ANIME VS AMERICAN ANIMATION Essay Research Paper — страница 4

break into a run by stepping backwards first. If a character is about to become angry suddenly, his facial expression might go through stages before it reaches the pot-boiling point. The principle can be applied to anything, including inanimate objects. A very exaggerated case of this is when Wile E. Coyote walks off a cliff but doesn’t fall down until he realizes he’s standing on thin-air. The viewer already expects Mr. Coyote to plummet to his doom before it happens. However, the anticipation technique is usually very subtle when you’re watching it because it blends so seamlessly and naturally with the animation. This is because this technique is just one of the many techniques which the American artists have mastered and perfected, but the Japanese have not. It is also a

lot more effective than “action lines”. Upon further examination of the anticipation technique, one may find that it is really based off an exaggerated version of one of Newton’s laws that states, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” Who knew that animation could be so scientific? There are a couple of other techniques used in American animation that I should mention because they make animation seem more life-life and pleasurable to the eyes, and also because there is a significant lack of such to be found in Japanese anime. Some of those techniques have to do with something called the “path of action”. This usually has to with where a character starts out, where he should end up, and how he will get there. It’s a little bit like what stage crafting

and camera maneuvering are to live action. I haven’t really seen this task performed as well in anime as it is in American animation. One reason is that American animation uses a technique where the motion of things (especially hands and feet) moves in curves. This is often impossible to do with Japanese animation because of its use of sharp and jagged lines; you have less freedom in movement without contorting the character’s body into some unrealistic shape. On the other hand, curved motion can make the animation seem very fluid and natural — or shall we say, “very animated”. You’ll also notice that in American animation, the time frame of action tends to be parabolic (curved), where the action starts out slow and gets faster until it slows down again. Once again,

this makes the animation seem very smooth and appealing to the eyes, heightening your sense of realism. Another technique used in American animation is called “squash and stretch”. This adds a rubber-effect to the animation. When a force acts upon a body of mass, it either expands it or squeezes it. This makes the object seems real, solid and three dimensional, since the physical reaction conveys weight and mass. Unfortunately, to use this technique, one must work with a roundish body of mass. This means that you can’t use it with drawings based off those jagged lines. You should now be able to see how the “anime style” can be very restrictive and limiting in the long run. American animation comes in different qualities. The animation we see can be divided into two

different styles. Those styles are called “limited animation” and “full animation”. In limited animation, only parts of a character move at any given time. For instance, only the mouth of a character will move while he or she is speaking. This form of animation is often seen in syndicated cartoons or those shown on Saturday mornings. In full animation, almost everything on the screen moves at the same time. The movement is often choreographed with movements of real actors to appear as life-like as possible. This style is used mostly in Disney movies. Still, many animated cartoons which would be classified as limited animation are blending in some full animation techniques. Japanese anime is usually a very extreme case of limited animation. In anime, when one character is

speaking, everything else on the screen will appear as if it has been frozen in time. The other characters will stand in the background like zombies. Even in the American version of this, you will often see that animators still pay attention to small details. Take a closer look and you will see characters blink their eyes and fidget in the background of a regular cartoon. Nobody really notices this when they see it, however the absence of it looks painstakingly clear in anime! Once again, animation is all about movement; even small movements add to the sense of realism. Only Americans seem to understand how important this really is. Perhaps it’s because many of the old-time animators grew up in an era when all animation had to be drawn again and again by each individual frame.