Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG
Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff
Major Shifts that caused the Animation Evolution
Aesthetic Appeal Changes
The first shift was fueled by the increased popularity of visual effects movies in the 1990s. Visual effects–driven movies brought audiences to their feet with higher levels of entertainment and reality than ever before. Movies such as Independence Day, Twister, Titanic, and Men in Black were bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the theater to see these new visual effects. We are not talking about story here, but sheer aesthetic appeal. This change in the audiencersquo;s taste was just one of the contributors to traditional animationrsquo;s demise. The audience began to view CG features as visually richer and more exciting based solely on the aesthetic they portrayed. Video games and music videos also had a hand in shaping this new interest in computer-generated eye candy, especially among young viewers. The sheer richness of 3D and its ability to move the camera around in this new world made traditional animation suddenly seem, quite literally, flat.
Broadening the Audience for Animation
The second factor involved broadening of the audience for feature animation. Before visual effects movies became popular, there was a great divide between content for a kidrsquo;s movie and for mainstream movies. In the 1990s, both parents and kids went to see movies such as Titanic, Men in Black, and Jurassic Park in droves. Here there was content that appealed to audience members both young and old alike. What made these effects-driven films more appealing was the computerrsquo;s ability to create photo-realistic creatures and effects that wowed audiences because of their unprecedented believability. In addition, these effects were seamlessly integrated into the films. The films had something for everyone.
Unappealing Storytelling in Traditional Animation
Finally, the third shift in the animation evolution resulted from what many see as traditional animationrsquo;s changing approach to story. The box office returns in traditional features began to suffer in direct proportion to the rising popularity of visual effects movies. In turn, traditional studios tried to broaden their audience through more adult story themes, such as Pocahontas, The Prince of Egypt, and The Quest for Camelot. Instead of writing stories that would appeal to the kid in all of us, the new screenwriters created stories for adults and hoped kids would like them too. After The Lion King was released in 1994, makers of traditional features felt that in order to be a success, they had to follow suit and create features that were epic in scope. Every studio tried to follow The Lion King mold and make large-scale, epic musicals. Studios were chasing both visual effects dollars and The Lion King money. As animation became a profitable business, stories were overworked by myriad “creative executives” in their efforts to create a blockbuster. In turn, the traditional movies made after The Lion King found a smaller and smaller audience.
This chapter explains how the visual effects industry had a great impact on the popularity of animation and how that popularity changed the production of traditional and CG animation forever. We explore how the digital artist was born and how the hiring criteria changed as computer tools became easier to use and traditional artists made their way into the computer industry. We will illustrate how storylines and box-office profits clashed as the use of CG increased and 2D waned. We will also explore the reasons for the demise of traditional animation, as well as CGrsquo;s and visual effectsrsquo; rise through content, box-office profits, and changes in the audience. Finally, we will bridge the gap between the two media of CG and 2D animation.
Traditional animation is an art that has been, for the greater part of its existence, a pencil and paper medium.
Digital Artistry Begins
Digital tools have fundamentally changed an art that has been, for the greater part of its existence, a pencil and paper medium. Think about that for a second. Every animated feature film from the early 1900s to the late 1980s was a traditionally hand-drawn or stop-motion animated film. The tools used to make these films did not change significantly in almost 80 years.
Both CG and traditional media continued to go through drastic changes throughout the late 1980s. Visual effects also continued to generate more revenue at the box office and create more realistic-looking animation. However, traditional animation still held the upper hand when it came to caricaturing reality at this time. So, what has transpired to create the current environment, in which 3D reigns supreme and traditional features have all but vanished? Will traditional animation make a comeback?
“There is a beauty and fullness to CG that traditional never had, as far as eye candy goes. It is the ultimate moving story- book, an animated painting. Kids love that stuff.”
—Scott Holmes
Is it really the popularity of the medium? Or could it be the poor content in 2D films made recently? Most of the successful CG films today have solid stories. Traditionally drawn films today have not embraced the great storylines they did in the original Golden Age of Disney (from 1937 to 1942). The Lion King became a double-edged sword because it made so much money. The money brought more management into the ranks, and what was previously a cottage industry (a huge one at that) became a corporate monster, with the artists more and more removed from the process. Disney began to strangle the goose that laid the golden egg. Traditional hand-drawn animated movies with poor, formulaic storylines had lost the art and craft of animation and storytelling. The successful com
剩余内容已隐藏，支付完成后下载完整资料
思维动画：缩小2D与CG之间的鸿沟
Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff
1.导致动画进化的重大变化的原因
1.1审美诉求变化
20世纪90年代视觉特效电影的日益流行推动了动画的第一次转变。视觉特效促使电影给观众带来了相较以往任何时候都更高水平的娱乐和真实感。“独立日”、“扭曲号”、“泰坦尼克号”和“黑衣人”等电影将成千上万的人带进剧院去观赏这些新的视觉效果。“我们不是在这里谈论故事，而是利用纯粹的审美吸引力。”观众品味的这种变化只是传统动画消亡的原因之一。观众开始将CG功能视为基于他们所描绘的审美视觉上更丰富，更刺激的视觉体验。电子游戏和音乐视频也帮助塑造了这种对计算机生成事物养眼的新兴趣，特别是在年轻观众群体中。在这个新的世界里，3D的巨大丰富性和移动相机的能力让传统动画突然变得平淡无奇。
1.2扩大动画受众面
第二个因素是扩大特色动画的受众范围。在视觉特效电影流行之前，儿童电影和主流电影的内容之间存在很大的区别。电影在上世纪90年代，父母和孩子们都会成群结队地去看诸如“泰坦尼克号”、“黑衣人”和“侏罗纪公园”等电影。这里有吸引不仅仅是年轻人还能吸引老年人观众的内容。这些特效驱动的电影之所以更有吸引力，是因为电脑能够创造出逼真的照片和效果，这些作品以其前所未有的可信度，令观众惊叹不已。此外，这些效果被无缝地融入电影。这些电影对每个人都存在吸引力。
1.3传统动画中不够引人入胜的故事情节
最后，动画演变的第三次转变许多人认为是由于传统动画在故事情节上的改变。传统电影的票房开始受到影响，导致其直接倾向于视觉特效电影的日益流行。反过来，传统的工作室试图通过更多的成人故事主题来扩展他们的受众面，比如王子波卡洪塔斯、埃及之旅以及卡梅洛特之旅。新生编剧们没写出能够吸引我们所有人的故事，而只是为成年人创造了故事，并希望孩子们也去喜欢这些故事。“狮子王”1994年发行之后，传统特色影片制作人认为，要想取得成功，他们必须效仿，创造出规模宏大的特色。每个工作室都试图效仿狮子王的塑造方式，并制作了规模宏大、史诗级别的音乐剧。工作室不断追求昂贵的视觉特效和狮子王的票房。随着动画成为一种有利可图的商业活动，故事被无数“有创意的高管”过度渲染，在他们的努力下创造了一部大片。而恰恰相反的是，“狮子王”之后制作的电影吸引的观众越来越少。
本章解释了视觉特效产业是如何对动画的流行产生巨大影响的，以及这种流行如何永远地改变了传统动画和CG动画的制作。我们探究数字艺术家是如何诞生的，以及随着计算机工具的使用变得更容易，传统的艺术家如何进入计算机产业，雇佣标准是如何变化的。我们将举例说明现在故事情节和票房利润发生了冲突，因为CG的使用增加了，2D的使用减少了。我们还将探讨传统动画消亡的原因，以及CG和视觉特效的兴起。通过内容、票房利润和观众的变化。最后，我们将架起CG和2D动画两种媒体之间的桥梁。
传统动画是一门艺术，在它存在的大部分时间里，它是一种铅笔和纸的媒介。
2.数码艺术的开端
数字工具已经从根本上改变了一种艺术，从很大程度上来说，它是铅笔和纸的媒介。考虑一下这个问题：每一部动画特色故事片早于20世纪00年代晚至20世纪80年代末，都是以传统的手绘或逐帧为主要形式的动画片。制作这些电影所需要的工具在近80年内没有发生重大变化。
20世纪80年代末，CG和传统媒体都在经历着巨大的变化。视觉效果也继续在票房中创造更多的收入，创造出看上去更真实的动画。然而，在这一时期，传统动画在讽刺现实的影片领域仍然占上风。所以，是什么创造了当前三维一家独大的环境？其至高无上的和传统的特征几乎都失效了？传统动画会卷土重来吗？
“从是否养眼的角度来看，CG有一种传统上从未拥有过的美感和丰满感。”这是一本最感人的故事书，通过一幅动画片描绘出来。孩子们喜欢这些东西。“-斯科特·霍姆斯
这真的只是因为媒介的普及吗？抑或是最近制作的2D电影内容不佳？今天大多数成功的CG电影都拥有扎实的故事。传统的电影现在没有像在迪士尼最初的黄金时代(从1937年到1942年)，他接受了他们所做的伟大的故事情节。狮子王成了一把双刃剑，因为它赚了那么多钱。这笔钱带来了更多的麻烦。门当户对，和以前的一个家庭手工业(一个巨大的)成为一个企业怪物，与艺术家越来越远离的这一过程。迪斯尼开始扼杀下了金蛋的鹅。传统的手绘动画片，情节拙劣，公式化，失去了动画和讲故事的艺术和工艺。成功的数字电影使今天制作里的故事情节成为制作中最重要的部分，而不是让技术(或套装)来运行创作过程。
在“狮子王”之后，我们看到了传统绘画电影的流行程度稳步下降，以及电脑动画的兴起。只要看看票房数字，这是显而易见的。狮子王在全球的票房收入超过7.6亿美元，与之形成对比的是，过去6部迪斯尼制作或收购的传统动画电影总共获得7.12亿美元(全球票房)。神童，作为一部“数字动画”在全球带来了6.3亿美元的票房收入，超过了迪士尼最后五部电影的票房总和。
第一朵小小的变化云突然变成了一场暴风雨。2D动画在观众眼中逐渐过时。CG制作、视觉效果驱动促使他们变得受欢迎时，他们得到了更多的关注和金钱。越来越多的人成群结队地看这个新媒体是什么样子。康拉德.弗农赞同他对艰难道路的看法。或者是2D，因为CG的流行：2D动画的未来将是严格独立的，就像百利威的三胞胎一样。上帝保佑那些有远见的拥有一部伟大的2D电影的人独立地获得一些钱，相信他的才能，给他钱去做这件事。这位2D动画师的工作，他必须去努力工作，使电影变得伟大。你在用这东西和歌利亚作战。
康拉德说得有道理。随着CG介质成为一种更可识别的艺术，2D可能彻底过时。但是在狮子王赚了这么多钱之后，这怎么会发生呢？在写这本书的时候，好莱坞最大的两家动画制片厂梦工厂和迪士尼已经关闭了他们的传统动画部门转而进行戏剧发行，不再接受传统的投资组合，并且已经投入使用。他们所有的努力都是为了制作CG电影。在狮子王令人难以置信的成功和史莱克2的发布之间的10年时间里，2D的制作实际上已经减少到一无所有。更多地说明了计算机对我们行业的影响是很深远的。截至2005年，最后一部2D电影是维尼的“赫法伦普电影”，这部电影票房仅为1900万美元。CG和视觉特效电影的票房收入不相上下，而2D电影的利润却在减少，每年仅能吸引几百万美元。
但这真的是媒介的普及吗？还是被讲述的故事情节？还是两者兼而有之？成功的CG电影继续坚持旧的故事公式，而2D的制作实际上都停止了，除了老牌的，例如维尼，以及新的电视明星，如海绵宝宝。埃里克·戈德伯格在解释他如何感受到2D和CG对观众而言的流行时，扩展了这些想法说：我认为最后一批手绘动画受到了平庸的内容、人物和讲故事的影响。我认为如果它有吸引力，孩子们就不会有问题。不管它是用CG制作的，还是用2D制作的，都不重要。现在，事实是CG电影的制作成本和传统电影一样高，如果你把美元和洋娃娃做比较的话，艾尔，“宝藏星球”花的钱和怪兽公司一样多。这是一种其中一种介质并不比另一种便宜的性质。然而，一种比另一种更时尚。
埃里克告诉我们，平庸的内容和故事阻碍了2D的发展。他还迅速指出，这两种媒介的生产成本并不比另一种高。然而，到目前为止，CG电影的利润已经超过了过去10年的2D电影。埃里克认为这是由于媒体的流行以及在传统的结局。我们认为他是对的，但还有另一个原因导致2D动画下降到它如今的程度。
3.视觉特效电影扩大了观众的视野
媒介的普及并不是导致2D制作的终结的唯一趋势。以视觉特效为基础的电影的巨大成功，对传统制片厂如何看待观众想看什么起到了很大的作用。视觉特效电影对所有年龄层都有着广泛的吸引力。当2D动画叙述了一段无趣的故事，甚至尝试获得一片视觉效果市场，CG动画电影继续使用旧的公式，为孩子们创造一个与成人同一视野的伟大故事。现在，那个看到“黑衣人”的孩子看了一部电影“为卡梅洛特而战”完全不同的光景，他不喜欢。显然，在CG领域将会有失败，因为制片厂试图在牺牲传统的讲故事的基础上创造利润。CG不是一个掩盖薄弱的故事情节或弥补乏味的角色的新技术。
剩余内容已隐藏，支付完成后下载完整资料
资料编号：[18523]，资料为PDF文档或Word文档，PDF文档可免费转换为Word
以上是毕业论文外文翻译，课题毕业论文、任务书、文献综述、开题报告、程序设计、图纸设计等资料可联系客服协助查找。
