The Case for Abstract Animation

This year, on 21-23 March, AUT held its inaugural animation festival: Animation Revelations. Due to a hectic schedule I only managed to attend two of the many events offered.

© Photo copyright Zak Waipara 2013. Pass from the festival.

One of these was the animation programme titled The Case for Abstract Animation. Though I am still interested in both experiencing and creating more overt forms of narrative, I have also become intrigued with the possiblities of other, less literal, narratives, particularly with regard to motion graphics. I present here, in paraphrased form, some notes I managed to take from the introduction to the screening. 

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Malcolm Turner, the curator of the festival, described abstract animation as a subset of the animation field, a specialist area but important nonetheless. In his opinion, creative indie auteur animation is the pinnacle of human animation, which provides a pathway for animators and audiences trying to push the artform. Turner believes that everybody who works in the general field produces something that has the whiff of abstract animation about it - even the most obvious forms of animation have this quality about them - and yet most animators try to create the opposite: striving for the hyper-real. He noted that animation takes a lot of effort, and each animator has only a few films inside them, so they need to be judicious with time and resources. Turner described abstract animation as the R & D engine room of the animation world, and discussed how this practice examines the limits of the cinema frame, and teaches us how the frame can be breached by the power of imagination. 

Blurb from the programme.

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I agree with Turner that experimental cinema of this kind takes risks and can produce unexpected results. And the analogy of an R & D engine room shows how these experiments often find their way back into the mainstream via the intersection of art and commerce. For example, Shynola, a collective I referenced in my Honours exegesis, used the techniques of direct animation based film-making (as pioneered by such artists as Len Lye) to produce the Scott Pilgrim film titles. They also employed remix, delving into student era work to add a sense of realism to their technique. It’s amazing to see that in a cyclical way, this kind of work has found a voice again. It always used to feature in film festivals’ animation programmes - what I used to refer to (with tongue in cheek) as ‘squiggly line films’.

© copyright Tumanako Productions 2010.

I have been fortunate to have the chance to work with a different type of abstract animation inside of a documentary format: Powhiri: Welcome or Not. My animation was more formal and geometric in its approach, drawing as it did from Maori patterns, and it was also influenced heavily by motion graphic design techniques. I was able to work in this fashion due to the director Kay Ellmers, who saw the possibilities that such abstract forms held for offering new storytelling techniques for more mainstream projects. 

Motion design seems to be well suited to employ aspects of experimental animation, situated as it is inside so many disciplines. As such, this is an area worthy of further investigation.

The Fulfilment of Creative Possibility

As I stated in my very first post on this blog, my Honours project Recollect was a proof of concept into the possibilities of using remix, and my contention was that the remix process is a useful improvisational creative methodology for the digital media practitioner. Why is this the case? 

I found that using remix created all the parameters for the project. For example, some way had to be found to glue an amount of unused illustrative material together in a cohesive fashion. Remix for me enabled this. Genres were determined by assembling and grouping the material by theme. The illustrative bent determined situating the work inside a motion graphic approach. The short duration nature of motion design suggested working without overt narrative, and emphasising style instead. It became important to use all the unused material and seek creative solutions to make sure every piece found a home somewhere. The continued success of this practice meant reaching back even further into the past to repurpose an old unused motif which eventually helped segue between scenes.

Motif. © Copyright Zak Waipara

But these unused pieces by themselves were not enough material to create a whole universe of side-by-side genres. So I returned to the drawing board and the computer, and created all new material to help hide the joins. As a result, that single unused motif morphed into a plethora of variations.

Motif variations. © Copyright Zak Waipara

This process gave rise to discoveries, as new digital techniques and solutions emerged. Using remix was a way to spark creativity, offering unconventional ways of thinking. This was an altogether freeing process, such as dispensing with plot and character, as I was very interested in leaving literal narrative to one side for the moment. 

During my digital design undergraduate years, I got to experiment with narrative form in 2D and 3D animation, but also with more abstract motion graphics, and in some cases abstract narrative sitting inside and next to more overt narrative. This heralded the beginnings of using remix and self-sampling, though I wasn’t defining it as such back then.

© Copyright Tama Waipara

One of these experiments with narrative culminated in a year long music video project that I put together in third year. This involved remix and self-sampling. The genesis came from an illustration style I tried that proved successful and a song, Leaving Paradise, my musician brother had composed.

This project was actually the second iteration of the video (using a different iteration of the song). It built upon the earlier attempt of two separate animations put together in Flash and was finally improved upon in After Effects. Interestingly, one of the remix practitioners (Bent TV) I referenced in my finished Honours thesis did an almost similar thing with the Star Wars Gangsta Rap. It was a chance for that team to make improvements upon an earlier work: the first version and second version.

Though my music video is not currently online, some snippets can be seen at 2:31 and 4:25 at this link here (scroll down) advertising the Digital Design Dept of AUT.

First and second versions (literal narrative). © Copyright Zak Waipara

The chance to re-train allowed me to assess my own learning style – to find out firsthand what works and what doesn’t. Not all teaching styles suit every student, and not all students learn in exactly the same way. This may not be apparent to the novice who goes straight from high school to tertiary training. In the same way, working and researching in a post-graduate arena allows the practitioner to assess their own working style. What is a consistent pattern or methodology that keeps appearing in the work and what design processes offer interesting areas of investigation? 

For me, remix keeps popping up for one thing. Different narrative approaches hold great appeal, such as this idea of abstract vs. literal. This led to a desire to break new personal storytelling ground using a multi-genre non-literal approach. Innovation often occurs when you explore where the boundaries of a discipline lie and then cross over them. Deliberate cross-pollination is another creative strategy full of possibility, given that it had worked for me in the undergraduate years, and again in my Honours year.

First and second versions (abstract narrative). © Copyright Zak Waipara

Much of what occurred was surprising in its discovery, but it was contingent on first remaining open to serendipity. When you find a methodology that works, you should take the chance to pursue it to its fullest extent, especially if it proves to be creatively fulfilling.

Information Hierarchy

One of my duties, when I worked as an editorial graphic artist, was researching, writing and designing information graphics. Infographics tend to be simple things like charts, graphs, tables etc., and this is true where space is an issue, editorially speaking. But occasionally, when given the opportunity, I was able to create infographics on a really large scale.

The easiest way to explain what they are is by showing some examples. This example below was uploaded onto the Herald website (since expired) and then quickly re-posted by a Brazilian Lord of the Rings fan (almost 11 years ago).

Follow the link above for a hi-res version. © copyright NZ Herald.

This is another example below, which shows the third in a series of Matariki infographics. The first two were eventually combined, licensed and sold as a poster through the Stardome Observatory store. This link seems like it might be an attempt to do something similar. I suppose it says something about the appeal of the work, that they’re still trying to leverage money off of it, long after I’ve left. 

Follow the link above for a hi-res version. © copyright NZ Herald.

Still, I’m proud of the work I got to produce during this period, especially as I began generating my own editorial projects rather than just being handed them by someone else. A small portfolio of my infographic examples can be viewed here. What I discovered through this process is that anything can be adapted into a infographic, given the right angle, and it helps if it happens to be topical. In addition a good infographic is more than just a visual artifact, it actually contains a written article inside it, constructed like any piece of journalism, requiring careful research and considered, pared back writing. Working on these kinds of projects helped me to develop good editing instincts, and I was always careful to reference my sources. 

All design and visual communication employs a principle known as the hierarchy of information. Put simply, the most important items are signposted (using size, location, colour, contrast) in such a way to make the eye look at this object first. In infographics this hierarchy is made more explicit, in that numbers, arrows, icons, and other items are employed to make it absolutely clear where to start – and the information is often broken down into easily understood steps. This technique is also shared by the language of comics - which uses sequential panels to break the story down into digestible parts, and uses composition (and artwork inside panels) to lead the eye around the page in the correct sequence. Infographic design also often uses comic storytelling as one of its communication tools (such as those found in airline safety instruction sheets). Furthermore infographics use a mix of words and pictures, just as comics do. 

For my Masters project, one of the purposes of employing transmedia will be the dissemination of specific knowledge, by way of storytelling. As well as using infographic elements in the game section, I plan to use the hierarchy principle in the e-comic portion of the project. The most obvious example will be hierarchical comic storytelling, that all comic artists employ (often unconsciously) to tell the story in the most interesting and/or logical way possible. The second use will be inspired by infographic design, which will play a small yet intrinsic part in this dissemination of information. So (even in only a small way) this project will explore comics using infographics, just as infographics sometimes employ comics.

The Persistence of Memory

The mind is a curious thing. In going through an old proposal for my final undergraduate year dated 8 March 2008, I re-discovered the following description for a possible second project:

Excerpt from an unused project proposal. © copyright Zak Waipara.

My first project (for third year) ended up being an animated music video, the second became a series of animated logo motion graphics in the style of corporate idents. Though I don’t recall writing the above excerpt, it is a very close (though not exact) description for my Honours project Recollect (which I began some four years later). The only thing missing was an intention to use remix. It was also during the course of my undergraduate studies, that I encountered these two ideas, remix and deep remixability, that especially resonated with me as a graphic designer retraining as a digital designer.

The central conceit of the story in Recollect was about diving into the imagination of an unseen protagonist. This takes place inside an industrial hangar that accesses ‘ideaspace’. Ideaspace as a term was conceptualised by writer Alan Moore as a hypothetical, mutually accessible, collective mindscape, where ideas have physical form. In this particular story, this notion has been adapted as a localised ideaspace for a specific person and the purpose of entering it is to gather up a set of image sequences that represent creative memories of the protagonist. There are nine motion graphic sequences, each representing a genre – and informed in their conception and style by conventions from influential films, stories, animations and music often recalled from my childhood and adolescent years. As each memory sequence is collected, a countdown begins starting from nine to zero, effectively kick-starting a creativity reboot. The rationale behind the whole story was that we go forward creatively by drawing from the past – a key tenet of the remix manifesto.

Screen grab from the Science-fiction styled motion graphic. © copyright Zak Waipara.

When I started putting together the Honours proposal at the end of 2011, I thought I was working with a completely new concept. The previously proposed multi-genre idea must have embedded itself in my sub-conscious, percolated away in the background, and re-emerged to be re-used as the ideal vehicle to apply remix and remixability. It seems utterly appropriate that a story about retrieving memories was the result of exactly that, albeit in an unconscious fashion.

From Remix to Transmedia via Self Sampling

So much of the discourse about remix relates to the sampling of other people’s material, that the idea of applying remix to your own work becomes lost. However within remix culture, there exists a sub-genre known as self sampling (also referred to as self-appropriation and self-copying). It is a methodology by which practitioners remix their own work, investigating in an iterative fashion material from any point in their career, and transmute it into new forms. By using self-sampling you can sidestep contentious issues of copyright infringement. 

Self-sampling is such a useful way of working, because it gives you a chance to improve on ideas that maybe didn’t work the first time around, and re-do them in new ways. You can apply it to a multitude of separate ideas, that individually wouldn’t be strong enough to stand alone; and by bringing them under the umbrella of one project via remix, create something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a way of realising the creative potential inherent in any idea, no matter how old or intially unworkable.

Still from remixed Travelogue-styled motion graphic. © copyright Zak Waipara.

So how could this work in my Masters project, when applying self-sampling to transmedia? As in my previous Honours project, self sampled material forms the jumping-off point from which to choose the various forms the story might take. Storytelling is then divided amongst those forms, with each form providing different strengths and avenues. Various iterations of my personal projects have already undergone this kind of treatment, when I was re-training in the field of digital design. Now I am applying this logic to a new comic project. For example, the following comic page came about through imagining how I would treat a particular scene, if it were an animation rather than a flat page of artwork.

A work-in-progress comic page. © copyright Zak Waipara.

Initially I had planned to open the scene on just the bird’s eye shot, looking down on the landscape. Thinking about it as an animation instead seemed to suggest a camera swooping low over the sea, toward an island growing steadily closer. The final layout is a combination of the two ideas and makes for a more interesting composition overall. If we enlarge on this idea across multiple platforms, it actually requires a different way of thinking, especially if you are planning a transmedia approach from the start rather than just adapting an existing work. Preparation is key... 

When working in the opposite direction, from static images to motion design, information inherent in the static picture will suggest what techniques and camera moves to use, and what changes to make in adapting one to the other. This may involve creating new artwork to supplement the existing art. Working in divergent media actually creates different perspectives, and that can result in art and story choices that you may not have intially considered, if you weren’t applying transmedia techniques.

Remix and the Art of Genre-blending

In the last post, I discussed how the remix process led to using an array of different genres side-by-side inside one single project. Genre is used as a shorthand term to define the theme of each piece, as genre theory suggests that audience familiarity with established genre conventions can be used to bypass long character and plot setups and concentrate on the style. This was important for my project given that most motion graphics are short in duration.

Some thought then had to be given to how a multi-genre approach might work. The first solution was to create an overarching spine to hold the whole thing together. This was achieved by having a beginning and end that takes place inside the same space – essentially finishing where it began. This left the larger middle section to deal with. I decided to position the nine motion graphic narratives in reverse chronological order, starting with the most futuristic descending toward the distant past, borrowing an idea (from Red Dwarf) that as the universe heads toward a second big bang, time begins to run backward. In my story, this big bang was re-imagined as a creativity reboot.

The nine genres. © copyright Zak Waipara

The timeline was simply a way to organise these motion graphic genres logically. I also developed a series of icongraphic motifs (in theme), one for each motion graphic. Furthermore these motifs were embedded within each scene and their recurrence was designed to help the audience segue seamlessly between genres.

Triptych from the Western styled motion graphic. © copyright Zak Waipara

In addition to situating different genres side by side, one or more were mashed together to form a kind of hybrid genre (in remix culture this is referred to as a mash-up). Genre-mashing seems to be a natural outgrowth of using remix with narrative. So not only can material forms be merged, but ideas and themes can be hybridised as well.

Screen grab from the Steampunk styled motion graphic. © copyright Zak Waipara

All in all, I was surprised at how successfully this worked, so much so that I hope to apply this multi-genre idea again to a new project in future, only one that will have to take place beyond the current Masters’ transmedia project!

Recollect and the Remix Process

Returning to the earlier topic of my honours project, I thought I would post some more visual examples of my work and talk about the context behind them.

The discipline of motion graphics was a useful field to situate the project within. This is because the unused work being repurposed was all illustrative, whether completely finished pictures or simple concept sketches in a diary. So it had a strong illustrative bent. One of my goals was to take implied narrative, suggested by static single images, and create overt narrative by adding motion, depth and time (among other things, such as visual effects).

The boundary between animated film and motion design remains indistinct. According to MotionPlusDesign, the difference lies in whether characters express themselves directly. The exact definition remains the focus of some argument amongst practitioners due to its all encompassing parameters. But this broadness is perfect for dealing with animation that is not strictly cel animation. This kind of work is made possible of course through the use of software, in this case Adobe After Effects.

The remix process (in this instance) works quite differently to a normal animation pipeline. In general the animation pipeline is a streamlined and well-tested method, to smoothly move from beginning to end. It begins with an initial concept and proceeds through the various stages of scriptwriting, concept art, storyboarding, animatics (rough animations based on the scanned storyboards), and an intensive production phase, leading to the finished work (see Animation Pipeline video below - an excerpt from a motion graphic presentation made for my Honours seminar).

Animation Pipeline: © copyright Zak Waipara on Vimeo.

By contrast, the remix process starts without a specific guiding concept, but begins by assembling material and asks ‘What do I have?’, and ‘What can I do with it?’. (see Remix Process video below - another excerpt from a motion graphic presentation made for my Honours seminar).

Remix Process: © copyright Zak Waipara on Vimeo.

In my own project, given that the raw material was created in a variety of styles, and loaded with meaning from their prior context, some way to link them all was required in order to create a cohesive motion graphic series. When gathered and compared, some illustrations seemed to naturally group together into themes. What determined the theme were a few key pieces that strongly suggested a particular genre, and once decided, other pieces could be altered to fit. One thing that became apparent early on is that time spent creating motion graphics is disproportionate to the final runtime of the product. When remix is added to the process this increases even further. A significant amount of time was spent on the repurposing stage, which was possibly more time-consuming than just starting afresh: the work was physically altered, by way of changing colours, redrawing sections, adding or removing material, and separating into layers (where the material existed in a digital form). When a file had disappeared, or if it were an unused sketch, then it had to be built from scratch.

Screen grab from the 50s Horror genre motion graphic.© copyright Zak Waipara.

Despite this, the melding of disparate pieces worked remarkably well. In the end nine distinct genres emerged. I plan to post more examples of artwork from each of these genres later on...