After revising my initial proposal, I decided that I wanted to focus more on 2D animation and possibly explore why 2D animation is still valued, despite 3D animation appearing to be more popular, particularly within the film industry (however, this may be a little presumptuous of me, and I will investigate whether 3D animation is in fact more popular than 2D animation within the film industry before moving on).
With an interest in storytelling, I would like to focus my efforts towards looking at the effects that changing the technique used to create an animation can have on the overall story, appeal, target audience, tone, mood, etc. I feel the best way to do this would be to choose a 2D animated film that has been re-created using 3D techniques, for instance, The Jungle Book, and then find similar scenes in both and compare how they differ in terms of Mise-en-Scene, colour used, performance of the characters, etc.
From here I hope to be able to focus on why 2D animation is chosen over 3D animation (and vice versa) for particular stories. For instance, the majority of adult animation shows tend to be created in 2D animation, and I want to explore the reasons behind this choice; is it to do with budget and time? Does nostalgia play a role in appeal?
Although I didn't have a great deal to go into my presentation with, I did receive some very helpful feedback that has helped me to narrow my focus and find some grounding points to kick start research that I will find more helpful.
I was advised to look into why either 2D or 3D animation is used, is it because it suits the story? Does it have any effect on the story at all? Is it a choice made by the creator simply because it is the medium that makes them happy? Or is it simply used to make money at box office? I could also look into animations that use a certain aesthetic for the sake of using it, rather than because it matches the story and see what effects this has on the overall animation. To contradict this however, I could also look into animations that are both 2D and 3D such as Paperman and the Mikey Mouse short Get a Horse.
However, I am aware that this may be quite difficult to research, as there aren't necessarily going to be many books on this topic. In order to get around this, I intend to get in touch with practitioners and interview them to gain an insight into why 2D animation is still valued within the industry.
In terms of the practical element, I am still a little unsure as to what to do, however I do know that I want to use this as an opportunity to learn how to use TV Paint. Not much was said about the practical element of my dissertation, but it was suggested to me that I could possibly re-create a scene from a 3D animation in 2D and see what effects, if any, this had.
Overall, I'm happy with the feedback and feel that things are a little bit clearer in my head. From here I will seek out advice on how to contact practitioners and how to conduct a fair interview with them in order to get answers to the questions I want to ask, as I feel that this may be where the majority of my research will be obtained from. I will also think more about the practical element of my dissertation and decide whether I could create animations to test my hypothesis and form research from, or whether I create a piece based on what I find from the research I carry out.
