My question tackles to concept of technology influencing the way characters are animated. I intend to investigate whether certain mediums allow for animated characters to be more nuanced and relatable compared to characters animated with other techniques. Do audiences inherently relate more to a CGI character than a hand drawn character? My research so far helps me understand that if an animated character is too realistic, an audience finds it disconcerting and uncanny. Also, other elements inform how relatable a character is. Abstract things like colour, pace of editing, sound, shot framing all help to build on a character's emotional performance.
Also, it is possible to imbue a character without a face with personality, such as in Chuck Jones' 'The Dot and the Line' and '2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL.
I intend to animate the same clips in three or four different mediums. I will animate a close up, intimate character in CGI, I will rotoscope them and I shall hand draw them. If I have time I would like to incorporate motion capture. The practical piece will be far more experimental than finalised and will produce several short animated clips that can be compared to one another. I analyse the success of each medium of animation, I'll show the clips to people and see what reactions each clip warrants.
