CINEMA, ANIMATION & MEDIA PUBLICATIONS
Walt Disney
and Europe

Cartoons

Art in Motion

A Reader in Animation Studies

The Animated Film Collector's Guide

Animation in Asia and the Pacific

 
  Art in Motion

  Animation Aesthetics

   Maureen Furniss
   1998
 

Hardback 270 p. £ 40.00  $ 49.95 ISBN 1 86462 038 2 1998
Paperback 270 p. £ 22.50  $ 24.95 ISBN 1 86462 039 0 1998

Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics is the first comprehensive examination of the aesthetics of animation in its many forms. It is therefore an essential resource for researchers, students of animation and anyone with a serious interest in animation. Ideal as a college course book or for general reading, Art in Motion provides thought provoking analyses of animation produced throughout the world.

The first half of Art in Motion overviews the relationship between animation studies and media studies on a larger scale, then focuses on specific aesthetic issues concerning flat and dimensional animation, limited and full animation, new technologies and other key areas. The second half contains a series of studies on particular topics including abstract animation, audience, race and ethnicity, gender issues, post-modernism and adaptation.

Maureen Furniss is the founding publisher and editor of Animation Journal. She is Assistant Professor and Head of the Film Studies Program at Chapman University in Orange, California.

Selected contents include:

Animation and media studies and defining animation and live-action on a continuum. Influences on the development of animation: optical toys and screen practice; print comics; the relationship of animation to live-action film.
Foundations of contemporary animation practices. Flat and dimensional animation: the American film industry to 1915; innovations in animation techniques; assembly-line mass-production and creative control; marketing through differentiation and innovation.
Alternatives in animation production. Modes of production and flat animation as an extension of other arts: drawing and painting; camera-less animation; cut-outs; sand; stratacut and wax forms; pinboards.
General concepts in animation aesthetics. Animation design; structure; images; colour and line; movement and kinetics; voice and sound.
The classical-era Disney Studio. Historical overview; joining the competition; innovation and marketing; balancing fine art and popular culture; Snow White; movement and personality; storytelling and ideology; shifts in the studio structure.
Full and limited cel animation. Aesthetic issues; United productions of America; made-for-television animation.
Other chapters include: Dimensional Animation; Animation and New Technologies; Finding 'Meaning' in Abstract Animation; Oskar Fischinger and the Animation Process; Animation and Its Audiences; Race, Ethnicity and Stereotypes in Animation; Women's Voices in Animation; Postmodern Style; 'The Simpsons' and Beyond; Issues of Adaptation: Alice.