Time Lapse VS Animation

            Coming into this class I thought I understood what animation was. Originally I thought that animation was an artist manipulating an object or creating computer or hand-made drawings to devise the illusion of movement or life. After Thursday's screenings, however, I believe this definition to be too strict. I think that simply the creation of the illusion of life is more accurate. The film that changed my mind was the brief time lapse sequence of the plants and trees coming to life in Planet Earth. I don't think that all time lapses are animation, and I don't think the Planet Earth piece was only a time lapse. I think that it qualifies as animation because even though there was no artist on set who was manipulating objects, the editor of the film created an illusion of the plants and flowers coming to life. By selecting certain frames and discarding others, the editor condensed time and created an appearance of movement where there was none.
           That being said, not all time lapses are animation. For example, the sequence from Baraka in my opinion was not animation. Unlike planet earth, there was no editing of the clips to remove certain frames. In the time-lapse scene of the city traffic, even though time was condensed there was no illusion of movement. The movement of the cars already existed. 

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 17, 2018 at 11:35 AM

    I completely agree with you about "Planet Earth". The fact that the editor creates an "illusion" of movement is what I feel makes it animation. It's very interesting to see that the collection of videos we watched have caused everyone to rethink what they originally though constituted as animation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 18, 2018 at 2:17 PM

    I feel the same way, when you talk about thinking you knew wha animation was, then coming into the class. I agree with you when you said there are certain time lapses, such as the Plant Earth clip, that can be considered as time lapse. I get that, because of the editing that went into it. Straight up time-lapse of a city or something like that to me isn't animation, even if it is bringing something to life.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bratz: Rock Angelz is the movie I didn't know I needed

Image
This weekend, I watched the hit 2005 animated movie Bratz: Rock Angelz. This movie was one of the first Bratz films in CGI, and let me tell you- the plot is ALL OVER THE PLACE. The girls start a fashion magazine and use stolen passes to get into hot London punk clubs, but when they lose their passes they decide that the only way to get into the gig is to become a rock band? This movie can be considered capitalist propaganda- the Bratz shop in order to destress about their problems, and it's an implemental part of their lives. They don't have jobs either- Jade has an internship, but only for three hours until she is fired. Chloe meets a TRASH British prince and ignores her best friend Yasmin who finds celebrity judge Byron Powell's (I don't make this stuff up) dog, Ozzy. Jade and Sasha try to do a photo shoot for the magazine, but Sasha micromanages the whole thing and makes her friend feel bad! And this whole time, there's these two evil blond twins (Kaley Cuoco PLA...
Read more

The New Spider Man!

Image
Yesterday I saw spiderman with some buddies and we all walked out absolutely giddy! This animation is the best animation to hit the theaters in 2018. Period. I remember watching it and as I was watching it thinking, "thank god I already finished all my reviews because I don't think I can put into words how good this movie is in just a page". The style of this animation is something you have never seen before from Hollywood. It is absolutely stunning. It follows traditions of comic book artists with bright colors, dark lines on the face, and a pop art texture overlayed on top of everything. My breath was taken away during the final fight scene: it was gorgeous , emotional, and the stakes were made clear in every shot. Not only was the animation fantastic, but the story was also so well told. Every character had a meaningful arch or something you didn't expect from them. Every relationship and turning point felt genuine and earned. And you didn't have some v...
Read more