by combining the real and imagined world through the use of hand
drawn animation and video. There are moments when the imagined,
hand drawn world pushes through in to the real. Not only was
this the beginnings of new ideas concerning augmented reality but
it conveyed thoughts alongside film in a way that had not been
seen in mainstream culture before. Perhaps indirectly this
influenced the film world through movies like "who framed roger
rabbit" and space jam which involved the same concept, showing
highly animated cartoon characters alongside real world
characters.
The styling of the hand drawn animation remains realistic yet
free flowing and even chaotic at times, with lines out of place
cutting through the characters, allowing you to feel the fast
pace movement. As apposed to much of the previous works
involving hand drawn animation which were of a more polished
form.
Personally, I prefer this this element of surrealism for more artistic works, especially when trying to convey speed. Another good instance of this style was in the animatrix film, A kid's story
Aphex Twin - On
"on" is certainly not the first time lapse animation, the form has it's origins in Georges Méliès' motion picture Carrefour De L'Opera in 1897. However I believe it to be a great example of experimental animation, it was created in 1993 at the same time video cameras started to become relatively affordable and just before movie editing software became common place, partly responsible for it becoming so influential. The video incorporated simple ideas like the linking of sound to the environment in a concrete way i.e. raindrops hitting the water for each individual note, something that can be done easily now with video editing software. Building on this is a new generation of games and media such as Audiosurf and Beat Hazard that will custom design tracks and the speed of the game to your individual music files using complex algorithms. The video itself is quite repetitious, which I'm not much a fan for and in my opinion it contains cheesy symbolism with giant plastic moving ears that I don't think were implemented very well. However as an experimental "modern" art piece produced on a small budget, it is worthy of noting as it also paved the way for many art students with 100's more experimental videos like it. Which I'm not much a fan of either, but some people are.
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood [2001]
This is not so much a review of the form of animation but it's implementation, I started with a music video that blurred the lines between the real and imaginary, this and other cgi animations made by the gorillaz succeeded in destroying that line. The cgi characters they created became the band, with people going to their concerts just to see the invented characters in 3d holographic form. This is a testament to the power of animation, it's gone so far as to people having heated debates over marrying Noodle and her personality, but maybe that is just a testament to human sadness. The form of animation is cartoonish in style with a dark/grunge twist. What interests me is how they have established a precedent for fictional characters with some what of a real world presence through animation, some would argue that the band who actually create the music are hiding behind these fictional characters but I think it amplifies their creativity.
Daft punk feature length animation
The film is a combination of Leiji Matsumoto's animation and the Discovery album by Daft Punk. Obviously it is limited by it's lack of dialogue and hour in length but it has developed something of a cult following by fans of both anime and daft punk. It is an animation of simple pleasures, cleverly marrying the mood and actions of the film to the lyrics. For example at this point in the animation it references "the game" whilst showing a low resolution display on the inside of a space ship, similar to early arcade machines . This is another example of matching sound to a visual representation using animation, and clearly they have put a lot of thought in to this throughout the film. Although I don't feel it is as effective as the implementation in the aphex twin video which takes a less abstract approach.
