The Democratization of Animation

Therefore for our research purposes, both science visualization and quantitative visuals were suitable for our research purposes since one of our main areas of inquiry was the domain of aesthetics and how aesthetics relates to the fields of science, art and animation.


In our research it was found the scientists and artists have a reciprocal relationship in terms of how they regard visual phenomena and natural processes. Scientists use animation as a communication tool to educate the general public, gain grants, and support their hypothesis. While artists use visual phenomena and depictions of natural processes as sources of inspiration for their animations and visual effects (i.e. crystals, jellyfish, nebula, lightning, etc…). This relationship is becoming more cohesive with the democratizing of digital animation.

The democratization of animation is something I write about a lot. It is my personal view on how animation is transforming visual culture in general. I gained this view as a graphic designer in the early 90s and by witness how Photoshop and, computers in general, help expand the field of graphic design. At the time, many graphic design journals, such as Émigré, Eye magazine, and the AIGA talked about the democratization of graphic design. The same thing is has already happened with animation, for example Autodesk has created a curriculum package enabling high school students to model and animation science visuals with Maya software. For the most, the democratizing of animation puts the software in the hands of the scientist, or access to an animator with the software allowing scientists to communicate more ideas at a greater rate.

science visualization vs. information graphics

The terms science visualization and information visualization are often used interchangeably, and while the two disciplines can overlap both tend to present visual data in separate ways.

Science visuals often deal with concrete data structures that represent natural processes, i.e. weather, medical anatomy, and physics, etc… where as information visualization or quantitative information deals with mathematical data structures and are often presented as charts as graphs.

3D renders, hyper-realistic visuals, fly-through animations, and flash cartoons are often the domain of science visuals while vector graphics are more often associated with information graphics.

But from an aesthetic stand point the distinction fades and both scientific visualizations, such as nebulas and electron microscope imagery and graphic content of visual complexity can be captivating sources of inspiration to animators and visual artists.

Women Illustrators

Dave's Seminar Post

- Enabled in 1990, the Children's Television Act was created to enhance television's potential to teach children. The CTA establishes a guideline that every station airs at least three hours per week of core educational programming.

-Captain Planet, a cartoon superhero, was created with the intent of entertaining viewers into an awareness of environmental hazards

-Bill Nye, an engineer by day, stand up comedian by night, created the show Bill Nye the Science Guy which aimed to teach specific topics in science to a preteen audience.

-Many children's programs today seemingly have little to no educational value. A few stations continue to put forth an effort to teach, but the shows are predominantly on cable television. These stations include Discovery Channel Kids and National Geographic, and PBS on network televsion.

Women Illustrators

Bulleted List for Science and Spirituality:

• Co-Exist? Judy Lemus said she was spiritual, but not religious. Dr. Francis Collins is religious and scientist. CNN Article



• Faking Science? Especially Web misinformation

Creature Museum: creatures
Water Crystals: crystals


• Human Judgment: Erroneous Science

Da Vinci: Da Vinci
Flat Earth: Flat Earth Forum


An Animation dealing with both:
Duelity
Duelity

Duelity

This is an awesome animation created earlier this year by students in the Vancouver Film School dealing with the creation of the world and humans. It is interesting because it approaches the creationism theory with scientific dialogue and the Evolution/Big Bang theory with a middle ages/religious dialogue.

Watch all three videos.

duelity

www.duelity.net