FAVz106 Animation Aesthetics: Character, Art and Design

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Kristian Moen (lecturer), Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (deputy)
Mgr. Petr Veinhauer (seminar tutor)
Mgr. Dita Stuchlíková (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 9. 4. 16:00–17:40 C33, Tue 21. 5. 14:00–15:40 C34, Wed 22. 5. 14:00–15:40 C34, Thu 23. 5. 14:00–15:40 C34, Fri 24. 5. 8:00–11:40 C34
Prerequisites
There are none
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 72 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 47/72, only registered: 1/72
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 10 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This lecture series explores and examines the artistic and expressive potentials of animated film. It does so through a close study of three of the most significant forms this has taken over the last century: character animation, artistic or experimental animation, and design-influenced works. While focusing on these different approaches to animation aesthetics, the lecture series also draws attention to how they overlap with one another in order to contribute to a larger sense of animation’s creative possibilities. Exploring a range of different facets of animation - including motion, colour, sound, visual design, setting, materiality and other aesthetic elements – this course aims to closely analyse and illuminate the ways in which animators and other artists have created impactful, delightful and astonishing works.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will be able:
1. To analyse how different aspects of animation aesthetics create effects and meanings;
2. To be aware of, and be able to apply, a range of established critical and theoretical ideas;
3. To develop an understanding of animation aesthetics in both theory and practice.
Syllabus
  • Section I: Character
  • Perhaps the most familiar form that animation takes is through character-centred films. The development of so-called “character animation” or “personality animation” has been pivotal to the history of animated film, from early Disney features to contemporary works at the most prominent animation studios. This section develops a close analysis of the specific ways in which animated films use motion and other expressive tools to create thinking and feeling characters.
  • Lecture 1 (Tue May 21, 12.00-13.40): Character animation’s emergence at the Disney Studios
  • “Performance in and of Animation” (Chapter 1) in Donald Crafton, Shadow of a Mouse, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 15-57
  • Lecture 2 (Tue May 21, 14.00-15.40): Contemporary character in the films of Pixar and Studio Ghibli
  • John Lasseter, “Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation,” Computer Graphics, 21:4 (July 1987), 35-44.
  • Tom Porter and Gaylyn Susman, “Creating Lifelike Characters in Pixar Movies,” Communications of the ACM, 43:1 (January 2000), 25-29.
  • Section II: Art
  • Some of the most dynamic animators have used and transformed the artistic potentials of other media – including painting, music and sculpture – to create distinctively animated artworks. In the third and fourth lectures, we turn to examine how animated films draw upon other arts and deploy aesthetic elements such as sound, colour and materiality.
  • Lecture 3 (Wed May 22, 14.00-15.40): Sound, colour and motion in the work of Mary Ellen Bute and Norman McLaren
  • Excerpts from Norman McLaren, On the Creative Process (Ottawa: National Film Board of Canada, 1991).
  • Mary Ellen Bute, “Light * Form * Movement * Sound” (1935) reprinted in Film Manifestoes and Global Cinema Cultures: A Critical Anthology, edited by Scott MacKenzie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 84-87
  • Lecture 4 (Thu May 23, 14.00-15.40): The materiality of animation, from Lotte Reiniger’s silhouettes to Aardman’s plasticine
  • “Notes Towards a Theory of Animation” (Chapter 2) in Paul Wells, Understanding Animation, (London: Routledge, 1998), 35-67.
  • Esther Leslie, “Wallace and Gromit: An Animating Love,” soundings 5 (Spring 1997), 149-156.
  • Section III: Design
  • Character design and sound design are especially central to animated films, and the underlying notion of design more broadly is a vital way of approaching animation aesthetics. The final two lectures in the series turn towards questions of design and how it has resonated with key trends in animation aesthetics. We examine how a range of examples – including modernist filmmaking and instructional films – have used ideas of design. At the same time, we reflect back on the films, animators and studios already discussed, considering how they relate to and employ design principles.
  • Lecture 5 (Fri May 24, 8.00-9.40): Modernist designs in the films of UPA and the Zagreb School
  • “Condensed Works: Communication in Graphic Design and the Modern Cartoon” (Chapter 3) in Dan Bashara, UPA Animation and Postwar Aesthetics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019), 115-163.
  • Lecture 6 (Fri May 24, 10.00-11.40): Design principles in animated visualisations and instructional films + unit recap
Literature
    required literature
  • “Performance in and of Animation” (Chapter 1) in Donald Crafton, Shadow of a Mouse, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 15-57
  • Tom Porter and Gaylyn Susman, “Creating Lifelike Characters in Pixar Movies,” Communications of the ACM, 43:1 (January 2000), 25-29.
  • John Lasseter, “Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation,” Computer Graphics, 21:4 (July 1987), 35-44.
  • Mary Ellen Bute, “Light * Form * Movement * Sound” (1935) reprinted in Film Manifestoes and Global Cinema Cultures: A Critical Anthology, edited by Scott MacKenzie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 84-87.
  • Norman McLaren, On the Creative Process (Ottawa: National Film Board of Canada, 1991).
  • Esther Leslie, “Wallace and Gromit: An Animating Love,” soundings 5 (Spring 1997), 149-156.
  • “Notes Towards a Theory of Animation” (Chapter 2) in Paul Wells, Understanding Animation, (London: Routledge, 1998), 35-67.
  • “Condensed Works: Communication in Graphic Design and the Modern Cartoon” (Chapter 3) in Dan Bashara, UPA Animation and Postwar Aesthetics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019), 115-163.
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
The 100% attendance at the lectures is compulsory and will be checked throughout every lecture (with the exception of distance students who are allowed to miss two out of the six sessions). Appart of compulsory attendance you will have a choice of one of two assignments:

1. Write a 2500-word research essay that applies an understanding of animation aesthetics to: a feature-length animated film of your choice, or a series of short animated films produced at the same studio or by the same animator.

2. Develop a two to three minute animatic (moving storyboard) for a short animated film that demonstrates a purposeful and expressive use of animation aesthetics. The animatic should include details of key aesthetic elements such as character expression key frames, colour and sound.

Further details of the assignments will be discussed and distributed in the first and second lectures.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
Teacher's information
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/kristian-o-moen
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