Saturday, February 16, 2008

Animations?

TAG Prez Kevin Koch discusses some of the terms ... and intricacies ... of the art of animation:

There are some terms that I find students struggle with, some of which come from traditional animation but tend to get mangled on the CG side of the fence. First, let’s start with one that isn’t a word: animations. I can’t tell you how much this grates on the ears of anyone who comes from traditional animation, be it hand-drawn or stop motion ...

What amuses me about terms that came into wide usage in the 1930s was how the spelling shortened and changed: roughs = ruffs, effects = effx. One of my favorites is how the storied feature animation director Wilfred Jackson's name morphed into Jaxson on memos and model sheets.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

THANK you. This is one of the prime reasons I had such a hard time getting through the neal gabler Disney puff piece book. Every time I read or heard (in interviews) him use the term "animations" I wanted to SCREAM!

But it is a fair giveaway that if anyone uses this term on a regular basis, they don't really know anything about animation.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how it got started-and entrenched to the point where Gabler used it(and yes, it was really dumb for him to have used it at all.).

Anonymous said...

i noticed the word animations first used in the early 90's by advertising agency folks...many totally clueless to the artform and what it took to put their
30 breakfast cereal commercial on the air.

Floyd Norman said...

I remember it being used earlier than that.

Back in the eighties, tech developers were experimenting with moving objects in the computer. Since these techies had no knowledge of the animation business, they always called the moving objects, "animations." One evening at dinner, we spoke to the company president about the use of this term. He didn't think it was important and continued to use animations for anything that moved.

I always felt these guys were trying to redefine animation, and make it their own. I'm still offended by its use even today.

As far as Mr. Gabler is concerned, I see no excuse for such a blunder.

Anonymous said...

Put me down as another one who dislikes the term "animations". It does tend to be used by those in "new media" (another term that irritates me...)

Anonymous said...

I'm not fond of the term "tweens" or "tweening" as I mentioned to Kevin on his blog. I'm glad to see him correcting it to the proper term Inbetweening .

Steve Hulett said...

animation is to animations as internet is to internets

Anonymous said...

I have a book called "Animations of Mortality" by Terry Gilliam, detailing the cut-out "animations" he created for Marty Feldman, Monty Python, et al. The book is dated 1979.

Anonymous said...

I don't mind animations, though I absolutely hate the term 'anim' or 'anims' which I hear alot these days.

Anonymous said...

YEAHH!
I got the letter and..Ive been accepted to the Vancouver Film School. For the Digital Character animation pro ..N trust me Admission is very Unique n competitive and you really have to stand out. No doubt, it's been a Nuclear boost to my confidence.
Its best thing happn to me..i can say that..i was really waiting hard fer dis moment..n m prepared to face 6 months Long Ngt mares..phewww!

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