Author: Guoxin Lin

Animated documentaries are a form of moving image that combines animation and documentary, and I think that even through animation as a form of artistic expression the nature of documentary still exists, and the answer is Definitely.

Walking by the Canadian animator and artist Ryan Larkin made an indelible mark in the history of animation with its innovative combination of drawing and colour wash techniques. But as far as Walking is concerned, I don’t think of it as an animated documentary, walking is the subject and animation is the form of its presentation. He doesn’t refer to specific times and certain real-life cases, nor does he tell a story, he just animates the moments of different people walking from different angles, but of course, there is no denying that walking is the most common thing for most people, and the author adds his personal touch to it, making it interesting and advanced.

I agree with Honess Roe’s idea:

‘animated documentaries do not easily into the received wisdom of what a documentary is’

Animated documentaries have overturned the public perception of traditional documentaries. Compared to traditional documentaries, animated documentaries give people more scope for imagination. In terms of character design, animated documentaries highlight the characters’ characteristics through elements such as their appearance and expressions, which visually help viewers to distinguish and understand them.

The form of Severance Intro Title Sequence is 3D Animation 

Severance focuses on the balance between life and work and is set in a company with memory-cutting technology.

The animation illustrates the protagonist’s life struggle between professional and personal predicaments. Work personality and life personality constantly shuttle and pull in the grid.

The work represents the mystical journey of these different identities memories of experiences, grief, loss, and control in one body through the use of surrealism and subtle ironic humour. The protagonist switches from one scene to another and the different scenes are linked by objects that working people use throughout the day, lifts, hoovers, beds, etc.

In terms of visual expression, the strong minimalist modernist aesthetic, the warmthless cold light, the repetitive approach and the symmetrical composition show the rules and limitations of the workplace, depicting a working man like an emotionless machine working non-stop on an assembly line.

The scene in which people are being poured out of the coffee cup is my favourite. I think he depicts the state of people in the workplace going with the flow through the ‘labour and capital perspective’, implying some kind of control. People looking and running, trying to escape but unable to do.

In the use of technology, Firstly the main characters were created by 3d scanning, and based on 3d meshes texturing the skin and combing the hair in Houdini software. Secondly, Cloth creation and rigging were also done in Houdini and Marvelous Designer, with the rest being a combination of motion capture suites from Xsens. finishing touches in Houdini and Cinema 4D, and finally rendering in Octane.

The molten and sticky effect made through model deconstruction enhances the expression of the chaotic and muddy state of being caught up in work and life. This state, coupled with the slow and urgent music, makes people naturally immersed in the bizarre atmosphere.

There is a lot of symbolic expression in this animation, and the use of symbolic elements to make the images and expressions more interesting is what I most wanted to learn from this animation.

I picked the movie Moonrise Kingdom. I am a fan of most Wes Anderson films. I am always attracted to the colors and symmetrical compositions and the stylist of the characters in films.

The film is about the innocent feelings of children, Suzy and Sam, who communicate as pen pals by writing letters. They have different character traits.

Sam’s personality represents all the qualities of the logical, he’s a member of the local boy scouts, which in many ways tries to mimic the discipline of the military, he knows how to read and make maps and he shows an interest in the painting of the landscape.

Suzy love to touch with the fantastical and artistically creative aspects of life as shown through her interest in numerous fantastical children’s books and her attachment to her magical binoculars.

What they have in common is that they have difficulty getting along with the people around them. Suzy and Sam are also trying to understand each other’s world, they are both Ignorance children trying to find another person and place where they are happy, but all the adults are trying to tear them apart.

Archetypes：

• Hero: Sam Shakusky
• Mentor: Suzy Bishop
• Threshold Guardian: Scout Master
• Herald: Rainstorm
• Shapeshifter: Scout Member
• Shadow: Narrator
• Trickster: The storm rescue operation
• Allies: Captain Sharp

Story Arcs:

Prologue

From the lining of the tent to the color of the paper on the bulletin board, the screenplay is full of detailed descriptions of the world, each character is doing something else when we meet them, going about their normal routines before getting roped-in to the story. Until it was discovered that sam had left the scout group.

Conflict

The narrator gives us a tour of the island and foreshadows the coming storm,

Narrator: “We are on the far edge of black beacon sound famous for the ferocious and well-documented storm   which was driven on the east on the fifth of September —in three days.”

Discovery of sam’s disappearance and then the search for him begins.

Rising action 

We meet the khaki scouts and see their potential for violence as they search for sam while carrying Very large very dangerous weapons. When Suzy and Sam encounter the Khaki Scouts,  We already know the cast of characters, the scope of the world, and the looming threat.

And This film moves the plot along by further elaborating on the threat：

One of the scouts is stabbed by Suzy and the dog is killed. I felt bad for the dog being killed, but these two scenes further the plot and compound the way the threat and lack of security. They go through a series of escapes and adventures to find a suitable place to land but are eventually discovered. 

Climax

They run away again, this time in a rainstorm, Suzy and Sam climb to the roof to try to escape, there is a real sense of danger. their willingness to die for their love is impactful. Throughout the storm rescue operation, we can see from the expressions and dialogue of the characters that everyone is in a state of high tension. Falling action.

falling action

After the storm, Narrator, Gives some background information.

Denouement

Eventually, they found a suitable way to see each other.

The film had a very distinctly interactive cinematic language, it makes you very sure you are watching a film, the narrator speaks to the audience, interacts with the camera to explain the film’s message,  the audience can feel the abundance of emotions but still retains a sense of distance and needs to actively participate to identify the emotional life of the characters.