Is puppetry animation?
Before this class, I thought I had a pretty strong understanding of what animation was. However, it wasn't until our week watching timelaps videos that I truly began to question my knowledge on the subject. If animation is bringing something inanimate/nonexistant to life, is classical puppetry animation? I don't mean making a stop-motion film with puppets, I mean putting on a puppet show in front of a live audience. Since you're giving the illusion of life to these puppets, does this qualify as animation? Or does it not count because, though it's the illusion of life, it is NOT the illusion of movement. The puppets ARE actually moving, unlike animations in which we're being deceived by thousands of frames flashing before us in rapid succession. Is this what separates animation from reality? The illusion of life or the illusion of movement?
Ooo this is such a fun question! I would argue that the puppeteers are "animating" the puppets, even though its in real time instead of a frame-by-frame process. So broadly speaking, yes. I also think the illusion of life part is more important than the illusion of movement. It's also interesting that in live action puppets became replaced by CGI for special effects, like the aliens in the first three Star Wars movies versus in the new trilogy. If you follow that thread, then it's pretty easy to put puppetry in the same category as animation. It also comes up in our reading for this week, but it's mentioned specifically in reference to Jim Hensen as "muppeteering," which is one of the best things I've ever read.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you two, because puppetry and animation are based on the same principle of taking an inanimate piece of art and bringing it to life. I do not think that the idea of moving art as animation should be tied to a 2D medium; because styles of animation like stop motion and pixilation which are created in the 3D space are still considered forms of animation.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is really interesting to ponder on. It's hard to think about because as you've said, you are giving the illusion of life to these puppets; however, it's not the illusion of movement and animation is essentially defined as moving images created from drawings, models, etc. that are photographed or created by a computer. Puppetry as Elaine said, is in real time rather than frame-by-frame so in a way I would say I guess it is animation. The reason I would say yes is the fact that it still has the illusion of movement even though it's real time.
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