Research Blog Study Task 2 - 3D animation

3D animation first truly came to the publics attention in 1995 when Toy Story hit the cinemas, created by pixar who have now become a megalith of a company. Back then there was several areas of improvement that was needed meaning there was still a lot of potential for growth, the input of realistic hair and fur as well as CG effects are just a few of the possibilities that have been explored and developed in the past 20 years since toy story. Now its about refining those areas and making them become more immersive. This isn't about making them real, so not making them hyper realistic but making them feel alive. An example of this is Pixars new short Piper, where a small piper chick ventures out of its nest for the first time. 

"And it feels realistic, but if you look at, say, Norman Rockwell’s paintings there’s a lot of exaggeration to draw your eye to the centre of attention. It’s the same principle in animation; we’re just doing it at 24 frames per second.”

This was a quote by Barillaro the director of piper, he's talking about how realistic the bird is portrayed so its like its not stylised but almost hyper realised however it features elements that change your perception and make the character appealing and that draw you in. The animators when characterising the piper wanted the feathers to be an integral part of its design and character to help portray the personality of the character. But while the software could simulate the movement of feathers it couldn't make the feathers act, this meant new technology had to be created. The director of the short Barillaro, wanted to control every single action that happened on screen not leave it to the computer to simulate the actions and this meant software engineers had to create the software to allow the animators to animate said feathers. This is where the limitations of 3D come in, the software just isn't there. It needs to be created by engineers and while animators and artists might think thats easy the engineers who know how it all works cry them selves to sleep. Another issue is time in the sense that while piper has the human touch to it where you can feel the artist behind the animation most if not, all studios just don't have the luxury to have the time to dedicate so much time to the movement of something that can just as easily be simulated. A final question to be raised is there too much on a reliance on machines with the animation? and could that lead to a loss of aura? However beside the software not being there, the ability to at some point create said software keeps the possibilities open and it wasn't until almost 100 years 2D animation was knocked off its pedestal so 3D still has a lot of room to grow.

Piper short

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/06/18/how-pixar-hatched-piper-the-cutting-edge-tech-behind-their-cutes/