Realism

So what is realism? Realism is a close resemblance to what is real. Being humans we have a fascination with imitating reality. As young kids from the age of 5-6 we become very obsessed with wanting what we draw to look like the real thing or they become unsatisfied with their artwork. We use the method of making something look photo realistic as a kind of measuring tool to measure our art skills. But if something becomes hyper realistic, I believe that the artistic value is drained from the artwork. It may one day get to the point where we might as well be taking a photo or shooting a video instead of animating it. Although this kind of work is very impressive in many ways, does something need to look realistic to be successful?

When it comes to animation, we need to relate to reality but your work doesn't need to be a style of realism. When we look at a transitional animated film such as 'The Lion King' we can relate the characters to the real life animal species that live on earth which we visit at zoos. The young children that watch these kinds of film will be able to tell you that Simba is a lion and that Zazu is a bird. Simba looks like a lion and moves like a lion but in reality looks nothing like a lion. Yet we still associate these characters with the animals on earth. We are trying to achieve believability, to make people believe in the characters and the story. That they are physically living and have a personally with the ability to feel emotion, but at the same time keeping away from it being realistic.

As technology advances, it changes our interpretation of what looks real. But the weird thing is that reality has never changed. We see it the same way as we always have done. For example during 1933 with the release of the first King Kong movie, people thought during those times that it looked real but of course they have never seen what we have done today. The new up to date vision of King Kong directed by Peter Jackson looks 100 times more realistic that the old version. What I might find looks photorealistic now may sometime in the future look the same to me then as the first King Kong movie does to me now. This will keep happening until it gets to the point where we can't tell the difference.

Narrative

Have you ever come out the cinema feeling on top of the world? That the movie you have just seen was so immersive and had your mind so involved with the film you never wanted it to end? This is the difference between a film which will lie in history for years to come and one that will be forgotten. The main building block to this success is in the structure of the narrative.

If you look into the best games ever made or films regarded as masterpieces, I can guarantee that the visual effects, special effects or the fact that it may be animated isn't the reason why. It's because these are the type of stories that have the ability to make someone laugh in the places it wants to or cry during a sad part of a movie because the audience becomes that emotionally attached. This is want I find amazing about storytelling.

When i was a kid, Disney films were a massive part of my life, I would say more so than most people my age. Growing up in my mum's arms with her love for Disney films, this was then shown upon me. Everything I ever watched was Disney, from the full length animated movies such as 'Jungle Book' or 'Lion King' to 'Bed Knobs and Broom Sticks' played with real actors. It was my life and I think this is one of the reasons why it has stuck by me all these years up to now while doing this Digital animation course.

Walt Disney was a storyteller, and one of the best ones that ever lived in my eyes. I sometimes feel that new movies of todays time period are losing this ability to tell an amazing story. Most of them turn out to be an 'average' film, one which you enjoy but doesn't blow you away. Although I have also found a select few films that were recently made which make me feel this way. These films being 'How to train your dragon', 'Toy Story 3' and 'Tangled'. All three show a great example of narrative.

The meaning of narrative is 'the telling of a some true or fictitious event or connected sequence of events, recounted by a narrator to a narratee'. Narrative is normally split into story and plot. Story being what it is and the plot being how the story is told. Tzvetan Todorov broke down narrative into 5 main components. the first stage is the 'equilibrium' meaning the beginning of the story where the characters are introduced and no problems have occurred (state of calm). An example of this would be the opening scene to 'Tangled' when Rapunzel is shown living in the tower with her pet chameleon and has no idea of the truth behind her fake mother. The second stage is the 'disruption' of the equilibrium meaning that an action has caused a problem to occur. Referring back to 'Tangled' this could be the part of the film where Rapunzel leaves the tower without her mum's permission with the handsome  Flynn Rider. The third part being the 'recognition' of the disruption. In this case Rapunzels fake mother finding out she has left the tower and sets out to find her. The forth being the 'attempt' to repair the disruption. Rapunzel finds out that her mother isn't her real mother and chops off her magical hair, resulting in the death of her fake mother who has kept her locked up in the tower for 18 years. The fifth and final stage is the 'reinstatement' of the equilibrium. After the death of her fake mother, she is able to return to her real family in the castle and they live happily together.

Intertextuality

As human beings we naturally get inspired by others, learn from others and in some ways take other people's ideas and adapt them to make them our own. During my early teenage years I hated using other people's work as reference and a way of coming up with my own. I saw it as 'cheating' or 'copying' other people's ideas. I always wanted to come up with my own ideas and insisted i wasn't influenced by anything, but as I know now this is impossible. Without being influenced by every day objects or people for example, I don't see how you could ever draw. You would have zero knowledge on the visual appearance of anything, so you would never be able to record it on paper.

Intertextuality explores this idea. Julia Kristeva came up with the term 'Intertextuality' and is described as 'The term intertextuality denotes the transposition of one or several sign systems into another'. This is used in many different ways. Such as during character development, remakes of old films or cover songs by music artists made by other people.

Commonly during films, animations or games we see the same kind of characters that are used over and over again that have been used in the past. For example from the Disney animated film 'Snow White' the witch is ever so similar to the witch character during the digitally animated film 'Tangled' that has recently been released during this year. Features from the previous witch have been borrowed during the character design for the witch show in 'Tangled'.

 There are two different types of intertextuality, one being unconscious and the second being (self-)conscious. Unconscious meaning that it is out of the author's control, they are not aware of it. (Self-)conscious meaning that it is deliberate, the author has put the intertextuality there for a reason for whatever that maybe. I believe an example of unconscious intertextuality is the similarity between the narrative of the disney animated film 'Pocahontas' and James Cameron's 3D film 'Avatar'. The plot of both films is very much the same, but I would argue the fact of how similar they are but at the same time being so very different. I would not of thought that James Cameron intended this to happen.

An example of (Self-)conscious intertextuality would be from the 'Only fools and horses' series where the main characters of the show dress up as 'Batman' and 'Robin' from the DC comics. The 'Only fools and horses' series uses the intertextuality to make the scenario funny. They achieved this by giving the smaller of the two characters the role of 'Batman' and the taller one 'Robin'. They then run into a number of complications that build upon this.

Semiotics

Semiotics can be seen everywhere in all types of media, from films and games to advertisement and books. It is the study of signs and what effect it has on us which the majority of the time we don't even notice.

Denotation refers to the 'literal' truth of a sign, the most basic level of understanding. For example,  take mike from Pixars 'Monsters inc.' animated film. The denotation of mike would be:

• 3D alien like character
• Green skin
• Has one huge eye ball
• Wears a blue builders hat
• A ball shaped body
• Has two legs and arms
• Holding a notepad
• Has big teeth
• He is happy
• Has two small horns

Connotation is what this suggests, what it  signifies to us. This being:

• He is Friendly
• Male
• Not human
• Has some kind of building/construction job
• A great worker
• Young character
• Lively and gets along with people socially

Iconic in it's basic form is how close the sign is to the real thing. Arbitrary is the opposite, being how far away a sign is from the real thing. A good example of this would be something you most likely see every day.

On the left shows the male and female sex symbols. On the right shows very simple 'stick man' like figures used to signify the difference between male and female toilets.

The toilet symbols would be higher up the iconic scale due to the fact they visually represent the male and female sexes of the human race. The sex symbols although they mean the same thing would be arbitrary in comparison to the toilet symbols. Realistically the human race doesn't look like neither of the two, but iconically the toilet symbols are closer to 'The real thing' than the sex symbols.

Redundancy and Entropy in Film.

Lets face it, becoming a animator isn't the easiest thing in the world to achieve. As animators we need to understand narrative and the way it's executed. There will be plenty of times where we ourselves will have to tell a story for whatever it might be for. Without an understanding of how to construct and create an successful story line, your audience isn't going to be interested. Therefore the 100's of hours you have invested in animating your film or game will be useless.

During my younger years after watching my first digitally animated movie 'Toy Story' I was amazed by how it was done. Being so young I didn't really think about why the story had a positive impact on me or what made it work, the only thing I could think of was 'I want to be doing this one day' and 'Where is the closest disney store'. The reality is if you don't have a story, then you have nothing to animate. The visuals of a film can surely be very impressive and give the 'wow' factor, but If the narrative doesn't keep the audience on their toes and wanting to see more, then the film isn't doing it's job.

The film 'Kick Ass' displays an very good example of entropy during the opening scene. The main character Dave lizewski dresses up as a super hero and tries to fight crime on the streets for the first time. When he approaches two thugs trying to steal a car, he ends up getting stabbed in the stomach and run over by a passing car. This it totally unexpected by the audience because this isn't a common scenario that we are used to seeing during films. Especially because of the fact that he is the main character and the film had only just begun. I was personally in shock at what i was seeing and thought it had to be during some kind of dream state, but this leads to his body having to be reconstructed with metal plates and sets up the character for the rest of the film. This is a very realistic approach to what would actually happen and 'Kick Ass' consists of  well used entropy moments throughout the film that worked very well in keeping me interested.

'Kick Ass' also has a nice balance of redundancy. It has everything that you would expect  from a superhero type of film. The superhero gets the girl, saves the lives of citizens, defeats the villain and everyone lives happy ever after. Although the audience knows this will more than likely happen, the right amount of balance between entropy and redundancy makes the film work and a enjoyable watching experience.