Press release September 2003

Animation was the topic which attracted many visitors as well as regular members to the September meeting of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers. For the past two years one of the members, Sally Maltby, has been striving to get to grips with this very difficult subject, and she spoke first hand of her trials and tribulations. The talk was well illustrated with examples of animations which provided excellent insights into this absorbing subject. We heard how the techniques of animation have changed significantly from the days when each frame of a film had to be drawn by a skilled artist. Now software can be relied on to fill in so many of the gaps that significantly fewer frames need to be hand drawn. However, we also heard, that the release from hand-drawing has brought with it just as much intense effort in terms of needing to construct computer models of characters. Apparently once the shapes and visual appearance have been programmed, the computer can then draw the individual frames of the film. Advantages are that, although intense effort is still required, characters can be made to move much more naturally and can also be saved and transposed into other characters.

After these insights, the audience was treated to an animation film called “Evelyn”. This was based on a story by Jane Austin which was beautifully read, while accompanied by the computer-generated characters playing out the action. The light humour was appreciated by the audience, and there were ripples of laughter, particularly for an animated spider which appeared from time to time. The whole was expertly done, and it stimulated plenty of discussion over the refreshment break.

The second half of the evening was hosted by Roland Couvela who has been producing animation films since the 1980’s. He took the audience rapidly through the history of animation, with short demonstrations of early products including comments on the techniques used. For example, he showed an example of a very effective animation, using a putty-like character interacting with a human trying to eat breakfast. The talk then moved on to computer-generated animation. There was an example of a nativity scene, then a riveting film of a brilliant child inventor whose genius was not recognised by his parents, and finally one about a space ship landing to spill out lots of animated traffic cones which conspired to capture a car. The evening ended with an animated rendering of the song Oh My Darling Clementine about the demise of the miner’s daughter. Although it was made in 1990, it could have been just yesterday for the brilliance of the animation. 

The main reaction to the evening was a sense of fascination and awe at the dedication of the people who tackle making animation films. The effort and the expertise required would have been too much for most of us.