The Peer-reviewed Open Access Online Journal for Animation History and Theory – ISSN 1930-1928
In recent years, filmmakers have started to look at Virtual Reality (VR) as a platform for cinematic storytelling (Bucher 2018; Opam 2016; Melnick 2019). When I initially encountered short films for VR and the 360-degrees view, some of my first thoughts were regarding the limitations of the medium. A 360-degree field of view upends many […]
Embodying Virtual Volumes: Bambi Cannot Die Like Shao-Kahn In Mortal Kombat 11, delivering the final blow to an opposing fighter yields mixed results: a decapitation may spew blood onto the in-game camera watching the battle unfold. Or one can vivisect in real time, a trope of the franchise: a character tears through the mid-section of […]
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.