The Peer-reviewed Open Access Online Journal for Animation History and Theory – ISSN 1930-1928
Produced and hosted by astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan, the television documentary mini-series Cosmos (1980) aimed to renew scientific interest among the general public, in light of the growing popularity of pseudo-scientific ideas, such as astrology. Since its original broadcast, Cosmos has long been considered a milestone in the scientific documentary genre, due to its […]
Twenty first-century mainstream cinema is obsessed with achieving the photoreal representation of the impossible. Blockbuster after blockbuster parades superheroes battling super villains, cataclysmic natural disasters or intergalactic beings rampaging through both imaginary and familiar worlds. It has been 30 years since Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982) wowed audiences with a wire-frame representation of cyberspace in 1982, and […]
In this paper, I present the development of conceptual strategies and technical ideas to create images and an animation with 2D graphical styles by using 3D computer animation tools. With an initial idea of reduction, a hybrid aesthetic was created through directly referencing animations produced by traditional hand-drawn technique. UPA’s (United Production of America) animation style, Japanese anime and a contemporary French animated short are the primary inspirations to achieve the hybridization in the imagery of this project. My approach is related to the category of Non-photorealistic Rendering (NPR) to distinguish from realistic oriented computer image processes. A set of strategies were induced through the visual experiments and the production of an animated short, Sophie’s Secret (Chang 2008). 3D computer techniques associated with this animation project are described and still images of this project are also presented.