut and paste (without his hand) ran a film clip later on. It moved about 20 frames per second. However, the action was not smooth enough. Sometimes the characters `s action would be uneven and disconnected.

“I think the idea of a traditional story being told using traditional animation is likely a thing of the past.” Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dream Work, on Sinbad.[3]

Like what Jeffrey mentioned, 2D animation became old, more and more animations-making ways come out when come to the present. Animators used different techniques and styles, like clay animation, puppet animation, sand and glass, and also computer generated imagery (CGI) or so on. Among these techniques, most of the animators prefer using computer animation. CGI seems to make the most important influence on the animation.

CGI delivers a special visual effect by interactive techniques and computer graphics. It is kind of computer animation and has 2D, 3D form. It can reinforce the use of 2D hand illustrated cels, and also transfer the objects to the real 3D world. The advantages of using CGI is that it may need no actors, expensive setting (either scene or costumes), but only the technology and the animator. It can be more timesaving and effective.

Computer is the necessary tool for animation making nowadays. It seems to be “another pencil” in modern society. The aesthetic affected by the enhancement of GCI. Although animation is a “craft oriented process”, new digital technologies have totally altered the characteristic of this process; shorten the time of making an animated film of any important length.

Moreover, the techniques used in nowadays are different from the past. They make a big difference and chance to improve the quality of animation. In traditional 2-dimension cartoons, usually have 15 frames a second to project an image. They used hand- drawing to create the movement. The nature was jerky and funny. However, when compared with nowadays advanced skill, 3-dimension animations take it place. More frames are involved and needed, which aimed to project a smoother and high quality effects. As viewers have higher expectation than before, they want the more realistic images than the past.

However, even computer animation stays in a very important position; traditional 2D animation would not be substituted. Like Disney, it had produced 44 classic 2D hand drawing animations before using computer animations.[4] As we can see, it is still a dominant medium for the basic construction. Thus, both of them would be combined and complementary. Take Pixar animators as an illustration; they must first have the very clear understanding of the human movement and anatomy, but not totally depend on computer structure.

It is a great succession that the drawing golden age combined with the new computer technique. Animators push the medium forward to a new direction. Animation is more and more popular than ever. Further animated companies started producing prominent animations.

DreamWorks, Blue Sky, The Walt Disney World and Pixar are the companies of making animations. However, Disney and Pixar seem to gain the great success. Disney starts producing animations from 1928 to the present. It `s images have the most forceful effect worldwide. It has molded many fairytales which represent native group `s mythic pasts. The prominent animations like “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs” (1937), “Fantasia” (1940), “Sleeping Beauty” (1959), “The Lion King” (1994) and so on. Some of the animations even worked as the “revolutionary technical means capitalized on American innocence and utopianism to reinforce the social & political status quo.” (Bell et al, 1995:21)[5]

Take “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) as an example. In 1989, National Film Registry regarded it as “culturally, historically, aesthetically significant”. In 1997, it was the American Film institute `s list of 100 greatest American films of all times. All of this show that animations like Snow white could gain such a gross profit and was a box office success. It also takes a very important role in the film genre.

Pixar, is an American computer animation studio which was bought by The Walt Disney World in Jan 24, 2006. The famous feature animated films they produced are Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003) which was a realistic presentation of the water. Both of them are produced with CGI skill.

Toy Story (1995) was the very first feature length[6] computer animated movie which won the Academy Award with the successful box office $354,300,000 worldwide. It has a great succeed on creating “professional” aesthetic for CGI. The toys illustrated the geometric forms like “plasticity” and “gloss” which created in CGI. The movement reveals sense of space and depth through the domestic space. It was the greatest achievement and milestone of CGI. Another example is Dinosaur (2000) also produced by Disney. CGI transforms the plausible dinosaur into a realistic environment, turns it into the hyper- realism.

Technology seems a very significant factor in the aesthetics outcomes. For instance, CGI provides a better rendering flexibility and more alterable infrastructure for movement. However, when compared with puppet animation, which made with wood, solid wire, or solid armatures, would have less adaptability. As we can see, CGI has more freedom than other skills and techniques.

Computer animation sometimes takes traditional animation `s place, even in the famous movie Jurassic Park, it has also uses CGI what amounted 6.5 minutes in it. This scale of CGI has employed new digital technology but hidden the animation idea in its spirit. This exploitation is to emphasis the sense of realism in the scene. Moreover, Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man `s Chest (2006) makes good use of the advanced motion capture technique of computer animation. The character Davy Jones was not really in the scene. It relied on his pre-record body language, gesture, facial expression, which the help of 3D, so as to form a persuasive octopus-like monster.
Other than Disney series, many other films have also applied for computer-animated. Beowulf (2007) which is now still showing in cinema, almost totally makes use of the computer and high technology. Like Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man `s Chest (2006), it also depends on the motion capture. The animator can have more freedom and power to control the film circumstances. He didn’t need to worry about the light, actors didn’t need to aware where the camera is, what they need to do was to wear the body maker to perform. With the post-matching, it can have an amazing effect.

What the above mentioned are not only animation, but also other film genre. They are all that popular and well-known. One of the significant reasons must be CGI. This skill can either use in any film genre but not only animation. They shared the same successful factor that hidden behind the scene. Animation has much more space to improve and develop a more novel style.
The famous designer in Tex Avery` s Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) defines animation as “the process of drawing and photographing a character…….in successive positions to create lifelike movement”.[7] That the point why audience loving the animation furthermore. CGI can create the more authentic and realistic circumstance, but it is with fictitious characters.

With the help of the by-product and mass media, animations become further prevalent than ever. For instance, after one animation showed in cinema or television, thousand and thousand by-product would be produced. Like stickers, dolls, pencils, DVD, VCD, even printed on food. They can be found in ToyRus, stationary shop, McDonald, anywhere on the street. These characters can make the animation more success and well known. It becomes part of our life and culture.

All in all, Animation is so common to display in cinema contemporary. Like the coming soon one are Polar Express (IMAX 3D) and Bee Movie. Even some of them are only the fairytales, it means something to us. It represents the dream, imagination, something will not happen in the real world, and even some educational meaning behind. Animation is no longer a children monopoly. Adults also like it as it has combined the elements from other genre but it can still keep its own special features. Animation just like a magic turning impossible to be possible!



Website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_length
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Feature_Animation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_theatrical_animated_features


Bibliography:
1. Paul Wells, Animation –Genre and Authorship, (Wallflower Press 2002)
2. Mark Whitehead, The potential Essential :Animation, (Pocket Essential 2004)
3. Shamus Culhane, Animation- from script to screen, (Columbus Books Limited 1989)
4. Anima Mundi, Animation Now!, (Taschen)
5. Peter Lord & Brain Sibley, Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation, (Thames & Hudson)
6. Cameron and Kenderdine, Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, (The MIT Press)


[1] Peter Lord & Brain Sibley, Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation, (Thames & Hudson), P15
[2] Paul Wells, Animation –Genre and Authorship, (Wallflower Press 2002), p.6

[3] Mark Whitehead, The potential Essential :Animation, (Pocket Essential 2004), p.131

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_theatrical_animated_features

[5] Paul Wells, Animation –Genre and Authorship, (Wallflower Press 2002), p.63

[6] Feature length is a film term that refers to the length of a feature film. The definition of minimum length varies from 40 minutes to about 80 minutes.
[7] Paul Wells, Animation –Genre and Authorship, (Wallflower Press 2002), p.3

VisUal matEriALs

Title: "Cat Alarm"

Type: video

Date: October 25, 2007

Source: it is widely forward from the email

Reason: it is kind of 2D animation. The objects are flat and simple. They are made by the outline without color. When we see the cat is moving, it is sliding the frames quickly to form the movement.






















Title: "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces"

Type: video

Producer: J. Stuart. Blackton

Date: October 22, 2007

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

Reason: It is regarded as the first animated film. I think it is funny as i can almost see the making process. For example, i can see the artist is drawing steps by steps to "move" the characters. Through the film editing, drawing process formed an animation.

Title: "Toy Story I"

Type: photo

Date: April 30, 2005

Source: http://dvd.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/2005_04.html

Reason: It is the 1st feature length animation with computer-generated imagery (CGI). It is the milestone of CGI films development.



















Title: "Ratatouille"

Type: photo

Producer: John Lasseter, Brad Bird

Date: October 23, 2007

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/

Reason: This is a 3D animation to work with computer animation. The scence, the rat, even other objects (cheese, water & plates) seem like so real. It can`t be finished by hand-drawing.


























Title: "One Man Band"

Type: photo

Producer: Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews

Date: 2005

Source: http://showcase.awn.com/showphoto.php?photo=1271&cat=631

Reason: This is the short CGI film made by Pixar. It doesn`t like the long film as Toy Story but a simple storyboard. I first saw it as cinema trailer, and wondered the effect just like computer games.

Key QuotEs

Computers and traditional animation
Though traditional animation is now commonly done with computers, it is important to differentiate computer-assisted traditional animation from 3D computer animation

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation





The Medium
But first things first: what is 3D animation? Most forms of animated film-making achieve their effect through essentially flat images either drawn on cels.

All film, is essentially an optical illusion, a trick of the eye, known as "persistence of vision". The human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it.

Book: Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation
Author: Peter Lord & Brain Sibley
Publication: Thames & Hudson
Pages: P.15





Computer-generated imagery

---> (3D computer graphic)
It is the application of the field of computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media.

Website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery





Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.

Various other techniques can be applied, such as mathematical functions. Many 3D animations are very believable and are commonly use as special effects for recent movies.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation






3D Computer Generated Imagery (3D CGI): From Pre-Production Through Final Film/Video Output
Perhaps the best way to understand CGI is to consider it a merger of two methods of filmmaking: 2D animation and live-action.

6 steps involved in setting up a 3D CGI project.
1. Design
2.Modeling
3.Rigging
4.Surfaces (texture and color)
5.Staging/workbook
6.Animation

Website: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&column=prodani&article_no=1005




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LiNks

WebsiteS

1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195037596/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-8995047-3233551#reader-link

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery

5. http://showcase.awn.com/

6. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

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BibLiogrAphy

1. Cameron and Kenderdine, Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, (The MIT Press)
---> It focuses on the theory of new media culture. However, it has mentioned part of the Virtual Reality, which is immersion, interaction in the virtual world etc. That is what aninmation trying to do with. (e.g. the scence of Ratatouille)


2. Mark B. N. Hansen, New philosophy for new media, (The MIT Press)
---> It inroduces new media through affect and sensation, rather than techniques. Whereas my topic is not concern about the philosophy or theory. This looks irrelevant to my research.


3. Amy Standen, Adobe photoshop master class: Maggie Taylor`s landscape of dreams, (Peachpit)
---> This is about the Adobe Photoshop production. Its artworks are related to the digital Art but not animation. Its not useful for my research.


4. Peter Lord & Brain Sibley, Cracking animation- The aardman book of 3D animation, (Thames & Hudson)
---> This is easy to understand as it includes lots of examples and pictures. Although it mainly focuses on the clay animation, i can know more about the film-making. Clay animation relies heavily on the realistic object (Plasticine) rather than CGI.


5. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation
---> This is a reliable source. It shows the past, present and future of the animation. It also links to the history of film animation.


6. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation
---> This website deeply interpret the traditional animation. This is very useful to my topic as it shows the making process of taditional animation. Thus, i can know more the improvement for nowadays animation.


7. Website: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/news/1682430/
---> It is a good example to identify what computer- generated imagery is. This animation--> "Ratatouille" was produced by Disney Pixar studios and let us know more about the computer graph.


8. Website: http://www.flashmagazine.com/1453.htm
---> This website briefly shows the book review of "Hollywood 2D digital animation". I can only get a concise concept from it.


9. Website: http://www.dexigner.com/digital/news-g3394.html
---> Besides Pixar, Dreamworks is another animation making studio. The outstanding one is "Shrek". It can be another example of digital studio, but it focus on the profit-making side. It can be a reference or concept for my topic.


10. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
---> Pixar is the famous animaton studio in the world. It owned by the Walt Disney company on 2006. This source is very useful as almost all the films it produced are animation.



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ReSeAch QuEstions

AnimatioN..........anImaTion...... aNiMation..........

with the help of animation, the characters are borned with life. We can see that every movement of them are so important. So right now, we should think about the movement & production beyond the lively characters.

1. Why there is a change from 2D animation to 3D animation?

2. How the computer animation works significantly in the animated evolution?

3. Can the animation (2D +3D) dominant the world of digital cinema?

4. How the animations influence our daily life? What is it position in the future?

---> to be continue............

"AnImAtion bOrn"

** Original Concept
At the very beginning I preferred to choose “Digital cinema” as my topic. Once I wanted to take Star Wars Episode I- The Phantom Menace to identify what the digital cinema is. As I like the Star Wars series and it was the film which highly used computer graphics. However, when I started the research, I found that there are lots of specific terms that I don’t really understand and familiar with. Thus, I define my final topic as “digital animation” at last. As I think animation just like the "kids version" of digital cinema.



** Digital Cinema ---> Animation ( final version)
Animation interests me a lot. As I start to get in touch with animation since I was small. We are familiar with lots of animations, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty etc. All these are made by Walt Disney. However, in the 20th century, 3D animation begins to combine with 2D animation..



** 2dimension V.S. 3dimension
I can see that there is an evolution from cartoon to animation. When we talk about cartoon, it is kind of 2D flat feature illustrations, we can call it as Traditional animation. It joins sequence drawings together and runs in the projector. The rapid motion seems like moving. To conclude, this method is hand made production.

When compare with the computer animation, the latter is likely in 3D creation. It highly replies on Computer-generated imagery (CGI), which is the computer animated film. It bases on the principle of cartoon which moves the images quickly and consecutively, but it also involves the computer generated graphic.

** The first CGI animation

The first animated feature length film which fully created by Computer-generated imagery is Toy Story I in 1995. The skill is not totally in mature and just like a new born baby. However, when compared to the 2D animation such as Snow White, it is a great advancement. I still remember when it was on show, so many children were attracted. Maybe they don’t concern about the technique, but I think it had taken the significant role. Once this technique being developed, much succeed come afterwards. For instance, Finding Nemo in 2003 gained $864,625,978 worldwide gross. These form the mainstream of the new animation.

I just like witness this “animation age”. Therefore, I would like to take a deeper look in this area and have a further discussion.

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ANIMAtion Frame~