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As I wrote in a previous post, it seems to me that one of the reasons for this imho very unfortunate development is, that especially younger artists are not that familiar with art (and here particularly painting) from previous centuries. Another problem is imho the lack of a tradition comparable to the one in painting. (What inevitably leads to the question inhowfar the achievements in painting can serve as a “model” for computer graphics.) Then there is (at present) the lack of wider recognition of computer graphics as an art form comparable to painting, sculpting, etc..

When taking a look especially at today’s animation, I often encounter works that are (compared to established art forms) superficial, at times even adolescent (especially in the selection of the themes). Very rarely do I have the feeling that here is a mature artist expressing him- or herself.

One example of animation that stands out to me (both technically and artistically) is the Björk video of “All Is Full Of Love”, and even if the context of this video is commercial, to me, it nonetheless has a poetry and depth one rarely encounters in computer graphics/post-production. Another example would be the video of “Frozen” by Madonna, made by the same director (Chris Cunningham).

Ok, this is not “serious art” in the sense the work of Leonardo da Vinci is, to take but one example, nor does it pretend to be, but imho this could be a start. The technique is there — but where is the van Gogh of computer graphics, or its Charlie Parker?

Related: “The art connection”

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Photograph © Copyright by Reiner Pfisterer. Courtesy of fmx/08.

That’s me (center) attending the screening of Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf” (2007) on the third day of this year’s fmx/08. (I already wrote about this screening in an earlier post.) After about ten minutes or so, I moved to a now vacant seat, only to realize that the 3D effect was much more impressive there. Robert Zemeckis was present himself and gave a short introduction right before the screening.

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“Unlike feature animation, where major studios spend money hand over fist trying to outdo one another [ … ]”

— Quote © Copyright 2007 by J. Paul Peszko/Animation World Network. —

and this is imho exactly the state of affairs Jean Detheux complained about in “Notes from the Underground”. Although I do not agree 100% with what he wrote (I just can’t help but finding certain fx cool), and although it is imho not the point to abandon the superficial altogether, I also perceive a gradual demise of the “substance” in much (not all) of today’s visual fx/animation, if not in our culture in general. What I particularly find so annoying about this tendency are a) fx for the sake of fx, and b) the “loud” approach we encounter so often (especially in advertising; this is what I personally call the “smiling banana effect”).

Is subtlety out of style? Not necessarily, but it would require courageous (and preferably independent) directors who know about the possibilities of state-of-the-art visual fx/animation and how to use them properly. We really have had enough of superficial fx by now. This is not a contradiction to what I wrote farther above; my point is simply, not to abandon depth altogether and to venture into new, yet unexplored territory instead—and not just technically. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock made it clear that it is indeed possible to combine avantgarde art (“Spellbound”; “Psycho”; “The Birds”) and financial success.

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This is also interesting because I have been preoccupied with this very topic myself for some time, and the reason for this is basically that, although technically-wise, computer graphics have advanced amazingly in the course of the last say, ten years, what I personally am desparately missing is the artistic depth in digital art.

Maybe this is sort of a viscious circle: Artists working with traditional media perceive digital art as superficial and therefore hesitate using it; on the other hand, (often younger) digital artists don’t have the background of the former; thus, their work often lacks the depth we admire so much in traditional art forms such as painting.

Be it as it may, here’s the link to the very first article of the series, entitled “Notes from the Underground Part One — Animation: Prozac or Kyosaku?”.

Related: “Animation as an art form”

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Summary: Paramount hit it really big time with this one!

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One particularly interesting site I stumbled upon today is Great Directors - a critical database, located at sense of cinema. This site covers (in alphabetical order) basically any important director from Peggy Ahwesh to Fred Zinnemann.

Another site I personally find interesting (this is basically about movies which are currently running), is FirstShowing.net.

Finally (to get back to visual fx), after reading some of the reviews about Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” (this was via Rotten Tomatoes) I’m determined to go and see it (the English version) and share my impressions here afterwards.

Related: “Must-See!”

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Logo Courtesy of Timothy Leborgne.

While at a press conference at fmx/08 in Stuttgart, Germany, I learned about a new initiative funded by the MEDIA Programme of the EU and named „Animation Sans Frontières, the Animation Production Workshop“ (ASF in short; web site will be available soon), whose goal will be to provide students with the necessary knowledge about the business side of animation, multimedia, visual fx, and related fields.

On the next day, I had the chance to speak with Eric Riewer and Timothy Leborgne at the Speaker’s Lounge of fmx. Eric Riewer is a member of the board of fmx. In addition, he is responsible for International Relations at Gobelins, L’Ecole De L’Image, a school located in Paris. Timothy Leborgne is Director of Professional Training at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, and he is the coordinator of the consortium of four schools involved with this program. (The remaining two schools are the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg – Institute of Animation, Germany, and the Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), Hungary.)

This initiative will, in the course of one year, make students from the four schools familiar with issues such as project development, etc.. Another important goal of ASF will be to help build a European wide network of animation talent. The students who want to apply for ASF have to pitch one project to be developed during the course. Finally, four students from each of the four schools will be selected. While participating to ASF, they will visit each of the schools for a total of 2 weeks in each.

Quote:

„A group of 16 students, 4 from each school, will travel to every school to follow 4 separate parts of an overview of the entire animation film production process, from concept development through financing to actual production management. Television and feature films, games and interactive media, traditional and cross platform production processes will all be covered at various stages along the way. Each [of the] modules will run over 14 days“.

The first ASF Master Class will start in October, 2008.

Here are once again the links to the web sites of the four participating schools:

• The Animation Workshop
• Gobelins, L’Ecole De L’Image
• Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
• Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME)

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

This site is a member of Animation blogspot, part of the Animation World Network

Photograph © Copyright by William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.

Related: “fmx/08 yesterday: ‘Beowulf’ and 3D cinema”

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