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- Volume 2, Issue 1, 2012
Animation Practice, Process & Production - Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 2012
Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 2012
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Animation and narrative in videogames: A case study – Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal
More LessAbstractThis article explains the story behind and some of the creative processes involved in game designing and writing the million-seller PlayStation2, Wii and XBox360 videogame Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal (Warner Bros, 2007) with a focus on the animation influences on the game narrative, as derived from classic Warner Bros Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cel-animated shorts cartoons from the 1930’s to 1950’s.
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Pim and Pom, the cats with nine lives
By Gioia SmidAbstractDutch illustrator Fiep Westendorp and writer Mies Bouhuys created the adventures of the cats Pim and Pom for the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool in 1957. In 2008 director Gioia Smid started with the production of a 2D animated childeren’s TV series called ‘The Adventures of Pim & Pom’, based on the illustrations and characters by Fiep Westendorp and Mies Bouhuys. The artwork for the animation series remained as true to the original drawings as possible. The TV series became an instant success, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Smid and a team of animators are working on a feature film about Pim and Pom, that will be premiered in Dutch cinemas in 2014.
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Visual writing: Thicken time, transform and dissolve text
More LessAbstractThis article maps the development of visual writing as a fusion of creative writing, script writing and story visualization to assist in the process of translating thought into animated moving images and sound. The article is based on two keynote lectures I have given in Taipai, Taiwan at the Fermentation in Design conference, December 2011, Shih Chien University and at the CICAF Education Forum, Hangzhou, China 2012 and draws together findings and observations so far. The article describes workshops and ideas on visual writing developed in the Animation Programme at the Royal College of Art with the writing expertise of Booker nominated Deborah Levy and writer/illustrator/musician Peter Blegvad. The paper draws on the work of a number of artists and film-makers who naturally use these processes in their practice. Artists included are William Kentridge, Grayson Perry, Michaela Pavlatova and Jan Svankmajer.
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The universal aesthetic appeal of the animations in Yo Gabba Gabba!
By James PaulAbstractYo Gabba Gabba, a television show for preschoolers, has gained a significant audience following of adults. Through an analysis of Dennis Dutton’s theory of evolutionary aesthetics and using his twelve criteria for neutral discussion of aesthetics, this article examines the aesthetic appeal of the animated segments of Yo Gabba Gabba. Four case studies are highlighted, which, along with personally conducted interviews with the directors of the shorts and a critical reading of the discussion surrounding the show, form the backbone of the research. The universal appeal of the animations was found to be the result of the producers of Yo Gabba Gabba hiring talented animators and visual artists, not known for work aimed at preschoolers. These artists have created without many guidelines imposed upon them unique and imaginative animations with cross-generational aesthetic appeal.
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The ecological approach to visual perception and the actor performance captured in the gaming landscape
More LessAbstractThe use of Performance Capture techniques in the creation of games that involve Motion Capture is a relatively new phenomenon. To date, there is no prescribed methodology that prepares actors for the rigours of this new industry and as such there are many questions to be answered around how actors navigate these environments successfully when all available training and theoretical material is focused on performance for theatre and film. This article proposes that through a deployment of an ecological approach to visual perception we may begin to chart this territory for actors and begin to contend with the demands of performing for the motion captured gaming scenario.
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A new system for stop motion camera movements
Authors: Laura Saini, Gudrun Albrecht, Nicolas Lissarrague and Lucia RomaniAbstractThis article presents a new system that allows the creation of realistic camera movements for a stop motion animation. The system improves traditional 3D software animation programs (e.g. Maya and 3D Studio Max) for creating stop motion camera movements by using a haptic interface. We describe the whole system and explain in detail the mathematical processing to obtain different camera movements by using a haptic interface for motion capture. The recorded haptic positions, once elaborated, are exported, frame by frame, to the motion control software, which calibrates the motion control robot, controls the camera settings and, finally, executes the sequences. A class of students of the ‘Art plastiques et Création numérique’ Master of the University of Valenciennes evaluated the system.
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