Written by Claire 2022 Cohort
I would like to talk about animation and childhood; for me; as one of the generation Z (born in 1997-2012), we have a different lifestyle from other generations; we prefer to search information over the internet.
I could say that I grew up with animation, and I can still remember my cousin and I watched B-Robo Kabutack (1997) together after kindergarten. In my time, the animation industry was booming, not only with American and Japanese animation but also with many Chinese cartoons.
Animating helps words connect
Animation seems more acceptable for a young child, especially useful in teaching and learning about different countries and cultures even people have not visited. Anime is especially useful in education and learning about culture because it creatively interprets a variety of aspects of a country’s culture, such as places and institutions, historical and cultural allusions, social atmosphere, and subtle details like body language and gestures, which doesn’t always translate well to other forms of media, like literature, music, or even live-action film.
Stop-motion animation
There are many ways for people to make animation, such as stop-motion, 2D animation and 3D. My favourite is stop-motion animation, my first stop-motion animation experience is watching SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (2015) with my mother, and she also loves all types of cartoons. When I was little, she always encouraged me and watched different kinds of animation, and we exchanged ideas after watching them.
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (2015) was made by the British animation company Aardman, and I saw the behind-the-scenes video production of stop-motion animation; the process involves taking a photograph of characters or objects, moving them slightly, and taking another picture. The things and textures appear to carry on their own when playback the images consecutively. The process of producing stop animation is complicated but exciting, with equal scale to make solid models and different expressions of the main character needing to be made by hand; as I was in high school, the charm of these animations deeply affected me and made me want to join and work for an animation company.
