Metamorphisis - The fluid change of an object, form or figure between one form, shape or figure into another. An interesting concept which is without a doubt very much a part of what makes animation (especially 2D animation) special, it is the ability of anything in an animated world to become something else, it is most commonly (and most easily) used in frame by frame animation, creating a sense of freedom outside the normal constraints of form as we percieve them.
2D metamorphisis as demonstrated by Glenn Marshall
It is possible for an animator to draw one thing one frame and then something completely different the next this is however to much of an abrupt change to illustrate convincing metamorphasis, it is therefore in the 'inbetweens', the intermittent frames during which the change takes place that the real skill and imagination of the animator comes to life in the change. It is a very compelling mechanic and a good audience pleaser and has been a recurring theme in animation from all cultures for a long time.
The difficulty of having metamorphisis in a 3D animation lies in the way that 3D objects are constructed, they are normally esentially a wireframe of lines in 3D space, which can bend and move connected at intersections by verts and visible because they are joined by faces, this mesh therefore will move and bend and twist as much as you like WITHIN the constraints of its own physical nature, it will break if you twist it to far and warp/pass through itself if it is distorted. There are technologies being developed to allow for convincing metamorphisis in 3D but how soon this tech will be utilised in cinema is to be seen. The video below demonstrates that it IS possible to do in 3D but it is clearly far less a developed technique than in 2D as in the example previously
Surealism
I think its a good example of how differnt media suits different techniques/styles/movements as metamorphisis which is quite common in animation, (perhaps not so common in fine arts) and surrealism which is a fasinating movement, with a plethora of talented, inspiring and somtimes deranged artists supporting it is almost entirely absent from animation in any traditional sense, the only surrealist (partly) commercial animation that springs to mind is courage the cowardly dog.
In the animation as art world, there is a whole nother story, with pretentious and yet terribly brilliant masters of surrealism and subtlety like
the quay brothers
the brothers Quay are far too cool.
Rhythm
Rythem was a huge part of early animation, with the 'cartoons' relying heavily on the beat and sounds of a live band playing along to the animation, the characters would be constantly in motion, often a simple (and cheap) repetative up and down motion, bending their knees to the music, but this still kept the sense of movement and rythem alive, as it was thought by alot of early animators that to have a character dead still for any length of time was to kill them and ruin the illusion that had been so carefully built. On many occasions this spread to even the enviroment, with the sceneary and props all bobbing and dancing along to the music. A good example of this is an early Betty Boop or Micky Cartoon
It was discussed in the lecture that animation has over time come to rely less and less on a beat or rhythm, I think that is perhaps true in a very literal sense with the use of more sophisticated sound tracks and characters that are perhaps better grounded in reality which do not need to be in constant motion, but primarily I think the intrinsic nature in which rhythm is a part of animation has not changed at all, it is simply a more subtle use of rhythm as animation has developed and the average length of a piece of animated cinema has increased it has become unnessisary to have that constant movement and wacky dancing to keep the audience engaged, it would have been ridiculous to have snow white bumping up and down like a disco child throughout the whole film. Rather I think rhythm and timing happen across the whole of the narrative building to crescendo's both with sound and narrative over periods of half an hour rather than every few minutes which means the intensity of the sound and movement has to be made more subtle for it to be bearable.
and now for some Richter animation which demonstrates exquisitely rhythm and metamorphosis in animation.
