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Animation Proliferation: is animation destined to be the dominant mode of expression and production for the Film and Television Industry?
Abtract: Thi
s paper discusses Computer Generated Animation (CGA) and its persistent proliferation of the Film and Television Industry. In an increasingly post-human age overflowing with cybernetic systems, virtual interactive interfaces, and multiple digital identities, modern man is increasingly dependent on and transformed by the ubiquitous new technology. This symbiotic relationship has altered our innate narrative and voyeuristic needs thereby changing who we are as spectators and resulting in increasingly shifting cyber-audience that demands innovative cinematic approaches. It is within this discourse of emergent modes of entertainment that I analyse and evaluate the contemporary use, cultural effects, and possible trajectory of the CGA medium.
Biographical statement: Tony Tarantini is a veteran of the animation industry. As an artist, he has contributed to animated TV series and features that include: Babar the Elephant, Pippi Longstockings, Rupert the Bear, Franklin the Turtle, American Tail, George Shrinks, Magi Nation, and Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus. In addition, Tony has worked extensively in curriculum design and teaches in the Animation Program (Bachelor of Applied Arts) at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada. This paper contributes to his critical inquiry of animation practice and pedagogy - areas of research to which he is deeply committed.
There Be Dragons : Animated Visual Tropes and Fantasy Aesthetics in Mainstream Live Action Cinema.
Abstract: While d
igital effects have the potential to create infinite constructed environments they have also spawned a disproportionate amount of dragons, orcs, fairies and aliens, all following a familiar aesthetic template. If CGI can be considered a design tool and technique, it comes equipped, as do all tools and techniques, with a particular aesthetic. This paper examines popular animated visual tropes in mainstream genre live action film with a focus on James Cameron’s recent spectacular, Avatar and, in particular, the extent to which CGI technique shapes the aesthetic of contemporary visual effects in mainstream cinema. Biographical statement: Jane Shadbolt is a stopmotion animator and designer. She is currently directing the short stopmotion animation The Cartographer, and is interested in spectacular cinema in miniature. She is a Lecturer in Visual Communications at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
On the edge of the uncanny cliff: motion capture and animation in recent 3-D computer-generated photorealistic films.
Abstract: Wi
th reference to the films The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), A Christmas Carol (2009) and Avatar (2009), this paper considers how these most recent examples of photorealistic 3-D animation can be seen to enact the complex (and controversial) relationship between motion capture and animation. Drawing on phenomenology, motion capture’s complex relationship to ‘indexical’ reality, and the conception of the ‘uncanny cliff’, the paper examines key examples of observable ‘ruptures’ in perceptual verisimilitude, and aims to identify and account for these through the embodied spectator’s success or failure to resolve and/or synthesize a range of indexical and ontological instabilities.
Biographical statement: Gregory Bennett is a senior lecturer in Digital Design at AUT University, New Zealand, specializing in 3-D animation and visual effects practice and theory, including developments in motion capture and 3-D stereoscopic projection. He is currently undertaking PhD research which explores issues of embodiment and mimesis in the simulation of perceptual reality in 3D computer animation which combines photorealistic aesthetics with motion capture and stereoscopic projection. This proposed paper is a direct outcome of his core PhD research which is informed by both theoretical and practical investigation.
s paper discusses Computer Generated Animation (CGA) and its persistent proliferation of the Film and Television Industry. In an increasingly post-human age overflowing with cybernetic systems, virtual interactive interfaces, and multiple digital identities, modern man is increasingly dependent on and transformed by the ubiquitous new technology. This symbiotic relationship has altered our innate narrative and voyeuristic needs thereby changing who we are as spectators and resulting in increasingly shifting cyber-audience that demands innovative cinematic approaches. It is within this discourse of emergent modes of entertainment that I analyse and evaluate the contemporary use, cultural effects, and possible trajectory of the CGA medium. 
