2016首届中国动画学年会嘉宾发言辑要（之六）

会议地点：成都大学学术交流中心

会议时间：2016年11月19-20日

组织机构：

指导单位

中国动画学会                          

中国电影家协会动画电影工作委员会     

国际动画协会中国分会（asifa-china）  

亚太动画协会（中国区）              

中国动漫集团                       

    主办单位

成都大学

《当代电影》杂志社

    承办单位

四川动漫研究中心

成都大学美术与影视学院

成都大学动画学院

学术主持：郭春宁

论坛嘉宾：birgitta hosea

题目：creative actuality: modes of animated documentary

since the advent of the personal computer has made animation techniques accessible to a wider range of practitioners, perceptions about what animation is have been changing. no longer simply a medium of storytelling for children, as it was traditionally seen, animation has now expanded into many other disciplines.

this presentation will focus on animations that draw upon actuality and lived experience to form their subject matter. using bill nichol’s concept of ‘modes of documentary’, it will consider examples from animated documentaries made at the royal college of art to illustrate different strategies for the creation of non-fiction animated films.

birgitta hosea女士个人简介：

dr birgitta hosea is an artist and curator who works in the field of expanded animation. she has exhibited widely in the uk and internationally, has been the recipient of numerous awards and artists residencies and her work is included in the tate britain archive. birgitta is head of animation at the royal college of art. she was formerly course director of ma character animation at central saint martins (university of the arts london), where she gained her phd in animation as performance. she has published a number of academic articles and book chapters and her research interests include animation as a post-medium practice; drawing; digital materiality; performance and liveness. she keeps a blog at http://expandedanimation.net.

birgitta hosea 是艺术家、动画家和策展人，致力于拓展动画的边界。她出生于爱丁伯格，如今主要工作生活在伦敦。她从事艺术创作、表演设计、网站设计和动画，也是adobe的示范艺术家。她的作品在英国和全世界范围内展出，获得了很多奖项并入选多个艺术驻留。她的作品也被英国泰德美术馆收藏。她最近参与了阿塞拜疆的现代艺术驻留和洛杉矶的南加州大学艺术驻留。她策划并参与了多个国际展览，包括深圳的城市双年展。她最近的展览包括意大利的威尼斯双年展，美国洛杉矶的cinematic画廊展，法国巴黎的现代艺术中心展览以及在美国纽约的实验电影节展览。

    她如今是英国皇家艺术学院的动画专业主任，并担任博士生导师。此前她曾任英国圣马丁艺术学院动画硕士主任。她撰写了多篇学术论文，其绘画、动画和现场表演作品可见http://expandedanimation.net

学术主持：郭春宁

论坛嘉宾：corrie francis parks

题目：shifting sands: contemporary trends in powder animation   

the mysterious art of sand animation is a technique to which i have deep personal connections as a practitioner, and also one which represents the broader global trends of hybridization and handcrafted process in the animation field. this adoption of hybridity has brought a renewed interest to the technique, both for animator and for audiences. in this paper, i will give a brief overview of the technique and the common traits seen in historical and contemporary films that are sourced from the unique properties of powdered material. then i will discuss contemporary trends in the practice of this technique, based on new technology and accessibility. the source of this research is from my own practice as an independent filmmaker cross-referenced with historical investigation and interviews with contemporary artists practicing powder animation techniques. further discussion of the production process within the historical and contemporary context of landmarks films can be found in my book fluid frames: experimental animation with sand, clay, paint, and pixels (crc press, 2016).

first, a brief overview of the technique as it has been and is practiced by animators. in the sand animation studio, you will most often find a light table with the sand (or salt, or coffee, etc.) on top of a sheet of glass or plexiglas. a camera mounted above the light table captures images as the animator moves the material in a stop-frame method. most animators today will use a frame capture program such as dragonframe, to capture and review the animation as they are producing it. an animator will use a variety of tools to create the images, paint brushes, sieves, feathers, pointed sticks, and cone-shaped tubes, but the most important tool is the hands. touching the sand provides an immediate connection with the material, its volume, its texture, its warmth from the light below, create an atmosphere of creative flow, opening the mind to experimentation, flexibility and risk-tolerance. this experimental frame of mind, catalyzed from the physical qualities of the material, ultimately gives rise to some of the common aesthetic traits we seen both in historic sand animation films and in contemporary practice.

a survey of historical sand animation will show some of these common traits while also exhibiting the stylistic variances between different artists. the fist common trait is the dominance of monochromatic imagery. looking at work by sand pioneers from the 1970s, nag and gisèle ansorge from switzerland, caroline leaf and eli noyes, from the united states, one can see an almost exclusive use of black and white design within their varied personal styles. later in their career, the ansorges experimented with colored gels for backgrounds in le chat (1975), a technique we also see in richard quade’s film sand dance (1988). polish animator aleksandra korejwo developed a method of animating with colored salt, but the majority of sand films, even those created after the widespread adoption of digital post-production, are monochromatic.

a determining factor in this monochromatic approach is that sand is a silhouette technique. in fact, one of the first documented uses of sand was in lotte reiniger’s the adventures of prince achmed (1926). walter ruttman used sand to create special effects and transformation behind reiniger’s animated paper cut-outs.[ starr, cecile, and robert russett. experimental animation: origins of a new art. new york, ny: da capo, 1988. 77.] one of the unusual aspects of sand is that it can function as both a three-dimensional and a two-dimensional material. because there is a physical amount of material on the glass, the artist can manipulate its volume, piling it up and spreading it thin. the form of this three-dimensional pile becomes flat when photographed, allowing for strong silhouettes and fluidly morphing shapes.

despite the seemingly tedious nature of sand animation, it can be moved quite quickly, especially in an abstract context, so it is ideal for transformations. because the image is one continuous evolution, we often see a stream-of-consciousness approach to the narrative structure. this is particularly evident in many of the ansorge’s films, in which fantastic creatures are connected through morphs. hungarian animator ferenc cakó also uses transformations to great effect in his philosophical films on the human condition. in ab ovo, (1987) and nest (1997) cakó presents detailed drawings in the sand which rapidly transform, leading the viewer into a visual experience of interwoven intellect. in these early sand animation films, the artists are not overly concerned with realistic movement, but instead focus on the overall flowing of the material through its transformations. as gisèle ansorge advises, “i don't want to recommend this technique to perfectionists… on the contrary, it is great for those with some fantasy, amateurs of the unexpected, and those who are impressed by the impulses of a fleeting second.”[ starr and russett. 77.] we see the artists employ limited animation and strategic holds, moving only one part of the image to save time and effort.  often there is no background at all and the sand exists in an infinite white space, as in caroline leaf’s the owl who married a goose (1974). the sliding, shifting nature of the sand is at the forefront of the audience’s experience, as is the pure light coming from behind it. a sand artist may choose to make the sand the positive image, or allow the sand to cover the full frame and become the negative space, pulling the positive from the very light itself. leaf manipulated both aspects masterfully in the owl who married a goose, switching from a positive dominant design to a negative dominant design halfway through the film. we see this also in leaf’s the metamorphosis of mr. samsa, (1977) as the sand becomes the negative material in gregor’s dark room, and the positive material in the world outside his isolation.

the final aspect evidenced across sand animation films is the artist’s reference to the material and process itself. when the sand is thinly spread on the glass it is receptive to many different forms of mark-making, particularly the marks of fingers and hands. texture can be created through a variety of tools, but it is also inherent in the grain itself, so artists are particular about the size and grain quality. the ansorge’s used ground quartz sand dyed with black ink, aleksandra korejwo has her specific recipe for dying salts, and caroline leaf used beach sand from her childhood vacation spot in massachusetts. working directly under the camera, the artists never fully disappear because we see their decisions in every frame. “it's like doing a performance because you do it once and that's it. it’s sort of nerve-wracking, but you do it at a speed where you can control it and feel good about it,”[ leaf, caroline. telephone interview. 26 mar. 2014.] says caroline leaf of the process. the mark of the hand connects with our primordial desire to dig in the dirt, so it is not uncommon to see the hand of the artist physically on the screen at some point in the work, or a revelation of the material during the end or opening credits. the recent popularity of sand animation performances indicate that audiences are not only interested in the story and visual qualities of a film, but are fascinated by the artistic process and gain added meaning when they see a glimpse into the artist’s creative practice.

now let us move to the new generation of sand animators and new applications of the medium. previously, artists shot on film, but now nearly everyone in stop motion is shooting with a digital camera. the transformation of a physical grain of sand into a digital pixel has caused an evolution and a revolution that is currently expanding the creative applications of this mysterious material.

what attracts artist to the medium now is the same: the texture, the transformation, the high-contrast of positive and negative, and above all the primordial desire to dig in the dirt. artists that have grown up in the digital era, or those who have successfully transitioned from film to digital, are embracing the desire to maintain a connection to physical processes. most of what defines sand animation is still there: the obsession with texture, with light and dark, transformation and mark making. what has changed is the attainability of perfection.

australian animator marieka walsh explains, “working on 35mm, i never saw anything until the negative was processed and at that point i was just happy the film processed okay. now i become dissatisfied with the animation really quickly. but it has allowed me to improve my animation and add more detail. i have much more confidence.”[ walsh, marieka, telephone interview, 16 may 2013.] walsh’s animation is highly detailed, with life-like movement across the entire frame and fine tonal renderings of intricate scene. for her film the crossing, walsh closely followed live action reference footage for the movement of the characters. although this sometimes took her over 30 minutes to do one frame, the painterly quality of the material is exhibited as never before.

with reference video, and the ability to rotoscope through various software programs, the tradeoff between detailed movement and detailed drawing is no longer so high. this safety net makes the process less intimidating to the animator and to the commercial investor. now we begin to see more sand animation in paid commercial works because the work can be visualized and revised before the time is invested in creating the final animation. in the advertisement tim horton’s coffee art (2013), director alan poon and animator dale hayward animated the entire sequence on paper to pre-visualize the ad for the client. they were then able to proceed with intricate coffee animation on a tight production schedule with the confidence that the end result would be approved.

often sand animation is assigned as an exercise in stop-motion classes at universities, so students become aware of the technique through their formal training. with the accessibility of this relatively inexpensive technique, it is more common for character animators to venture into sand animation. these animators have brought a new style of movement to the medium. in his film zepo (2015), cesar diaz melendez applies subtle character animation techniques developed through years of working as a traditional and stop-motion animator on feature film productions. the characters are full of life, moving with the dynamic timing and poses of hand-drawing animation, but with an added textural quality from the sand. this new generation also brings a level of digital fluency to the medium through compositing and physical-digital hybridity. canadian philippe vaucher separates characters from background layers during shooting and uses adobe after effects to seamlessly composite the layers together. my own film, a tangled tale (2013), incorporates watercolor and ink layers as well as digital hand-tinting of the sand to create a vibrant colorful underwater environment. this digitally layered approach eliminates the need for a multiplane, though it does come with its own set of technical problems. digital compositing also allows sand to invade more traditional forms of animation. in pilots on the way home (2014), priit & olga p?rn integrate cycling textures of sand onto hand-drawn animation to create an atmospheric environment for their narrative.

in summary, the new generation of sand animators have embraced the material for the unique qualities it has always exhibited. recent films maintain an awareness of the individual grain, seen in texture and tone. animators approach the sand table as sculptors of light, manipulating positive and negative spaces. we still find moments of fluid thought seen in morphs and transitions and loose narrative structure, even as there is a tightening of control over the individual grain and the precision of movement. embracing this uncontrollable material requires flexibility and acknowledging the undeniable presence of the artist. ultimately, the magic of sand is in the material itself and we are just at the beginning of the discoveries this animation technique has to offer.

corrie francis parks女士个人简介：

美国马里兰大学巴尔的摩分校,视觉艺术、动画／交互媒体系助理教授

assistant professor university of maryland, baltimore county department of visual arts, animation/interactive media

于2001年和2006年获得常春藤联盟达特茅斯学院的动画本科学位，及南加州大学的电影、视频和数字动画硕士学位。她独立创作了多部沙画作品，如a tangled tale、snow、tracks及综合媒体动画conversing with aotearoa、手绘动画for the masses; 与kelley bell合作作品bay bingo、projected aquaculture。