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October 12, 2005
Harey Clay
Whether you measure it in karats or carrots, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit is positively golden!
There is something marvelous about old school, stop motion animation. It has a warmth and familiarity that the most magnificent CGI simply lack. It has a soul, if you will; a human touch. True enough, CGI too is human-made, and truly awesome efforts afford us truly awesome visual spectacles; but CGI just seems lacking in some ways when compared to media like clay.
One possible reason? CGI is perfect. Clay is not.
In its perfection, CGI strips away any evidence of human involvement. Surfaces are rendered as they would appear regardless of their author. No brush strokes or sketch lines -- no fingerprints -- mar their surfaces and betray their human author,... and absolute symmetry is rampant.
Clay by contrast is rife with errors and fingerprints. They cover its surface and penetrate its insides; folded and rolled into it as it's pressed and molded to shape. In its final rendering the author is not lost. They remain connected to their work through the physical evidence of themselves left behind.
Perhaps it is this physicality that imbues a work with soul; an ability for the art itself to "reach back" and touch its creator. And herein lies a real tragedy in CGI. For no matter how long and hard a CGI designer labours in their craft, they can never touch their own creations. Their art has no connection back to them; each frame, each ray, refraction, and shadow -- a digital orphan.
A more likely reason? CGI is grown-up. Clay is not.
Perhaps all of my previous rationale is just bullshit. Perhaps the real reason clay holds such a warm-and-fuzzy feeling (for me at least) is the kid factor. When was the last time you played with clay? Not worked with it, but played with it? Chances are it was as a child. And maybe it's that childhood connection to this malleable medium, rather than some contrived nonsense (see above) about orphaned pixels, that is the true source of the soul of this art.
Don't get me wrong. CGI is freakin' awesome! There was a time it's all I wanted to do, and for a very brief time that's what I did. But CGI is not a child's thing. Not yet anyways; not as early a development thing as clay. CGI exercises and excites my higher brain. Clay just makes me laugh and brings out the kid in me. And besides, who really wants to be grown up anyway?
Been there. Done that. Adulthood is highly overrated.
*breaks out the clay and starts to play*
Posted by Tacitus at October 12, 2005 04:10 PM