BECKIE RYAN

20/2/2017

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES DISSERTATION

PROPOSAL OGR
LOSING A CRAFT OR GAINING A NEW STYLE?

HOW MODERN TECHNOLOGY HAS

IMPACTED ANIMATION
DISSERTATION SYNOPSIS
Animation is one of the most loved stylisations of film in our lives. From
children's cartoons to feature films, adverts to merchandise and marketing,
animation plays a huge role but has it changed for the better?

Walt Disney found the niche with 2D animation. A hand drawn craft made for
the enjoyment of all, it required some highly skilled artists and animators.

As modern technology bloomed and brought bigger and better computers, the
world started to dabble in 3D animation but is this newest form of animation
just a pale imitation of a superior craft or is it a craft within its own rights?
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CHAPTER 1 - ANIMATION TIMELINE

Chapter 1 will be focusing on the core aesthetics of hand drawn animation and how the 9 Old
Men were the pioneers of this. This means that because they were the 1st to successfully bring
animated pieces to a large audience, they wrote the the 12 Principles of Animation and how
they would later be adapted into the rules. They set the bar for how it should look visually.
Other aspiring animators would replicate these techniques onto their own animations, this
meaning that the 9 old men's hand drawn animated art form was what could be deemed as
avant-garde. Therefore this in a sense is the modernist view of the appropriation of animation.

I will also touch upon the idea that anything handmade has a sense of aura. This is the idea
that anything handmade has an extra tangible quality which is taken away when they are
replicated or reproduced using technology. (as seen in Walter Benjamins The Work of Art in
The Age of MechanicalReproduction
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CHAPTER 2 - TECHNOLOGY TAKES OVER AND THE AURA STARTS TO FALL

In chapter two, the focus will be upon how the uprising of realism caused for the view of
animation to change and made people strive for a more 'realistic' animations. This of course
means that the rise of computer animation technology would push out traditional hand drawn
animation as it could provide realer results.

As John Lasseter said the art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.
Animation has always been pushed by the art but as technology began to take over, this was
added into the mix too. A lot of CG Animation has only been possibly due to engineering often
by the teams themselves. The original aura around hand drawn animation had begun to fade but
some CG animators are trying to replicate this sense by coding small things into their software.
Things like light glare on the camera and light sequences have been added only recently due to
the strive for realism in computer generated work. Without technology, this would simply not
have existed in traditional animation as they are simply too complex.
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CHAPTER 3 - RISE OF THE COMPUTER AND THE DEATH OF THE AURA

This chapter will look at the modern age of animation. By this point hand drawn animation is a thing of the
past in cinemas and CGI is the new way of making animation. Today animators not only bend the rules but
they are almost throwing the rule book set by the 9 Old Men out the window. We no longer see steam
coming out of characters ears when they are angry. Instead we see a highly detailed angry expression.

In the age of digital animation, it is possible to see that the post modern views have scrapped the 12
Principles of Animation have been scrapped and instead are paid homage too in smaller ways. Gone are the
days of exaggerated expressions and sexist body shapes; instead we see more realistic facial expressions
and more realistic body shapes as well as allowing many different types of animation to take over.

Due to the rise of computer technology, people feel that the human aspect of these pieces feel somewhat
disconnected or lacking. As almost if because a computer has methods and precoded techniques to
accomplish tasks that would have been difficult for those in hand drawn animation to achieve. This could be
why in the present day why hand drawn animation is seen more of a craft than its predecessor.
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RESEARCH PRO-FORMA
Author: Walter Benjamin Author: Aardman

Critical Position: Aura is lost when machinery is used. Critical Position: Overview of Aardmans work both stop
frame and CG.
Title: Summary: The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical
Reproduction Title: A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman
Publisher/Publication: Wordpress Publisher/Publication: Aardman
Place of Publication: https://frankfurtschool.wordpress.com/ Place of Publication: BBC (now on Netflix)
2008/02/28/summary-the-work-of-art-in-the-age-of-mechanical-
reproduction/ Date: 2015

Date: 28/2/2008
A summery piece of the paper by Walter Benjamin who talks
about work loosing its aura when its produced. A painting is
more valuable than a photograph of that painting.
The documentary of Aardmans work from their origin story to
stop motion animation and dabbling in CG animation. It
includes other big names in animation such as John Lasseter,
Brad Bird and Matt Groening.
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RESEARCH PRO-FORMA
Author: Preston Blair Author: Katie Morgan

Critical Position: 2D animation is an art form. It relies
heavily on the artists skills and the methods behind it.
Title: Cartoon Animation
Publisher/Publication: Barnes and Noble
Place of Publication: Book
Critical Position: If animation in 2D or 3D can ever beat each
other in terms of realism
Title: Its So Real Its Fake: An Exploration of Realism in Animation
Publisher/Publication: academia.edu
Place of Publication: http://www.academia.edu/2941748/
It_s_so_real_it_s_fake_An_exploration_of_realism_in_animation

Date: 1988 Date: Unknown

Katie talks about how 3D animation has become a constant

A beautifully drawn book by an ex-disney animator battle with technology to create a reality that is so real that it
explaining 2D animation and a lot of the principles could almost be fake. Its a nice side by side comparison of the 2
behind traditional animation. types of animation.
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RESEARCH PRO-FORMA
Author: Leon Gurevitch

Critical Position: 3D animation was created to churn out product and to

increase sales

Title: Computer Generated Animation as Product Design Engineered

Culture, or Buzz Lightyear to the Sales Floor, to the Checkout and
Beyond!

Publisher/Publication: Sage Journals

Place of Publication: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/

10.1177/1746847712438133

Date: Vol 7, Issue 2, 2012

From what I have read so far, it seems to reflect on how 3D animation has
been used as a cheap alternative to is predecessor and could be argued
that it has allowed for more work to be produced in less time thus
increasing in sales.