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.