Hello everyone,
I'm currently taking a course in communication design and this is my first semester. history to animation is one of my units that i have to take. This is the first time I've come into contact with animation so I was hoping that someone could help me out a little. :)
In a few weeks time I will need to do a presentation based on this topic: Does Web site animation express a new aesthetic or does it draw from the ‘limited animation’ style developed by the UPA / Zagreb School established during the mid-1940’s?
So far, I have found out what limited animation is and read up a little on UPA. Btw are Zagreb school of animation and Zagreb Film the same? :confused:
Now to me, web animation would be flash animation like happytreefriends.com, or bluesuburbia.com. What else falls under web animation?
Sorry if i sound clueless because i am :confused:
A lot of web based animation has evolved because of the technical issues with data transmission. If you think of television as a data stream like a firehose then the internet would be a data stream like a drinking straw. The animations have to be greatly compressed in order to be transmitted within a reasonable time limit, having a simplistic style and limited frame rate aids in this transmission. A Flash or shockwave/flash file (.swf) has been the about the only choice for the last few years. Of course it would be easy to look at the UPA style from long ago in order to lend credence or justification but I think that the style may have more of an accident rather than something planned.
Personal story, my work is all web animation. I don't do media. And yes I have been influenced by UPA, because I grew up with it admire the style. And imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Plus I get a little sick and tired of stick man murders and some of the other rubbish being offered, and try to make my material available even to those poor folks like myself that are still on dialup. So you are working on file size restrictions. Less detail means less byte weight.
I am trying to present a new viewpoint, but I am also old (53) so some of what I have to present represents past ethics and views. I am just trying to tell my stories and express myself. I am limited by the fact that I am not a sound person and can't voice over things myself so I find sound files that speak to the place where I am at the moment and work something up from there.
Here's one of my favorites. Know the lip sinc is off and not Disney animations standards but this one of my favorites:
http://www.scooters-world.com/lean.html
But be aware that there are other types of internet animation that just involve bit maps and text to get the point acrossed. I still feel strongly about this one, and feel it's as true today as it was when I put it together:
http://www.scooters-world.com/stand.html
Also be aware that with "Flash" links can be interactive and take viewers to other places. Did prior animation offer this option. Interactivity is a real plus and something that I think internet animation can make come alive.
Sorry to be so wordy, but it isn't often that anyone asks web designers/creators where they are coming from. We just usually get trashed.
Pat
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
I argue The UPA theatrical cartoons are not limited animation. Stylised, different, not trying to imitate life as Disney but celebrating and not hiding the fact they are drawings/graphics.
In these there are as much animation as a WBs or Disney but there is a whole stylised non-literal approach to the look and movements.
Now UPAs later TV stuff like the ones made for TV and Dick Tracy; that's limited.
I think it can be said that the design styles of upa influenced and were conducive for limited animation.
Economising animation was not invented by Hanna Barbera (much as fulll animation was not invented by Disney) but they did pioneer a system for creating economised animation for the small screen when faced with budgets 10 x smaller than their theatrical cartoons for MGM . Bill Hanna in his book said that they basically based the animation as an animatic ( the storybaord on screen). There would be short fast bursts of movement, strong poses , cyclical and stock animation and strong voice acting as in a radio script.
Sure others tried other methods like glorified slide shows of still poses or super imposing live action mouths on drawings but HB was the most influential.
As far as Zagreb I don't know really but I don't think those are limited. What it appears to be is a group getting together, experimenting and discovering and reinventing animation for themselves. Think of it. A communist country as the former Yugoslavia....maybe info on western animation was limited but that doesn't stop them.
Web animation is just that. I'm sure faster downlaods have been an improvement as have traditional animators having to learn things like flash for survival. But the web's influence is that it's open to everyone to try animation.
Can't believe other web animators haven't responded to this thread. Maybe I am alone as a web animator...
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
hi guys
just wanna thank you all for your input. you guys have been a great help! :)
my presentation is coming up soon and i'm basically trying to think of other "new aesthetics" to mention other than interactivity, 3d/detailed illustrations compared to typical flat coloured limited animation...
use of stills? photographs perhaps? http://www.pablomarques.com/