See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306108349

The Creation of Animated and Filmed Images

Article June 2016

CITATIONS READS

0 43

1 author:

Eliane Gordeeff
University of Lisbon/CNPq-Brasil
28 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Eliane Gordeeff on 15 August 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the original document
and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
274 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

The Creation of Animated and Filmed Images

Eliane Gordeeff 1
eligordeeff@gmail.com

Abstract
Keywords
Animated image, Filmed This paper is a reflection on Animation: its technical, visual and semiotic
image, Moving images, characteristics, with the objective of comprehensively understanding of
Animation techniques, its aesthetic possibilities in comparison to live-action cinema. It analyzes
Live-action movies, Digital some historical issues, but focuses mainly on technical aspects (the draw-
image. ing, Stop Motion and 3D processes), of the aura, of its visual and connota-
tive representation, of the fiction, of the virtuality and consistency of its
images, reaching an overview of how these images are created. More em-
phasis is placed on the differences than to the similarities between these
two forms of creating moving images, with greater deepening in terms
of questions animation, but having as reference live-action Cinema, due
to its privileged position in the Audiovisual art form. Those analyses are
based on the work of several theorists, among them Walter Benjamin,
Jacques Aumont, Edgar Morin, and to assist in their understanding,
several animation and live-action movies are cited as examples. This
work is part of a PhD in Multimedia at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon
University.

1. Introduction
Animation is an art form that has developed and expanded its field over
time. Nowadays, it is commonly used in areas such as the Sciences, Me-
dia, Education, Engineering and Computing, among others.
But when images, whether filmed or animated, merge completely,
without noticeable differences in production methods for the cinema, it
is important to analyze the various and divergent aspects between these
two ways of creating images in movement. The objective is to under-
stand more explicitly their possibilities and visual results (mixed or not),
because in addition to their not being particularly alike (Animation and
live-action Cinema), the risk is run of losing the sense of the individu-
ality of the two art forms by considering both as just cinema. Many
already consider animation, erroneously, as nothing more than a Cinema
genre [1] (p. 7).
Yes, nowadays both have support digital files formats. Sbastien Denis
states that animation cinema is, first and foremost, cinema (p. 7) [1],

1 Animator, professor and PhD student in Multimedia of University of Lisbon, Faculty of Fine Arts (CIE-
BA- Research Centre for Studies in Fine Arts) - Portugal. This work was supported by CNPq, National
Council for Scientific and Technological Development - Brazil
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 275
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

while Manovich observes that, as cinema enters the digital age, [] conse-
quently, cinema can no longer be clearly distinguished from animation [2]
(p. 295). However, it is understood that, even though the final results might
be encoded in the same way, this does not mean the processes or techni-
cal characteristics are exactly the same. As well as it should be taken into
account that, Denis refers to the potential of animation cinema being equal
to live-action cinema; and Manovich states that sense of reality, the pho-
torealism, of 3D animation/effects and filmed images, is the same; while
the manual construction of images in digital cinema represents a return to
the pro-cinematic practice of nineteenth century, when images are hand-
painting and hand-animating[2]2. Neither of them claim that Animation
and Cinema (live-action) are the same thing. However, they are part of the
industry known as cinema, and it is precisely about productions for the
cinema that this article is focused on.
Therefore, it analyzes animation as a set of forms through a number
of differing techniques - to create images, observing their technical, formal,
visual, and representative characteristics in comparison with filmed images
(live-action cinema), which by convention are considered antagonistic
actual image (shot) vs animated image, but there are further differences to
consider.
The study aims to analyze the various divergent aspects between
these two ways of creating moving images, to gain a comprehensive un-
derstanding of their possibilities, and understand in what they result. For
this purpose, aspects about image integrity, reproduction, aura, repre-
sentation, fiction and virtuality are explored, considering several works,
including those of Edgar Morin, Jacques Aumont and Edmond Couchot.
The methodology that shall orientate the course of this analysis, refers to
Animation as a way of creating images, as a process. These analyzes are
part of a PhD process at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon University.

2. Historical Issues and Relevant Characteristics

Animation is an art form that came before what we know as Cinema. Its
origins date back to the optical studies of Joseph Plateau [4], in the 19th
century and, as Dominique Willoughby well observes it was a creation of
a scientific, technical and aesthetic nature [4] (p. 17). While Painting was
dedicated to illusionist visual representation, creating images using paint
on a plane; Sculpture, by the chipping away of materials; Engraving and
Drawing through lines on a surface, Animation has emerged as a more
complex way to create images. And whats more, with a fundamental dif-
ference the creation of motion pictures.
In fact, animation is an optical illusion3: the movement actually does
not happen, but it is visible since it is interpreted the optical system,
together with the human brain, interprets the still images of a character
(but with a few different positions), that in projection, is seen as if it were
moving.

2 Alan Cholodenko also comments on the animation be ignored for a long time, by Film Studies (p. 41)[3].
3 Phi Effect and Retinal Persistence [5].
276 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

At the time it was considered nothing but a curiosity: an optical study

that became a form of mass entertainment (with the advent of French
cafes, and American Vaudevilles4) the nature of the image was very
different from what had existed before then (static images, such as in
Engraving and Painting). No wonder that the Futurists believed moving
images were as much a kind of artistic avant-garde as Impressionism and
Cubism [7], as a reflection of the productive urban existence and kinetic
machines of Modernity. In a way, so they were. The ability to create anima-
tions effectively arises when man gains awareness of how to deceive his
own vision with the segmented representation of movement. Two impor-
tant topics play a fundamental role in the creation of animation: illusion and
the division of movement into multiple images. Live-action Cinema came
after that, and it was the result of the development of these two topics,
together with advances in theatrical staging and photographic technique
that resulted in capturing images of a staging directly on a sensitive support
(film, and nowadays as digital files). Despite several renowned theorists
asserting that the fundamental element of Cinema is movement [8] [9] it
is more consistent first, to look at some of the fundamental characteristics
in the two means to create images. Cinema does not create the movement,
but captures it the movements are real, the actors and machines too, and
when the film is projected at speed, it also creates the illusion of movement
as in an animated projection. Another art form that creates movement and
makes it their cornerstone is Dance5.
Movement is a cornerstone of Animation, making it what it is, but
animation itself only creates the illusion of movement. Further evidence
of the importance of movement in Animation, is the fact that Animation
established codes to create it: the Fundamental Principles of Animation6,
developed by Walt Disney. In the same way, that Cinema created specific
taxonomies for different types of montage, raccords and cuts [11]. For this
reason, it is more consistent to affirm that, the differential of Cinema is
the montage7. In the Kuleshov effect [12] is the spark of all understanding
of narrative film, including in relation to the raccords, the succession of
shots, cuts and any editing work, in other words the language of film.
Which was developed due to the technical facilities that have emerged
over time smaller cameras, cranes, motion cameras, etc.
This language was also absorbed by animators, who in fact were
already using it instinctively and naturally as in the basic sequence
of cartoon drawings but without the taxonomy or awareness of film
construction, something that has to happen to enable the industrialization
and standardization of production.

4 A kind of theater of varieties, where people could drink and talk, which had originated from the halls
of curiosities [6] (p. 20).
5 Other forms of Art work with movement, such as the Mimicry, Performance, etc.
6 They were developed and disseminated by Walt Disney and his collaborators, but had already been
conceptualized in books and periodicals of 1920s [10] (p. 201).
7 The montage is the principle governing the organization of filmic, visual and sound elements, or
group of such elements, juxtaposing them, chaining them and / or organizing its duration. (Expanded
montage of Aumont [11], p.62).
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 277
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

3. Construction of the Animated Image and Filmed Image

and Their Visuality
The construction of an image in Animation and in live-action Cinema are
very different. As a rule, the Cinema has its images originating from the
capture of a real scene it can be a staging with actors, scene elements,
following a script, but the scene takes place, as on a theater stage. Just like
an image resulting from a photograph, cinema charges its connection with
reality, however absurd its depiction may be. Simply put, there is no way
to unlink the element of reality that the photographic image absorbs [13].
The presence of the actor and his or her movement creates the impression
of reality as the scene unfolds [14]; creates a sense of empathy and resem-
blance to the material world. The fact of seeing the story take place before
your very eyes, the screen acts like a window (as referred to by Bazin [15]),
which allows us to enjoy our role as voyeur.
In Animation, there are many ways to build (this being the appropri-
ate verb) the image. It depends on which technique is used. The Animated
Drawing/Cartoon (drawing on any kind of support, including Rotoscop-
ing, Drawing/Painting on film and 2D, digital drawing); Stop motion
(with sand, clay, puppets, objects, Cutout, Painting on glass, Pixilation,
Pinscreen or Strata-cut8); or three-dimensional computer graphics, 3D are
the principal types.
The verb we chose to use is to build, because everything is actually
built from nothing (drawing is also a kind of construction), the back-
grounds, scenery, props and characters. While in Cinema the character is
embodied by an actor, that needs to be characterized and acted out
(Dramatic Art), in Animation it is drawn, painted, carved, cut, constructed
or modeled, to embody characteristics of personality and production
design of a character. It should be noted that the case of Pixilation is
special, because it also uses actors, and among all the techniques of ani-
mation, it is the one that more closely resembles the look of a live-action
movie, working with dimensions of the real world, and all the production
apparatuses clothing, makeup, scenery and light. However, the actors
have no autonomy, and are expected to behave as if they are puppets,
and are handled as such. Although each technique has its own specific
characteristics.

3.1. Animated Drawing

This technique results from a succession of drawings, in which the positions
are slightly modified to create movement. Such as in any drawing, it is the
animators work registry, of his or her own movement [18]. The drawings
are photographed or scanned to create the continuity of a film (24-30 draw-
ings per second). If the work is drawn directly onto a digital tablet9, these
are computer files (called 2D Animation10). If they are made directly on

8 The Pinscreen was a technique created and developed by Alexander Alexeieff [16] Strata-cut was
developed by David Daniels [17].
9 For example: Thought of You (2011), by Ryan Woodward. https://vimeo.com/14803194
10 It usually works as a Cutout animation hybrid with Animated Cartoon: the characters body is created
in sets that are united by axes, like a paper puppet. So it moves through the motion controls of timeline in
the animation software.
278 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

the film11, this is already the work registry and the work itself (the so-called
cameraless animation). If it is Rotoscoping12, the drawings are made based
upon a previously filmed image as reference.
In animated drawing, the line determines the forms and delimits
areas, creating objects, backgrounds, props and characters from basic
concepts of figure and ground [19]. Through the recognition of what
you see (what is already known), it is possible to identify the lines and
spots as something. This technique is of fluid and flexible nature, and of
easy and rapid adaptation and transformation. The choice of color influ-
ences the emotional impact and this energizes the forms [19] (p. 336). It
is a basic technique every animator learns animation by drawing but
nonetheless very rich in possibilities. The line works on the X and Y (two-
dimensional) planes but in fact, since the Renaissance it has been possible
to create the illusion of three-dimensionality this being the paradox of
the two-dimensional image [20] (p.63). It is possible to create the impres-
sion of three-dimensional for example, with application of layers in the
cartoon image working process, such as the famous multiplane camera of
Disney [21]13.

3.2. Stop Motion

This technique is not an animation drawing, but it is an animated film. It
does not leave a record on paper or digital files that can be edited (as is
the case with 2D animation), but photographic images captured frame by
frame14. It may be considered an active technique, as it is a cannibalis-
tic animation process, because after every picture is taken, the scene is
modified to achieve the next, leaving at the end, just the last one15. Anima-
tions with sand, cutout and paint/clay on glass are produced, in general,
on a table with glass layers, where the image is photographed. Animations
with puppets, objects, and Pixilation are physically three-dimensional,
and require the same care as in a live-action movie, adapted to the scale
of the production: light, photography, scenery, and in the case of puppets
and Pixilation, also the costume design. The movie set needs to be built
as well as the puppets themselves. While it is an industrial production16, it
always will have an element of craft work: sculpting, modeling and sew-
ing, to create a fictional world on a small scale.
In Stop Motion, in the case of animation with sand17 and Painting on
glass18, it results in more fluid, transparent images, with relief, just like in
a painting where the materials are sensitive to the animators touch, and

11 As an example, the short film Two Sisters (1991), by Caroline Leaf. https://www.nfb.ca/film/two_sisters.
12 As Waltz With Bashir (2008), by Ari Folman. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/24745755.
13 The same principle also used by Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967), in an Optical Poem (1937), permitting
the inclusion of depth of field in the two-dimensional image.
14 That can be digitally altered.
15 Lighting Animation is not considered to be as a type of stop motion, because there is no stop-
motion but motion captured with a time-lapse camera.
16 As production Coraline (2009), by Henry Selick, in which the mouths of the characters have been
physically modeled in a 3D digital printer, from a handmade model [22].
17 For example: The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend (1974), by Caroline Leaf: https://www.
nfb.ca/film/owl_who_married_goose.
18 For example: Black Soul (2000), by Martine Chartrand: https://www.nfb.ca/film/black_soul.
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 279
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

the lines and spots are blended. When working with these techniques,
bearing in mind that there are layers of work to be illuminated in order to
add depth to the image, light is a key element, not only highlighting the
image but also allowing for the perception of another component: texture.
While Cutout19 animation (usually made of paper) due to its materiality
is not as flexible, it nonetheless can be folded, torn or cut, in other words
offering ways and means to achieve technical and aesthetic artifice, such
as in Adagio 20(2000), by Garri Bardin.
Puppet animation has the look of a theatrical performance, a puppet
theater without the manipulators. The puppets behave as if they are alive
and are the characters themselves21. A seduction involves this animated
image. Its movement lends the puppet a sense of reality and believability,
as the realization of childrens (and some adults) fantasies, as if you could
see with the eyes what existed only as a fantasy. Object Animation as well as
Pixilation, despite incorporating real world elements, such as filmed image,
can create profoundly provocative images such as in Street of Crocodilles22
(1986), by the Quay brothers; and surreality, as in Luminaris23 (2011), by
Juan Pablo Zaramella.
Pinscreen24 works with the shadows created by the heights of movable
pins on the bottom of the screen. The visual effect is similar to that created
with sand, but the movements are even smoother and more fluid, like
smoke, a kind of animated engraving by pushing and pulling the pins
in a particular way, the image is recorded on the screen. Strata-cut is, of
all Stop Motion techniques, the one that requires the most careful prepara-
tion on the part of the animator. It develops through the successive photos
obtained by cutting a material - such as a fruit. Or it can be extremely
sophisticated as shown by the work in clay, ABC25, by David Daniels for the
film, MoonWalker (1988), by Jerry Kramer. Its images are the result of inner
organization of clay colors, achieved through the slicing of its mass.

3.3. 3D Animation
3D animation is achieved through the creation of ambience, objects and
modeled characters, in a computer virtual environment with X-Y-Z axes
using vector structures, such as 2D animation. It is a mixture of construc-
tion, modeling and sculpture that creates structures and modifies them,
through manipulating simple pre-designed elements of the software
(circles, cubes), or starting from drawing tools, by creating a new structure
(object, environment or character). Images are assembled on the surface
of these elements giving them color, defining shapes and textures these
are called materials , and they may have several features: glow, reflec-
tion, transparency, etc. The movement control is performed through

19 For example: Fado Lusitano (1995), by Abi Feij: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7llQkTrcmAI.

20 This is a paper puppet animated. https://vimeo.com/52857192.
21 For example: Tchaikovsky An Elegy (2011), by Barry Purves: https://vimeo.com/80935923.
22 https://vimeo.com/13348494.
23 https://vimeo.com/24051768.
24 For example: Here and the Great Elsewhere (2012), by Michle Lemieux: https://www.nfb.ca/film/
here_and_the_great_elsewhere.
25 https://vimeo.com/39368085.
280 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

a timeline as in editing software. Through scripts and plug-ins26, it is

possible to automate movements, and to create the most diverse range of
effects, such as crowds [23].
As can be seen in productions such as Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows: Part 127 (2010), by David Yates, or even in The Revenant 28 (2015),
by Alejandro G. Irritu, the potential of visual reality that this tech-
nique offers is absolute. That is, there is no way to differentiate, just by
looking, what was filmed from what was animated. Although it is also pos-
sible to use it to achieve different visual effects, as in Three Brother Story29
(from the same Harry Potter movie).
Furthermore, 3D has a number of characteristics differing from the
previous animation methods. The first is that everything happens at a
distance from the animator. He/she uses specific equipment and artifices
for shaping and sculpting, in an environment that exists only mathemati-
cally. To paint the character and this also applies to 2D he/she does not
use pencil or ink, but tools, buckets of software to fill demarcated areas
by vector lines (mathematics) with color; to model, resulting in no more
dirty hands: he/she handles the virtual mesh with a mouse or digital pen.
There is no more direct contact, but indirect, via mathematical technology.
There is an intermediate factor in this relationship, be it physical or coding.
Numerical figurative techniques [...] replace the real raw origin the
real(ity) that an optical image seeks to represent by a secondary reality,
refined, purified in the crucible of the calculations and of the shaping opera-
tions. [...] It is no longer about deciding to figure what is visible: it is to figure
what is possible to model [25] (p. 58).
If, on one hand technology has been developed to improve human-
kinds life and work conditions, on the other it creates total dependence
in the context of that relationship. Actions are encoded and converted
into numbers, and processed to create the images on the screen which
accounts today for a great majority of imaging art production. As Edmont
Couchot has explained [25] (p. 58), it has become another reality, a syn-
thesized reality, artificial, without material substrate out of electronic fog
of billions of micro-impulses that run through the electronic circuitry of
the computer. Line reality that exists only virtually. In this sense, we can
say that the image-matrix synthesis has no more attachment to reality: it
frees. It brings the logic of representation in the era of simulation.
Such a mathematical logic also does not allow for improvisation,
the common errors in manually-created animation that bring work to
life, a special defect to the scenes, in which case it is the naturalness of
the actual movement that is lost as in Stop motion animations. The com-
puter does exactly what it is ordered to, but in the dynamics of the course
of the animators actions, something more spontaneously can arise.

26 These are small softwares, programs that work in conjunction with other programs in creating image
effects.
27 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzfEH0UPEBo.
28 That utilized an animated bear in 3D and won the 2015 Annie Awards (Character Animation in a Live
Action Production) [24]. The bear sequence: https://vimeo.com/150120476.
29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmEEDyeDv8
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 281
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

4. The Matter of Aura and Simulation

As Walter Benjamin notes, which atrophies in the era of mechanical
reproduction of the work of art is its aura [26] (p. 168), that is, upon its
reproduction the image loses its characteristic of singleness, authenticity.
Both the filmed image as well as the animated image do not have the aura
of a unique work of art, endowed with the authenticity of being original,
because they exist only by as a kind of reproduction. Although, just as
drawings, painted or engraved images, before being reproduced, these
do to a certain extent have the aura of the original and authentic image.
As is the case in the plasterboards left over from the movie, The Night
(1999), by Regina Pessoa.
The fact that Stop Motion animation loses its original (in contrast
to an Animated drawing), makes it appear closer to a theater perfor-
mance, where each presentation, despite being of the same piece, is
unique. Each manipulation of the puppet is a single movement, and if
another take is necessary, it is another manipulation at another time just
like another take in live-action cinema. In other words, in Stop motion (as
in live-action cinema) there is only the photographic registry of being
here according to Barthes (1915-1980) [27] (p. 40), different from the
animated drawings that will always have the drawings or their digital files
to edit.
While in Animation there is a direct control of the animator over the
character, either in a drawing or in the manipulation of materials, in the
case of the live-action movie, the director depends heavily on the actors
talent and concentration to get the desired effect and on other profession-
als for other technical aspects (as happens in animation too).
Animation and live-action Cinema are different ways to create mov-
ing images in the latter, observing the actors movement as it happens,
and then capturing it on camera, but in the case of animation, it is planned
and built gradually.
In fact, there is no animation without simulation. The movement,
scenery, drawings, drawn characters or puppets, everything simulates
something. However in the case of 3D animation, it is a simulation of a
simulation - because the animation itself has a degree of simulation. By
attempting to recreate the real, it creates a hyper-reality, both in the
sense of being art as well as from the point of view of Jean Baudrillard
[28]. Digital is the technological arm, productive and re-productive in
the field of image representation.

5. Fiction and the Naturalist and Connotative Images

Fiction movies, specifically, intend to present something imagined by
someone, consisting of two non-realities: the fiction itself and the way it is
represented (images, objects and actors) [29] (p. 100). Animation mean-
while consists of three non-realities: the fiction of history, the representa-
tion of it, and the life that its elements seem to have: the artificiality of the
movement.
The filmed image can depict a fiction, a real record (as a documen-
tary), and even a non-narrative movie. Animation also can tell a story, it
282 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

can be a documentary such as Waltz with Bashir30 (2009), by Ari Forman

and a non-narrative image when the goal is to create movement, just
simply visual, such as Color Box31 (1937), by Len Lye.
However it is worth noting that according to Aumont, it is necessary
to exclude the possibility of representation [30] (p. 255), so that no one
can understand the relationships of time, succession, cause or conse-
quence of the plans and elements [31] (p. 93), i.e. some kind of narrative.
So it can be concluded that, in most animation work, the depiction of
some kind of narrative is always likely, even if it is unintentional. It is pos-
sible for audience to create some kind of narrative, based on shapes and
the sequence of movements over time for example, simple spots may
look like circles, as in Boogie-Doodle32 (1941), by Norman McLaren.
Live-action and animation movies may have ties to the naturalistic
image. The classic animations of Disney33 and Final Fantasy: The Spirits
Within34 (2001), by Hironobu Sakaguchi, are examples; as well as Martin
Scorseses films, as Taxi Driver35 (1977) and Raging Bull36(1980) - but are
degrees of different reality. They can also provide fantasy images, such
as Spirited Away37 (2001), by Hayao Miyazaki, and A Trip to the Moon38
(1902), by George Mlis.
The point is that, the fact that the filmed image is linked to capturing
something that happened at the level of reality (even if it is an act), this
serves as an anchor, and there is no getting away from the impositions of
the real material. Animation does not suffer from this association, and can
create and invent any situation, environment, history, because its charac-
ters can explode and become alive.
Two highly regarded directors, Norman McLaren and Andrei
Tarkovsky, said the same thing in different ways, each one in relation to
their own art forms. According to McLaren, What happens between
each image is more important than what exists in each image. Anima-
tion is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible interstices that lie
between the frames [32] (p. 21). While Tarkovsky put it this way: The
image [...] becomes truly cinematic when (among other things) it not only
lives in real time, but when the time is also alive inside it, even within each
frame [33] (p . 77).
What is important is what lies in-between frames, just as in writing,
where what really matters is what is between the lines. It is understood that
they refer to a visual aesthetical issue, but there is also a semiotic compo-
nent: images are not the things they represent, but they make use of things
to talk about other things [34] (p. 84). What is out of the picture (often) is
what is really being expressed.

30 The animation tells the story of former combatants of the 1982 Lebanon War.
31 https://archive.org/details/A_Colour_Box
32 https://www.nfb.ca/film/boogie-doodle
33 As Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937), by David Hand. https://vimeo.com/140652114
34 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnE64DbnUzY
35 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxD4-dEzn0
36 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUp6d79WRVI
37 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByXuk9QqQkk
38 https://vimeo.com/1472736
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 283
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

This statement applies as much to Animation, as to live-action Cin-

ema as in films like The Hand39 (1965), by Jiri Trnka, and The Great Dicta-
tor40 (1940), by Charles Chaplin. However Animation, is not so connected
to the real, as live-action Cinema, and so it can transcend this character-
istic much easier. If live-action Cinema, although connected to reality,
is the form of art that mostly links to the imaginary of humankind [35],
Animation which does not have this requirement is the connection
with the imaginary itself. What is seen, and known that is not real, is
naturally abstracted from reality, but finds connection with emotions and
ideas, because what is seen is not real, but continues to speak about things
that exist. In other words, it is possible through Animation, to present
absolutely convincing concepts, feelings, suffering and experiences as in
Aria41 (2001), a puppet animation by Piotr Sapegin, in which the character
of Giacomo Puccinis opera, Madame Butterfly, commits suicide through
dismantling itself.

6. Conclusion
The table below presents a final summary of the comparisons mentioned
in the text:

Table 1. Table of characteristics - Animated image vs live-action image

Characteristics Animated Image Live-action Image
Fundamental basis Movement Montage
Its the result of Optical+Technique+Aesthetic Optical+Photography+
Dramaturgy
The movement Its simulated, created frame by frame Its real, captured by
(captured, scanned or photographed) camera
Works with Static images Real action
Image construc- Everything is created Uses things and actors
tion In representation+in the narrative+in In representation+in
Its fiction is movement the narrative

Possible genres Fiction, Documentary and Experi- Fiction, Documentary

Degree of reality
Degree of connota-
tion
mental (Abstract)
As representation (drawings), is
relative. But as a 3D image, can have
photographic characteristics
As a representation, can be more
direct, less restricted (by logical
thought) and therefore broader
and Experimental
As photographic image
linked to real, its direct
and strong
As photographic image
linked to real, is more
indirect and limited by
the sense of reality.

39 https://vimeo.com/60337657
40 https://vimeo.com/75087018
41 https://www.nfb.ca/film/aria_en
284 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

The movement seen in live-action movies is a record of a real action.

In Animation this is a simulation, and in itself a kind of virtualization,
where it, according to Pierre Lvy [36] (p. 17) is not a dralisation42 [...],
but an identity change, a shift of the ontological center of gravity of the
object considered [], observing that the invention of new speeds is the
first degree of virtualization [36] (p. 23).
In terms of the construction of the images, there is no denying that
the possibility of managing this process is more profound and complete
in Animation than in the live-action Cinema. As an image, the animated
form permits a greater degree of visual and aesthetic integrity, because
it is the result of total creation and construction. In live-action Cinema it
is necessary to incorporate other elements outside the directors control.
Hitchcock said that as a director, waiting for the actors action to move the
action of the scene hed rather not wait for it [37] (p. 92-93). In Animation,
this dependency does not exist.
Every time you need to represent something outside the constraints
of material reality, Animation is used as an effect - which is nothing new, a
tactic having been relied upon since the times of George Mlis. Such is the
case in the Harry Potter series, and Lord of the Rings, among many others.
It is also used as a matter of practical and production economy, as in Life of
Pi43(2012), by Ang Lee. In fact, Manovich is right (already mentioned).
In this context, the use of 3D to create naturalistic environments and
characters has historically created two critical and contradictory situa-
tions. If in the past, the Arts pursued the faithful representation of reality,
mimesis, which was broken by the advent of Photography, today, the main
goal of the virtual representation development of reality is the hyper
-reality of the image for movie pictures considering that the 7th. Art is a
consequence of the advance of Arts and Technology of Modernity and
as a result, we seem to have returned to the past.
If due to Photography, an art/technique that allows reproduction, the
aura was lost with the digital image, what is lost is the snapshot, since the
original no longer exists. In those days, it was an emulsion sensitized by
light, while today it is a digital record (a 0 and 1 file record) that is already
an obtained image encoding (the quality of which depends on the size
and capacity of the camera sensor) and it can be digitally manipulated
indefinitely, generating in every instance another image. As affirmed by
Franois Soulages [38], to plagiarize Koyr, we can say that we have passed
again from a closed world (a picture closed on itself ) to the infinite universe
(an infinitely exploitable and modifiable picture): this is a new Copernican
revolution.
This observation applies to both Animation and live-action Cinema.
Logically such advances permit an economy, speed in production, which
is essential in any profitable business. However, we must be aware of what
happens, and how.
Benjamin declares photography to be the seed of Cinema [39]. While

42 Term from original.

43 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mMN693-F3U
THE CREATION OF ANIMATED AND FILMED IMAGES 285
Eliane Gordeeff eligordeeff@gmail.com

Morin has said that Cinema is the seed of the virtual, taking into account
the entire cinema apparatus - the screen, film camera and projection
and, in 1956, developed a conclusion applicable to both means of creating
a moving image: we are at the very moment in history when reciprocally,
the machine involves and determines, or rather, realizes the essence of
man. [...] The cinema is the mother-machine, imaginary generator, as well
as, it is reciprocally, the imaginary determined by the machine. It came
to settle in the heart of aesthetic, which was considered to be reserved for
individual handmade creations: the division of labor, rationalization and
standardization command the production of films. Even the very word
production has replaced creation[40] (p. 241).

References
1. Denis, Sbastien: O cinema de animao. Edies Texto & Grafia, Lisbon (2007).
2. Manovich, Lev: The language of new media. The MIT Press, London/Massachusetts
(2001).
3. Cholodenko, Alan: The illusion of life II. Power Publications, Sydney (2007).
4. Willoughby, Dominique: Le cinma graphique. ditons Textuel, Paris (2009).
5. Aumont, Jacques: A imagem. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2001).
6. Mascarello, Fernando: Histria do cinema mundial. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2006).
7. Leslie, Esther: Hollywood flatlands: animation, critical theory and the avant-garde.
Verso, London, New York (2004).
8. Metz, Christian: A significao no cinema. Editora Perspectiva, So Paulo (1972) .
9. Irzykowski, Karol: Le royaume du mouvement (1913). In: Banda, Daniel & Moure, Jos:
Le cinma: naissance dun art 1895-1920. ditions Flammarion, Paris (2008).
10. Crafton, D.: Before Mickey: the animated film 1898-1928. The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago (1993).
11. Aumont, Jacques: A esttica do filme. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2008).
12. Koulechov, Lev: Lessence du cinma cest le montage (1920). In: In: Banda, Daniel &
Moure, Jos: Le cinma: naissance dun art 1895-1920. ditions Flammarion, Paris (2008).
13. Barthes, Roland: Cmera clara: nota sobre fotografia. Nova Fronteira Editora, Rio de
Janeiro (1984).
14. Bazin, Andr: O cinema: ensaios. Editora Brasiliense: So Paulo (1991).
15. Bazin, Andr: What is cinema? University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London (1967).
16. Willoughby, Dominique: op. cit.
17. Furniss, Maureen: Art in motion: animation aesthetics. John Libbey &Company Pty,
London, Paris, Rome, Sydney (1998).
18. Graa, M.: Entre o olhar e o gesto: elementos para uma potica da imagem animada.
Editora Senac, So Paulo (2006).
19. Arnheim, Rudolf: Art and visual perception, a psychology of a creative eye. University
of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London (2004).
20. Aumont, Jacques: A imagem. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2001).
21. Furniss, Maureen: The animation bible! Laurence King Publisher: London (2008).
22. http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/09/15/3d-printing-plays-big-role-new-stop-mo-
tion-film-makers-coraline-paranorman/
23. Beck, J. (Ed.): Animation art: from pencil to pixel. Flame Tree Publishing, Londres
(2004).
286 CONFIA . International Conference on Ilustration & Animation
Barcelos. Portugal . June 2016 . ISBN: 978-989-99465-6-9

24. http://annieawards.org/nominees/#10.
25. Couchot, Edmond: De la reprsentation la simulation. volution des techniques
et des arts de la figuration. In: Culture Technique - Images Technique Socit. N22 p.
53-61. Neuilly-sur-Seine (1991). http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/bitstream/han-
dle/2042/32658/C&T_1991_ 22_53.pdf?sequence=1.
26. Benjamin, Walter. A obra de arte na poca de suas tcnicas de reproduo. In: ______.
Magia e tcnica, arte e poltica: obras escolhidas. Editora Brasiliense, So Paulo (1987).
27. Barthes, Roland: O bvio e o obtuso. Edies70, Lisbon (2009).
28. Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacros e simulao. Relgio Dgua, Lisbon (1991).
29. Aumont, Jacques: A esttica do filme. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2008).
30. Aumont, Jacques; Marie, Michel: Dicionrio terico e crtico de cinema. Papirus
Editora, Campinas (2003).
31. Aumont, Jacques: A esttica do filme. Papirus Editora, Campinas (2008).
32. McLaren apud Aumont, Jacques: As teorias dos cineastas. Papirus Editora, Campinas
(2012).
33. Tarkovski, A.: Esculpir o tempo. Livraria Martins Fontes Editora, So Paulo (2002).
34. Joly, Martine: Introduo anlise da imagem. Papirus Editora, Campinas (1996).
35. Morin, Edgar: Le cinma ou lhomme imaginaire, essai danthropologie. Les ditions
De Minuit, Paris (1956).
36. Lvy, Pierre: O que virtual? Editora 34: So Paulo (2007).
37. Truffant, Franois: El cine segn Hitchcock. Alianza Editorial, Madrid (1974).
38. Soulages, Franois: Pour une nouvelle esthtique de limage. Text of the lecture given
at the School of Fine Arts. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. 2009-06-17.
39. Benjamin, Walter: op. cit.
40. Morin, Edgar: op. cit.

View publication stats