ROAD NOT TAKEN

At the confluence of the analog and the digital, we need to reference as many analogue instances that we can so as to continue to demonstrate the validity of what we are about.  We will look at two of our themes, analogue sketching and holistic understanding, in the context of modern medicine.

Today’s example comes to us from the studios at BLAM!. The New Yorker article by Karen Russell reports that BLAM! works at the confluence of disability rehabilitation and digital gaming. Digital game environments are now being used to help, for example, stroke patients regain mobility. In this example, patients control a dolphin with sensors attached to their bodies. By using their debilitated limbs to move the digital dolphin, they are causing their motor activity to re-learn movement.

One of the animators of the digital dolphin speaks of how important it is for the animal to appear as real as possible on the screen. To do that, the team decided that it was important to start with a hand drawn animation of the dolphin, from which the digital simulation would be based.

The animator states that the use of hand drawings is, in his words, part of a “forgotten lineage.” He speaks fondly of early hand drawn Disney cartoons, in which the characters move and jump with unexpected joy and alacrity. The unexpected gives the cartoon a heightened sense of realism.

To make the dolphin as real as possible, the BLAM! team wanted to convey the invisible forces that shape how the dolphin moves thru the water.  By working to understand these holistic forces, the three dimensional shape, and the internal structure, their digital model represented a deep understanding of the object. And with this deep understanding comes greater realism, which adds to the satisfaction of people using the system.

So two of our themes, analogue sketching and holistic understanding, are what one studio values as they operate on the cusp of digital animation.