After submitting my FAT1 project for review yesterday, I decided to relax for the evening and watch Song of the Sea – an animated film by an Irish based company, Cartoon Saloon. The story is based on a combination of Celtic myths and Irish folklore. The quality of the animation in the feature is spectacular; a distinctive style, fused with Celtic motifs and strong colours. The animation was produced in the traditional ‘2D animation style’, where each frame is drawn by hand.
What struck me most was the integration of watercolours and other mediums with the dominant flat digital animations. The softness of the watercolours in conjunction with the flat 2D animation added another dimension to the film. These painterly hues connote an additional deeper emotion within the film; I feel that is what my own work is missing.
Above, Screenshots from Song of the Sea, demonstrating use of watercolours in conjunction with digital animation. Image Source: http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/
On reflection, the design work in my FAT1 project was a bit flat and is in need a lift. I feel the use of watercolours or alternative mediums to create a background could be the solution I require to lift the artwork to the next level.
In an interview, the Director and Co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, Tomm Moore describes the benefits of integrating traditional 2D animation with new technology. He claims the emergence of new technology has enhance 2D animation, giving it a new lease of life
I’ve got a lot of love for computer animation, but I think it’s also important to have an alternative. It would be a pity for the tradition of hand-drawn animation to die out. Yet with technology, we’re offered the opportunity to make hand-drawn animation in a way that we weren’t even fifteen years ago. With today’s computers, we can make hand-drawn animation on a feature scale with much smaller teams and lower budgets, and still make it more personal than high-level CG, which still requires a lot of money, a lot of technology and a lot of people. Through technology, hand-drawn animation has actually become more accessible. (Thill, 2015)
I can relate to Moore’s comments from a graphic designer’s point of view. Computers are a fantastic resource for the development of design, but this is not to stay that traditional methods are to be forgotten. I feel an integration of the two methods – digital and traditional – could be the solution that I am looking for in my own design work. I have spoken about this blended approach to design in a previous blog post when I was discussing the work of Stefan Sagmeister.
Resources:
Cartoon Saloon.
Available at: http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/work/song-of-the-sea/
[Accessed: 5 December 2015]
Song of the Sea. (2014) [DVD] Tomm Moore, Ireland: Cartoon Saloon.
Thill, S. (2015) Tomm Moore on ‘Song of the Sea,’ Reinventing 2D, and Dodging the Studio System
Available at: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/award-season-focus/tomm-moore-on-song-of-the-sea-reinventing-2d-and-dodging-the-studio-system-107389.html
[Accessed: 5 December 2015]
Edel McMahon 
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