ABSTRACT
Animation creation with “Chinese characteristics” is of a style issue. With respect to the relationship between style and technology, American scholar Stanley Cavell’s theory of “Art Automata” made a very instructive reveal (Stanley Cavell. 1990). According to him, each art is composed of certain “medium elements” such as material basis, technology and tool, and its art pattern will change continuously under the driving force of the inherent traditional inertia of such medium elements
1 INTRODUCTION
3D animation has become a most popular presentation form in the current animation field in only several decades. No doubt, it should be attributed to the introduction of digital technology, which has successfully solved technical issues in 3D animation creation. However, all issues in 3D animation creation in China have not been readily solved by only this technical solution. Especially, animation performance, which is monotonous and repeated and far from ideal, is not comparable either with that of leading countries, such as America, UK and Japan, or with that of the rising South Korea. The reason is not that the technology has not been popularized but that it has not been localized. In the final analysis, it is because the “Chinese characteristics” in 3D animation creation has not been solved. In the current world tide of 3D animation creation, though animation performance with “Chinese characteristics” is called for by many people, it remains unclear how to realize this objective by using the 3D animation technical tool. In terms of the cognition of 3D animation creation, there are at least two problems. Firstly, as 3D animation techniques are rooted in digital technology, it is unavoidable to have intrinsic reliance on digital technology. Therefore, as the case in other social fields, 3D animation creation has been deeply penetrated by the technical tool theory. The inherent accuracy of digital technology and people’s infatuation with digital technology have enabled this creation tool to deprive people of their art attention since the very beginning. Its reflection
and of artist creativity. The former is represented by “dehumanized” material automaticity and the latter by “non-individual” cultural automaticity, and the interaction between the two will finally create the unique styles of different art patterns. For example, traditional 2D animation making technology requires a creator to make the animation frame by frame artificially, thus inevitably differentiating animation from the movie and the painting. The difference in styles between the 12 rules of Disney animation and the drama stylization of the Chinese animation in the 1980s resulted from the cultural automaticity of art creators with different cultural backgrounds. While the “experiment animation” away from the main stream”, with its “medium elements” which have returned to the animation art, fully displays the role of different materials and techniques, thus achieving unique individualized art and embodying the effect of material automaticity (Li Jian. 2011).
