Friday 10 May 2013

Developing an aesthetic style

Having read Basic Animation Aesthetics by David OReilly, i have developed a starting 'word' for which to develop the consistency of the production. Before i present this, i am going to list the some sections of his paper (available at: http://files.davidoreilly.com/downloads/BasicAnimationAesthetics.pdf) that i have found useful. 

- 'My central belief is that the key to aesthetics is coherence. In 3d we essentially create artificial models of worlds, i contend that what makes these worlds believable is simply how coherent they are; how all the elements tie together under a set of rules which govern them consistently. This coherence spreads to all areas of a film; dialogue, design, sound, music, movement etc. Together they create a feedback-loop which reaffirms that what we are looking at is true. The human eye wants this aesthetic harmony.'

- 'Aesthetic harmony comes from laws.'

- 'Style is a byproduct of following one's ideals, not an ingredient, it's something which comes out of a project, not goes into it. Style is often misinterpreted as a way to create an identity by superficially changing the look of one's work. The aesthetic choices in these works have little or nothing to do with the content and everything to do with looking different or current. This kind of thinking may be better defined as surface style.'

- 'Of course, originality is possible in any medium, and we all wish to create something new, something different and interesting, but this cannot be achieved by simply enforcing a look, it has to work from the ground up.'

- 'The technology of 3d animation is developing at a blinding speed, new tools and techniques are being added every year, and it is only a few films which survive this development and manage to appear undated. There is an effect relating to all this invention, lets call it rapidly expanding aesthetic library, which every animator and digital artist possesses internally.'

- 'An understanding of aesthetics gives the filmmaker the ability to observe a film both broadly and in detail and understand it. It allows him or her to make any kind of world believable by knowing exactly what works and doesn't work, and rather than feeling things seem wrong, to be able to point them out specifically. Finally knowledge of aesthetics is an essential key to originality. When we are forced to examine our aesthetic choices we lead ourselves to new ways of thinking and new ideas. Those who arn't fully conscious of the aesthetic fabric of their worlds will revert to default decision making, essentially to the common doctrine, or mediocrity.'

My 'laws' will derive from the words fragmented, warped and eerie.

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