Comics and Animation

Comics, film, and animation have long been intwined in their creations. Both film and animation owe much to the comic strip like set up of storyboard, which both looks and acts like the comics it mimics. But what hadn't occured to me until reading this is that much of the film and animated comedy we see in early film history is directly influenced by the comic strip serials that ran before film had even found its base.

The example given in the reading is the hose gag from the Lumiere brother's short. Sitting next to it is comic strip by Cristophe showing the exact same gag from at least six years before the brothers filmed their bit. It makes me wonder how many other classic jokes got their start in comics before making the jump to silver screen.

Still, this reading shows that comics have had a long lasting relationship with film that goes back to it's basic beginnings. It's strange that it took until the past decade for the relationship with mature, serious comics to really take off into anything that is beyond campy and hokey.

On "Notes Towards a Theory of Animation"

I just finished this chapter of Understanding Animation, and the first thing I would like say is that I appreciate the vocabulary developed in the beginning of this chapter. Something that I always found difficult when talking about animation in film theory was the lack of defining terms in describing animation vs live action film. Here, we see a set of terms and conditions that we are able to use to describe traits unique to animation. For instance, the idea of configuration in describing the formal qualities of characters or narrative objects. Because an animation's mis-en-scene lacks actors, and animated characters act differently from true to life people, it's necessary to describe them from their formal qualities.

The same goes for the idea of a set, or setting. These are constructed illusions, not actual objects in real time space. Therefore, when talking about narrative animation, it's necessary to describe the evolution of context, the building of a logical, imaginative world as opposed to the colors and materials that make it up.

I'd also like to point out a few animated pieces that seem to straddle the line between Orthodox and Experimental. There was an anime released several years ago called "Gankutsuo." It was a retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo (in exaggerated anime fashion, of course). But something unique to this series was it's use of traditional 2D techniques, coupled with a digital coloring that is difficult to describe but very unique:


Watch The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou - Box Set Trailer in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

They were experimenting with many different techniques, the two most noticeable being the combonation of 2d and 3d animation and the use of static textures/colors that were used to fill and color the characters. When the characters moved, the colored patterns on their clothing would stay static, allowing the patterns to shift and move as the characters interacted. This technique is very materialistic, clearly calling to attention the fact that what we are seeing is artificial.



As a side not, I also couldn't help but notice that this kind of speech and investigation is exactly what is missing from modern video game analysis. Something I find extremely irritating is the lack of a vocabulary for describing and talking about video games. How are games supposed to be analyzed and treated as art if we still don't know specifically what a game is?

Well, some of the terms described in this chapter could be used to describe video games as well. In the case of "evolution of context", when speaking about video games, a game world that is created to be realistic and imersive would be one that strives to be constructed, while a game that calls attention to it's mechanics and graphics would be materialistic. Though it's not perfect, I think that when investigating animation, I'm one step closer to understanding game analysis as well.

First post (do over)

First post! Hooray!

I thought I’d share one of my all time favorite animations for my first post- It’s from a studio in Canada that I found on Drawn, an illustration and animation blog.

A little bit about myself:

I’m a senior here at SIUC and I love animation. Ever since I started attending SIUC I’ve focused on building animating, starting with Prof. Rowley’s 2D animation class. Since then I’ve done Computer Animation, Claymation, and Flash Animation as well.

But my true passion is Video Games, and I’m hoping to enroll in a good game design program (focusing in animation, ofcourse) after finishing here at SIUC. I have another blog on Destructoid.com, which I have been keeping to post my thoughts on Game Design and other game related topics. I generally don’t share the link, but would be happy to send someone in the right direction if they were interested.