Blog post one - Understanding Media

What is media?

Media is 'the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, that reach or influence people widely.'

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/media

It is used by creators to communicate their ideas to a greater audience and in turn, change the way that we as consumers understand the world around us.

Critical concepts

These are what media is separated by, and in turn

its important to understand what these concepts are and how they work within your discipline. Mine being animation; the concept that I want to be discussing today will be aesthetics, and will be explained using media that is familiar to me and my study of character animation.

Aesthetics

"A term deriving from the philosophical analysis of art, aesthetics refers to insight, expressiveness and beauty in creativity. The use of the term was popularised in the nineteenth century as a means of separating art from craft." referenced from communications and media cultural studies. The book continued to discuss the changing 'quality' that critiques and the creators define aesthetics as in terms of art. As it was once something that followed a rigid formula on what was pretty or sublime. "In the modern to contemporary period, the prevailing belief is that the distinctive identity of art services from unique ability of individual artists to give formal expression to imaginative thought." This is where I am going to introduce my example of Disney's work of the animated films; The lost city of Atlantis and as a recent example, Moana.

The 'Disney' Aesthetic

Now, I know that these films do not really explain much on their own. But why these films can be good examples of Disney's choice of imaginative thought towards the aesthetics that has in time become known as a Disney identity or vibe. (Throughout

this blog I have been adding images from a disney short; Paperman. I can assume that you have subconsciously trying to place why it feels 'familiar'. correct?)

Well art is the aesthetic that im wanting to focus on further as a critical concept that disney has refined in order for their media type; animation. To be more effective in conveying their ideas and beliefs through children orientated narratives.

An art decision that Disney shows in terms of its aesthetic and why their animations are so iconic is the the line 'weight' and character skeleton breakdown.

This may be a foreign concept for those outside of art or animation; however line weight is the strength, heaviness or darkness of the line. These considerations accompanied with a characters skeleton breakdown to the lines, gives the character a different appearance.

As such any movements these characters then perform appear to have variant 'force' behind their movement. my favourite way to see the differences is between the bodies line art and the hair. in Atlantis the characters have a distinctive shape and the line art is clearly shown with dark browns and greys. (never black as it gives off an unatural feel for a character with lighter skin or colours.) The hair on the other hand is always overly detailed but lined with thinner and lighter lines. so the way they flow feels 'light'. The skeleton breakdown for Disney characters has a similar structure for each character, with the focus always being the face and how expressive the eyes can be.

And to assist me to continue to show that Disney has stuck with this artistic aesthetic over time, if you take a look at the appearance of the characters in current day 3d films. Moana for example. The characters models follow a similar body structure with the eyes being the most expressive and often enlarged to emphasise any of their expressions.

Aesthetics in relation to animation?

It is actually similar to one of the twelve principles of animation that we are taught during our introduction to animation and the history of the discipline. Which is appeal; Appeal does not mean 'cute or charming' and all characters need to have some form of appeal, whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, is about if the character is easy to read the design of, has clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience's interest.

Appeal and and this Artistic aesthetic is used by creators at Disney to assist in communicating their ideas to a greater audience through their characters and in turn, change the way that we as consumers understand the world around us.

Thanks for reading!

references ----

Moodle-sae-au.axis.navitas.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018, from https://moodle-sae-au.axis.navitas.com/pluginfile.php/393405/mod_resource/content/1/Communication%2C%20Media%20and%20Cultural%20Studies%20Key%20Concepts.pdf

paperman character sheets - Google Search. (2018). Google.com.au. Retrieved 16 February 2018, from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=paperman+character+sheets&safe=active&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjArtGZvsXZAhXHUbwKHUApAFcQ_AUICigB&biw=1153&bih=667&dpr=2#imgrc=F7jvh01wkrAm_M:

Moodle-sae-au.axis.navitas.com. Retrieved 20 February 2018, from https://moodle-sae-au.axis.navitas.com/pluginfile.php/393406/mod_resource/content/1/Critical%20Terms%20for%20Media%20Studies.pdf