Shadow And Animation

Shadow Arts as an art acts/performs stories with the help of light shining on the sketches carved from animal hides or paper molds. Shadow Arts integrates molding,performing and image arts,and represents our ancestors' interest in visual-motor and desires to display motion patterns.A popular,direct motion form/pattern of graphic sign thus created,Shadow Arts is indeed a great achievement in our traditional folk arts.Originated from Sham Xi in West Ham dynasty with a history of a thousand odd years,Shadow Arts is a movable photographic art ever dubbed and can be regarded as the stereotype of today's animation. Nevertheless,the fostering and promoting of shadow art has nowadays encountered unprecedented difficulties,and is even confronted with the misery of dieing out.Fortunately,the rapid development of computer animation has shed light on shadow arts.Some film companies have applied features of shadow art into computer animation and their efforts are acknowledged and appreciated by the professionals.On the basis of computer animation,this thesis attempts to study shadow art animation from a new perspective.The thesis argues features of arts,performance and music should be integrated into modern animation and shadow play should take advantage of ideas and advanced animation technology,thus blending this traditional artistic form and modern animation.As a means of cultural communication and artistic symbol,computer animation undertakes the function of cultural communication and is valuable in promoting shadow play art and contemporary animation. It is of great academic value.