Discussion Post-Animation

Animation is an amazing resource where fantasy can become reality.  The allowance that animation affords transcends sectors and is at times the most practical solution and at other times chosen for aesthetic style.  And while methods of creation have changed over the years, adding techniques and limiting others, the basic meaning behind the art form remains the same.  According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, animation is "a way of making a movie by using a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of objects (such as puppets or models) that are slightly different from one another and that when viewed quickly one after another create the appearance of movement."  Through this post, I aim to prove that as any processes change with our rapidly advancing technology, strong proponents of the medium can find a home in a changed world.

While several books have been written that provide a detailed history of animation, few have taken the approach that Tom Sito's  Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. Within it, he, according to the review of Chris Carter, "explains in his introduction, it is necessary to trace the development of CG along several parallel threads that eventually converged in the 1990s" (2013).  These parallel threads that he refers to are the subject of an interesting analysis that by Carter that Sito says "was far from a spontaneous event" (2013).  Many of these events, amusingly enough, are not the typical progression of animation that some have come to consider when thinking about the history of animation.

Within in more conservative trails to modern animation was computer games, the film industry and traditional computer scientists.  The contributions of these fields are easily seen as they are frequently used within these capacities today but the less obvious contributors that Sito presents are the military and drugs.  The military, most likely using animations in a simulative capacity, has been known to conduct research and operate outside of traditional military means but Sito makes the case within his book that "military budget spending supported the development of the technologies, systems and knowledge needed to make possible the kind of computer graphics we now take for granted" (2013).  Drugs on the other hand have a slightly less contribution to animation but Sito, who admits that "drug use is not something typically associated with the study of computer science and animation" has its roots in users of LSD and other hallucinatory drugs that try to "recreate what they saw whilst under the influence" (2013).

While the paths to animation are varied and undoubtedly compounded by many different events, the effects of it are not.  In the book, Sito discusses modern animation and he "explains how the quality and sophistication of CG for visual effects in live action, and the success of animated features such as Toy Story, led to the decline of traditional mediums such as stop motion and cel-based animation" (2013).  This is never more evident than with stop motion master Phil Tippett.  Tippett, whose "varied career in visual effects has spanned more than 30 years and includes 2 Academy Awards, 6 Academy Award nominations, 1 BAFTA, 4 BAFTA nominations, 2 Emmys and the advent of modern digital effects in motion pictures" (2014).  With his roots firmly planted in traditional animation because of his love for stop motion classics like Willis O'Brien's King Kong and Ray Harryhausen's The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, his transition to computer animation is well documented.  The following excerpt is from Tippett's biography on his website and I am sure, this is toned down considerably.

"In 1991, Steven Spielberg, learning of Phil’s expertise in dinosaur movement and behavior, selected him to supervise the dinosaur animation for Jurassic Park. It was this project that was responsible for Tippett Studio’s transition from stop-motion to computer-generated animation and for which Phil was awarded his second Oscar®. The transition was not without personal drama for Phil. When he learned of the choice to go with the computer generated dinosaurs his initial reaction was, “I think I’m extinct”. Amusingly that line became incorporated into the film itself. In the transition from stop motion to CG a digital input device (DID) was created allowing the traditional stop motion animators to animate the Jurassic Park dinosaurs" ("Phil", 2014)

Within this excerpt, while it is not explicitly expressed, there must have been some animosity from Tippett in the change from doing stop motion animation to computer generated imagery.  According to the Wikipedia entry for Phil Tippett, "Phil was hired to create the dinosaur effects for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Jurassic Park using his go motion technique made famous in the film Dragonslayer. However...Industrial Light & Magic created animated test footage of a T-Rex that Spielberg loved".  As stated earlier, even thought stop motion was not used on the project, Tippett made his transition to digital media immediately by supervising the animation on the project to make the movements and mannerisms of the dinosaurs more realistic.  His collaboration, which earned him his second Oscar award, allowed him to bridge his expertise and still stay relevant within today's new techniques.

Conclusively, the largest lesson here is that resistance to a movement that is bigger than one individual is futile.  No matter how committed Tippett was to stop motion animation, the current trend of utilizing computer graphic imagery, CGI, was too much to overcome.  I feel like this is what is happening in other art disciplines; the visual arts, dance and theatre, film and video, music and sound, and 3d games and animation.  To stay relevant, artists must act in the way that Phil Tippett has, apply expertise and grow with the field.  
       
Carter, C. (2014). Book review: Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. Animation, 9(3), 358–361. doi:10.1177/1746847714546254

(n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/animation

Phil Tippett. (2014). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.tippett.com/studio/phil-tippett-bio#

Phil Tippett. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Tippett#Stop_motion