Technologies replace technologies. Printing books with woodcuts was supplanted by photographic reproduction, opening possibilities for authentic reproduction of art and color. As the camera became a new means for capturing reality, artists sought to visualize as yet uncaptured effects, giving rise to Impressionism, Expressionism; modern art, which is the only art the majority of people today are aware of.
Now that computers have come to replace traditional cel technologies in the arena of Disney-style features and mainstream TV, it’s the new artist’s job to reach into their imaginations to find out and do what computers cannot. It doesn’t provide a cushy job. The pioneers of technologies, the barrier breakers, had to work before their goals became industries. Those come after the goal is achieved.
Today's animated narratives are entering stagnation; I am not picking on their quality, but I do think they will stick in the same groove for a while. (And how many people REALLY enjoyed working on them in the first place?)
We enjoy and learn from the traditional, but the means that created it cannot be wished back. It can be an unsettling thing for anyone to do, but I feel animation and cartooning can enter a new realm with a creator’s unafraid search into their own minds to find the visions only one person has, their personal perceptions and truths, unrestrained by the vocabulary of yore. New visions, new means, new truths, a new experience. Computers cannot create those. They’re just great conduits.
I’m not just blowing smoke. I have my own ideas and goals. Scary? Hell, yes, but some brave caveman has to break the world out of this Dark Age. Maybe it's you.
Jaw-juttingly Yours, MK
COPYRIGHT 2014 BY MILTON KNIGHT
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