CHAPTER 15 (1)

Satsuki's confusion of feelings - 1

Before I went to my class, I decided to see my professor to passed to him my web designs. The files of my PSD files and my codes in notepad ++ is in there. Other than the internship that I have now, I still have long way to go, and I need to focus as a college student. This is quite harder than you can ever imagine. My issue with my father, my struggles as an intern content marketing and as the illustrator of their product designs, you know. It's never been easy. Then I also have to deal with my portfolio designs and my animation project.

College is not just about how you passed your test or your activities, it's really about how you live up your dream and how long will you keep on being patient when it comes to your dreams? I know that chasing your dreams is very hard but as long as you don't give up and believe in yourself I think that the dream that you were just wishing once, you're able to pull it off soon.

Thereafter, I decided to hurried to my class today. I grabbed my notebook and I started browsing my notes. I really wanted to pass this. Especially that I was really preparing for my 2D and 3D assessment test that will happen soon. I need to get ready for my review. And I really want Dad to see that I am serious in this course that I decided to take.

When our professor, came I fix my chair and I decided to get ready for today's lecture.

“I hope you all were ready for our discussion about Animation today.”

He then decided to call me first as soon as his attention went on mine, so I quickly stood up and asked him, “Uh yes, sir?” I asked.

“What is the meaning of animation Satsuki?"

“It is a method in which figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets, or clay figures...” I explained

Honestly, I was quite nervous. I didn’t even expect that I’ll be the first one to be called. But of course, I’m mentally prepared for this. I’ll give my best.

“Commonly, the effect of the animation is achieved by a rapid succession of sequential images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon and beta movement, but the exact causes are still uncertain. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phénakisticope, zoetrope, flipbook, praxinoscope, and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally. For display on the computer, techniques like animated GIF and Flash animation were developed.” I said to him and he nodded at him. Waaaah, it made me so nervous! I didn’t know that I’ll manage on this lecture. I gripped my chest and my heart was thumping hard. I thought that I would probably be blocked out but good thing that I was able to answer. Despite that I’m busy as an intern, of course, I don’t want to be distracted from my studies.

The other girl was called she was sitting beside me. And our professor asks about another more meaning of animation. The girl suddenly stand up and she decided to explain the meaning as well. “Animation is more pervasive than many people know. Apart from short films, feature films, television series, animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, the animation is also prevalent in video games, motion graphics, user interfaces, and visual effects. The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation.” She quickly answered.

“How about its history? Before Cinematography?” Our professor asked.

“Hundreds of years before the introduction of true animation, people from all over the world enjoyed shows with moving figures that were created and manipulated manually in puppetry, automata, shadow play, and the magic lantern. The multi-media phantasmagoria shows that were very popular in West-European theatres from the late 18th century through the first half of the 19th century, featuring life-like projections of moving ghosts and other frightful imagery in motion.” She answered.

“Another meaning? Anyone?” He asked and the guy in front of me raises his hand and decided to answer it, “In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phénakisticope) introduced the principle of modern animation with sequential images that were shown one by one in quick succession to form an optical illusion of motion pictures. Series of sequential images had occasionally been made over thousands of years, but the stroboscopic disc provided the first method to represent such images in fluent motion and for the first time had artists creating series with a proper systematic breakdown of movements. The stroboscopic animation principle was also applied in the zoetrope (1866), the flipbook (1868), and the praxinoscope (1877). The average 19th-century animation contained about 12 images that were displayed as a continuous loop by spinning a device manually. The flipbook often contained more pictures and had a beginning and end, but its animation would not last longer than a few seconds.”

Looks like our professor was quite impressed by us knowing that we’re active in today’s lecture. Well, I liked this course. And I know that I will never regret that I took this course. Because arts has always been my first love. I love arts so much and I wanted to pass this course no matter what. I must admit that our requirements are quite hard but I admit that I’m having fun on this course.

“Then, how about the features before CGI?” He asked.

I raised my hand once again and I decided to answer it, “In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made the first feature-length film El Apóstol (now lost), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's Sin dejar rastros in 1918, but one day after its premiere the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in 1926, the oldest extant animated feature...”

Then the other remaining explanations, our professor decided to explain to us.

“You see, In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020. The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with Gulliver's Travels with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940) and Fleischer Studios' second animated feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941/1942) failed at the box office. For decades afterward Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful of features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with An American Tail in 1986...”

I get another notebook and decided to take the notes as soon as our professor started explaining it to us. He showed the other slideshows and he explained it to us carefully so that we’ll be able to catch up in this lecture, “Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in a wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Russia's Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became a true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effectively limited animation...”

Since we’ve talked about the history of animation today, surprisingly I wrote a lot of important things in my notes today. And for our next class, we’ve been told that we should look for Different types of animation. I was quite nervous in our class today but I was able to pull it off. I guess that’s more important. And I managed to answer anyway. I looked at my watch and I quickly hurried to get some jeep towards the company. I just hope that I’m not that late for my work. This was my everyday routine. At day, I was a student and the rest of the day I was really busy on my internship at work.