IMMERSED IN ANIMATION
MILLIE YOUNG
PHD DESIGN PROJECT PROPOSAL
Mia progression. https://www.awn.com/animationworld/glen-keane-talks-duet-and-legacy-disney-animation
“ A drawing with a pencil is an expression of your soul.
A seismograph of your soul.
You put a line down –it’s a feeling and emotion.’
Glen Keane
WHAT THIS RESEARCH IS ADDRESSING?
•
Site-specific live interactive immersive performances that integrate with animation to engage the audience in story
•
The challenges to creators and storytellers on how to utilize the 360otechnologies toward narrative storytelling that engage the audience in the ‘suspension of disbelief’
•
Maintain the diversity of visual aesthetic offered in the traditional animation techniques into the new technology settings
WHY?
‘Creating animation means creating a fictional world. That world soothes the spirit of those who are disheartened and exhausted from dealing with the sharp edges of reality’
HayaoMiyazaki
RESEARCH ISSUE
•
The new technology in animation is being pushed to new extremes in gaming, virtual and augmented reality. The screens are no longer limited to a fixed screen rectangle but can cover buildings, be 360o full dome or encased in a goggled virtual world.
•
The technology prioritizes the visual aesthetic toward hyper realism or absolute abstractionand much of the content relies on the sensational‘wow’ factor at a loss to storytelling and visual diversity.
•
The audience’s experience and interactivity is no longer as the ‘passive observer’ receiving the story as dictated by the director. They can pick and choose where, what and when they view and even interact with participating‘in’ the narrative experience.
•
It is geared to the individual’s experience not the collective audience making it limited access and not shared experience
BEGINNINGS OF A QUESTION
What would be the necessary/effective AESTHETIC and NARRATIVE considerations
needed to create 360o IMMERSIVE projected environments /performances/ experiences
that utilize traditional 2D ANIMATION techniques?
or Can the new 360o technologies be harnessed to combine with traditional animation techniques to create site-specific live interactive immersive performances that engage the audience, tell narratives and maintain the ‘suspension of disbelief’?
Through an Investigation of theory and performance analysis, experiments and practical process I aim to determine the variable and constants needed:
needed to create 360o IMMERSIVE projected environments /performances/ experiences
that utilize traditional 2D ANIMATION techniques?
or Can the new 360o technologies be harnessed to combine with traditional animation techniques to create site-specific live interactive immersive performances that engage the audience, tell narratives and maintain the ‘suspension of disbelief’?
Through an Investigation of theory and performance analysis, experiments and practical process I aim to determine the variable and constants needed:
• To design animation narratives that explore non-time based immersive 360 projection and audience interactivity
• To develop live music and performance that integrate with immersive 360 animation projection\
• From experiments develop further diverse animation storytelling experiences in live performance interactive contexts
• From experiments develop further diverse animation storytelling experiences in live performance interactive contexts
KEY WORDS
‘THE SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF’
•
Immersion Deep mental involvement
•
Interactive mutually or reciprocally active
•
Narrative the representation in art of an event or story
•
Aesthetic in particular when concerned with illusion and immersion
•
Performance the manner of reacting to stimuli a public presentation or exhibition
•
Illusion a misleading image presented to the vision; something that deceives or misleads intellectually
•
Animation To Breathe Life into….(something) especiallly when expressed as the perceived illusion of movement
Literature Theory
...analysis to come.
•Paul Wells - animation
narrative
structures and strategies
•Understanding Animation
•Animation: Genre and
Authorship
•Werner Wolf - illusion
aesthetics
•Illusion (Aesthetic) the living handbook
of narratology University of Hamburg 2014
•Marie-Laure Ryan- immersion
vs interactivity
•J. Yellowlees Douglas and Andrew Hargadon -
Immersion
•The pleasures of immersion
and engagement:
schemas, scripts and the fifth business University of Florida Digital Creativity 2001, Vol.12, No. 3, pp.153-166
•Robin Nelson – Intermediality
and performance
•Mapping Intermediality in
Performance Edited by Sarah Bay-Cheng, Chiel Kattenbelt, Andy Lavender, and Robin Nelson
practitioners of immersive and interactive animation
experiences
...ANALYSIS TO COME.
•Nam June Paik http://www.paikstudios.com/ Historical Video Installation
•Opera North Love of Three Oranges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPGPP773zFY Animation theories applied in Opera Performance
•Forkbeard Fantasy http://www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk/forkbeardinfo.php Animation interactivity in theatrical performancePRESENT
•Team Lab https://www.team-lab.net/ International immersive interactive installations
•J Walt K Adamczyk http://www.johnadamczyk.com/ Disney Imagineer
•A dandy punk Projection Mapping https://vimeo.com/50197298 Disney Imagineer and Animation Performance practitioner
•Nam June Paik http://www.paikstudios.com/ Historical Video Installation
•Opera North Love of Three Oranges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPGPP773zFY Animation theories applied in Opera Performance
•Forkbeard Fantasy http://www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk/forkbeardinfo.php Animation interactivity in theatrical performancePRESENT
•Team Lab https://www.team-lab.net/ International immersive interactive installations
•J Walt K Adamczyk http://www.johnadamczyk.com/ Disney Imagineer
•A dandy punk Projection Mapping https://vimeo.com/50197298 Disney Imagineer and Animation Performance practitioner
The research will be investigated through a series of experiments exploring the constants and variables:
EXPERIMENT
1
Animation Traditional 2D
Music FIXED recording
Live Peformance NONE
Audience Fixed seated
Story Circular Continuous
Interactivity
sensor activated
Aesthetic Illustration
Animation created in conjunction with Ayutthaya musicians
Test projections and interactive sensors
empirical feedback from audience
EXPERIMENT 2
Animation Traditional 2D
Music Live performed set piece
Peformance Scripted/adaptive
Audience Fixed seated
Story Linear
Interactivity with performers
Aesthetic Illustration
Redevelop existing animation story for an
interactive opera performance
Work on Soundtrack and musical score with
musical professional
Collaborate with Nuni
Opera to devise the performance
Empirical feedback from audience
EXPERIMENT
3
Yet to be conceived installation based on
outcomes and methodological framework from first two
Millimations’ Elefunk Minitop Experience
Inspired by Pirates of the Carabina flying trapeze circus performances:
•
A bell tent/GEODESIC DOME with 360 o projection from 3-10 projectors.
•
Infrared sensors triggering off the projected films from audience. (VARIABLE)
•
Soundtrack determining the complete show time frame. (CONSTANT)
•
Simple looped sequences depicting various circus stunts performed by Elefunkseach eventually ending in disaster. (VARIABLE)
IMMERSION IN DRAWINGS
‘…immersive quality is achieved primarily through sequential drawings on single sheets of paper. You are always aware that the visuals are drawings –some beautifully rendered with detail and fully animated,[…], some drawings are wild scribbles, lines that coalesce into, and out of recognizable shapes’
John Canemakeron Glen Keane’s film Dear Basketball
ELEFUNKDESIGN DEVELOPMENT
The ideas started as an elephant...
Went through an evolution exploring styles of other animators
Playing with action poses
Working in a template from The Animator's sketchclub
Kicking arse...
Following Fred Astaire
Walking the walk
IDEAS AROUND THE TIME SETTIGS FOR THE PERFORMANCES
NEXT TIME MORE EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING FOR THE ANIMATION AND TEHCNICAL SPECS AND FURTHER READING ANALYSIS
