The development of animation techniques
Contemporary uses of
animation
Animation in its evolution has produce many kinds of types
of products from films to games in this report I will explore prime examples of
these products and review them in greater detail. A big influence for an
animated music video is “Pearl Jams, Do The Evolution”.
Although the video was not commercially realised to the
public due to its graphic content the realism in the anime style graphics precedes
some of the other music videos. The animation technique used to create this
video was part hand drawn and part computer generated using software to add
shading and scenery.
Furthermore the audience for this music video is teenagers
to young adults more importantly fans of the music as well as the graphics
style and the grungy feel of the animation the music ties in well with the
theme of the animation as it links to the title of the song. As does the
animation itself as the animation is telling a story about the evolution of the
earth.
Advertisement agencies use animation to promote products to
a specific audience through the use of colours and moving images these are
mainly used to promote children’s products as the use of a cartoon style in
animation appeals to a much younger audience.
For example the “UM-BONGO” advertisement uses a range of
vibrant colours and cartoon drawn characters to promote to a younger audience a
fruit juice drink.
The colourful cartoon style of the and silly antics along
with the tropical setting appeals to children as bright colours and cartoons
catch attention from a younger viewer. The technique used to create this
animation is computer generated as the frame rate is smooth and dose not have a
similar frame rate to stop motion animation. The animation is drawn but then
edited and created on a computer workstation.
A more up to date advertisement that has the same format as
this is “The Hive” central heating system, which is an application you can use
on your phone to change the temperature of your home while you are either
indoors or outdoors. The style is the
same only this advertisement has less colour and has less colour and a much
smoother frame rate due to the improvement on the software after the past ten
years.
Television is a giant canvas for animators as there are
hundreds of cartoons and skits through out the television world these have a
massive impact on the views and have become a part of television success for a
lot of companies. A big example of this is a very famous household name that I
am sure you will know.
“The Simpsons” has become one of the most recognised
cartoons through out TV history as they have been going for a long time first
shown on the Tracey Ulman show but quickly found its way to becoming a massive
success in the media industry. The animation techniques for this show was originally
hand drawn frame by frame but later became generated on a computer. Also some
CGI was used on the official Simpsons Movie.
The target audience for this show is children to middle aged
people from all genders and variety of people. As I said it has become a
household name this links to family’s as well as the show tackles family issues
and common family problems which families can relate to making it such a
massive success. The style is Matt Groening own personal style of cartoons that
he created years before.
The film industry as well as the television industry is a
big world to enter as animators use programs to create animations of whole
movies this is one of the earliest forms of children’s movies to the point
where in film animation is used pretty much all the time.
A prime example of film is Walt Disney Snow White the
technique used for this is hand drawn animation and roto-scoping a technique in
which we trace human movement and animate it into the scene. Further more the
Multi-plain camera was used to create depth in the scenery to create the
illusions of foreground and background.
The target audience for this movie is young children at the
time it was based towards both genders however it is more commonly known to
little girls however it can be related to both genders still to this day.
The theme is fantasy as it tells the story of witches and
princess and the entire typical fairy tale genre.
The first full animated movie and still one of the most
popular of all time.
A more modern version of this is the “Princess & The Frog” a similar universe to that of
Snow White only with the use of more modern technology the “The Princess &
The Frog” was the last old school way of animating before it all moved on to
computers meaning it was drawn bit by bit and animated piece by piece.
Animation coming from pictures to movies, music videos and
TV series spawned a new generation of event that made whole new franchises this
is the digital media world of animation this animation spawned video games and
applications that we use for practical uses. Video games are the main examples
of digital media.
A prime example of
excellent video game animation is a video game titled “Pac Man” a classic
arcade machine game that spawned a massive range of other games the basic
premise of Pac Man animation was coding the animation was fairly simple.
However complex at the time it was used to create movement
for basic pixels on screen to interact with the keys and buttons being pressed
by the player. The animation was produces by computers and designed on
computers this then spawned the genre known as 8-bit the theme and style is
8-bit as there are limited pixels on the screen.
The target audience was children to young adults and
certainly older as games are now produce by hundreds of companies. The target
audience are known as gamers, which is a range of age and gender.
