Technique is the super power that sets animation apart from its equally successful (but not-quite-as-fun amirite) counterpart, live action. It’s the secret sauce that turns that pretty alright-tasting, totally nourishing fried fish sandwich (look, there’s nothing wrong with live action, I swear I respect it) into the most delicious, pillowy-bunned Filet O’Fish you’ve ever goddamn had. Though the line between the two has long been blurred thanks in part to advancements in special effects, and heavier and heavier image processing, I would argue that animation still holds the title of Most Constructed Image.

Within animation, technique is itself is on as large a spectrum as they come, one that operates within its own special Cartesian system where the X, Y, and Z axes all somehow intersect each other at various points, even though that’s not possible but just further serves to demonstrate the absolute magic that is animation.

The films in this programme are rooted in the digital realm, created at least in large part with computers but in what is an increasingly commonplace way that hides or at least more seamlessly incorporates the tool as opposed to forefronting its use. Computer-generated images have typically been associated with a highly synthesized aesthetic, but this collection of films represent what I think is a new era of computer animation, one which shows a more diverse expression of what was once a pretty homogenous-looking tool, differentiated fairly cleanly between 2D and 3D without any real question which was which. These films are multi-layered in their aesthetics, each in their own way presenting a more grown-up and evolved version of computer animation.

(Keltie Duncan)