Contemporary Animation Essay

4 : predict where you think it will be in 10 years time 

Contemporary animation has come a long way since the early 1900’s, it was an era enriched with the greatest animators, companies and of course spectacular animations and film productions of all time, with great names such as Windsor McCay (Gertie The Dinosaur 1914) who produced the very first animation with actual video footage added, Walt Disney the creator of Mickey mouse and the founder of the Walt Disney film company, his films are legendary and spur most young animators interested in contemporary animation today, his films included Bambi, Snow white and the seven dwarfs which was the first ever film to involve roto scoped animation drawn directly over film but onto many different layers, it was a very ingenious method indeed and still used by many animators today. 

In my eyes contemporary animation is one of the most well evolved subjects in the 1900’s it went from simple stick figure drawings and short stories to full feature length animations that last 90 minutes and more and crammed full with a tremendous amount of detail down to a single hair, spectacular attention to detail, breath taking concept art and scenery and unforgettable stories that still live on our memories today. 

Unfortunately due to the world as it is and always has been, the world of contemporary animation has nearly died out compared to the amount of computer based animation and 3D animation, due to the people of today being uninterested with the style as it is to time consuming, not worth it and it is old news, but these are not facts these are just statements put together by numerous amounts of narrow minded individuals who follow the latest trends and most convenient methods of the current year. 

The same has also been said in many other areas such as fashion although I see a lot of the old clothing styles coming back into fashion from the early 1900’s etc that were said to be a thing of the past but I see these styles coming back into fashion everyday, However the inevitable truth that everything in the world, including animation is always evolving and striving to be better, is the main cause of this tragic end to a great era. 

But not all hope is lost, it was said that the camera was supposed to take the place of paintings and drawings etc, but this is a false statement as paintings are still around and being done today, as they are an expression of the human mind and essence and capture an artistic and very much surreal image which defines a period or a moment in time, where as a photo just captures a real life image which reminds us of a certain event or a scene. 

Contemporary Animating is a lot like painting although instead of trying to send out an array of thoughts feelings and trying to build a story and scene in a persons head, they literally show it through a series of many beautiful compositions each Hand painted or drawn by hand and strung together. 

CGI and 3D animation are the big thing now, but they will soon die out as the more advanced and effective methods come in to take over, as far as the world of contemporary animation goes, I can’t really speculate exactly as to where the contemporary animation industry will be in ten years time, but i can give an educated guess. 

Due to the cutting edge technology we have today Apple Book Pros,Pc’s, SLR cameras, State of the art full body motion capture and an ever growing and upgrading arsenal of 3D modelling, image manipulation and vector based drawing programmes, we could take contemporary art even further to a level that it has never been to before, we just need young talent with the persistence and talent of the greats, combined with the smooth and ingenuitive methods today’s programmes and future programmes can provide. 

2D Animation is an art in it’s self it allows the animator to truly express them self through their work, create a fluent and extremely unique style, create feeling and emotions in the mind that themselves and the viewers have never even felt before, where as in the world 3D animation there are a lot more mechanical features to it and a lot of the things are pre done, it takes on a kind of anime approach also because of its rather similar outcome, let me reiterate further, when I say similar outcome I mean 3D animation has a lot of different environments and characters etc etc. 

When it comes down to it all 3D animation is the same you get a figure and you set it to do certain movements on a timeline, just as all anime is comprised of the same style, un unique I should call it, how ever there are certain individuals who are making a great effort to try to show that 3D Animation can match up to 2D, the main one is Pixar a company formed by former Disney animators who decided that they wanted to develop a new skill, a dream which has come through for them, and by combining the great names of Disney and Pixar there are sure to be many future greats soon enough. 

Although I don’t really have a great liking for 3D animated programmes and films with the odd exception of a few, I was very impressed when I seen that Disney have created a new animated short called Paper man in which they have shown 3D software can be used to create the appearance of a 2D animation, with the added advantage of being able to create a set and orbit freely around it and having all of their characters props and special effects ready to use at their disposal, But still keeping the original Disney drawing style. 

where as with traditionally drawn contemporary, the set was usually drawn frame by frame, if it involved for example trees blowing or grass moving in the background etc, I believe that Walt Disney had a background base layer of things he knew definitely weren’t going to move and then added extra separate layers on top to create moving background objects. 

I watched an interview the other day with the director of Disney’s paper man (John Karhs) and he talked about wanting to keep the style and line work of Walt Disney’s original contemporary work and integrate it more into further Disney productions, he said that Their 3D animation just doesn’t quite give off the same feel expressions wise, and I can honestly say I am with him on that one, I can now see exactly why Disney did not want Disney Pixar as part of his company, it may have just been the fact that contemporary has been the way he animated all his life and he didn’t want to change this, or it could have been the fact that he knew That taking short cuts in animation could perhaps be a step in the wrong direction. 

CGI and 3D Animation although They do bring you closer to reality, for example toy story in which toys come to life, and avatar in which alien like creatures inhabiting a planet are threatened by us, contrasted with the likes of the snowman and many of Walt Disney’s classics such as the lion king and The jungle book, which manages to convey a great depth of emotion and evokes memories of the past using simple lines and effects in a way that CGI or 3D could never do, says to me it’s time to bring contemporary animation back into the market and create a new era of animation. 

However 3D animation has developed a lot also there has been some spectacular 3D animation around, James Cameron’s Avatar featured some of the most jaw dropping visual effects and concept art that I have ever seen, and toy story even though 3D was a classic Disney tale but in a new context and form, The characters were the most simple part to this film, and for the technology they had when they made the first one the kinetics and attention to detail were mind blowing. 

Animator Roger Mainwood (Wivenhoe in Essex) worked with Raymond Briggs on the original Snowman film in 1982, 30 years down the line he has created the opening scenes to the sequel, during an interview with the BBC Mr Mainwood said "there's nothing quite like" bringing drawings to life, reflecting my earlier statement about the comparison of photo to painting, contemporary animation is the best and only way to truly express yourself totally and completely. 

Although most of the greatest animators of all time are dead not all hope is lost, their offspring, their siblings and colleagues friends etc, all have these skills maybe not the exact same style but everyone as they have a unique body structure has a unique style, which will only further develop with time, influence and life goals are a strong one on this subject, the way the world is today and the way it develops will mould the future of animation, it could take ten maybe even a hundred years for contemporary animation to come back, but as Walt Disney says “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” 

A great deal of heart and imagination goes into contemporary animation and I would hate for that to die out, it is an art in it’s self and we being the next generation of people, with the correct tools and adaptable minds, need to step up to the plate and make sure that contemporary animation comes back an is here to stay, as Walt Disney said “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” 

I think contemporary animation will have come leaps and bounds in ten years time, and if this 3D to 2D animation method takes off this could be it’s big break, with the return of The snowman (Created By Raymond Briggs’s) with his new companion the snow dog, a spectacular work of art and a truly awe inspiring piece I have no doubt the 2D artists and fanatics will be inspired to keep the great tales and truly spectacular imagery created by their fore fathers, very much alive in the near future and hopefully for hundreds of years after.