WWW and Animation

In the following paper, I’ll review and analyze two chapters from Anne Spalter’s book The Computer in the Visual Arts. In these two chapters, “2D and 3D Animation and Video” and “The World Wide Web,” Spalter shows us the history and evolution of the internet and computer animation. We all can remember our first experience with the World Wide Web, but who remembers early animation on the computer? At the time of this book’s publication, people were designing with animation and 3D on the web and for movies and TV, but the limitations restricted the output. Today those limitations are not an issue.

Chapter twelve, “The World Wide Web,” shows how from the late 1960’s to the late 1990’s the invention of early networking, Internet Protocol, NSF-NET, e-mail, LANs, ISPs, text based links, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, animations, and Virtual Reality Modeling evolved. Advancement of the web was much like software: the faster the processors got and the bigger the storage capacity got, the bigger and faster the internet got. Artists, architects, and designers not only can display their work but sell, commission, and even develop their projects and products. All new careers developed with the web’s uprising, most being a combination of computer scientist and designer. Creating web design, digital graphic design, and web programming all have grown in demand due to the growth of the internet. This led to new software developed just for the creation of web sites. Two of the most popular 3D interactive design softwares are Java and Flash. “The World Wide Web changes every day. The vision of a communal, graphic, interaction 3D cyberspace often is clearly articulated… its promise is great and its progress is rapid” (Spalter, 1999, p. 435). The web has gotten faster, bandwidths have grown, and higher resolution images and movies can be currently viewed large. With fiber optics being installed it continues to progress rapidly.

In the same way the development of the web affected art and design, so did software development. This is talked about in detail in Chapter ten, “2D and 3D Animation and Video,” of Spalter’s book. “The artist entering the world of the computer animation and video-oriented motion graphics is faced with wide ranges of tools…film and animation, the history of video art, and advanced techniques in 3D graphics may all merge in a single production” (Spalter, 1999, p. 325). Well of course this is true now, not only has digital video turn film making on its head with better picture quality and faster production but also anyone with a computer, basic software and internet access can load self design video onto YouTube. It is clear that the onslaught of the digital age directly influenced art and architecture, but what is now even clearer is the direct improvement and even innovation it has had on the movie industry. Today we see the 3D movie making software not only in the design phase but in the in product as well, from YouTube to James Cameron’s new movie Avatar. With software like Autodesk’s 3DMax and Maya, one can create an artificial world from lights, bugs, sweat, and sound; then animated it all into a full length movie. One can also record live video on a digital camera and then load into video software and edit everything from sound, color to even scale. If you mix new recording devices with new 3D animation software you can create a crazy blend of raw footage and complete fake imagery with flawless fluidity. Is this a farce? Are we cheated when we watch altered or fake footage on the big screen and at home? The software and computer capabilities analyzed in this book are dated and much of the limitations are no longer a problem, but what they were able to do at the time (from early 1990’s to late 1990’s) was still impressive and of course led to what is being done now. “The ease with which motion can be created on the computer or added to still images remains a thrill, even when the artist is working through the night to finish a project…The animation or “bringing to life” of fictional characters, abstract relationships between color and form, and entire 3D worlds is a magical process” (Spalter, 1999, p. 365).

Whether it is in the movie industry or the web itself, we all can see how the computer and software has changed the way we see and think about video. I believe it clear 3D animation and digital technologies changed the way movies and 3D designing are shown, but it has also changed the way the movies, animations, and even real world settings are made. This provokes one to think of another question. Did the need for new movie making, designing the fantasy, new digital art, and web design, help change and develop the 2D or 3D Animation and Video technologies of today, or did all of this digital output help change and develop the movie maker, web designer, 3D animator, and the digital artist?

Sources:

Spalter, A. M. (1999). The Computer in the Visual Arts. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley
Longman. p. 323-358
Spalter, A. M. (1999). The Computer in the Visual Arts. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley
Longman. p. 415-437