Animation in Context is an illustrated introduction to cultural theory, contextual research and critical analysis. By making academic language more accessible, it empowers animators with the confidence and enthusiasm to engage with theory as a fun, integral, and applied part of the creative process.
Interviews with contemporary industry professionals and academics, student case studies and a range of practical research exercises, combine to encourage a more versatile approach to animation practice - from creating storyboards to set designs and soundtracks; as well as developing virals, 3D zoetropes and projection mapping visuals.
Mark Collington focuses on a core selection of theoretical approaches that shape animation narrative, supported by a broader set of shared theoretical principles from the worlds of art, design, film and media studies. This discussion is underpinned by cross-disciplinary thinking on a range of topics including genre, humour, montage and propaganda.
These are applied to the analysis of a range of animated films and projects from Disney and Animé, to independent artist-filmmakers such as Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis and Jerzy Kucia. These ideas are also applied to other uses of animation such as advertising, sitcom, gaming and animated documentary.
Introduction
Expanding Your Thinking about Animation
Intended Aims and Outcomes of this Book
Outline of Book Structure, Themes and Subject Matter
Keeping An Online Reflective Workbook
1. Language & Visual Meaning: Playing Sherlock Holmes
Apples: Introducing Structuralism & Semiotics
Love Letters: Semantics
Time Travel: From Monoscenic, to Synchonic & Diachronic Narrative
2. Classical Metanarratives: The Hero's Journey
Heroes & Totems: Narratology, Morphology, Mythology
Castle in the Sky: Mythical Forces, Floating Worlds & Flying Machines
3. Genre: From Classical Hero to Modern Everyman
Space Cowboys: Genre & Context
To Infinity & Beyond: The Human Condition and Genre
You Kant be Serious: Comedy Genre and Theories of Humor
The Big Debate: Genre or Style?
4. Modernism: The End of Genre & the Metanarrative
Coffee, Steam & Tanks: Putting Modernism in Context
Space, Time & Reality: Defining Modernism
From the Mundane to Murder: Other Aspects of Modernism
5. Representation: Fact Versus Fiction
Hammering it Home: Propaganda & Socialist Realism
The Ideal Home: Advertising
Home Sweet Home: TV Sitcom & Gaming
6. Animated Documentary: Objective Fact Versus Subjective Experience
Feeling the Facts: From Docudrama to Animated Documentary
Poetic Truths: Where Film and Animation Meet
Conclusion
Pulling it all together
From Animated Short to Essay Film
Cross-Disciplinary Practice
Reading as Rewriting & Intertextuality
