What is Animation?
What is Animation?
Animation is possibly the most important creative form of this century.
By definition animation is an art, approach, aesthetic and application
that involves many aspects of visual culture, such as, feature length
films, television, and web cartoons to display a function. In short, ‘
animation is everywhere’ (Paul wells 2002:1).
Then, what is animation?
To animate, and the related words animation, animated, and
animator all derive from the Latin verb, animare that means ‘to give
life to’. Within the context of animated film, this largely means
“the artificial creation of illusion of movement in inanimate line and
forms” (Paul Wells, 2000:10).
The Oxford Dictionary defines animation as, “the technique of filming
successive drawing or position of puppets or models to create an
illusion of movement when the film is shown as sequence”.
People have been interested in creating that illusion of motion for
a long time.
Whether we perceive twelve progressing positions of a bird in flight
by flipping through a flip book, watching Mickey Mouse run across
the movie screen, seeing a face metamorphose, or viewing stars
floating in the night we are essentially encountering the result of rapidly
changing sequential still images. Animation is achieved by the way
we perceive a series of images.
Many people have preconceived ideas about animation as a
whimsical medium suitable only for humour and children’s
entertainment. However, there are many examples of animation as
serious political statement. Halas and Batchelor produced Animal
Farm in 1954, as an adaptation of George Orwell’s novel.
Scholars have often studied it as an allegory about the rise of Stalinism
and the threat of communism,animation can be used seriously
and to devastating effect.
Market Potential
_Entertainment
Animated cartoons, television specials, and feature films are
produced for entertainment.
In addition, both cartoon and graphic animation are used for titles
and credits in both television programmes and feature films.
Conclusion
Animation is a medium that cannot thrive without innovation.
The tools used in the creation of each frame are constantly changing.
Although cell animation still dominates the industry,
other animation techniques are becoming increasingly popular.
The animation techniques and knowledge gained in the last century
can be applied to computer animation.
Good knowledge of what has been achieved in the past will be very
valuable to animators who want to be a part of the future.
Furthermore, the scope of this medium is expanding to include
other activities. In fact, it is now being used wherever visual
communication is required. In particular, the animation industry
focuses on commercial activities. The three major applications of
commercial animation are entertainment, education, and television
advertising. For over a hundred years now, animation has amused
and entertained us through jokes and stories.
It has done many other things as well.
Educational films have used animation to promote concepts;
advertising commercials have used it to sell us everything
on various occasions. Propaganda films have turned to animation
to help promote political ideas and keep up morale.
References
(1) Paul Wells (2002) Understanding Animation. pp.1, 10
London and New York
(2) Paul Wells (2002) Animation Genre and Authorship.
pp.1, 10 London and New York: Wallflower Film Studies
posted by SuJung Im @ 1:12 PM
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