Thursday, June 27th 2024
One thing’s sure: animation looks nothing like it used to 10, 20, 30 years ago. On one hand, you have the obvious technological advances and new animation techniques that make the look & feel of all animations feel more modern and refined, especially if we’re talking about 3D animation and the lightyears where we are now in comparison to the 90s when ‘Toy Story’ (1995) was first released, for example. On the other hand, we have to talk about the evolution or progression of the overall aesthetic of each decade and how character design has changed, as well as the storytelling. Look up your favorite cartoon characters from the 80s, 90s and early 00s and look at the characters from ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Rick & Morty’ or ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse’. Animation has shifted, and this isn’t necessarily a negative thing, it’s just a fact and a sign of the time and where the animation industry currently is, cause we can sure fast forward things to 2030 and animation will look nothing like it does today (we probably won’t have natural resources by then anyway, lol).
"Animation has certainly been impacted by the digital revolution"
Modern animation has certainly been impacted by the digital revolution, as it melds 2D and 3D techniques, making new computer technology the new pencil and the monitors, the new canvases. This marriage of 2D and 3D animation generates a new aesthetic sensibility, the one we’re currently experiencing as both viewers and digital creators. Nowadays, we can rely on computer technology to create a character model to navigate the in-between frames. This is done by employing a modeler, which creates a 3D character digitally. To move said character, a rigger creates a “skeleton” that an animator then operates and sets key poses. Obviously if we alter the means of production we will also alter the final product, and ever since the transition to 3D technology animation aesthetics have strived towards a “naturalistic” look. As an example cinematographers Jean-Claude Kalache and Patrick Lin create a split diopter effect (traditionally an effect created with live action camera lenses) to grant a grounded and life-like look to the 3D dolls of Toy Story 4 (2018).
However, Into the Spider-Verse (ItSV) and Arcane refuse a naturalistic look in favor of using 2D techniques in conjunction with 3D models to create extraordinarily stylised visual effects, creating a unique new style that is born out of the merge of both realms. Visual Effects Supervisor, Danny Dimian, stated in an interview to WIRED “we wanted to stay away from things that were soft or did not look like they belonged in the illustrated world”. This inspiration made ItSV’s aesthetics an homage to graphic novels: “we did know what our inspiration was, we all loved comic books”. For this effort, 177 animators worked diligently to create a stylised visual language that employed: the flipping of pages to transition between scenes, the division of the frame into panels to present multiple scenarios at once, the usage of onomatopoeias and speech bubbles to reinforce audio queues, splicing in hand-drawn pop frames and even ingeniously using halftones, ink misprints and Kirby dots (a traditional comic book aesthetic) to bring certain areas of the frame in and out of focus (source of this extract: leidenartsinsocietyblog.nl).
Modern animation is like nothing we’ve seen before, we already established that. This certainly applies for characters crafted and created in the past years, but also is the case for classic characters that are adapted and modernized to fit the current landscape. Take for example Mickey Mouse, a classic animated character that first appeared on screen in 1928. The beloved rodent doesn’t look anything at all like his first ideation, but it would be weird if that were the case. Just like brands that feel the need to revamp their logos, some animation companies do the same with some of their characters – we’re in the era of the reboot, the remake and the requel after all, so it’s not a surprise anytime a new live-action adaptation of an animated classic is announced on social media. We’re eager to see what the next chapter of animation has in store for us, aren’t you?
Speaking of reboots and remakes, one animated gang that is familiarized with is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the four amphibious with a talent for martial arts and a love for pizza. From their first appearance on our screens in 1983, to the upcoming animated film starring Seth Rogen. This new iteration presents the characters as teenagers as the main feature for their story to unfold, which marks the innovation aspect that this new member of the 80s franchise brings to the table. Animation-wise, Movie Web says: “Rather than the cheap-looking, bug-eyes 2D or overly-blocky 3D designs that have littered many animations recently, the style of Mutant Mayhem is almost like watching a stop-motion animation, where the characters are not perfectly smoothed out. The movements have an almost sloppy charm about them that actually lend themselves to elevating this version of the Turtles above many other recent adaptations with something unique and a little gritty.” The movie hits theaters August 4th, 2023.
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