This blog supports 3d model & rendering course at the university of toledo, center for the visual arts. class members are invited to post updates and pictures of their work-in-progress; thoughts and opionions on the reading; helpful tips on the use of the modeling/animation software (blender and terragen); links to other 3d artists of interest; miscellany related to 3d art and space.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Reading response 1
D. Crafton, Chapter 3, “The First Animator: Emile Cohl” in Before Mickey pp. 59-88, Crafton-EmileCohl.pdf
Point what interests you most in the reading about the early years of animation, trick films, and avant-garde experimentation.
After reading the text about Emile Cohl, I was surprised to learn that there were so many different forms of animation being used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a photographer myself, my favorite form of animation was when he used matte photography to combine animation with live action as in Clair de Lune espagnol. Some of my favorite movies like Mary Poppins and Roger Rabbit are ones that combine live action and animation. I also appreciated his precision in counting every frame in the negative to plan the sequence. That is true dedication.
It’s very interesting to see the early animating images procedures. I didn’t know that people used photography to produce the animation in the early stage. I thought they just simply drawing all the segments and do what Phenakistoscope does to make it animated.
Cohl was an unfortunately artist. He was poor in the most of his life. Most of his works has been burned, and he also lived under the shadow of the war. As one of pioneers in animation, his achievements just have been recognized recently.
The chapter mentioned that “individual drawing for the animated segment had been made in India ink on white rice paper. Cohl asked to print them in negative to preserve the white on black chalklin effect.” I wonder why the negative can preserve the white-on-black chalklin effect. And how to print the images that already drew on the paper?
Cohl cut the number of film flames in half and photographed each of them twice to make a more extraordinary fluidity of motion. This is very helpful information for my phenakistoscope assignment. I will cut down the flames into 6 pieces and duplicate each of them on the wheel to see the result.
I like his idea of incoherent cinema. I feel that in the early period animation/animated image is more associated to art. It’s more about conscious, aesthetics, and life. Now it’s far away from concerns and very intimate to commercial promotion and entertainment. I found this very interesting: “His most characteristic and most spectacular was the extended metamorphic sequence in which the outlines of objects continually melt into other shapes.” Is this the original idea that how a shape tween works in flash?
The first interesting point that caught my eye was Cohl's genius idea to cut the work of animation nearly in half. Instead of producing 16 separate drawings for a 16 frame per second movie, Cohl photographed every drawing. Combined with the 8 drawings, the result was extreme fluidity of motion. Cohl's storytelling technique was also rather unusual. Instead of relating incidents in their logical order, he let images flow in a "stream of conscious matter". The quick unfolding plots are sometimes hard to decipher at first glance, but hold a very coherent story. These irrational juxtapositions are a result of many of the reactions regarding many traditions of the Incoherents.
It's interesting to me how Cohl animates in a stream of consciousness fashion especially in a film such as "Fantasmagorie." Such method of story telling is diffiucult enough just with literature but in animation, that is a true feat of greatness. It's a shame to see that he doesn't get a lot of praise for pioneering animation even today.
After reading the text about Emile Cohl, I was surprised to learn that there were so many different forms of animation being used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a photographer myself, my favorite form of animation was when he used matte photography to combine animation with live action as in Clair de Lune espagnol. Some of my favorite movies like Mary Poppins and Roger Rabbit are ones that combine live action and animation. I also appreciated his precision in counting every frame in the negative to plan the sequence. That is true dedication.
ReplyDeleteIt’s very interesting to see the early animating images procedures. I didn’t know that people used photography to produce the animation in the early stage. I thought they just simply drawing all the segments and do what Phenakistoscope does to make it animated.
ReplyDeleteCohl was an unfortunately artist. He was poor in the most of his life. Most of his works has been burned, and he also lived under the shadow of the war. As one of pioneers in animation, his achievements just have been recognized recently.
The chapter mentioned that “individual drawing for the animated segment had been made in India ink on white rice paper. Cohl asked to print them in negative to preserve the white on black chalklin effect.” I wonder why the negative can preserve the white-on-black chalklin effect. And how to print the images that already drew on the paper?
Cohl cut the number of film flames in half and photographed each of them twice to make a more extraordinary fluidity of motion. This is very helpful information for my phenakistoscope assignment. I will cut down the flames into 6 pieces and duplicate each of them on the wheel to see the result.
I like his idea of incoherent cinema. I feel that in the early period animation/animated image is more associated to art. It’s more about conscious, aesthetics, and life. Now it’s far away from concerns and very intimate to commercial promotion and entertainment. I found this very interesting: “His most characteristic and most spectacular was the extended metamorphic sequence in which the outlines of objects continually melt into other shapes.” Is this the original idea that how a shape tween works in flash?
The first interesting point that caught my eye was Cohl's genius idea to cut the work of animation nearly in half. Instead of producing 16 separate drawings for a 16 frame per second movie, Cohl photographed every drawing. Combined with the 8 drawings, the result was extreme fluidity of motion. Cohl's storytelling technique was also rather unusual. Instead of relating incidents in their logical order, he let images flow in a "stream of conscious matter". The quick unfolding plots are sometimes hard to decipher at first glance, but hold a very coherent story. These irrational juxtapositions are a result of many of the reactions regarding many traditions of the Incoherents.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me how Cohl animates in a stream of consciousness fashion especially in a film such as "Fantasmagorie." Such method of story telling is diffiucult enough just with literature but in animation, that is a true feat of greatness. It's a shame to see that he doesn't get a lot of praise for pioneering animation even today.
ReplyDelete