Zotti 1

Matt Zotti
Nancy Roche
WRTG 1010-018
December 11, 14
Progression within Visual and Interactive Arts
We have all been at some point among a crowd of people that walk out of
a museum, game store, or theater saying something along the lines of: Wow! I have
never seen anything like that before, that was really cool! This is because of the way art
is created and digested by society. Art needs to be progressive to stay interesting, and
the vehicle in which art evolves are the literacy practices that share information
throughout the artistic community. Think about this: no one has gotten famous for doing the same thing done in histories past, yet they still build off from those before them.
In order to be successful in any kind of field, one needs to be able to create work that
wows its intended audience. This is most true within art. By creating open forums of discussion and artistic reflection, art has slowly evolved and manifested itself in new ways.
What started out as the simple crafting of tools and primitive paintings on cave walls has
evolved into moving pictures that tell a story which could not have been told otherwise,
as well as interactive stories and worlds where the viewers decisions impact the art itself.
I am referring to what I feel are the two most powerful and ingenious forms of art - film
and video games.

Zotti 2
Art and its Evolution into Film
Art is and always has been progressive. When looking through history, it is
somewhat obvious that what made the most famous works of art so notable was the artists effort to be ahead of his or her time. This constant pressure to be the next big thing
creates a mentality within the fine arts community to always be one step ahead of everyone else and always be push the limits of what can be defined as art. In general, art education is the way professors stress the importance of this is the analysis of important
works of art from a given time. Students then learn about the different techniques, materials and methods used to create them, recognizing how they differed from other art work
of their time. Doing this will give the student a better understanding of what it takes to be
a successful artist: ingenuity. These informal learning methods can be found here at the
University of Utah, in classes such as Intro to Film and Film History classes. The
structure of these classes are based around the analysis and discussion of films in a group
setting, with the professor there solely to keep the conversation on topic. The students
must recognize the techniques and meanings within the film and discuss it with the instructor and their peers. In this way, not only do the students learn the material for themselves intuitively, but also learn the valuable skill of communication that is so important
to the art industry. Classes like these are required because they force the student to look
at how art has evolved over time and recognize how each artist builds off the artists before them to create an even greater piece. After understanding this fundamental truth,
they themselves are ready to begin building off of their predecessors.
While it is true that all art is progressive, in the realm of film, it is even more imperative to be ahead of your peers. Filmmakers have to be progressive to keep up with the

Zotti 3
changing technology, culture, and audience expectations, otherwise, your film could fail.
If a film is not something new, viewers will tune out and become disinterested. Because of this, film is always pushing the limits of technology, imagination, and storytelling. The problem with this expectation is that professors cannot directly teach this to students because it requires something that cannot be taught; originality. So to get around
this hurdle, teachers instruct their students in the methods of film making how to work a
camera, set up a shot, write a script, etc. Once the fledgling filmmakers have an understanding of the methods of creation, the teachers then have the students create their own
film so they can become comfortable with telling stories unique to themselves. Now after
creating their film, they have join in on the larger film community and submit their work
to the Sundance Film Festival, a famous, annual film festival held in Salt Lake City
where students of all ages submit their own films in an effort to win the title of first place.
All of these student films are then graded off of their execution, story line, film shots, and
most importantly, their ingenuity. Films entered in past years of the festival have gone on
to be some of the most influential, independent films of our generation, and their ability
to be ahead of their time has had an impact on the film community. This constant flow of
new ideas helps keep up-and-coming film professionals fresh, and in turn, keeps film goers happy. With every new filmmaker, the audience gets to see something theyve never
seen before.
Within every discipline of art, there are key works that shape the future of that
field. In film, the way these benchmark pieces are created is filmmakers constantly exploring new film-making techniques. These techniques are usually made possible by new
technology being invented for film, which shows one the most intriguing aspects of film

Zotti 4
that separates it from a lot of the arts: its co-dependency on technology to evolve. When
taking a brief look at the history of film, it is unbelievable to see the progress that has
been made within the last century. An example of how far film has come is to look at the
first films that were ever aired for an audience. The Lumiere Brothers were the first to
create films for general viewing, and at the time, they were revolutionary. The films were
only 15-30 seconds, typically revolved around a very simple concept (such as riding a
train, a baby eating food), had no sound, and were very two dimensional. Because technology has grown so much throughout the short history of film, the concepts, special effects, and narratives have increased in kind. Because of this perpetual progression, it is
impossible to say exactly where film may take its next big leap. Art has unlimited potential because human creativity has unlimited potential. The progress related to film over
the short history of its existence is nothing short of awe-inspiring, and there still is progress to be made.
Video Games and Their Marriage to Film
One of the greatest big leaps for film was its recent marriage to video games.
This union has profound implications when you think about evolution of art as a whole
over time. It is especially more astonishing when one realizes that Video Games were
originally in the domain of Computer Science, which is as far away from the discourse of
art. Rarely do two different communities with entirely different discourses join together
to create a brand new community itself. Video games nowadays are more a product of
film than people give them credit for, maybe because they originally started out as simple
representations of characters with shapes created by programmers (Pong or Pac-man).
Because interactive media, a genre where the user shapes his or her experience by partic-

Zotti 5
ipating in the product itself, was so new at the time, the user expectation was low for the
visuals to start out. As that novelty wore off, and computer hardware and software became more powerful, developers began to spin larger tales within their games, but this
time, players themselves could decide how the stories ended. So video games started to
develop their own film-like visuals and narratives in parallel alongside film. With each
game needing to trump each others stories, visuals, and mechanics in order to be successful, a kind of arms war began among developers. Developers began building off of
their previous works in order to create larger worlds without having to start from scratch.
Through the communication of these creation methods within the community, developers
ensured they wouldnt release the same product twice in order to survive. This drive to be
profitable and successful is what created one of the largest and fastest growing industries
of our time.
With the demand of games rising but no information present for students to learn
the craft, it fell on the pioneers of the industry to teach newer members about the processes for creating games. In those days all it took was passion and good ideas in order to
get a job. The most famous event concerning this kind of occupation is the hiring of Shigeru Miyamoto. Shigeru Miyamoto is the creator of Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and
Donkey Kong, but when he created Donkey Kong (arguably the most popular game of its
day) he was just an entry level artist. He had no idea about how to create (program, compile) a game, he simply had a few ideas and a passion. Now, he is now the most famous
video game developer in the world. People like Shigeru Miyamoto were having to teach
their ever expanding employees roster the methods of content creation that they themselves invented. However, this kind of low scale education couldnt support the growing

Zotti 6
industry. Professionals started to write books on various subjects about gaming, from
programming, to level design, to 3d modeling, and animation. Books that explore the ins
and outs of game art are the same books that people write on Film and Visual Effects.
Because game art in reality is almost exactly the same as film (animation and cartooning)
the biggest difference is that the player controls when that actions starts. Many artists that
started out working on 3-d art for movies naturally fell into jobs at video game studios.
But the techniques of most importance to game art are the ideas developed by Disney on
animation in their book The Illusion of Life. Used in combination with tutorials on how
to create characters for Games and Films can be found in books like Scott Spencers
Zbrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting. With the knowledge of how to
create and bring things to life, video game makers can create film-like experiences with
user dictated plots and subplots.
Art has come a long way since humans first began expressing themselves visually. This is because art not only needs to evolve in order to be successful, it is as inherent
to the human experience of literacy itself. Human languages, societies, and knowledge
evolve, and so does our art. The drive for progress is at the heart of everything, and art,
forms such as film and video games are no exception. Film and Video Games are unique
in the way that they are a discourse where almost all art forms meet and work together in
a common discourse. Our films are only limited by our technology. With no peak in sight
for technology and technological innovation being the driving force for these cutting edge
art forms, films and video games, like all art - have no foreseeable ceiling to what they
can accomplish.

Zotti 7

Works Cited
"The Evolution of Visual Art In the Modern Era." The Evolution of Art. N.p., n.d. Web.
03 Dec. 2014.
Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
"The Lumire Brothers, Pioneers of Cinema." History.com. A&E Television Networks,
03 Oct. 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
Spencer, Scott. ZBrush Character Creation Advanced Digital Sculpting. Indianapolis, IN:
Wiley, 2008. Print.
Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. N.p.: n.p., n.d. The Illusion of Life Disney Animation.pdf. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.