An enduring bond: The impact and influence of art on animation
Visual media will always draw people’s attention. Even if you’re not an artist, you most likely enjoy listening to music, watching films or TV series, reading books, or looking at paintings and sculptures in a museum.
You are also more likely to appreciate an object if it is aesthetically pleasing to you than if it’s not, even if the purpose of the item is purely pragmatic. You wouldn’t buy an armchair or a fridge that you don’t like, although their functionality and ability to serve their purpose are, objectively, the only features you should have in mind when making a practical purchase.
Design is naturally related to the art world and appeals to people in every area of their lives. Even those who claim not to care about beauty and eye-catching designs make artistic statements by preferring something that doesn’t fit conventional standards.
Given the ever-present impact of artistic displays all around us, it makes sense that art is interconnected with animation. After all, the latter is literally art set in motion. Their roots are the same, and while they have diverged, there is still a lot of common ground.
The basics
When looking at the art for sale in art galleries, you will be focusing on the shapes, styles, and colors, even if you’re not consciously aware of it. Some pieces will appeal to you while others won’t, and sometimes, you won’t even be able to pinpoint the exact reason as to why.
All traditional forms of art, including drawing, sculpture, painting, and printmaking, deliver their messages not only through the subjects they depict but also through their compositions, the perspectives they take, anatomy, and color theory. These characteristics can be based on reality or deconstruct it. For instance, changing body proportions into something that could never exist in real life can send a message on a multitude of topics, from body image to history and society.
The animation process uses these procedures as well when creating characters and settings. Animators have long used the techniques established in the art world to create compositions that resonate with audiences, draw attention, and connect with viewers on a deeper emotional level.
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli productions are popular among fans for several reasons, including the music, their ability to mix magic and realism, and the inherent optimism at their core. But all of these aspects are delivered through beautiful animation that is incredibly detailed and crafted through a painstaking process.
Each individual frame is hand-drawn, so finishing a movie takes a long time and is a very meticulous process, but the finished product is stunning and so detailed that spotting all the little things that impact the plot can take several watches to discover.
The studio’s latest release, “The Boy and the Heron,” which had its theatrical release in July 2023, took twelve months to make twelve minutes of content. The lush, colorful landscapes of Ghibli films draw inspiration from traditional Japanese arts and prints. Kawase Hasui is a clear inspiration for the environmental design, with the artist being renowned for his ability to capture the essence of both rural and urban Japanese landscapes.
The artist’s works are also focused on transience and the perpetual change that affects everything, a common theme in Ghibli productions.
Arcane
The making of Arcane was another industrious and demanding project that took six whole years to complete. Riot Games decided to work with French animation studio Fortiche for the project, as they planned to target the adult-minded animation market rather than the standard video game-to-television adaptations.
The style mixes 2D and 3D to create a compelling visual effect that makes Arcane look both realistic and like hand-painted art at the same time. The architecture of the wealthy city of Piltover is reminiscent of Art Deco, a visual style hailing from 1910s Paris, while the impoverished Zaun is inspired by Art Nouveau, a decorative and applied art style that first appeared in the UK and was popular between the 1890s and the 1910s.
The former is characterized by the use of luxurious materials, geometric shapes, hard edges, symmetry, and order, while the latter is much more organic and uses intricate patterns, diverse materials, and earthier colors. Ironically, real-life industrial developments at the time gave artisans the ability to mold any kind of material into natural shapes and forms.
Both Art Deco and Art Nouveau act as a storytelling device in Arcane, as the first to the metropolitan, technologically-advanced setup, and the first being the perfect blend of organic and industrialized, with the architecture being creatively adapted to the environment and the needs of those living in it rather than the other way round.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, have been widely praised for their animation style, which has been described as essentially comic books in motion. This was the effect the filmmakers confirmed they wanted from the beginning, and the techniques used to bring the films to life were adapted from 70-year-old methods and approaches to create a visual product that feels entirely unique.
For example, the 2D technique known as motion smearing, which was used in place of the newer motion blur, can also be seen in the Looney Tunes short “The Dover Boys” released in 1942. It took a year for two animators to make ten seconds of footage, which was later used as a cornerstone for the films.
The characters were also animated at different frames during the same scenes to create different effects and make their movements more unique. Halftones, Ben-Day dots, motion lines, squash and stretch, and criss crossed lines were all used during the process. Spider-Punk’s design was inspired by 1970s album art covers and collage imagery, while The Vulture is reminiscent of the sketches in Leonardo da Vinci’s workbooks and has a Renaissance-inspired design.
Animation is a form of art, so it only makes sense for it to be inspired by the styles that came before it. Artists can integrate all kinds of references and styles into their work, from impressionism and cubism to folk art styles. Some of the results are so unique and revolutionary that they become unique styles of their own, which other animators will add new features to in the future.
