Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy
The AUCB Animation programme is modeled on the industry in the sense that animators work in teams and not everyone gets to make their own film. It's a 3-year degree: first years focus on fundamental animation skills (LOTS of life drawing, walk cycles, sack drops, flag waves, and other exercises that get them thinking about the key principles . . . the 'anticipation' I noted in my post of a few days ago). The idea is to make the students focus on their drawing skills, but think about how these can be 'translated' or applied (or recontextualised) in an animation production context. Someone could be brilliant at drawing, but not be able to *apply* their skill in an animation context.We had a visit from Joanna Quinn a week or so back and she talked through some of her films, showing some elements in slow-mo. In some scenes, it was just keyframes (no in-betweens), in others, the in-between drawings were kinetic squiggles, rather than recognisable things - this manifests itself on the screen as some of the best animation (based in observation) you are likely to see. One of Joanna's points was that the students should loosen up on the in-betweens and concentrate on how to instil the movements from A to B to C . . . The second years, having done this first year of fundamentals, move on to work as 'junior animators' on the third year films for that particular year. They are assigned roles - or seek out roles that suit their specific skills - and work on the films. During the second year, the 2nd year students work towards 'pitching' their own idea - these ideas are voted on and a slate of them move forward to become the final year productions for the following year. (Hope this is making some sense!) In other words, not everyone gets to make their own film, as not all pitched ideas can be successful (for instance, we had over 30 pitches last year - we have 12 films being made this year). This means that those who are unsuccessful in the pitches are recruited as 3rd years to work on one of the productions . . . each film has a team of 2nd and 3rd years, therefore. Every student, as well as doing specific units to do with Animation theory and history, Professional Development and so on, is expected to document and evidence what they are working on via Learning Agreements for each practice-based unit - because a student might be Directing a production, or working on character animation, or doing the layouts, or any number of other duties, we measure their achievement against a yardstick that they have set (with academic staff agreement of course). We do not assess the final productions as artefacts; we assess each person's *contribution* to it - and it is in the teamwork production ethos that the distinctive character of the degree resides. Ultimately this means our graduates are strong team players with a knowledge of a range of animation production skills, as well as the ability to theorise and contextualise their work and the work of others In this respect, the AUCB course is atypical of UK art school animation courses, where the individual filmmaker is the model. The focus here is on individual learning in a group/team context In terms of the place of computers/CG in all this - there is a 'strand' that runs through the course where students are taught Maya (and those doing 2D animation are taught how to use Toon Boom, those doing stop motion use Stop Motion Pro). As the model described suggests, the requirements of specific productions will depend on what the director and his/her team see as necessary . . . often, we have productions that use a mix of techniques, fuse 2D and 3D (which takes us into the realm of so-called 2.5D) or maybe use CG for certain effects work in what is otherwise a straighforwardly stop motion or 2D drawn production Whilst on this point, I'd add that the AUCB's near-neighbours, Bournemouth University (completely separate institutions) houses the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA). Their courses are differently-inflected to ours - whilst they do life drawing and key principles of animation, the degrees they award are much more CG-specific (as the name NCCA suggests). They are, in effect, training Technical Directors (TDs) for the film and games industry, rather than more fully-rounded animators (which is not to suggest that the courses aren't good, nor that they don't have some very talented students). This is yet another potential strand to this debate - what do we mean by 'animation', how do we teach it, for what purpose etc? Once we understand this, we can then look and see that, actually, someone else is doing something very different from what you are doing, but calling it 'animation', or they are doing something very similar to what you are doing, but calling it 'X' . . . Certainly, as well, the research that takes place at the NCCA can be very high-end CG research, more akin to computer science and
[-empyre-] Thanks to Suzanne Buchan and Paul Ward
Thanks so much to Suzanne Buchan and Paul Ward for being out featured guests this week on -empyre soft skinned space, Theorizing Animation: Concept and Context. It has been a great week on fuzziness, high/low art, and animation program models. Paul just made a post that I'm hoping will stir more interest in discussing program models. We are extending an invitation to Suzanne and Paul to stay tuned with us this week and to also give a call out to Tom and Lev who I'm hoping will also chime in if their schedule permits! This has been a great month so far and I'm thrilled that it has exceeded my expectations given that the discussion was pulled together in an impromptu manner. So thanks again for Week 2's discussion and please feel free to continue the threads from this week. Renate Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Art Cornell University, Tjaden Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: r...@cornell.edu Website: http://www.renateferro.net Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space http://www.subtle.net/empyre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre Art Editor, diacritics http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
[-empyre-] Introducing Eric Patrick (US), Christopher Sullivan (US), and Melanie Beisswenger (SG
Welcome to Weed 3 of February on empyre soft-skinned space: Theorizing Animation: Concept and Context Moderated by Renate Ferro (US) and Tim Murray. Introducing Eric Patrick (US), Christopher Sullivan (US), and Melanie Beisswenger (SG) for Week 3. A warm welcome to Week 3 guests: Eric Patrick (US), Christopher Sullivan (US), and Melanie Beisswenger (SG). Eric and Patrick will be writing from the US and Melanie from Singapore so my apologies for the late introduction in the east as it is almost Tuesday there. Our guests' biographies are below and I invite them to each post a bit about their own work and their relationship to our topic: Theorizing Animation : Concept and Context. Eric Patrick combines animation, live action, photographic effects, sound collage and performance to create experimental narratives. He has been the recipient of numerous awards both domestically and internationally including a Guggenheim fellowship, and awards from The Black Maria Film Festival, Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid, South by Southwest Film Festival, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona. His films have screened extensively at festivals, museums, and on television throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas, including screenings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and The Rotterdam Film Festival. In addition to his film work, Eric has also worked extensively in commercial animation in both New York and Los Angeles. His animation for the Nickelodeon program Blues Clues has been nominated for multiple Emmys and received a Peabody award. He has additionally written articles on animated documentaries and ritual in animation. He is currently working on a film titled Retrocognition, and is an Assistant Professor in the Radio/TV/Film program at Northwestern University. Christopher Sullivan http://mediaartists.org/content.php?sec=artistsub=detailartist_id=516 Is an animator, filmmaker and performance artist. He has been creating experimental film and theatre for over 20 years. He has shown his work in festivals, theatres and museums all over the Country and in Europe. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship. Recently, he has been programming experimental films and animations in community settings such as libraries, elementary schools, and educational conferences, and puppet festivals. He lives in Chicago with his wife Susan Abelson, and their daughters Carmen and Silvia, and teaches Animation and Film at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Melanie Beisswenger joined the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technical University in July 2007 as Asst. Professor in the Digital Animation Programme, where she is teaching 3D Character Animation I and II and Animation Development and Preproduction. Melanie has a decade of production experience as artist and character animator on feature films and TV commercials. Credits include the Academy Award winning feature film Happy Feet, the stereoscopic 3D feature film Fly Me to the Moon and the BioShock Game launch trailer among others.Melanie Beisswenger's research interests are digital animation, story telling, and 3D stereoscopy, and how technology and tools can be adapted to employ them intuitively within the creative process. Her current research work focus on the production pipeline and process of the animated short film creation in 3D and stereoscopic 3D. Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Art Cornell University, Tjaden Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: r...@cornell.edu Website: http://www.renateferro.net Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space http://www.subtle.net/empyre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre Art Editor, diacritics http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy
I wonder if that institution is Sheffield Hallam University? I use to work there. Quite a few years ago they mothballed a lot of their traditional animation kit in favour of digital systems. They also did this in the printmaking department, an area the college was highly reputed in. Since I left they have even got rid of their purpose built art school buildings (ugly brutalist 2 storey studios, designed by the same architect who did the Royal College building, that were brilliant to work in) and relocated into the basement of the engineering department. I would assume that any remaining vestiges of traditional kit would have gone as floor area was cut by 40%. This is the same institution that includes Nick Park (Aardman animation, famous for creating Wallace and Grommit) amongst its alumni. I wonder what he would make of the changes. eca does retain its light-box and drawing approach. Personally I would rather a bit of both. Although I am not a formalist I do distinguish between practice that treats a medium as a tool (eg: how Paul Ward describes the use of computers in his department) and practice that treats it as medium (eg: seeks to engage the specific characteristics of the medium as core to the conceptual focus of the work). My own work falls into this latter area, although I wouldn¹t describe it as animation (some have). I am aware that there are some animation artists who do work with the specific characteristics of the medium as key in their conceptual approach. Svankmajer¹s 1982 Dimensions of Dialogue is a good example here, where he explores the nature of clay to do very clay-like (but not at all life-like) things (faces merging into one another, heads eating one another, etc). If some animation depends on the uncanny valley effect for its power then this is not it, as there is no attempt at realism. In the digital domain an artist I mentioned in an earlier post, Larry Cuba, is a good example of a medium specific approach. Another animator occupying an almost unique position is Len Lye. Best Simon Simon Biggs s.bi...@eca.ac.uk si...@littlepig.org.uk Skype: simonbiggsuk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ Research Professor edinburgh college of art http://www.eca.ac.uk/ Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice http://www.elmcip.net/ From: Paul Ward pw...@aucb.ac.uk Reply-To: soft_skinned_space empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:37:12 - To: soft_skinned_space empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au Subject: RE: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy I've recently heard of a UK institution, well-known for Animation, which now has no light boxes or facilities for students to draw - it has, in effect, put all its eggs in the computer basket. As Suzanne points out, such moves (and the institution in question is by no means alone, of course, in having to 'rationalise' its resources and delivery) are part of the context of cuts to education. Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201 ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts on ethics
Hi, it's me again! A couple of my main research interests are Animation (quelle surprise!) and Documentary, and I've been looking into how animation and nonfiction work together (or not) for some time now. See Chapter 5 of my book Documentary: The Margins of Reality (Wallflower, 2005); plus Animated interactions: animation aesthetics and the 'interactive' documentary in S. Buchan (ed.) with David Surman and Paul Ward (Associate Eds.) Animated 'Worlds' (John Libbey, 2006). The latter discusses 'Going Equipped' alongside Bob Sabiston's 1999 short 'Snack and Drink' I think the idea of animation as a 'filter' is apposite - it is the filter through which re-presentations of real people and events are 'creatively treated' (to echo John Grierson again). This also makes some interesting possible connections to animation and memory, or animation and states of mind, and how these areas overlap (or contrast) with 'documentary'. Animations like 'Waltz with Bashir', 'Persepolis' or Andy Glynne's short films 'Animated minds' (about mental health) are all, arguably, sub-types of the animated documentary category, but approach it in very different ways best wishes Paul From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of christopher sullivan Sent: Sun 14/02/2010 18:22 To: soft_skinned_space; Suzanne Buchan Cc: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts on ethics Hi Suzanne, thanks for the generous discussion. As a practitioner I will say that I am really not too bothered by the issues of representation, and truth, or authenticity, I think those are interesting points of discussion, but nothing that will ever be cured. but are we really that confused in the theater? I have found that children for instance have very clear understandings of what is real, what is manipulated, what is fantasy. the idea that media is continuously lying to us, can also lead to a lot of political empathy, I teach an alternative animation history class, and one of our weeks we show all non fiction animation. here is the week. Reading: Understanding Animation, chapter 3 Narrative strategies. 68-92 Week 6 October 19th NON FICTION- These films all use animations power to manifest images that have no filmic record. The result is a curious take on truth and representation.. Is there an emotional safety in these cartoony depictions, of otherwise unbearable images? Roger Ebert , speaking about Grave of the Fire flies. John and Faith Hubley. Sample 1960-75 The Dara Dogs. Denise Topicoff. -A is for Autism, Tim Web 1998. Champaine by Michael Sporn. Some Protection, Marjut Rimmenen,1987 -Brother, Adam Benjamin Elliot 2003- Going Equipped ,Peter Lords 1989 -Abductees , Paul Vesters 1998 The Fetishist, Jim Trainer 1998- Ryan, Chris Landrithe 2003 A Room Near By, still life with animated dogs, Paul Ferlinger 2002- 2004 these films all deal with the strange in between possibilities of animation as a filter for truth. I often show Ryan this week also, The students are always interested in discussing the inclusion of Chris Landreth in the film. it is both interesting and problematic, that his desire to implicate the documenter, is also very problematic. does he truly believe that his state of crisis parallels Ryan Larkin, in a SRO facility? I argue that the real issue of representation through animation is not nearly so complicated. and why do we have to create a theoretical censoring bureau, just make the work, and let it hit people, all sloppy and imperfect. do the questions below really need to be brought to some kind of conclusion? is it truly a crisis? The increasing convergence, barrage and resulting pervasiveness of manipulated imagery, including traditional and digital animation, has overwhelmed many of its viewers, and this has pressing philosophical and ethical connotations. In terms of the status of indexicality and truth claims of the visual, in 1998 Elsaesser suggested a crisis was evolving: Any technology that materially affects this status, and digitization would seem to be such a technology, thus puts in crisis deeply-held beliefs about representation and visualization, and many of the discourses - critical, scientific or aesthetic - based on, or formulated in the name of the indexical in our culture, need to be re-examined. as media professors, I think we have to also challenge media literacy Dogma which implies that all viewers are completely at the mercy of the moving image. once something is digital, sorry Lev, but it means nothing, it is a technical expedient. Animators have the opportunity to carve out new and wonderful ways of creating work and bringing subjects to the screen that were not possible before. A true act of political subversion is the recent screening of Don Hertsfeilds new films. the audience came to see funny. instead they saw an amazing maturing of his work into a dark and
[-empyre-] re-post of chris sullivan intro
hope this is all getting to you. Quoting christopher sullivan csu...@saic.edu: Hello All this is Chris Sullivan, If I am Early just wait til Monday, not sure when you want the week to start. I am an independent animator, and teach animation at The School of The Art institute of Chicago. In the Department of Film Video New Media http://www.saic.edu/degrees_resources/departments/fvnm/index.html#undergrad_curr/SLC_8078 For Maya Curriculum look under Art And Technology about me, I have been creating animated films and performance work for the last thirty years, the first ten of which took place in Minneapolis, and now In Chicago since 1989. My films have been show nationally and internationally, and I am a recipient of Grants from The John Simon Guggenheim foundation, And the Rockefeller Foundation. I have shown work in Ottawa, Zagreb, Moma, Los Angeles Animation Celebration. I have been working on epic piece called Consuming Spirits, for a decade , so I have gone a bit#8232; underground, but will soon surface. My Filmography of screened work is Aint Misbehavin The Beholder, and Landscape with The Fall Of Icarus. In my work I am interested in positions of power in one on one communications, especially notions of submission and control. I am particularly interested in such politics in relation to the family, and in relationships of love and hate. I also do performance work, after working in film exclusively for 14 years the stage bug bit me again, and I happily return to perform my new piece, Mark The Encounter. I am very interested in making serious film with animation, serious film for adults. I like to keep things a bit unstable, so that people are not sure if something is funny or tragic, sarcastic, or heart felt. I like to use deep, smart humor, as opposed to gags. I like to show loose ends, and exposed props in my work, I am not creating illusion, but a sloppily glued together valentine. On to topics: One thing about the topic of technology is that I am very excited about the future of independent animation and digital compositing technology. I am finishing my last 16mm generated Film, and actually look forward to the possibilities with digital animation. I am particularly tuned into 2-D digital, and my students use Flash, After Effects and Toon Boom. And they make great work. We also use stop motion, and digital cameras. Looking at the wonderful results with Persepolis, Yamamuras the Country Doctor, Igor Kovalyov Or Paul Fierlingers work; also check out Tom Schroeders Yellow Bird. I do not know why filmmakers are threatened. On The CG side Jim Duesing, Joshua Mosely, and Skhizein ,by Jérémy Clapin. All amazing. It is far easier to make painterly, material, dirty, textured 2-D animation with digital media, than it ever was with film(excepting destructive animation, Quays, Piotr Dumala, Caroline Leaf, William Kentridge. Interestingly most of my students draw by hand and then scan, even with Wacom Screens at their disposal. As far as New Media, or digital Media, if that is your subject matter, I am really not interested, I have never been a formalist, and I will not start now. Pixels are boring, so are cell paints. I want to see animations about Love, Hate, Sex, Death, And yes childhood memoirs fall under that list. I believe in teaching animation from the perspective of writer director, and have all of my students create their own original works, those students fair far better in the commercial world as well. I believe that Technology is a tool, not a subject, work that tries to address globalism, technology, greenness, or ideas about media saturation, seams obvious to me, and to my colleagues and students. Animation is the medium, The content, comes from the human experience. When I teach my students Rotoscoping, I show Dennis Topicoffs His Mothers Voice, when the lights come on we talk about the film as they all dry their eyes, then they are interested in the possibilities of rotoscope. another amazing thing, ten years ago my students could not draw, now they are all very good drafts people, thank graphic novels I guess. what do others think, and turn me onto some great work you have seen lately. Chris. Quoting Suzanne Buchan sbuc...@ucreative.ac.uk: Renate (I can't turn off HTML on the email I'm suing, so I hope the inserted line breaks improve reading.) Many practice-based animation and film programmes - as well as photography and design - are increasingly replacing analogue with digital, with all the implications. While I'm not a hands-on 'practitioner' per se I don't teach practice I can say that my university has two programmes, and both use digital tools but foreground fine arts-based style, process and students attend life-drawing
Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts on ethics
Hello Paul, IU will check out your book, as far as the word opposite, opposite of what? sounds like we are in agreement. In my Non fiction class, I show the introduction by roger Ebert of graveyard of the fire flies, he captures the notion of animations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU3mZT0a9Rw Quoting Paul Ward pw...@aucb.ac.uk: Hi, it's me again! A couple of my main research interests are Animation (quelle surprise!) and Documentary, and I've been looking into how animation and nonfiction work together (or not) for some time now. See Chapter 5 of my book Documentary: The Margins of Reality (Wallflower, 2005); plus Animated interactions: animation aesthetics and the 'interactive' documentary in S. Buchan (ed.) with David Surman and Paul Ward (Associate Eds.) Animated 'Worlds' (John Libbey, 2006). The latter discusses 'Going Equipped' alongside Bob Sabiston's 1999 short 'Snack and Drink' I think the idea of animation as a 'filter' is apposite - it is the filter through which re-presentations of real people and events are 'creatively treated' (to echo John Grierson again). This also makes some interesting possible connections to animation and memory, or animation and states of mind, and how these areas overlap (or contrast) with 'documentary'. Animations like 'Waltz with Bashir', 'Persepolis' or Andy Glynne's short films 'Animated minds' (about mental health) are all, arguably, sub-types of the animated documentary category, but approach it in very different ways best wishes Paul From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of christopher sullivan Sent: Sun 14/02/2010 18:22 To: soft_skinned_space; Suzanne Buchan Cc: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts on ethics Hi Suzanne, thanks for the generous discussion. As a practitioner I will say that I am really not too bothered by the issues of representation, and truth, or authenticity, I think those are interesting points of discussion, but nothing that will ever be cured. but are we really that confused in the theater? I have found that children for instance have very clear understandings of what is real, what is manipulated, what is fantasy. the idea that media is continuously lying to us, can also lead to a lot of political empathy, I teach an alternative animation history class, and one of our weeks we show all non fiction animation. here is the week. Reading: Understanding Animation, chapter 3 Narrative strategies. 68-92 Week 6 October 19th NON FICTION- These films all use animations power to manifest images that have no filmic record. The result is a curious take on truth and representation.. Is there an emotional safety in these cartoony depictions, of otherwise unbearable images? Roger Ebert , speaking about Grave of the Fire flies. John and Faith Hubley. Sample 1960-75 The Dara Dogs. Denise Topicoff. -A is for Autism, Tim Web 1998. Champaine by Michael Sporn. Some Protection, Marjut Rimmenen,1987 -Brother, Adam Benjamin Elliot 2003- Going Equipped ,Peter Lords 1989 -Abductees , Paul Vesters 1998 The Fetishist, Jim Trainer 1998- Ryan, Chris Landrithe 2003 A Room Near By, still life with animated dogs, Paul Ferlinger 2002- 2004 these films all deal with the strange in between possibilities of animation as a filter for truth. I often show Ryan this week also, The students are always interested in discussing the inclusion of Chris Landreth in the film. it is both interesting and problematic, that his desire to implicate the documenter, is also very problematic. does he truly believe that his state of crisis parallels Ryan Larkin, in a SRO facility? I argue that the real issue of representation through animation is not nearly so complicated. and why do we have to create a theoretical censoring bureau, just make the work, and let it hit people, all sloppy and imperfect. do the questions below really need to be brought to some kind of conclusion? is it truly a crisis? The increasing convergence, barrage and resulting pervasiveness of manipulated imagery, including traditional and digital animation, has overwhelmed many of its viewers, and this has pressing philosophical and ethical connotations. In terms of the status of indexicality and truth claims of the visual, in 1998 Elsaesser suggested a crisis was evolving: Any technology that materially affects this status, and digitization would seem to be such a technology, thus puts in crisis deeply-held beliefs about representation and visualization, and many of the discourses - critical, scientific or aesthetic - based on, or formulated in the name of the indexical in our culture, need to be re-examined. as media professors, I think we have to also challenge media literacy Dogma which implies that all viewers are completely at the mercy of the moving image.
Re: [-empyre-] chris sullivan p.S.
or ... to take a look at Pat's interactive rendition/ DVD-ROM of Tracing the Decay of Fiction that was created and produced in collaboration with Marsha Kinder and Rosemary Comella of the Labyrinth Project at USC is more like a supernova colliding with a black hole: the convergence of two extraordinary phenomena in a single moment – a nearly inconceivable occurrence from a man who thinks nothing of waiting an entire year to photograph a ray of sunlight shining through a window at a particular angle. Published in Release Print September 2002 Chris On Feb 15, 2010, at 4:41 PM, christopher sullivan wrote: by the way, I show power and water in my not quite animation day in my alternative animation history class. It is a wonderful film. you should all try to get Pat out to show The Decay OF Fiction, his amazing film, that unfortunately he does not like, but I sure do. Chris. Quoting christopher sullivan csu...@saic.edu: Hi Eric, I do think that certain technologies or circumstances dictate trends in work. For instance the non verbal history of independent art films in the 70's and 80's, was directly related to issues of french versus English in Canada, and the fact that the Netherlands, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, where important places that could not count on language to engage a wider world. And for that matter the frame by frame process does break down time and lead to different ways of looking at the world. But I am questioning starting with formal notions of Code, or digital culture as subjects. I guess it gets back to notions of modernist painting, which is about putting color on a flat surface. All of the great works that I am attracted to in animation, have something inherently frame by frame about them, but there is an underlying content that is being negotiated. I think that animation because of it's labor, tends to give birth to the wondering pilgrim, the emptied city, the lone figure in a minimal world, because you just can't draw fifty people, CGI is changing this, but these limits are good too. They are like the limits of independent theater, no dance numbers, no effects, just words and a few bodies. I also think that the limits of animation, create a need to condense time, in ways that live action does not. and this leads to it's odd sense of time, I hope you have all seen Cat Soup, amazing time play in that film. Quoting Eric Patrick er...@northwestern.edu: Hello All, Eric Patrick here. Rather than repeat my bio, I'll just jump right in... I've been making animated films now for twenty years, and the one thing I've become convinced of is that animation is a ritual act. My own work underscores this in it's experiments with narrative without the confines of character development or plot... rather, I often find myself creating associative connections over causal ones. I'm certainly not the first that has noticed this, but perhaps all animators find it on their own terms... small repetitive acts, done over long periods of time... a withdrawal from day to day life. The very act seems like a description of an alchemist's chamber, saying a rosary, kabuki theatre. In my particular case, I choose a technique that in some way comments on the ideas embedded in my work. This is one of those things that I find to be unique about animation (though I would argue that new media has this ability too): the ability to orchestrate the concept into the very fabric of the image through the technique that is utilized. It's that relationship between form and content that makes animation quite so unique. That these techniques involve increasingly preoccupied states of consciousness only adds to the ritual effect of animation. It's no wonder then that we can see such a wide interest in metaphysics throughout animation history. As an animator stepping into a group dedicated to new media, I'm interested in finding where my experience may cross over with yours. Perhaps we can also weave with Chris Sullivan's intro, because, as he states that technology is a tool but not a subject, I am almost inferring that the process can become a subject. I have shown Pat O'Neil's work Water and Power to students, and interestingly, they told me that it completely changed their relationship to after effects. O'Neil's work somehow seems like it could only be conceived and executed on an optical printer, though it can obviously very easily be created with something like after effects. While I agree that technology is a tool, do certain tools not engender certain kinds of work? best, Eric Christopher Sullivan Dept. of Film/Video/New Media School of the Art Institute of Chicago 112 so michigan Chicago Ill 60603 csu...@saic.edu 312-345-3802 ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre Christopher
[-empyre-] Melanie Beisswenger joining in
Hi, Melanie Beisswenger here. Not wanting to repeat my formal intro by Renate, I just want to add that I am foremost a character animator and director, and very hands on practice based in my approach. Having worked both in the commercial realms of animation for feature films and TVCs and on my personal animations, the storytelling, performance and acting aspect is at the center of my interest. This work typically results in movement, yet I want to look at what creates and motivates this particular movement. Taking a step back and considering the root of the word ‘animation’, as you are all familiar with I presume, it means to bring to life and give a soul to. Thus in my work I am looking at ideas, concepts, thoughts and emotions that drive movement in an action – reaction way. This is primarily character based in that the audience follows the emotional motivations of the character on screen, yet on an abstract movement level, it also applies to movement which makes the audience experience an emotion or applies to camera movement through space. To me, character animation itself is a crucial element in the storytelling process and I approach it with a similar sincerity as a performance would be in life action film. Getting on to another subject which has cropped up in earlier discussions here, the question of tools and techniques and the shift to the digital: I believe in the coexistence of 2D, stop motion and 3D animation, as they are mere techniques and each provides stylistically different expressions and advantages. Each of these areas have adopted and developed new techniques and a partially digital workflow. The older forms such as 2D and stop motion have profited enormously from the technological and digital advancements such as coloring software, stop motion frame grabbers and motion control cameras etc to enable the artists to focus on the refinement of their art itself. 3D computer animation is in some way still in the middle of its development – technically some techniques have made huge leaps, compared to just 1 or 2 decades back, yet in regards to artistic possibilities, the medium has not yet reached its peak - in my humble opinion. I should mention at this point that I am a 3D character animator, with experiences dipping my fingers (or wacom stylus if you wish) into generalist 3D work and VFX with live action and stop motion hybrids. This also brings me straight to animation education, and the question how and what to teach. Without dissecting the animation structure of the school where I teach in detail, the School of Art, Design and Media at NTU Singapore (ADM), I am personally extremely happy that drawing, 2D animation, stop motion and 3D are all taught in our classes. All of these practices create a visual thinking and well rounded artist, each area with its own challenges and opportunities. First and foremost stands the artistic conceptualization, ability, and visual expression which need to be nurtured. Finding the right button in a software application is comparatively a very simple process to learn. Best regards, Melanie Melanie BEISSWENGER (Asst Prof) | School of Art, Design and Media | Digital Animation Nanyang Technological University, 81 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637458 Tel: (65) 6513-8054 GMT+8h | Fax: (65) 6795-3140 | Email: mela...@ntu.edu.sg | Web: www.ntu.edu.sg CONFIDENTIALITY: This email is intended solely for the person(s) named. The contents may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it, notify us, and do not copy or use it, nor disclose its contents. Thank you. Towards A Sustainable Earth: Print Only When Necessary ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] chris sullivan p.S.
Hi Chris, great topic to bring up. These are the opposite sides of the animation spectrum, from unique visual expression to the 'art of photo realism'. In some way it is almost like asking if a photo realistic painter is a painter or a photographer after all... As the quest for photo realism in the animation of the human form is the most difficult and thus for some most challenging aspect of animation - the so called holy grail of overcoming the uncanny valley - it has attracted a considerable large following of filmmakers, animators and artist following this route and producing an array of quite awful films with creepy characters on the way. As one of the first examples of overcoming the uncanny valley, 'Benjamin Button' has given us a glimpse of what can be done and I am sure we'll see more digital faces in the future which we won't be able to tell from real. Avatar is a slightly different expression as the navi feaces are not technically human faces, overall superbly executed animation wise. I am hopeful and do believe that once we have achieved this kind of photo realism in a wider scale, we needn't worry too much about it anymore, as it will free up animators to express themselves even more in new non photo realistic ways. Cheers Melanie From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of christopher sullivan [csu...@saic.edu] Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 1:11 PM To: christopher sullivan Cc: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] chris sullivan p.S. An interesting thing to think about in terms of form, extremes of crudeness and rough edges that are a big part of people like Phil Mulloy, Paul Fierlinger, Don Hertzfeld, Lewis klahr, Martha Collburn, William Kentridge, Yuri Norstien (I don't think I spelled one of those correct, but time is too precious. All of these animators expose the material elements of there work, and in ways force a two dimensional reading of the film surface, Illusion of space it fleeting when there at all. Yuri Norstien at a talk here in Chicago spoke of how he feels that the closer you get to an illusion of reality, the farther you get from what makes animation it's own language. what do people think about illusory and non illusory cinematic space in animation? Is photo realism, not animation anymore but digital cinema? have you seen this stuff. very interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_1zzPCnyOIfeature=related Quoting christopher sullivan csu...@saic.edu: by the way, I show power and water in my not quite animation day in my alternative animation history class. It is a wonderful film. you should all try to get Pat out to show The Decay OF Fiction, his amazing film, that unfortunately he does not like, but I sure do. Chris. Quoting christopher sullivan csu...@saic.edu: Hi Eric, I do think that certain technologies or circumstances dictate trends in work. For instance the non verbal history of independent art films in the 70's and 80's, was directly related to issues of french versus English in Canada, and the fact that the Netherlands, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, where important places that could not count on language to engage a wider world. And for that matter the frame by frame process does break down time and lead to different ways of looking at the world. But I am questioning starting with formal notions of Code, or digital culture as subjects. I guess it gets back to notions of modernist painting, which is about putting color on a flat surface. All of the great works that I am attracted to in animation, have something inherently frame by frame about them, but there is an underlying content that is being negotiated. I think that animation because of it's labor, tends to give birth to the wondering pilgrim, the emptied city, the lone figure in a minimal world, because you just can't draw fifty people, CGI is changing this, but these limits are good too. They are like the limits of independent theater, no dance numbers, no effects, just words and a few bodies. I also think that the limits of animation, create a need to condense time, in ways that live action does not. and this leads to it's odd sense of time, I hope you have all seen Cat Soup, amazing time play in that film. Quoting Eric Patrick er...@northwestern.edu: Hello All, Eric Patrick here. Rather than repeat my bio, I'll just jump right in... I've been making animated films now for twenty years, and the one thing I've become convinced of is that animation is a ritual act. My own work underscores this in it's experiments with narrative without the confines of character development or plot... rather, I often find myself creating associative connections over causal ones. I'm certainly not the first that has noticed this, but perhaps all animators find it on
