“The Revolution Will Be Animated.” – SIGGRAPH 2003
The concept of ‘animation’ when you can get software to model multiple layers of skin, each with its own reflectance and hue makes light of what we think of as ‘animation’. Human figures, complete with hair, skin, skin texture, pores… that *is* available in animation *today*. Getting it to look *good* is something else again.
That said the ability to do decent High-Def recording and editing shifts the tools downwards and outwards. Blogs have not replaced the MSM, but now offer alternative channels for creation and presentation of text, audio, video and multimedia that are not available via television or movies. So, too, does the digital revolution start to eat into ‘films’. Why not give a choice of FPS or third person? Let a viewer shift from immersive to overview as a story is told and let that happen seamlessly.
That is something a standard film cannot do but digital entertainment can, will and already does in games. Games picking up on kinematics, human modeling and exploiting that digital capability to present more and more realistic individuals and settings. Soon, with an immersive setting, a story can be created along multiple paths. Why see a story *just* from the heroic perspective? Why not go at it from the villainous? Or let the viewer shift as they want as the story unfolds… or follow secondary characters, like doing ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead’, save that you can shift to go through a story via any of the characters… now its not just one person’s story, but that of all of the characters and how the driving forces affect them all.
That is *not* traditional filming, and traditional storytelling via the MSM is ill-suited to do it. The digital realm is perfectly set up for it… so writers, actors and animators can go through their paces and let out multiple, interactive versions of a story allowing those going through it to see how complex the lives involved really are. Far more than just ‘soap opera’: but the portrayal of life stories effected by events and influenced by those in the story. Throw in some AI (which does need to get better) and let the viewer take part and change what happens.
If writers want to tell real stories, not just the same-old, same-old, then they should be willing to give up some of the ‘easy pay’ for deep creative expression and the chance to gain an audience that appreciates the new stories that they can tell. Homer gave us glimpses of many lives of many heroic figures on both sides of the Trojan War and each of those had their *own* traditions leading up to that conflict… we only get a couple of months out of a 10 year war that was not a seige. Imagine telling that from Helen’s view… and that of Priam… and Odysseus… and Achilles… and Memnon… a previous age can be brought to life in many ways, or a completely new world similarly given a view that is not prescribed by just one part of a set of actions.
Why restrict yourself to known and dull formats and story types? Authors, writers and artists are supposed to be *inventive*, and demonstrate that compelling works will gain an audience and support.
Fine.
Prove it.
If folks haven’t noticed, Hollywood has about the same sort of numbers that the nightly news has: abyssmal. Films will be around a long time as one format of telling stories, but they won’t be the only one and possibly not even a primary one in the future. The future being 10-20 years. Not the far future at that… and that transition time to that future is *now*. Time to get away from being writers and start looking to become bards, again… folks who can give a stemwinder of a deep story for deep and satisfactory entertainment with each bard’s own spin on things. And let the talent show itself via that. Just like the bards did. And they made a living doing so, too.
