The inside-out character : strategies for animating inner states of mind

• Main Author: Wee, Mark Nai De
• Other Authors: Kathrin Albers
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70251
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This research aims to pursue strategies for expressing inner states and emotions in animation films through referencing how the artist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, did so in five of his artworks. In my practice as a student and maker of animation, I have developed a great interest in exploring visual strategies to animate abstract emotions. In my opinion, visualizations of character inner states that depart from realism can create more compelling characters as well as effective imageries that support the narrative of the animation. Fine artists throughout history have found individualistic ways to externalize inner states of mind. In their cosmos of moving images and with their own tools, there is much within the field of fine arts that animation filmmakers can learn from to create new and stronger ways of visual expression. This is also especially suitable for the animation medium because of the inherent characteristic of animation to be able to create alternative realities. Thusly, for the purpose of this study I have chosen to look at the self-portraits of Expressionist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, as an accessible way to examine the expression of character inner states of mind in art. This investigation begins by studying the artist’s approach to translating inner states of mind in his self-portrait works. Subsequently, I shall adapt the artist’s approaches as “visual catalysts” into a short animation film, for the practical component. Also, as the research utilized modern tradigital techniques as well as traditional under-the-camera stop motion methods to create the visual experiments, it too shall explore the differences in how the Expressionists and modern filmmakers create images that similarly achieve the expression of character inner states of mind, but for two very distinct artistic mediums in two very different times.