Category: Design for Animation, Narrative Structures & Film Language

The narrative structure of animation is based on the concept of narrative continuity and suggestion, but adding destabilizing elements to the story can make it more complex and thought-provoking. This is how successful animation can challenge and redefine the concept of animation itself. Symbols have been meaningful since they were created. Animators use metaphors in their animations to create different logical structures and specific narrative spaces. Jiri Trnka’s puppet animation The Hand is one of the most influential examples of how animation can explore the role of the artist and the importance of freedom of expression under totalitarian regimes.

A big hand constantly interferes and manipulates the character in the animation. The animation boldly reveals the hidden resistance of the character, expressing the writer’s anger and helplessness against the oppressive system. The viewers can see the metaphors that the writer uses to convey this message.

Art has seven basic elements: line, shape, color, texture, space, form, and light and shade. They are the building blocks of any artwork, and they can affect its style, expression, emotion, and meaning. Different artists use different elements to create different artistic effects. For example:

• Line shows movement, rhythm, direction, and structure. It also creates visual effects like perspective, contrast, and hierarchy. It also shows the artist’s personality and emotion, like smoothness, roughness, softness, or tension.
• Shape shows the outline, structure, and spatial relationship of objects. It also creates visual effects like symmetry, balance, and rhythm. It also shows the artist’s thoughts and ideas, like abstract, realistic, simple, or complex.
• Color shows the texture, light, and atmosphere of objects. It also creates visual effects like light and dark, gradient, and contrast. It also shows the artist’s emotions and meanings, like warmth, calmness, joy, or sadness.
• Texture shows the surface features, texture, and feel of objects. It also creates visual effects like three-dimensional, realistic, and change. It also shows the artist’s technique and style, like rough, delicate, heavy, or light.
• Space shows the location, size, and distance of objects. It also creates visual effects like depth, perspective, and illusion. It also shows the artist’s idea and layout, like open, closed, concentrated, or dispersed.
• Form shows the three-dimensional sense, volume, and spatial relationship of objects. It also creates visual effects like transparency, reflection, and shadow. It also shows the artist’s imagination and creativity, like real, fictional, deformed or combined.
• Light and shade show the light source, shade level and atmosphere of objects. It also creates visual effects like contrast level, hierarchy level, and emphasis level. It also shows the artist’s emotions and attitudes level, like bright level, dim level, tender level or intense level.

Issue of ‘realism’ in animated films.

 Animation is not just a visual technique, but a way of exploring the metaphysical aspects of reality. Choosing an animation theme and expressing its ideas and emotions is challenging for animators. Animation can also challenge the rules of reality and give objects life and meaning. Animation has the potential to create a distance from reality, allowing animators and viewers to communicate their rational and irrational thoughts and desires. This is related to the ancient meaning of animation as a “flipping book”, which often had erotic implications in Europe.

Realism is more of a label to distinguish animation styles, and animation films that stick too closely to realism often face a serious question: Why animate this work at all? However, this kind of animation can be seen as “animation with documentary tendencies”. Through the texture of animation, the audience is distanced from the feeling of the real world and pays more attention to the content of animation, as well as the enhanced artificial perception of reality.