Abstraction and Stylized Design in 3D Animated Films: Extrapolation of 2D Animation Design

Stylization is at the heart of 2D animation design and is only recently being more fully explored in 3D animated films. In the early days of 3D animation, the push for realism in lighting, rendering, and deformations displaced a pursuit of stylization in the quest to expand the capabilities of computer graphics technology. With those technical problems solved, 3D animation has more recently embraced stylization in design and character movement. Stylization also can be interpreted by some as playfulness, and “play is at the heart of animation” (Powers 2012, p. 52). Nature can be seen as an “abstract visual phenomenon” (Beckman and Ezawa 2012, p. 101), and “the portrayal of hyperrealistic human characters in 3D animation can lead to the alienation of an audience, as they may not accept them as being real” (Kaba 2013, p. 188). It is the ability of animation to “break with naturalistic representation and visual realism” (Linsenmaier 2011, p. 1) that is observed as one of the strengths of...