A critique of Animation: Topic research
For our research essay topic, we were given three main points we could work from. These include
Marey was an inventor, photographer, stills, photos, early film, animation. He was also a physiologist and broke down the movement of bodies to slide by slide. Mareys works focused more on the scientific side of documenting the human body, and his works were popular for analysis of movement, such as for physical training purposes
Muybridge was credited as being an inspiration for Thomas Edison. He is well known for his series of photos that proved that all four of the horses legs leave the ground during its run cycle. He also invented a way for stop motion like films to be played back by creating a machine that showed a series of photographs in a quick succession.
Farocki
Haruns main works focused on documenting the practices of labour in the 1800s and how images are produced.
I found a website that has a helpful timeline in regards to the beginning of cinema as well as Muybridge and Mareys contributions to the world of cinema
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-muybridge-and-marey/
-Motion capture was originally used to help scientists understand the range of human movement and how that could be utilised to industrialise and automate certain jobs.
-Avatar is credited as being similar in the fact that both include actors performing in a space equipped with cameras and censors.
-"Human actors lend their gestures to what will later become a digitally animated character." Franke (2014)
- Complex is referred to as being something that can be computed, and does not require any thought to put into practice. An example of a complex task was listed is something like a train timetable.
-The complicated requires much more processing of information and facts. There are many different aspects of a situation that need to be taken into consideration, and often no way of knowing what will happen entirely beforehand. the example given here was a conversation had with a friend at a bar.
I've decided to mainly look at the topic about the uncanny valley, as well as the relationship between the complex and complicated. While I have done a tiny bit of research on the uncanny valley a few years ago, other than what I read in the article I don't have that much knowledge around the concept of both 'complex' and 'complicated' procedures or actions.
Some other interesting terms that came up as I was researching includes pareidolia, where humans tend to see human faces in objects or images that do not actually have faces, like looking at clouds or strangely shaped cracks etc. We are very good at identifying faces, but this means if we see something that isn't quite human, we can instantly tell its off. but if a face is heavily stylized instead, we often don't seem to mind as much. A great example given was the public's reception to The Polar Express vs how the public received something like Moana or Tangled.
I found a handful of other examples on this website:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/uncanny-valley1.htm
I also found another video on youtube that gives a quick 2 minute rundown of the concept and how it was originally formed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYuBDkto2Vk
The science youtube channel Vsauce also has a good episode about fear, terror and ambiguity which also briefly touches on the uncanny valley, as well as the psychological reasons as to why the uncanny valley brings us so much fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEikGKDVsCc
- Identify and analyse the contribution of Muybridge, Marey and Farocki to the development of film, gaming and animation
- Identify and analyse Anselm Franke’s main arguments in A Critique of Animation regarding motion capture technology and the film Avatar
- Identify and analyse the terms ‘Uncanny Valley’, and ‘complex’ and ‘complicated’
We first had to summarise the things we knew about each topic for the essay, and then were tasked with choosing the one we though we would make an essay out of.
- Identify and analyse the contribution of Muybridge, Marey and Farocki to the development of film, gaming and animation in Anselm Franke’s 2014 article, A Critique of Animation:
Marey was an inventor, photographer, stills, photos, early film, animation. He was also a physiologist and broke down the movement of bodies to slide by slide. Mareys works focused more on the scientific side of documenting the human body, and his works were popular for analysis of movement, such as for physical training purposes
Muybridge was credited as being an inspiration for Thomas Edison. He is well known for his series of photos that proved that all four of the horses legs leave the ground during its run cycle. He also invented a way for stop motion like films to be played back by creating a machine that showed a series of photographs in a quick succession.
Farocki
Haruns main works focused on documenting the practices of labour in the 1800s and how images are produced.
I found a website that has a helpful timeline in regards to the beginning of cinema as well as Muybridge and Mareys contributions to the world of cinema
https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history-of-photography-muybridge-and-marey/
- Identify and analyse Anselm Franke’s main arguments in A Critique of Animation regarding motion capture technology and the film Avatar
-Motion capture was originally used to help scientists understand the range of human movement and how that could be utilised to industrialise and automate certain jobs.
-Avatar is credited as being similar in the fact that both include actors performing in a space equipped with cameras and censors.
-"Human actors lend their gestures to what will later become a digitally animated character." Franke (2014)
- Identify and analyse the terms ‘Uncanny Valley’, and ‘complex’ and ‘complicated’ in Anselm Franke’s 2014 article, A Critique of Animation.
- Complex is referred to as being something that can be computed, and does not require any thought to put into practice. An example of a complex task was listed is something like a train timetable.
-The complicated requires much more processing of information and facts. There are many different aspects of a situation that need to be taken into consideration, and often no way of knowing what will happen entirely beforehand. the example given here was a conversation had with a friend at a bar.
I've decided to mainly look at the topic about the uncanny valley, as well as the relationship between the complex and complicated. While I have done a tiny bit of research on the uncanny valley a few years ago, other than what I read in the article I don't have that much knowledge around the concept of both 'complex' and 'complicated' procedures or actions.
Some other interesting terms that came up as I was researching includes pareidolia, where humans tend to see human faces in objects or images that do not actually have faces, like looking at clouds or strangely shaped cracks etc. We are very good at identifying faces, but this means if we see something that isn't quite human, we can instantly tell its off. but if a face is heavily stylized instead, we often don't seem to mind as much. A great example given was the public's reception to The Polar Express vs how the public received something like Moana or Tangled.
I found a handful of other examples on this website:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/uncanny-valley1.htm
I also found another video on youtube that gives a quick 2 minute rundown of the concept and how it was originally formed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYuBDkto2Vk
The science youtube channel Vsauce also has a good episode about fear, terror and ambiguity which also briefly touches on the uncanny valley, as well as the psychological reasons as to why the uncanny valley brings us so much fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEikGKDVsCc
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