Immersive Animation

IMMERSIVE ANIMATION Egbert de Ruiter Gatze Zonneveld Martin Lacet EMMA ISCA 2006-2007 2 Index Illustrations 4 Attachments 5 Introduction 6 Chapter I: The Relationship between Humans and the Environment 7 1.1 The Physical relation between Humans and their Environment 7 1.2 Environmental Psychology 8 1.3 Atmosphere 9 1.3.1 Colour Theory 10 1.3.2 The Other Senses 11 1.4 Immersion 12 1.4.1 The Suspension of Disbelief 12 Chapter II: Art Movements and the Environment 15 2.1 The Second Style of Pompeii 15 2.2 Renaissance 16 2.2.1 Mathematically Correct Linear Perspective 16 2.2.2 Oil Paint 17 2.3 Baroque 18 2.3.1 Trompe l'oeil 18 2.3.2 Ceiling Paintings 19 2.4 19 th Century Panorama’s 20 2.4.1 Panorama Mesdag 21 2.5 Impressionism 22 2.5.1 High Dynamic Range Imaging and Tone Mapping 23 2.5.2 Atmospheric Perspective 25 2.6 Colourfield Painting 26 Chapter III: Contemporary Media and the Environment 28 3.1 Cinema 28 3.2 Special Format Film 29 3.2.1 Widescreen formats 29 3.2.2 IMAX 30 3.2.3 OmniMAX 30 3.2.4 IMAX 3D 31 3.3 Sens-o-rama 32 3.4 Home Theatre 33 3.4.1 Ambilight 35 3.5 Themepark rides 36 3.5.1 Physical Immersive Rides: Droomvlucht 36 3.5.2 Virtual Immersive Rides: StarTours 39 3.6 Virtual Reality 41 3.6.1 Videogames 42 3 3.6.2 Head Mounted Displays 43 3.6.3 CAVE: Cave Automatic Virtual Environment 43 3.6.4 Idome 45 3.7 Future and Fictional 46 3.7.1 The Holodeck 46 3.7.2 The Matrix 47 Chapter IV: Finding a Happy Place 48 4.1 Perfect Places 48 Chapter V: The Animated Environment 50 5.1 Direction 50 5.2 Cinematography 51 5.3 Editing 52 5.4 Design 53 5.5 Colour and Lighting 54 Chapter VI: The Physical Viewing Environment 56 6.1 Interior and Exterior Design 56 6.2 Video Design 57 6.3 Audio Design 57 6.4 Technology 58 Chapter VII: The Practical Research regarding Treehuggers 59 7.1 Story 59 7.2 Design 60 7.3 Direction and Storyboarding 61 7.4 Production 67 7.5 Viewing Environment 68 Conclusion 69 Bibliography 71 Title Index 74 4 Illustrations Fig. 1.1 Still from 2001: A Space Odyssey , Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1968, p. 10 Fig. 1.2 Still from La Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2001, p.10 Fig. 2.1 Mural inside Villa Livia , Prima Porta, Italy, 20 BC, p.16 Fig. 2.2 Example of 1-point linear perspective, p.17 Fig. 2.3 Crucifixion of St. Peter, Carvaggio, Rome, Italy, 1601, p.18 Fig. 2.4 San’Ignazio Affresco Soffitto, Andrea Pozzo, Rome, Italy, 1690, p.19 Fig. 2.5 Wideshot of Panorama Mesdag interior, Scheveningen, the Netherlands, p.22 Fig. 2.6 View from the viewing platform in Panorama Mesdag , Scheveningen, the Netherlands, p.22 Fig. 2.7 Parc Monceau , Claude Monet, Paris, France 1876, p.23 Fig. 2.8 HDR photograph of a harbour, Peter van Allen, the Netherlands, 2007, p.24 Fig. 2.9 Photograph showing atmospheric perspective, www.wikipedia.org , 2007, p.25 Fig. 2.10 Orange and Yellow , Mark Rothko, USA, 1956, p.26 Fig. 3.1 Diagram of an OMNIMAX theatre, www.imax.com , 2007, p.30 Fig. 3.2 Sensorama advertisement poster, 1958, p.33 Fig. 3.3 Photograph of a basic, modern home theatre, www.philips.com , 2007, p.33 Fig. 3.4 Photograph of a very luxurious home theatre, www.hometheatremag.com , 2007, p.33 Fig. 3.5 Photograph of a Philips Ambilight television, www.misc.philips.com/ambilight/ , 2007, p.36 Fig. 3.6 The entrance to Droomvlucht , Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands, 1993, p.37 Fig. 3.7 Interior shot of Droomvlucht , Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands, 1993, p.38 Fig. 3.8 Interior shot of Droomvlucht , Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands, 1993, p.38 Fig. 3.9 Interior shot of the pre-show of Star Tours , Disneyland California, USA, 1987, p.40 Fig. 3.10 Still out of the Star tours ride, Disneyland California, USA, 1987, p.40 Fig. 3.11 Photograph of a CAVE, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Japan, 2004, p.44 Fig. 3.12 Photograph of an Idome, Icinema centre for interactive cinema research, Australia, 2007, p.45 Fig. 3.13 Diagram of an Idome, Icinema centre for interactive cinema research, Australia, 2007, p.45 Fig. 4.1 Still from Monsters Inc ., John Lasseter, USA, 2001, p.48 Fig. 4.2 Still from La Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain , Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2001, p.48 Fig. 4.3 Still from Fellowship of the Ring , Peter Jackson, New Zealand, 2001, p.48 Fig. 4.4 Parc Guell , Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain, 1914, p.48 Fig. 7.1 Compilation of pre-production artwork Treehuggers , Gatze Zonneveld, 2007, p. 60 Fig. 7.2 Storyboard Treehuggers , Gatze Zonneveld, 2007, p. 63 Fig. 7.3 Testrender Treehuggers using Maxwell, Gatze Zonneveld, 2007, p. 67 Fig. 7.4 Succeeding installation designs and technology designs (final design not shown) Treehuggers , Gatze Zonneveld, 2007, p. 68 5 Attachments 01, A digital version of this thesis Immersive Animation , Gatze Zonneveld, 2007, 1 PDF file, CDROM 6 Introduction Environments... Every single moment of our lives we find ourselves inside an environment. Places where we interact with others, to talk, to eat, to learn… Or places to be alone and think. We go to places all around the world, to experience new things and learn about different cultures. The environment is omnipresent and ever changing. We might even go as far as saying we are actually part of the environment. Yet, for some reason, we are barely consciously aware of our environment. We actually take it for granted. In recent years, a new field of study has formed, called ‘Environmental Psychology.’ The field draws on work in a number of disciplines including anthropology, geography, psychology, design and architecture and focuses on the relationship between humans and the environment, both natural and manmade. The research originates from the 1940’s, though it might be argued that it’s been an important part of many Eastern philosophies for thousands of years. But only in the last few decades, people in the West have started to take interest. Nowadays, the research mainly concerns save and secure city planning and the creation of productive workplaces, though it’s influence and the quality of research is minimal. I, however, do think the field is extremely interesting and that it could be implemented in lots of other areas. One area that could also benefit from it is film and animation and therefore the question I want to research in this thesis is: How can a higher degree of immersion be reached in the medium of animation? With immersion, in this case, I mean the feeling of being in an environment. The idea to choose this subject for my exegesis comes from the fact that I notice that the environment I’m in has a lot of influence on my emotions and that I really miss that in animation or film. Obviously, there is immersion in existing film and animation, but the degree of it varies and I think it could definitely be taken a step further. Furthermore, there has been quite a lot of research in the fields neighbouring that of my thesis question, so I see it as a natural step to bring those findings into the field of animation. In my research I want to focus on engaging environments in which the viewer gets a feeling of happiness or bliss and where the viewer really wants to be. In answering my thesis question, I hope it’ll open up new possibilities for animation in general and that it would give directors (and myself) new tools in bringing across ideas to the spectator. My research will mainly consist out of literary research and the analysis of several installations, films and animations. In order to be able to answer the main question of this thesis I will first research what actually constitutes the relationship between human beings and their environment. Next, we will look at what role the environment has played in different art movements and what role it plays in contemporary media. After that we’ll try to understand what makes an environment a happy place, in which people like to be. In the second part of my thesis we will apply the knowledge gathered in the first part, specifically to the medium of animation and see how it effects its different aspects. After that I’ll research what kind of implications this has for the ideal viewing environment. And finally, we’ll see how all of this applies to a real-world project, namely my graduate animation. The end result of this thesis will hopefully be a more comprehensive view on immersion and an animated short/installation, in which the findings of my research will be incorporated. This animation/installation will also help me prove or disprove my findings and will be part of the conclusion of my thesis. 7 Chapter I The Relationship between Humans and the Environment In this first chapter I will provide you, the reader, with a context for the rest of the thesis. It will deal with the relationship that exists between humans and the environment. But what actually constitutes an environment and how do we interact with it? How do environments influence the emotions of people and what makes an environment have a certain ambience or atmosphere? And what is this thing called immersion anyway? These are the questions I will try to answer in this first chapter.

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