Animation Theory Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Animation, Animation Theory, Motion Analysis, Walt Disney Animation Studios

How can we describe movements in animated films? In Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics, Ryan Pierson introduces a powerful new method for the study of animation. By looking for figures--arrangements that seem to intuitively hold together--and forces--underlying units of attraction, repulsion, and direction--Pierson reveals startling new possibilities for animation criticism, history, and theory. Drawing on concepts from Gestalt psychology, Pierson offers a wide-ranging comparative study of four animation techniques--soft-edged forms, walk cycles, camera movement, and rotoscoping--as they appear in commercial, artisanal, and avant-garde works. In the process, through close readings of little-analyzed films, Pierson demonstrates that figures and forces make fertile resources for theoretical speculation, unearthing affinities between animation practice and such topics as the philosophy of mathematics, scientific and political revolution, and love. Beginning and ending with the imperative to look closely, Figure and Force in Animation Aesthetics is a performance in seeing the world of motion anew.

- by Ryan Pierson
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- Animation Theory, History of Science, Phenomenology, Film-Philosophy

Xu Bing's installations are renowned for their production of "nonsense writing," that is, for extracting operations from Chinese characters in a manner that defies conventions for what is sensible and intelligible in writing. Xu Bing, apparently in all seriousness, glosses such "nonsense" with the Chan Buddhist notion of shengyu 生语 or "living word." If the characters in Xu Bing's installations can be said to be living words, it is because they afford an experience of what is nonsensuous in the everyday experience of characters-while we are used to characters being visible and audible, we do not normally experience what happens between seeing and saying the character. In this paper, I look at various installations in which Xu Bing uses techniques of abstract resemblance, such as pictographs (characters that resemble things) and psuedographs (fake characters that resemble actually used characters) in order to provide an experience of nonsensuous similarity or semblance prior to and beyond resemblance. The challenge of his recent installation, Background Story, is that it explores nonsensuous similarity in a new register: calligraphic paintings in which there is brushwork without brushwork, in which actual things appear self-abstracting. Thus his art delivers a profound challenge to received hierarchies for organizing experience, suggesting that things are no less abstract than images or signs, only differently so.

- by Thomas Lamarre
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- Animation Theory, William James, Experimental Animation, New Media Art
- by sahra kunz
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Computer Animation, Drawing
- by Bona Bones
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- Anthropology, Animation, Ethnography, Animation Theory

In recent debates on empathy in various disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, psychopathology, cognitive sciences, neurophysiology, the discussion has focused on empathic experiences within the intersubjective context, either between two individuals or among groups. But this is only one side of the coin. Since ancient times, subject-object and even object-object relationships were described in a way that cultural anthropology has defined as “animation”, that rhetorics has named “personification”, and that we would today call “empathic”. The chapter aims at exploring these objectual implications of empathy. Pinotti particularly criticizes the projective “hydraulic” model of communicating vessels–from subject to object–which builds the hermeneutical mainstream paradigm of any theorization of such relationships. With recourse to alternative theoretical perspectives, such as Gestalt theory of expression, “realistic” phenomenology, and theory of symbolic forms, the author proposes a newfound characterological approach that engages with acknowledging the originary expressive and pathemic character of things in themselves, and therefore in defending the fundamentum in re of objectual empathy.

- by Andrea Pinotti
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- Aesthetics, Max Scheler, Animation, Aristotle
- by DR Nadeem Mahmood
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Computer Animation, Character Animation

Editorial and description of issue contents.

- by Suzanne Buchan
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- Visual Studies, Art History, Art Theory, Animation

This paper explores the animation of supernumerary avatars, what are called 'alts', in Massively Multiple Online gaming. While all players typically have one avatar in the game world with which they identify and which they play most often, called a 'main character', they also use a variety of 'alternate characters' or 'alts' for various purposes. When an alt is being played ‘as a main’, that is, directly controlled by the player, the alt appears to be fully vivified, an alternate identity or persona (in ‘persona-play’) or at least an ‘alternate character’ in roleplaying performances. But when alts are used at the same time as main characters by a single player, the alt increasingly is treated as a non-persona, a silent, empty presence. The relationship of such alts to main characters are not explored in terms of identity and performance, but instead such silent attending alts are compared metaphorically to 'servants' or even tools. Such alts neither speak nor are spoken to, and they are identified with kinship or ownership relations to a main character, which they are often linked to by having a rhyming name. But more than anything else, it is the alt's movements that give its 'altness' away. The actions of an alt are often parasitic on the actions of the main character. The alt normally follows the main character, the visual effect mirrors its servant status, the alt follows behind the main character like an obedient servant. The analytic problems such alts present are not those of performance of alternate identities, for they have no identity, they live in the shadow of the identity of the main, the problems they present are those of their parasitic agency and control, of animation, which foreground the non-identity between the animated object (the avatar) and the animating human player. This paper explores the animation of alts in one online world, Ryzom, where alts are an ubiquitous ghostly absent presence and discourse about alts and animation is equally ubiquitous
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

- by Paul Manning
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- Anthropology, Animation Theory, Digital Games, Avatars

The Glory of Women through Silent Paper-cut Animation: “Scissorhands” Lotte Reiniger’s Reflection through Body Language was selected by the Conference of Society of Animation Studies (SAS ) 2017, Chunning Guo presented it in English in... more

- by Chunning Guo
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- Animation Theory, Film History, Women Artists, Silent Cinema

Dumbo tells a coming of age story about a young elephant who must gain psychological independence from his mother; Fantasia consists of eight episodes on various subjects, but they are strung together with the image of the conductor, Leopold Stokowski, and his (famous) hands. Two of the episodes (Nutcracker Suite and Night on Bald Mountain) dramatize the use of hands in controlling the actions of others. I elaborate on these issues using the psychoanalytic work of Erik Erikson, Ernst Kris, John Bowlby, and Norman Holland and introduce material on the neuropsychology of motor control.

- by Bill Benzon
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- Film Studies, Animation, Animation Theory, Film Analysis
- by Maryam Khaleghipour
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- Art, Animation, Animation Theory, Iranian Studies

An analysis of Australian animation of the 1990s, in the light of ecofeminist theory. The paper discusses the historical trends concerning animation aesthetics in Australia, and includes the work of emergent Australian Film maker, Sarah... more

- by Leonie Rutherford
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- Animation Theory, Australian film, Sarah Watt, Ecofemism
- by Muyang Zhuang
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- Animation Theory, Sergei Eisenstein, Cartoons and Animation

Animatic apparatus; history of animism; history of mechanism; animation; animatic automaton; animatic; automaton; robot; cyborg; vital machine; cinema; anima; plasmaticness; simulacrum; lifedeath; the living dead; the uncanny; simulation; representation; the Death Drive; the evil demon; the crypt, the haunted house, of cinema; cinema studies; animation studies; theory of animation; Film Studies; film theory; film philosophy; philosophy; humanities; J. David Bolter; Ctesibius, Hero of Alexandria, and Philo of Byzantium; Jacques de Vaucanson; Pierre Jacquet-Droz; Frederik L. Schodt; Mary Shelley; Frankenstein; René Descartes; La Mettrie; Donald Crafton; David F. Channell; Sergei Eisenstein; Roland Barthes; Jacques Derrida; Sigmund Freud; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe; the Mystic Writing Pad; Thierry Kuntzel; Sigvard Strandh; Gilles Deleuze; Jean Baudrillard; Philip Brophy; Franz Kafka; Plato; Jean-Pierre Vernant; Tom Gunning; C.W. Ceram; Villiers de l’Isle-Adam; L’Eve future; Blade Runner

- by Alan Cholodenko
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- Film Studies, Film Theory, Animation, Animation Theory

There are many stories, and histories, of animation film. Yet there are other ways of telling a story of animation that peel back and go below the material, historical and factual surface of this cinematic technique. Because the seven... more

- by Suzanne Buchan
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- Visual Studies, Art History, Art Theory, Animation

This essay seeks to understand the startling image of Carl Fredricksen launching his house into the air using children’s helium balloons in Pixar’s animated feature, Up (2009). The film interrogates successful adulthood via the figure of the road, both in its literary manifestation in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) and cinematically, via The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939). Paradise Falls itself, like Oz before it, is a letdown just like the “sad paradise” of On the Road. Carl loses faith not only in his boyhood movie hero, the travelogue adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), but the cinema itself.

- by Walter Metz
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- Film Studies, Film Theory, Animation Theory, Literature and cinema
- by Jane Batkin
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- American Studies, Self and Identity, Animation Theory, Popular Culture

A criação de personagens virtuais para cinema de animação implica com frequência a necessidade de adaptação gráfica das personagens de forma a dotá-las de maior expressividade ou de maior capacidade de criar empatia no espetador. Consoante o conceito do projeto e consoante a estória e a visão do autor que a conta, essas adaptações passam por vezes pela antropomorfização das personagens, ou seja, pela adaptação das personagens para que se assemelhem a seres humanos. O processo de antropomorfização de uma personagem passa, antes da construção da própria, pela seleção dos elementos humanos a incluir nesse processo. Dependendo do projeto, podem ser aplicadas diferentes abordagens à antropomorfização das personagens. As conclusões a retirar deste projeto serão posteriormente aplicadas na criação das personagens da série Too Snail to Talk em desenvolvimento pelos autores.

- by Eduardo Faria
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Computer Animation, Character Design
- by Marco Bellano
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Stop-motion Animation

In this paper, I discuss self presentation in online dating, specifically, online dating in Japan. I give particular attention to the question of how the design affordances of particular online dating apps help to partially structure how users construct their own profiles. Profile construction depends in part on what sort of fields have been provided for the user to fill in, as well as on which are mandatory, and which are optional. To some extent, norms of what a dating site is, or can be, or should be, structures the kinds of fields that designers add to the app, so that some are universal and inevitable (a name, age), while others are specific to particular sites and apps, and flexibility in filling out these fields varies. Profile construction also depends on what kinds of guidance are given to users when they create their profiles, upload pictures, or write profile text, whether in the form of rules or suggestions. Guidelines for acceptable pictures or measures of profile completion have an effect on the extent to which users fill out profiles, and what they put in them when they do. We can fruitfully analyze this as a kind of social "animation," (Silvio 2010), wherein multiple parties collaborate to produce the illusion of a single person or character. Here, users fill out profiles in collaboration with the site and its

This is practice-based research, aiming to explore the experimental form of animated documentary, which is a unique form that can explore the mysteries and complexity of memories. Animated documentary is a medium through which one can reveal an individual’s memories within the context of a narrative that is historically situated and influenced. The marriage of animation and documentary gave birth to a new form of film. How should academic critics and practitioners categorize this new form? Is it an animated short or documentary short? This raises issues that question the very nature of animation and documentary. Following Shuibo Wang’s works, more young Chinese artists began to experiment with symbols (related to the Political Pop Trend) in visual narration, which could also be seen as a reflection of an advance in structuralism and semiology in the contemporary Chinese art field. As a case study, this article demonstrates how animated short ‘Ketchup’ revealed the problems of youth and social turmoil through the memories of a six-year-old boy. At Festivals and conferences, the public have been shocked to know that ‘Ketchup’ was based on true memories, and they became more curious about why such crucial things have almost been forgotten. Actually ‘forgetfulness’ is one of the layers of memory and animated documentary offers new ways to explore how our memories are shaped.

- by Chunning Guo
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- Cultural History, Animation, Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Animation Theory

Serial Adventure Time (2010) osiągnął już miano kultowego, a podobnym tropem podążają dwie inne propozycje stacji Cartoon Network: Steven Universe (2014) oraz Over the Garden Wall. Seriale te można uznać za transgresywne na wielu poziomach. W przypadku Adventure Time uwagę przyciąga przede wszystkim struktura fabularna, a poszczególne odcinki podejmują takie tematy jak miłość czy strata bliskich. Steven Universe prezentuje całą gamę kobiecych bohaterek, jest też pierwszym serialem CN, którego autorką jest kobieta. Problematyka serialu skupia się przede wszystkim na nienormatywnej rodzinie. Over the Garden Wall przekracza granice przede wszystkim poprzez ciężar gatunkowy: emanuje nieustanną grozą i niepokojem. Wszystkie te seriale podejmują intertekstualną grę z widzem i wymagają od niego licznych kompetencji.
Podczas wystąpienia zostaną omówione poziomy transgresji w poszczególnych serialach, ich recepcja oraz znaczenie, jakie te seriale animowane mogą mieć dla kultury serialowej.

- by Marta Tyminska
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- Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, Animation, Animation Theory

What if you could peek into any building, office, home and follow stories? What if you could collaborate building these stories? Attempting to answer these questions through the creation of virtual worlds may help understand transmedia experiences. These worlds constitute interfaces that allow users to interact with audiovisual content in multiple media and platforms, serving as a conduit for the exploration of transmedia universes. Departing from lessons learned from the use of animation in the design of Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs), the research being conducted explores the aesthetics and techniques of animation and motion graphics in the design of transmedia user interfaces. The recent introduction of faster processors on multi-functional smartphones, have fostered the development of graphic user interfaces that rely on animation in order to facilitate user interaction with digital devices. Being that these devices are access terminals to audiovisual media, there are excellent opportunities to use them as interfaces for a transmedia experience on multiple platforms: laptops, game consoles, tablets, smartphones and public terminals. In all instances there are opportunities to use animation in the creation of mediated spaces that function as portals to a transmedia universe. Animation in these applications can be understood in a broader sense – as generators of artificial realities, a synthetic cinema that is naturally moldable and programmable, where the user can interact in different manners and points of entry.

- by Joao Paulo Schlittler
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Transmedia Storytelling, Scientific Animation
- by Marwa F AlKhayat
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- Animation Theory, Ecocritical Theory

In Summer is able to reflect a variety of Olaf's characteristics and character despite the brevity of it. The piece itself is a comedic yet ironic ballad in which Olaf declares that he wants to experience 'Summer', during which he would evidently melt in as a snowman. At the beginning of the song, Olaf is clearly portrayed as a straightforward character that is not afraid to speak out when he announces his determination and excitement to experience the summer warmth in his brief recitative. The way that most recitatives are marked colla voce (follow the solo voice) on the orchestral score suggests that Olaf is a natural leader and that he is destined to be followed, just as the instruments have to follow his own rhythm of speech. His assertive nature is also implied not only at the beginning of the song, but also at the end as the song ends in a strongly held major chord. Olaf's optimism is presented through the use of a major key, functional tonality and a few circle of fifths progressions that can be heard throughout, establishing his bright character and positive outlook on life; however his optimism could perhaps pose as a danger to himself as he is keen on experiencing the season of summer and although he is not necessarily unaware of the fact that he would melt underneath the heat, he is willing to be unaware. Olaf's unaware and naive nature is displayed at the beginning of the song by the juxtaposition between the warm sonority of the jazz instruments and the continuous crotchets played by the sleigh bells that are usually associated with Christmas instead of Summer. Additionally, Olaf's character is often described as quirky, goofy, and childlike. These characteristics are presented through the abundant use of portamento (slides) in Josh Gad's (voice of Olaf) singing technique in order to create a sense of instability and versatility, also adding to the fact that Olaf is able to break himself off into pieces which still living. The use of staccatos and broken phrasing in the song contributes to his childlike and goofy mannerisms, and the arpeggiated pizzicato interjections by the violins in the first verse add a sense of playfulness to the song. The violin interjections are disjunct and could be regarded as a countermelody that presents his goofy character appropriately, as well as the swung rhythm that is introduced after the recitative. The way that Josh Gad uses a wide range of his voice and jumps round it quite a lot exhibits Olaf's clumsiness as he is an extremely energetic character. What makes Olaf such a likeable and intriguing character is not only his inner strength and perseverance, but also his outgoing attitude, which is perhaps demonstrated by the general lack of usage of head voice by Josh Gad-this naturally makes the solo voice a little louder and suggests a sense of boldness and confidence. Overall, Olaf is a character that immediately appeals to the audience not only because he is outgoing and bold, but also because he is quirky and entertaining; however he also has weaknesses such as being too idealistic and naive that could put him at risk of melting in the summer heat.

- by Angel Wong
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- Music, Music Theory, Musicology, Animation Theory

This course is a historical survey of international animation from the earliest days of cinema up to recent digital animation, with special foci on Disney, anime, experimental, and political animation techniques and forms. Not only will students be introduced to film animation as a rich and complex art form, but they will also study its primary practitioners over the past 100 years. The course does not presume familiarity with animation or film studies, and as such, will introduce students to key principles and concepts of both during the course of the semester.

- by Peter C . Kunze
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- Film Studies, Animation, Animation Theory, Film Analysis

This article is an intertextual reading of Nezha naohai (Nezha Conquers the Dragon King), the second cel-animated feature produced at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, the major animation film studio in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the 1950s until the 1980s. Released in 1979, the story of Nezha Conquers is an adaptation from three chapters of a popular Ming Dynasty 16th-century novel about a rebellious boy-god. The year Nezha Conquers the Dragon King is released, 1979, is a turning point for the hero in PRC cinema. Visual design for Nezha Conquers the Dragon King seems to be a combination of Osamu Tezuka’s Astroboy and Chinese Communist sports propaganda. Chief director and screenwriter Wang Shuchen considered the film to be a return to fantastic subject matter after the Cultural Revolution. Nezha Conquers the Dragon King signaled a return to mythological themes in PRC film and ends with an elliptical, open-ended finale, suggesting the propensity for future social and cultural contradictions.

- by Sean Macdonald
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- Film Studies, Violence, Death, Animation Theory

book review of THE QUEENS OF ANIMATION by Nathalia Holt

- by Betsy A McLane
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- Women's Studies, Film Studies, Animation, Women's History

This essay traces the theorization of interwar animation through period analogies with painting and dance, paying special attention to the valorization of concepts such as dematerialization and embodiment, which metaphors of visual music and physical kinesthesis were used to promote. Beginning in 1919, and exemplified by her feature-length film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926), Lotte Reiniger directed numerous silhouette films animated in an ornate style that embraced decorative materiality. This aesthetic set her in uneasy relation to the avant-garde, whose strenuous attempts to distance abstraction from ornament took the form of absolute film, and were screened together at the Absolute film Matinee of 1925. However, their claims for aesthetic integrity were staked on territory these artists largely had in common. By adopting a feminist approach that examines networks of collaboration, publication, and artistic production in Weimar Berlin, this essay reveals Reiniger as an early proponent of haptic cinema in interwar Europe and one of animation's earliest and most perceptive theorists.

- by Katherine Rochester
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- Feminist Theory, Film Theory, Animation Theory, Visual Music

Blumen sind mehr als Blumen: Sie kodieren historisch und kulturell bedingte Nachrichten, die entziffert und gelesen werden können. Was zeichnet eine solche Kommunikation durch die Blume aus?
Der Band erkundet erstmals das Feld der kulturwissenschaftlich informierten Pflanzenkunde und fragt nach den Medien floraler Kommunikation. Die Beiträge aus Kunst-, Tanz- und Literaturwissenschaft, Medientheorie und Biologie untersuchen die kodierten Botschaften, die mit Blumen versendet werden, und fragen nach der Vermittlungsposition, die die Blume als hybrides Natur-Kultur-Objekt zwischen unterschiedlichen Wissensbereichen einnimmt. In drei Sektionen – Dissemination, Animation und Zirkulation – wird aufgezeigt, inwiefern das jeweilige Verständnis einer Blumenkommunikation durch die eingesetzten Medien bestimmt wird und welche Konsequenzen dies für die Konzeption des Vegetabilen nach sich zieht.

- by Alexander H Schwan and +2
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- Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Queer Studies, Philosophy
- by Nadezhda Mihaylova Marinchevska
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- Animation Theory, Cinema, Animation History

2020 Award: Vincenzo Maselli, University of Rome

2019 Award: Eric Herhuth, Tulane University

- by Janeann Dill, Doktor der Philosophie, MFA and +2
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- Critical Theory, Philosophy, Animation, Performance Studies

Any animation student can tell you the right way to produce an animated short. Books like The Animator's Workbook (White), Animation from Concept to Production (Rall), and others spell out the process from storyboarding to final render. Following this template will get you to final production, but this process is meant for a big studio or large team, not for an independent or student animator. Additionally, these books focus heavily on the technical side of animation emphasizing production. Students learning to be animators need to learn both story and production if they are going to make animated films. The focus of this paper is to find ways to help students produce better-animated films. This is achieved by focusing on storytelling and by defining a process for students that better suits the timelines and compromises they make to complete a film. Looking through the lens of independent animation production and my last animated film Sheltering Sky (2019) we discover new processes for creating a story and how the processes of the giant studios can be reworked for students and independent artists and teams.

- by marc russo
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- Animation, Animation Theory, 3D animation, Teaching and Digital Animation

Der Beitrag thematisiert anhand aktueller und historischer Beispiele spezifische Wirkungstendenzen animierter Kurzfilme mit politischem Inhalt. Er lädt dazu ein, sich näher mit der ästhetischen Form von Animationen auseinanderzusetzen, leitet dazu an, ihre Besonderheiten in der Vermittlung politischer Inhalte zu erkennen und zu reflektieren und schult den Umgang mit der uns täglich umgebenden Bewegtbilderflut, die zu nicht geringem Anteil animiert und häufig in gesellschaftliche und politische Kontexte eingebunden ist. Fragestellungen für den Unterricht ergänzen die medienwissenschaftliche Perspektive.

- by Maike Sarah Reinerth
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- Film Studies, Animation, Animation Theory, Learning and Teaching
- by Alan Cholodenko
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- Film Studies, Film Theory, Animation, Animation Theory
- by Luke Barnesmoore
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- Critical Theory, Social Theory, Number Theory, Probability Theory
- by KwangWoo NOH
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Manga and Anime Studies, Anime
- by Charles daCosta and +1
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- Cultural Studies, Television Studies, Animation Theory, Popular Culture

Please see abstract in conferences section

- by Andy Buchanan
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- Animation, Animation Theory, Computer Animation, William James
- by Joff P N Bradley
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- Animation Theory, Gilles Deleuze, Bernard Stiegler, Deleuze

What is the relationship between player-controlled movement and animation in game media? How do game worlds respond to the movement of characters through different types of space? This article will draw on concepts such as animation, figuration and vitality to analyse some of the ways that in-game animations and graphical rendering activity are activated by player-controlled movement through three-dimensional game environments. The sudden ‘blinking in’ of environmental features in the distant horizon as the player approaches and more gradual ‘filling in’ of graphical detail in objects such as plants, rocks and shadows close to the player character/camera in games such as Red Dead Redemption and Shadow of the Colossus provide materials for considering how animation might be developed as a concept for describing the connection between player agency and game-world visual activity in the said media. Graphical rendering properties such as draw distance and texture pop-in that are tied to the spatial relationship between a player character/camera and game-world objects will be some of the primary ways this dynamic of movement and animation will be analysed.

- by Daniel Johnson
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- Visual Studies, Media Studies, Animation, Animation Theory