While the commercial market for narrative animation developed largely, especially with cartoons, abstract animation has always been a constant over time. Abstract drawing animation allows for animators to tell stories while expanding possibilities of 2-D animation. They do this by creating different mediums of 2-D animation or push existing materials to new level or use those materials in a new method.
Pinscreen animation, a newly introduced form of 2-D animation, pushed animation to create a new highly realistic black and white, chiaroscuro aesthetic. Sand animation was also a new form of animation to push how animation could be created. Paint on glass animation already existed for special effects on animation that used a multi-plane. Animators used this method for a specific aesthetic and used it in largely abstract methods. With these new animation techniques, animators also reimagined rotoscoping techniques to use not only to copy people’s movements, but also use to copy dynamic camera movements and make rotoscope animation more interesting to watch.
These new types of animation have similarities: straight-ahead animation. While pose-to-pose animation requires the animator to be able to revisit frames that have been established and even revise them to be able to draw in-betweens. But, straight-ahead animation means that actions are more fluid allowing for a smoother transition of thoughts as often seen in abstract animation.
Eunhae Mary Park
ANIM223 - HISTORY OF ANIMATION - FALL 2019 