After watching every animation video, I like the zoetrope because it has something magical about it. I love how images that on their own don’t seem to have life suddenly, with just a turn, transform into movement. There’s something about that moment when everything aligns, the rhythm, the speed, your gaze, and suddenly everything transforms. There is no digital technology or special effects needed, just sequence, rhythm, and repetition, which is amazing. It’s as if something hidden were revealed for a second, as if time were playing with us. It makes me feel that the ordinary can become extraordinary with just a small change of perspective, where within the repetitive, the cyclical, there can be art. However, what most catches my attention is how it manages to animate without being animated, that the movement isn’t in the images, but in the way they are presented to our eyes. Similar to the flip book, which instead of rotating, is just a quick flip of the pages. I remember when I was in middle school, in my art class, I made one drawing, which took me a while since I had to draw about 30 pages to only see a few movements. It’s impressive how animation artists take the time to create this magical art.
In contrast, I didn’t really like the “Op Hop, Hop Op”. When I look at it as an image, I can consider it art, it is an abstract art. However, when it’s transformed into animation video by cropping it in sections, then joining them together, and repeating it in a video, I don’t consider it as animation. Also, I don’t understand what it’s trying to convey. I only see different figures, but not animated ones. I know that some art can be hard or impossible to understand and predict, but that’s what makes it art! And I completely get that, this is just my own opinion.
In addition, I really like B E A U T Y by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro, because it takes something traditional and historical, like classical paintings, and then transforms them into something modern and emotionally powerful. This type of animation makes me feel closer to the characters and emotions within the paintings, almost as if the paintings were whispering stories I hadn’t previously noticed or analyzed. However, at the same time, it’s eerie because it’s as if the characters in the painting come to life and emerge from the painting, like in fantasy movies. I remember when I was a kid, there was a painting of the school’s founder in our principal’s office at school. One day a classmate was accidentally recording in front of the portrait and said she saw the founder’s eyes moving, which was scary because it was as if a spirit had entered the painting and was able to move its eyes and interact with us. This makes me think that it might be the angle at which she was standing, and if she was moving from side to side, that may influence it.