"Real" Wars: Esthetics and Professionalism in Computer Animation

Abstract

The rise of modern mass culture has created a new professiondesign. Like other professionals, designers must satisfy their clients while upholding a professional identity. Unlike the others, designers also establish their professionalism through the appearance of their products. The appearance of every design product not only reflects the client's desires but also signals the designer's excellence. The following article will follow this idea as it examines a particular design field-three-dimensional computer animation created for broadcast and corporate markets. Such animations include corporate and network logos as well as simulated products and environments for use in commercials and corporate presentations. The distinguishing feature of this design practice is its overdetermining concern with illusionism. In the words of the pioneers of computer animation technology, this technology aims to provide simulations of visual reality, virtually indistinguishable from live action motion picture photography nd visually rich as real scenes.1 Therefore, illusionism in computer animation refers to the simulation of perceptual properties of real life objects and environments (shape, shading, texture, atmospheric effects) as seen through the simulated codes of traditional cinematography (composition, lighting, choice of lens and camera movement). Illusionism should not be taken for granted as the natural and inevitable goal of computer animation. Illusionism acts as an umbrella for a number of distinct esthetic standards, such as the smoothness of image and complexity of motion. The role played by these standards is not to make computer-generated images more illusionistic, more lifelike, or more persuasive to the viewers. Rather, they allow the designers to signal their professional status, thus serving as the tools of competition within the industry. The struggle to simulate the real masks another struggle-the real war for professional survival. The starting point of this analysis is the theory of culture developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in his