Dissertation Proposal

This week we were asked to produce a dissertation outline to help the tutors divide up the students equally and to see what tutors suited best for our chosen subject areas. Here is my outline - a dissertation about animation.

For my dissertation I am going to focus on the area of animation. I have chosen to do this subject because I am very interested in this area and it also coincides with my production project where I am creating my own animation.

I am going to consider the development of animation in the era of Disney and the pencil and paint of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' to the CGI animation of Pixar's latest release 'Monsters University'. I have decided to only look at animation from Disney (1937) to Pixar (2013) because I want to look in to these companies and talk about their connections, differences and styles.

I would like to use the phrase 'from pencil to pixel' to best describe what I am going to try and achieve. I intend to discuss and analyse whether Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has fully taken over from the hand drawn days of Walt Disney. I am going to examine both sides; comparing animations made throughout these generations, the realism and passion in these animations and also the impact that technology has had on this art form.

I considered looking at a wider range of animation, including stop frame; however I think that this is too broad of an area to cover when I need to be focused on something very acute for my dissertation.

I would like to illustrate that CGI animation is just as delicate a process as hand drawn animation. I want to prove that the same excitement, commitment, love and affection goes in to CGI as it does hand drawn; and although it is more prominent in the industry, CGI has not completely shadowed hand drawn animation for good - but it has for the moment.

I will explore independent makers of animation on YouTube and also other companies such as DreamWorks and Studio Ghibli to show the range of animation that is being produced in this generation and what positive effects CGI has had on the ability to animate. 

I am looking forward to finding out who my tutor is and I think I have an idea because my chosen area is pretty specific. Excited to get started on this because I love my subject area and can't wait to find out lots more about it in my research and development!

Speak Soon!