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Representations of Scale and Time: Reinterpreting Cinematic Conventions in Digital Animation to Create a Purposeful Visual Language

Heban, Thomas Edward

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Design.
Since the earliest days of cinema filmmakers have experimented with the temporal nature of the art form during capture, manipulation, and exhibition. This thesis paper serves as a reflective documentation of the development process for the depiction of spatial and temporal scales in the animated short film Here Be Giants. Drawing from cinematic conventions and shaped by the malleable nature of the medium of digital animation a visual language was developed to convey qualities of scale and time essential to the narrative. A foundation for decision making during the development process was informed by project-based exploration including photographic, animation, and live action video as well as influences from cinema, video games, painting, and sculpture. The result of this reflexive research is a tripartite of categories of visual cues that include environmental and atmospheric elements (clouds, the sun, star trails, etc.), reminiscent subject matter (tree growth in seconds rather than years), and cinematographic considerations (depth of field and motion blur). These categories were used to develop representations of scales of time along the spectrum of human real-time to geologic time. The result is an animated short film with a purposeful visual language steeped in cinematic convention and reinterpreted through digital animation to actualize parallel narrative strands of a human interpersonal narrative and landscape mythology.
Maria Palazzi (Advisor)
Alan Price (Committee Member)
Janet Parrott (Committee Member)
203 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Heban, T. E. (2015). Representations of Scale and Time: Reinterpreting Cinematic Conventions in Digital Animation to Create a Purposeful Visual Language [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430399136

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Heban, Thomas. Representations of Scale and Time: Reinterpreting Cinematic Conventions in Digital Animation to Create a Purposeful Visual Language . 2015. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430399136.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Heban, Thomas. "Representations of Scale and Time: Reinterpreting Cinematic Conventions in Digital Animation to Create a Purposeful Visual Language ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1430399136

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)