Animation vs Fanfiction (Conflict)

[Astro-Xana offline]

Note: If you do not wish to read all this information, then just read the information in my last post in this topic.

Topic: Animation

Human essence is defined by voice, image, and personality, which is seeing and hearing (audio/visual). It is through these two senses that we acquire the sixth sense (which is how we feel about who that person is). If we only witness an image of someone, it's likely that we will receive a feeling about that person (the "essence"), but it won't be the true essence. It is through hearing that person's voice, seeing him/her, and witnessing his/her personality that we receive the true essence of that person. But even so, we will receive first impressions (which is not yet the true essence). It is through exposure to this person that we receive his/her true essence.

In the world of animation, aka the world of audio and visual (which is, in my honest opinion, the highest realm in expressing one's ideas and portraying essence), animators and 3D modelists must perfect the essence that they want to portray by means of advanced computer technology and software. They will create the desired image of their character to perfection, as well as choosing the perfect voice and creating the perfect personality for that character in order to fully perfect the essence of that character (to try and create a "universal essence" which is when people receive the same essence [sixth sense] about that character).

If an animator has an essence in their mind of a character that he/she came up with in his/her own head and then goes into production and creates an image, voice, and personality for that character that is not yet at perfection, there will be, of course, an essence from that character. But not the essence that the animator had in his/her mind. And thus, the animator must fully develop upon the character's appearance, voice, and personality in order to fully define the essence that they want to portray.

But even after the character has been perfected, different people will feel different essences due to the fact that people have different lifestyles and things/feelings already going on in their life that actually interfere (warp) with the essence of that character and will result in a completely different essence received from that character. This warp (interference) might actually be considered an enhanced or degrading alteration of the character's essence.

Consider, for example, a person who lives on the streets, is very immature, mean, insensitive, and views any type of girl as a low-life living on the streets. If such a person were to watch Code Lyoko and witness Aelita, then it would be likely that this person would hate Aelita and that the essence received would be that she is just some low-life character in some way (which would be Aelita's essence being interfered by this person's negative point of view, thus making Aelita having a whole new essence which would be a negative essence). And if this person is interested in Fan Art, this person would draw a negative form of Aelita on the streets based on the essence that this person had in mind. This would be the degrading alteration of essence.

Now consider someone who lives in Japan, has a very positive view on Japanese culture and witnesses Aelita. The positive Japanese essence residing within this person would warp with the essence of Aelita and result in Aelita's essence being Japanese-like in a positive way. And if this person were to be, again, interested in Fan Art, then it would be likely that he/she would portray Aelita wearing Japanese clothing. This would be the enhanced alteration of essence. But this enhancement could be viewed as either positive or negative to other people who either like the enhancement or prefer other enhancements.

Another factor that either degrades or enhances the essence of characters is the level of skill in creating, and bringing the character to life, and the level of computer technology and software used. Those people who do not have much money and have only used and adapted to low-level computer technology/software will find that once they have perfected a character, that character will seem perfect to him/her. But as for those people who have more money and have used and adapted to higher levels of computer technology/software will find that the character produced has many flaws and as a result, that will diminish that character's essence in his/her mind. However, those people who have the least amount of money and could only use and adapt to the lowest computer technology/software will find that the character is amazing, which will actually enhance the character's essence.

Now even if a certain character were to be perfected through the highest means of computer technology/skill/and software, thus fully perfecting the character's essence, those people who don't have things interfering with the essence are the people who are more in touch with the character and less in touch with whatever else is going on in their life. Therefore, in order for someone to receive the pure essence of a character, it would require that person to have a clear mind and be completely open.

But even so, the pure essence will still not be received. It would require that the person be "reborn" (completely erased of his/her memory and everything else) in order to receive the pure essence of something or someone.


Topic: Fanfiction

When it comes to the world of fanfiction, a person will come up with an idea based on the essence that he/she received from watching (example given, Code Lyoko). It could either be an idea or a whole new character. This person would then attempt to portray the essence (emotion) itself to other people (in order for these other people to feel the same essence) by writing a story that explains all of this. But however, a story (fanfiction) is nothing more than mere text. In order to portray essence at its highest defined level, one must create a fully perfected image of the character, the perfect voice for the character, and the perfect personality that perfectly defines the essence of that character in that person's mind (which would be bringing the character to life in the world of animation). But even after the character's essence has been defined at its highest level, people will not feel the same essence from that character as the essence that the maker of the character had in mind, due to the different lifestyles and things/feelings already going on in other people's lives that keep these people from receiving the essence that the maker of the character had in mind.

Now in the world of fanfiction, there is absolutely no way of even nearly defining essence as you would in the world of animation. For one, there is no way of fully defining an image of a character, no matter how many descriptions you use. There is a saying which is that a picture tells a thousand words. But actually, a picture tells an indescribable amount of words since a picture (image) will consist of over 100,000 pixels. And in order to fully explain an image in words would require that you explain each and every one of these pixels in terms of color (RGB), location, etc. Thus, it would be impossible to fully explain an image in words.

In terms of describing the voice of your character through fanfiction would be impossible as well since you would have to explain everything in terms of the waveform, frequency, etc. of that character's voice. And as for personality, personality is how the character speaks and the character's actions which would be a series of frames (images) describing the character's actions and a series of frames (audio) describing how the character speaks. Thus, would also be impossible to fully explain in words.


Topic: Conflict (Problem I'm Having)

Now as for the ideas I come up with for Code Lyoko (one of my most powerful being Aelita as a very dark demonic alien in Season 5 and the other being angel Aelita possessed by Franz Hopper's holy essence which would result in her having bright white Xana symbols in her eyes along with immense spiritual white energy force of power to fight against Xana), I have an entire movie scenario going on in my head regarding these ideas and it is so powerful and emotional that no words can explain it. As a result, I seek the highest power (realm) in expressing this (which would be the world of animation).

However, the computer I have has the worst possible graphics on it and I do not have any money whatsoever to purchase another computer (or anything else for that matter). As a result, I am being held back in the realm of animation in that I cannot animate anything due to these weak graphics. I can only model an image with very limited detail. This really holds me back from portraying essence. In other words, I have adapted to low-level computer technology and that as a result, people who will view my fan art produced by these weak graphics will witness many flaws which will diminish the character's essence in his/her mind from what the essence should truly be.

As a result, I am reduced to writing fanfiction in portraying the essence and events of my ideas instead of being an anime producer and actually producing these ideas. And I ask myself what is the purpose of writing fanfiction if there is no way of portraying the essence at its highest level through writing. Anime producers revise immense high quality, detail images, animations, real live voices, personality and such. So what is the purpose of revising mere text? It is pointless, in my opinion, to waste my time on mere text when I could be actually producing all of this. And furthermore, being criticized due to the fact that the essence of my ideas are not recognized due to the fact that they are only text and nothing more. Writing a fanfiction (story) should only be considered the plans for an actual production at best. So there is no need to make these constant revising (editing) in making a fanfiction a perfect story with perfect grammar and such since there is no way of fully portraying essence through writing anyway.

The only thing that fanfiction portrays is a mental image of the appearance of your character, voice, and personality as well as the events. And since mental images are weak compared to actually witnessing the real thing, that will produce a weak and very undefined essence which is why the essence of my ideas are not recognized. Though I have actually modeled an image of my version of Aelita as an alien for Season 5, I cannot improve upon it due to these weak graphics (though the image does, to a certain extent, portray the essence that I want to portray), but not fully.

The whole essence of my alien version of Aelita since the very beginning was very dark, and otherworldly in a very positive gothic way. People who are gothic and witness this image are obviously more likely to receive positive essence regarding this image. But as for people who think outer space and aliens is stupid and retarded, these people have yet to recognize the true essence of my alien version of Aelita. This would be done through the world of animation as stated before (bringing the alien to life and all its essence to its fullest in a very cool dark demonic environment). And even if I have somehow portrayed the alien's essence to its fullest and these people still do not understand, then at least I have portrayed the essence to its fullest extent--I will be proud of that and won't take the criticism harshly. But as stated before, I have the worst graphics and am reduced to mere fanfiction which seriously bothers me which is why I would take criticism harshly due to the fact that essence is not understood by other people through mere text.

I wish to take my ideas to the highest level and be as creative as possible. As a result, I am planning on purchasing Sonar 8 Producer when the day comes, if it ever comes (which costs $500 and is an extremely powerful music making software) in creating my own music to go along with my ideas (providing that my computer can even handle this software).

Now when creating an amv, you are using clips and music that already exist which, in my opinion, is not creative and takes little talent--no matter how hard you worked on it. Unless, of course, the amv is something special and brings out the essence of the anime and has powerful emotion unlike some amvs which are made without any emotion or even effort, and does not match the essence of the anime. Some people only focus on music that has words that match a video rather than applying music that matches the essence of the anime itself in the video.

Now in my amvs, I started out doing what everyone else would do which is using clips and music that already exist. But then I moved on and decided to be more creative and actually sort of created music of my own (using Audacity in creating background music of my own that matches the essence of the animes I want to make a video of by altering certain portions of audio and putting them together). And then added this music to my videos in creating abmvs (anime background music videos). The reason being is to be more creative and also to bring out the essence of the anime itself (like putting myself in an anime producer's position and applying music that they would apply to match the essence of the anime) rather than just simply applying an already existing piece of music.

The point I'm trying to make is that I wish to move on to the highest possible level as an actual anime producer in bringing my ideas and characters to life by creating video clips entirely of my own using advanced 3D modeling/animation software (such as Maya, and Blender which is a free open-source 3D modeling/animation software I'm using now, but can't get anywhere with it due to these weak graphics on my computer). And also, creating my very own music using Sonar 8 Producer in expressing my ideas, thus resulting in a completely original (creative) amv made by me in order to fully express essence at its highest level instead of being at my lowest level in terms of expressing my ideas and their essence (which would be through writing--nothing more than mere text).

[TheAppleFreak]

Uh... Not much I can say except....
*cough cou-getamac-gh*

[JesusFreak offline]

*JF is crit 1999999999999999 damage by wall of text*

*JF is no more*

[Astro-Xana offline]

Well, if a person does write a lot regarding his/her problem, it really means that this person is getting down to business and is really serious about his/her problem. Thus the problem should be taken seriously and addressed thoroughly instead of being ignored. That's just my opinion though.

[JesusFreak offline]

Well, if a person does write a lot regarding his/her problem, it really means that this person is getting down to business and is really serious about his/her problem. Thus the problem should be taken seriously and addressed thoroughly instead of being ignored. That's just my opinion though.

Well, you gotta remember that brevity is key in internet forums, otherwise bad jokes are made...

[Mewberries151]

Well, if a person does write a lot regarding his/her problem, it really means that this person is getting down to business and is really serious about his/her problem. Thus the problem should be taken seriously and addressed thoroughly instead of being ignored. That's just my opinion though.

Well, you gotta remember that brevity is key in internet forums, otherwise bad jokes are made...

Making yourself as clear as possible in what point you're trying to make also helps, A-XANA. I had a rather hard time myself trying to understand exactly what you were going on about, and that was after several read throughs.

Writing a lot does require a lot of work, but it means very little if no one can understand what you're trying to say. Hemingway was a master of saying a lot in just a few words. ^^


Anyway, moving back on topic to what you were trying to say (which I'm still not 100% sure of, so pardon me if I misunderstand), but it sounds to me like you're placing blame on the technology and not where it should go. On the creator.

Fanfiction and Animation are two completely different art forms (I would know as I am both a writer and an animator). You cannot compare one to the other anymore than you could judge a dancer against a singer, or an actor against a painter. Each art form is completely unique and none is superior or inferior to any of the others. To think so is folly.

Animation has been riddled with this very sort of debate since CGI became a popular medium. Some people like to think that CGI movies are the only kind of animated film that can make money now, when this is simply not true. Technology does not dictate how well emotions are received by an audience. That takes a combination of story, sound, and imagery to achieve (I personally place higher emphasis on story-telling. Bad audio and imagery can be overlooked with the help of a good story, but no amount of amazing sound and images can make a bad story good).

Relate-ability is also a factor, but that's far more subjective (and not particularly relevant here).

In short, the point I am trying to make here is that you are wrong in considering animation a superior art form to writing stories (aka fanfiction). It is not. Nor is the reverse true. I have been brought to near tears by a well-written story, or laughed at witty dialogue in a novel, and not even given a chuckle when presented with a well-animated, but not well told, film.

You are placing the blame on your medium, which is wrong. You feel that you are not able to convey your feelings and aims to your audience because you are weighted down by poor graphics and that your only other recourse is writing "inferior" fanfiction. I'm willing to bet you though that this is not the case.

I do hope you won't take this the wrong way, but I think the reason your writing is "failing" you is because you, as the creator, do not know how to convey your emotions (and your overall point) in a way your audience can understand, relate to, and continue reading (and enjoy doing so). I can tell because the way you right your forum posts is confusing and often muddled in the point you're ultimately trying to make (thus why they often get ignored, made light of, etc. ).

This is not to say you don't have good ideas. But you do need to learn how to present them in an understandable and hopefully entertaining way before you start placing the blame on the medium you're using.

I've seen beautiful pictures made with the simplest of art programs so placing the blame on your computer is not going to help you create better works of art. Yes, a better computer can allow you to make more visually challenging and detailed pictures but that doesn't mean diddly if there's no "point" to them, or they're hard to understand. The same goes especially for fanfiction (fancy words and long paragraphs do not a good story make), but I already discussed that here.

In conclusion, I think you need to start working on conveying what you want in understandable and relateable ways. Remember, you're trying to appeal to a wide audience with many different experiences and backgrounds. What kind of stories can you tell, and in what ways can you write/present them so that other people who've never met you, and have not shared your same experiences, can understand and relate to the story you want to tell? You need to improve as a creator and artist first.


And wow that was a ridiculously long post. ^^; Sorry for the "tldr"-ness, guys.

[Astro-Xana offline]

Thanks for the detailed response, Mewberries. But I started out explaining what essence is from my very own point of view and how animators achieve essence. And that through the world of animation, essence is defined at its highest level. But the fact that all people have different brains means they will not receive the same essence no matter how well the animator portrayed his/her work of art.

Then I compared that to the world of fanfiction and said that there is no way of fully explaining the image of your character due to the fact that you would have to explain each and every pixel that makes up that image which is impossible. As a result, you will only receive a mental image that is very undefined compared to the real thing. And that in the end, the essence of your character will be very undefined (inaccurate compared to the real thing) as well no matter how well you portrayed this character through writing.

Finally, I don't think I'm interested in the world of fanfiction anyway--only in the world of animation. If I were to actually write something, it would be writing my ideas in explanation form (plans for an actual production). Also, my ideas are so powerful and emotional to me that if I were to express that in writing fanfiction, it would sound utterly ridiculous and just plain silly (too enhanced, if you will). Which is the reason why I want to express these ideas in the world of animation, because through this world, the essence of my ideas would be completely brought to life and much more understood.

[ccbtimewiz offline]

You might be interested in looking at the polish CL community-- they've developed what you seek on their own. Their own animation of CL built via 3d rendering tools.

[Astro-Xana offline]

Now I'm posting here because I've been thinking about something, and also because this is something to talk about.

Usually, when people are inspired by Code Lyoko, that inspires some real-life message in this person's life that he/she wishes to portray to the audience through writing a fanfic, since writing is all about portraying messages.

Now let's pretend that the creators of Code Lyoko (who made this show come alive through the world of animation and creating music), couldn't animate nor create music for the show at all and instead could only write about the show. This would be a huge disappointment. But even so, they wouldn't just give up. This is because they want to portray some real-life message to the audience.

But if the ideas that they came up with don't have any real-life message to portray and were just ideas that they felt very emotional towards and wanted to be portrayed through the world of computer graphics and music, then it would be highly likely that they would give up writing about the show.

It would be unnecessary for them to go into an entirely perfected story about these ideas since there is no message to portray to the audience--they'd just explain the ideas themselves and just give up from there. They wouldn't even bother telling a story about the "normal life" (Kadic Academy, the lives of the students, the life of Aelita and her father, etc).

What I'm trying to say here is that the ideas I come up with (such as Aelita being possessed by Franz Hopper and battling Xana William with some new Franzified bright white shining angel orbs), these ideas are purely inspired by the show itself.

There is no real-life message being inspired, which is why I give up writing a perfected story (fanfic) about them. If I were to write a fanfic that has any "normal life" in it, this would be lifeless and dull for me. I only wish to present sheer power itself (just imagine how awesome it would be if Aelita was possessed by her father for a change and acquired god-like powers to battle Xana and Xana William). I have entire high quality movie scenarios in my head involving this.

In other words, my ideas are Season 5 presentations. My ideas are inspired by the sheer essence (spirit), music, and graphics of the show (which is why I want them to be in graphic and music form). If you take a look at these two videos here as an example, this is exactly what I want to do with my ideas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zACX2j6MBRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ywitcq ... annel_page

I wish to unleash sheer power itself and blow people away through computer graphics and music created by me. And as for what writing a fanfic is compared to that, honestly, I can't find nor create a real life message based on my ideas that's even worth portraying through months (or even years) of studying writing techniques in order to create an unnecessary perfected story. And regardless of how perfected this story is, I'd be just doing what everyone else is doing (creating a fanfic--nothing more than typing boring text). I'm in no way trying to offend fanfic writers, it's just that in my own world, I'm just doing what everyone else is doing.

In my world, the world of animation and creating music is "moving on" from writing mere fanfiction. But since I can't afford a new computer with better graphics and such, I feel as though I'm trapped in this inferior realm of writing fanfiction--a realm I no longer wish to lurk in. Because in my own world, writing (fanfiction) is not the realm of art I wish to pursue.

[Mewberries151]

A-Xana, you're still comparing apples and oranges, and I don't think you're going to be content with your work until you realize this simple fact.

Storywriting, whether it be fanfiction, original or even non-fiction is a completely different art form and creative process from animation and any other visual art.

I would know. I like to work in both mediums.

Neither is inferior or superior to the other, and you're going to cheese off a lot of writers if you tell them that what they do is inferior to what an animator does.

Music is a whole other medium too. Again, not comparable.

Do you get where I'm coming from with this? ^^;

[Astro-Xana offline]

A-Xana, you're still comparing apples and oranges, and I don't think you're going to be content with your work until you realize this simple fact.

Storywriting, whether it be fanfiction, original or even non-fiction is a completely different art form and creative process from animation and any other visual art.

I would know. I like to work in both mediums.

Neither is inferior or superior to the other, and you're going to cheese off a lot of writers if you tell them that what they do is inferior to what an animator does.

Music is a whole other medium too. Again, not comparable.

Do you get where I'm coming from with this? ^^;

Yes, I already understand this simple fact. It's a very obvious fact that everyone should understand, but perhaps I'm only understanding this fact physically--not emotionally. And I'm in no way trying to offend fanfic writers. It's just that in my own world, writing isn't really the work of art I want to pursue--it's animation which I can't yet pursue, I'm being held back from that. But at the same time, writing is somewhat a work of art I wish to pursue, because this is the only realm at the moment I am able to express my ideas.

Now about what I just said about my ideas being presentations lacking a real-life message (which is what makes writing fanfics pointless for me). What is your opinion on that? Again, the world of writing (fanfics) is not the world I really wish to pursue. There has to be an extremely powerful motive if I were to actually write a perfect story.

[Lyokosui offline]

I know exactly what you're going through. I feel inspired to seek both the mediums. I am a fanfiction writer because I have strong writing skills. I want to do more work visually. Right now, my choices are Fanfiction, Flash, and Maya.

The strengths and weaknesses of each are as follows:

Fanfictions
+ Easy to create
+ Only requires Word Processing Program (Word,OpenOffice)
- Must have mastery of various written skills (Punctuation,Spelling,Sentence Structure, etc.)
- Relies purely on the reader's imaginaton. You can only convey your vision as best you can.

Flash
+ Almost Plug-And-Play
+ Numerous Tutorials and Documentation
+ Easy to use like Paint
- Difficult to incorporate sound
- Weak Graphics
- Doesn't store information frame-by-frame

Maya
+ Allows creation of 3D Models and Scenery
+ Can express vision exactly as you picture it
+ Numerous Tutorials, but not so much Documentation
+ Stores Information frame-by-frame
- Long time to create
- Texturing can be difficult.
- Tweaking each frame can be tedious.
- Memory Consuming

For every strength, I had a weakness just to balance it out. This list isn't every strength and weakness these applications have, but I feel these are some of the major ones.

[G-Force offline]

You can't really compare animation to writing in all honesty. Just because you find a really good book it doesn't really mean you can turn it into an awesome animated show. Besides, aren't there certain stories out there that are better written?

Example, H.P. Lovecraft would often put his characters against comic horrors that were terrifying beings beyond all comprehension and would frequently avoid describing them saying that their horrific nature could not be described with words or other similar means. In a book this sort of storytelling is ok with the readers but if we were to animate such a moment and avoid showing the giant monster the viewer would feel quiet cheated and see this as a cop out.