Fine art as a factor in the development of modern art animation in the UK

U Zijian Postgraduate student; Department of Architecture, Design and Ecology; Sochi State University 354003, Russia, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 wuzijian@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

The present study provides an opportunity to refer to the two most famous cartoons of the beginning of the new century – "Sean the Lamb" and "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" – to identify the artistic specifics of these works, to identify the features and trends in the development of modern British animation. The study reveals the characteristics of the visual techniques used by British artists when creating cartoons at the beginning of the XXI century. The relevance of the research is related to the fact that at the beginning of the XXI century in Russian science, in particular in art and film studies, there is an increasing interest in historical, social, psychological, philosophical, aesthetic and artistic aspects of film creation, including animation. This attention is intensified against the background of the search for new artistic and imaginative techniques demonstrated by the creators of cartoons, as well as in the context of the development of national animation schools. UK art animation is an integral part of world cinema. This is not surprising, considering that the production of cartoons has received support at the state level, in addition, the close cooperation of British directors with foreign film studios plays an important role. The works of artistic animation in the UK have a high creative potential, and therefore are of great scientific interest. The need to disclose the research topic is determined by the systematization of cartoons and the definition of the main trends in the development and formation of animation in the UK at the present stage.

The analysis of historiography shows that the works of modern English animation are not covered in the scientific literature of Russia in the prism of art criticism issues. The exception is research related to the theory and history of animation, for example, the work of N.G. Krivul ^[1] or F.S. Khitruk ^[2], the specifics of creating cartoons within a certain style, as in E.A. Kharlova ^[3], the development of national design schools ^[4]. Russian researchers pay attention to certain topics and genres of British animation art, in particular E.A. Shchekotova ^[5], V.A. Gut ^[6], I.V. Drachuk ^[7] and some others.

The origin of the specific properties of British animation with the predominance of short films began around the 1930s. The first full-length film "Animal Farm" was released in 1954. Thanks to the intensive work over several decades, the animation cinema of Great Britain has become the leader of European animation. Directly on the initiative and with the assistance of Tony Blair, who took the Prime Minister's chair in 1997, the government actively supported the development of creative industries; a favorable environment and politics contributed to the fact that the cultural sphere, including animation, television and cinema, turned into the second largest industry in the UK after the financial sector ^[8]. With the increased support of the government and television channels, the animation world continued to develop, attach importance to creativity and technology improvement, pay special attention to education and professional development, fully revealing the role of professionals and creative ideas, take as a basis and adapt foreign stories. British animation is characterized by transnational cooperation, active partnership with foreign countries: together with the United States, such cartoons as "Escape from the Chicken Coop", "Corpse Bride", "Valiant: Feathered special Forces" and "Tinga Tinga: The Land of African Myths" were created; together with France - "A Magical Adventure" and "The Big Family" ("The Large Family"). The result of the trilateral cooperation of Great Britain, Germany and France was the film "The Earthquake Adjuster". In addition, in the course of collaboration with colleagues from Russia, the Netherlands and Canada, "Manipulation", "Father and Daughter", "Bob's Birthday" were created; more and more new animation masterpieces are appearing, receiving awards and gaining popularity.

"Sean the Lamb", which has been popular worldwide for 20 years, is immediately recognizable by the images of the characters. The main character of the animated film, little black–headed lamb Sean, originally from Scotland (Fig. 1), first appeared in a 30–minute 1995 cartoon produced by Aardman Animations studio, shot using frame-by–frame animation, and received the warmest welcome in the UK, and subsequently became the main character of the animated series of the same name, filmed by Aardman Animations in collaboration with the BBC - To date, four seasons with more than 120 episodes have been filmed and aired. Created in 2011, the series Timmy the Lamb's Time is an offshoot from the main work aimed at a younger audience ^[9].

In 2012, in honor of the Thirtieth Olympic Games held in London, Aardman Animations studio released the series "Shaun the Sheep: Sheep Championship", where the duration of each individual episode, which in an exciting way reveals the essence of a particular sport, is about a minute. Since the cartoon series about "Sean the Lamb" belongs to the category of plasticine animation^[1], the movements of the characters may seem somewhat awkward, but it is precisely because Sean and his friends are molded from plasticine that they fall into the category of "clumsy but cute". In fact, the series "Shaun the Sheep" uses many techniques of hyperbolization, however, due to sufficient control over its degree, animation differs from early Warner and Disney films, which produced a comic effect due to boundless exaggeration in the depiction of characters and their movements.

The directors of "Sean the Lamb" Richard Golezowski and Christopher Seidler, who perfectly mastered the artistic language of the lens, the unique method of abrupt transitions between frames, contributed to the success of the animated series. For example, in the series "The Adventures of Timmy" ("Big Top Timmy"), a picture of sheep sleeping peacefully in the dark at night first appears, and the next frame after the disappearance of the smallest lamb from the farm, Timmy already paints a picture of a bright sunny morning on a farm where the ground is covered with green grass. After discovering the missing kid walking on a tightrope under the dome of the arrived circus tent, Sean tries to get Timmy down. First, a close-up shows the trembling legs of the "rescuer", and then how the lamb grabs the crossbar and swings on it, trying to catch Timmy in flight. This image is instantly replaced by a frame in which a crowd of sheep in the circus arena is watching what is happening above, and the exaggerated reflection of their emotions looks expressive.

The reason why "Shaun the Sheep" can become a classic of animated films is closely related to the expressiveness of the texture of the materials. The combination and use of various materials in "Shaun the Sheep" creates a sense of realism of the characters and all the scenes taking place both indoors and outdoors. In double frames, hinges are used to ensure high ductility and shock absorption. In the figures of sheep (Fig. 2), the feeling of realism of the material is mainly manifested in the image of skin and wool. Plasticine, silicone and resin are used for the skin, allowing for a special texture and sometimes showing fingerprints left after modeling. Sheep wool is made of synthetic fiber, so it looks soft, light and extremely realistic. Such details create a sense of simplicity in the plasticine animation "Shaun the Lamb". The forms that the authors embody are quite generalized, uncomplicated and geometrized, although with a predominance of rounded lines and surfaces. Artists do not strive for a naturalistic depiction of animals, people, objects of the surrounding world, which emphasizes that it differs from reality because it is made by hand. It can be said that the animators have developed an individual manner of interpretation and embodiment of images, which they developed within the framework of the series and expressed in a full-length format.

A breakthrough in the use of expressive features of the language of pictorial art was the animated painting "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent", which appeared on wide screens in 2017 (Fig. 3). This work attracted a lot of attention. Unlike the painting "Sean the Lamb", which was not mentioned in the English-language scientific literature, "Van Gogh. With Love, Vincent" has become the subject of research by scientists and film critics around the world (^{[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15]}). The film "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" is shot about real characters in the technique of oil painting, but using animated forms. His plot is based on both the artist's letters and one hundred and twenty of his paintings. The important point was that the authors do not seek to reliably reproduce the life of the painter. They wanted to show their own modern interpretation of individual events. As a result, the entire visual series is a "revival" of paintings, which is a precedent in the history of animation art. One frame contained twelve oil paintings. As a result, their total number amounted to sixty-five thousand works. Each frame can be considered a work of art. To ensure the stability and consistency of the picture, the entire creation process took place through special working animation stations (PAWS – parallel evaluation of the window interface). Thanks to professional actors who accurately reflected the movements of the characters of Van Gogh's works, full-scale photography and video shooting, the embodiment of real characters in the technique of oil painting, it was possible to embody the originality of the paintings, give dynamism to the characters of the paintings, breathe new vital energy into the works of oil painting ^[16] (Fig. 4).

Van Gogh is one of the most prominent representatives of post-Impressionism, his paintings are not limited to a one-sided pursuit of a fleeting impression of light and color. They express the feelings and emotions of the author, sharply differing from the works of many artists in terms of color and shape. Impressionists emphasize light and color, giving form a secondary role. Van Gogh was looking for new means to give expression to the painting in the spirit of post-Impressionism. His work showed that art originates in life, after which it goes far beyond its limits. Most of all in the artist's life there were bitter memories, and his own paintings were seen by him as "alien", "foreign". They were Van Gogh's attempts to find a new life, although it turned out to be very short. Influenced by the Impressionists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, Van Gogh created paintings with characteristic features inherent in Impressionism, but in his methods of expression he focused on depicting the most powerful feelings, which determined the use of brighter colors as means of expression. This is one of the reasons why artists try again and again to imitate the peculiarities of Van Gogh's oil painting technique, as well as one of the most difficult tasks set for the film "Van Gogh painted in oil paints on canvas. Love, Vincent."

Thus, the artistic specificity of the two analyzed cartoons is based on a combination of the expressive language of visual arts and animation techniques that make images vivid and time-changing. The painting "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" became proof that animation art allows the initially static form of oil painting to come to life and become dynamic. In the information age and the Internet age, traditional art needs to overcome two obstacles before it can begin to spread its artistic value and influence more effectively. Firstly, it is necessary to go beyond the formal framework of the process of creating a painting: in creativity, the author's subjective understanding of art and the artistic education of the master often come to the fore, and then an objectively completed work is born. Secondly, it is necessary to use a variety of modern methods of information dissemination to promote works more effectively. It doesn't matter if these are exhibitions in museums or video clips, photos and audio broadcast on the Internet. "Shaun the Sheep" is a work by Aardman Animations studio, a pioneer of plasticine animation; here the image of the characters, the artistic language of the shooting, the texture of the materials and the educational value can be called successful. "Shaun the Sheep" is a complex animated film embodying a synthesis of humanistic orientation, fine art, a combination of techniques and innovative thinking.

Analyzing the peculiarities of the synthesis of fine art and animation, we can say that the first is a material, objectively existing form, while animation, on the contrary, exists in the perception of viewers in the virtual, digital world. Despite the differences in the form of expression and the peculiarities of information transmission, prerequisites for integration have formed between them. So, taking as a basis eight hundred letters and one hundred and twenty oil paintings by a representative of Van Gogh's post-impressionism, combining them with dynamic animation art, the creators of the cartoon managed to revive static works on canvas in the format of an animated film. Despite the fact that, in the end, it was animation that became a way of expression, its "task" in "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" is associated with the popularization of the artist's work. In other words, the audience now did not need to go specifically to the exhibition of the artist's paintings, since they could come to the nearest cinema, turn on the computer or even the phone to enjoy the animated painting. Note that the film "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" did not show the audience that Van Gogh's style was different from that of all artists of the twentieth century. Perhaps the lack of knowledge in the field of the history of oil painting or the lack of an objective assessment of the artist's work determines that post-impressionism remains a mystery to the vast majority of viewers. A significant number of images in the spirit of post-impressionism make it possible to enjoy the exterior of the works, but do not allow us to understand the inner meaning of form and color, into which Van Gogh put his own understanding of this trend. However, it is true that in the age of entertainment cinema, this requirement may seem excessive.

The analysis of these animated films revealed the tendency of British animators to appeal to the expressive features of various types of fine art, their imitation and interpretation in accordance with the needs of modern animation in Great Britain ^[17]. The example of the film "Shaun the Sheep" shows the desire of artists to synthesize the features of plasticine animation and techniques of sculptural art. This is largely due to the fact that in the film, the interaction between the characters is based on facial expressions, sounds, gestures and movements, which should be as expressive as possible. When considering the film "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" in the context of oil painting, attention is drawn to its originality and novelty, since oil painting is the main element of the film. It can be noted that from the moment of the film's release to the present day, the revived famous paintings have a greater appeal to the public. This assessment is certainly positive, but at the same time it reflects the fact that all the charm of oil painting is revealed only in such a "movement". Has static oil painting lost its aesthetic value in the modern world? The answer, of course, is negative, which can be concluded from the analysis of the painting "Van Gogh. Love, Vincent." The time to create a painting in the technique of oil painting significantly exceeds the time to create a modern animated film. It took a team of one hundred and twenty-five artists who created sixty-five thousand frames with oil paints on canvas in the same technique in which Van Gogh himself worked, and four years to complete the painting.

Summarizing the above, it should be concluded that modern British animation proceeds by creating films in which characters and frames are performed by means of fine art, for example, sculpture and painting. Of course, this requires considerable effort and time from the authors, as well as impeccable mastery of visual literacy, which allows them to achieve maximum expressiveness of images. It is likely that further government support for such projects will determine as a specific feature of British animation the reliance on the artistic language of classical art and the manual labor of animators.

Fig. 1. Mark Burton, Richard Starzak. Shaun the Lamb. 2007.

Shaun the Lamb. 2007.

Fig. 2. Mark Burton, Richard Starzak. Shaun the Lamb. 2007.

Shaun the Lamb. 2007.

Fig. 3. Dorota Kobela, Hugh Welshman. Van Gogh. With love, Vincent. 2017.

Fig. 4. Dorota Kobela, Hugh Welshman. Van Gogh. With love, Vincent. 2017.

^[1] Plasticine animation is a kind of stop motion animation created by frame-by-frame shooting. Plasticine animation is also included in the field of animation art. Since plasticine animation largely depends on handwork, it is the manual method that determines its artistic characteristics: simplicity, primitiveness, colorfulness, naturalness, three-dimensionality and fantasy.