3D animation

wow, my art history and animation history class just collided pretty much in the same week. I had just learned about Giotto in my art history class. He created wonderful paintings trying to create a since of depth with bigger foreground and smaller background, but the biggest thing was he overlapped his figures which before was unheard of. I'd never thought about the realism in 3D with depth. It's a common sense thing but hard to achieve. I was watching trailers and clips from Tron. I have to say that some of the stuff they were doing was really advanced. It's interesting to see that this movie possibly influenced one of the top animators of our time. Indeed 3D movies are the present because they can create realism far beyond what an ink backdrop can do.

I think, however, many of the movies now are overkilling the digital media. I'm not saying that Pixar should drop its productions nor Dreamworks (which I still have yet to see How to Train Your Dragon) but there are the other companies that pop out cheap movies without a good story or something to engage the audience. They also have a more cartoony look about them unlike the realistic Pixar, Dreamworks, and some of the CGI only movies. I'm more of an artist that prefers drawn animation, i don't know if that's because I was raised to appreciate it or I've always liked art in general. Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised in 20 years if all the movies would be made like Avatar and we all get chronic headaches for 3D glasses.

Which is another thing are we striving for realism so bad that everything is turning into 3D?

animation and its audience

Although there wasn't much to say about the controversial t.v. that appeared largely in the 90s. I agree that those paticular shows were widely for teens and adults. When I was a kid I remember disliking Bevis and Butthead because it didn't have action. I was used to watching the superhero cartoons on saturday mornings and whatever animated movie I could get my hands on. I'm sure it was also that I didn't understand the adult humor. I found the section about the various audience and their Disney experiences to be interesting. It made me think about my thoughts on my first remembered Disney film. My mom said the first disney movie she took me to was Beauty and the Beast. I don't remember that experience at all but I do remember seeing Lion King on the big screen. I can relate to some of the things the people were taking about as well. I remember seeing my dad choke up when Mufasa died because my grandpa ( his dad) passed away 3 years prior. The music and story moved me and I enjoyed it. In a strange sense, Lion King was the movie that ultimately inspired me. I started drawing the characters, acting out in imagination to certain scenes. I love that movie and will forever. I'm not saying it's the best animated film I've seen, nevertheless, that movie will always stay close to my heart because of an impacted it had over me.

Stop Motion

I will always consider this to be a strange animation and yet so common. It was probably one of the first types of animation done with a moving tripod. It's amazing how all of the stop animation advanced to feature movies involving complex stories and intriguing characters. Nightmare Before Christmas is a good example of the complexity of stop motion. After reading the section about how they were able to do the movie in so many sets yet keep it smooth by ways of drawing out every single frame. I bet they could take all of those frames and make a 2d version of the movie. I did enjoy Norman Mclaren's 'The Neighbours' for it's artistic motive of stop motion. It must have been difficult for the actors to jump up the same height each time. It's all worth it in the end when everything is pieced together. Hopefully no fingerprints on the clay and all of that.