Participants' essays / Ville Eerikäinen /

The Interactive 2D-animation in the Avatar-World

During the fall I have been thinking in our study project - Drama between Real and Virtual - the possibilities to apply 2D-animation in an avatar world. Especially, I have been eager to found a solution, which would take use of the features of the used medium.(1) So, it can be said that I have mostly been thinking a question: How to combine 2D-animation to 3D-modelled world, and to interactivity? Before writing about my solution to the problem, I think that it is important to describe three essential concepts: space, avatar world and ideatre.

Henri Lefebvre thinks that space as a concept can be understood as a collection of different kind of spaces like physical space, abstract space, social space etc. Lefebvre writes also about representations of space and representational spaces. As Espen Aarseth puts it a representation of space is a logical system of relations, while representational space is -- symbolic imagery with primarily aesthetic purpose - and not consistent or rule-based.(2)

Among Mika Tuomola the term 'avatar world' is most often used to refer to communities, social meeting places, playgrounds, game worlds and study-places that represent their virtual participants visually in the Internet or other computer networks.(3) Closely relating to the avatar world Tuomola writes about ideatre with which he refers to place of ideas, thoughts and conceptions, fluid products of mental activity, that do not and cannot exist physically. Even with resemblance to physical reality, all things in avatar worlds are just ideas of persons, objects, laws of nature and so forth, though they can be concretely experienced.(4)

So, if we think above mentioned concepts together, it can be said that avatar world takes use of every kind of spaces Lefevbre theorizes. Like Tuomola writes, the world of ideatre is based on mental activity and abstraction. But still there lies references to reality and physical world. Often visual relation to the physical world is very strong. For instance, if the 3D-world is constructed of buildings and all other kind of objects, which are directly reality-based. But even the most simplified and abstract visuality, such as a big, red circle and a small, red circle on screen at the same time, creates a reference to reality and reminds of the representation of space of the Lefebvre's theory. There can be recognized different sizes of the circles, which lead to an idea about distance between them. This sort of size-distance seeing is based on logical spatiality of the physical world.(5) By following the distance-size rule we follow a certain relation rule concerning our definition and understanding of (physical) space we have learned in our culture. So, we need (always) some amount of logic to express abstraction and to read it. That is obvious, because there is no abstraction, if there is nothing to abstract.
Within the theory above I had an idea to deconstruct a traditional film animation, which is based on series of planes, which are projected with a certain speed to create an illusion of continuous motion. Although the series of planes - the photograms - are in a material sense organized to linear order in a film, one forgets the linearity of images when film is projected. It actually seems that the next image just replaces the one before in the same area.

If we think the position of a plane in the 3D-world, it has at least two important functions there. First of all, the plane is everywhere, because 3D-objects are constructed of the planes. The plane is a kind of basic element of the 3D-world. On the other hand, the plane as an independent object in the 3D-world is a kind of stranger, because of its lack of depth. If one moves towards the plane, it enlarges to the moment one is in the same position with it. But immediately with that situation happens the disappering of the plane.

So, an idea occurred, what if we construct a 3D-object of the photograms of 2D-animation film. This is possible by ordering the photograms of the 2D-animation to the depth right one after another. In this kind of situation the disappearing of one plane reveals another plane, and this happens to the end of the series - to the end of an object. This means that instead of being a passive outsider one has to create the animation by moving through it. I call this to the interactive 2D-animation, because like I said above that finally the user is an animator. The user has a power to choose, if she or he wants to see the animation, of does she or he want to see it totally, because it is possible to interrupt the animation by moving to other direction than to the depth.

Many times avatar worlds are based to communication between the users of the world. However, in the case of the interactive 2D-animation, the most important thing is not the interaction with somebody but with something. In that way, I think, this is one possibility to enrich the narration in the avatar world.

Notes:

(1) Among Rudolf Arnheim representation is always tied to a used medium - to the possibilities and the limits of it. Arnheim 1970, 257.

(2) Aarseth 1998,7. The concept of social space is also mentioned by Stone 1994, 83.

(3)Tuomola 2000, 1.

(4) Ibid, 11.

(5) In another words - like Arnheim writes - seeing is the seeing of proportions. Arnheim 1970, 54.

References:

Aarseth, Espen: Allegories of Space.

Arnheim, Rudolf: Visual Thinking.

Stone, Allucquere Rosanne: Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories about Virtual Cultures.

Tuomola, Mika: Computer as Social Contextualiser & Ideatre - Towards the Promising Future of Avatar Worlds.