Rhiannon McGuiness

First Trip

August 13, 2007 at 4:12 am | Posted in Animation | 1 Comment

 

In a January 1, 2006 press release celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Animation, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive director Steve Worth wrote:

“From its humble beginnings with J. Stuart Blackton’s film, ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’ first released on April 6th, 1906, animation has gone on to become one of the greatest American creative contributions to the arts, second only to Jazz.”

Mr. Worth is keen to note the historical relationship between animation and jazz. However, I’ve long felt that animation is one of our most missunderstood art forms.

Animation has experienced tremendous growth and innovation in the relatively short history of 100 years. During 1940s and 50s, animation underwent significant stylistic change. Animation artists were developing a new visual language. By the 1950s, the independent animation studio UPA had replaced Disney as the new artistic standard in animation. Many animation artists during this time were amateur or even professional jazz musicians. Some animation directors collaborated with jazz musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Shorty Rogers and Dizzy Gillespie on their short films. So there was a lot of “crossing over” going on.

I’ve always found it interesting that many viewers describe animation art from this period with the same adjectives music critics use to describe jazz from the same period: words such as “angular,” “avant-garde,” and “modern.” But I haven’t seen much discussion on why this is. What prompts someone to call a piece of animation “jazzy?”

The goal of this blog is to explore the many facets of digital arts. Topics will range from the influence of jazz music on animation design in the 1940s and 50s to newest tools in photoshop or illustrator.

I hope this blog might spark the interests of everyone not just digital artists. So post comments! Thanks for visiting, and stay tuned as this whole thing develops.