Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Understanding Animation Chapter 3

In the chapter titled "Narrative Strategies," Wells talks about several techniques used often in storytelling through animation. One of these techniques is condensation, very commonly used in animation to move the story along from event to event, cutting out the unimportant and mundane. Wells talks about it as a way to focus on different aspects of the narrative, through implying the passage of time. I would like to use this in my character animation to try and keep the story moving and avoid awkward pauses, as well as transitioning for scenario to scenario. Symbolism and metaphor are described as something "more specific and more precise than the thing it symbolizes." Metaphors are whole systems of symbols that represent ideas. This seems to describe the underlying meaning that animations usually have, whether a social commentary or other moral. The character I am creating does not have a symbolic meaning at this point, but this is a very powerful tool worth looking into. Fabrication is the creation of an environment inside an animation that mirrors the real world; sometimes using unlikely and nonliving objects. The world created for the story not only mimics this world, but historical or subjective views of it, appealing to different people and different emotions. The world that I am putting my character into will be very much like the "real" world, only more simplified and brighter. Finally, Wells talks about associative relations, which he says is similar to Eisenstein's montage theory in the way that it uses juxtaposition of unlike things in order to convey meaning. By placing unrelated objects next to each other in animation, one can reveal a concept or relationship that normally would not be thought. Unlike symbolism, which uses commonly recognized relationships, associative relations reveals the abstract relationship through their juxtaposition. After thinking about it, I do not think that my character would benefit from associative relations, deliberate and direct symbolism should be adequate.

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