I've done some research on abstract animations, the earliest made in the 1930's up until present day. The first lot of research that I did was of a list of animators known for their abstract animations given to me by my tutor. The animators suggested were Len Lye, Oskar Fischinger, James and John Whitney, Clive Walley and Barbel Neubauer
Len Lye
These are the animations that I saw
'Free Radicals' 1958
This is a fascinating animation to watch even though it's so simple. The most exciting part of it is the movement of the lines to make it feel as if you're watching something 3D. The visuals for me are quite boring and will have no influence on the style of my animation. However I do like the effect of making something as flat as a line feel 3D so I may try this illusion in my film.
'Swinging the Lambeth Walk' 1939
I love this piece, it's got great rhythm and a real sense of fun and life. I feel that the animation carries and compliments the music very well using very bold and simple visuals. The movements are choreographed very well, although at times I felt that my eyes couldn't keep up with what was going on because of the pace. This is very similar to the sort of animation I would like to create.
'A Colour Box' 1935
In my opinion, this one came close to being as good as 'Swinging the Lambeth Walk' but not quite. Again this had a great pace and brilliant sense of fun but the visuals weren't quite as exciting for me.
'Colour Flight' 1938
And this one was just as great. I think that there's more variety when it comes to the visuals which I think is great!
'Kaleidoscope' 1935
Again, much variety on visuals and the movement.
Overall I really like Len Lye's work and there's a lot of inspiration to take away from watching these animations.
Oskar Fischinger
'Optical Poem' 1938
This is absolutely brilliant, just the technique Oskar Fischinger used to create this is awe inspiring, cut out bit of paper attached to invisible wires. You can only imagine how much time and effort must have been used to create this animation. I love how simple it is yet so complicated, how there are many different ways in which the circles move and the many different compositions and layouts there are all perfectly timed to the music. This is a great source of inspiration.
James and John Whitney
'Lapis' 1966 by James
I liked the overall design but I felt that the movements were too slow resulting with me becoming very bored.
'Catalog' 1961 by John
Again, some interesting designs and concepts but this animation was a bit too slow moving for my attention, although there are some quite interesting methods of movement.
'Matrix III' 1972 by John
This animation produces some very interesting visuals, it's my favourite from John and James Whitney so far. The pace is still quite slow but it's ok because it's very interesting to watch.This has made me realise that the systems needn't be solid looking objects.
'Permutations' 1966 by John
This is much more interesting as it has a greater pace and the visuals are interesting, I love the use of different colours and the way they have been layered to give the visuals depth.I much prefer this one to the last
'Yantra' 1957 by James
I don't like the scattered nature of this, it's far too messy for the sort of style I would like to use for my animation.It does give me some ideas as to how I could make the substances within the organs flow round though.
From these I found Norman McLarens work...
Norman McLaren
Synchromy 1971
I love how simple the visuals are but very effective when put with movement to visually demonstrate the different sounds within the music.I also love how this animation builds up and becomes something quite spectacular, this is something like what I would like my finished film to be like. I would also like to take some inspiration from the soundtrack with the way the tone changes and compliments the visuals.
Dots 1940
Dots 1940
Again, I love the simplicity and how the visuals and sounds compliment each other. This is a very effective animation.
And finally I went onto Vimeo and did a search for abstract animations to find some contemporary pieces.
'Shapes' by Thomas Gasper
I like how the shapes move to the sounds in this one and the simple shapes used
'Urban Abstract' by MUSUTA ltd
I like the simple colour palette, I may experiment with this rather than just sticking with the bright complementary colours that I planned to used.
'Resonance: The Interpreter's House' by Jr Canest
I love the simple clean lines and design of this animation, it also used quite complex movement which I also love and think is visually very pleasing. It has great timing to the music
'Forms (Excerpt)' by Memo Akten and Quayola
I love this representation of the atheletic human form through exploring the movement of the body. I like how even though the body isn't represented in a realistic manner you can still associate it to the human form and the movements are some what familiar.
'Pausefest Melbourne' by Sander van Dijk
I love the graphic style, though saying that I've always like the moving graphics type of animation. I love the many different element to this.
'Combination Spawns' by Howard Quin
I like how psychedelic this animation, how it all flows together and the different dimensions that these forms show.
'Fistful of Silence' by Markus Feder
In this film I like the way that the form is shown or seen without any outlines but rather with bold white lines that are wrapped around the form, this is an interesting point of view
Max Cooper's 'Micron' by Dmitry Zakharov
This animation has the same sort of idea behind is as I do with mine, its about life, from the beginning to the end only for mine it will be celebrated through the internal organs and his uses the face and hands. I like how Dmitry has used these elements to combine them and make something quite very abstract. I like how the forms are recognisable at first and as it goes along they become much clearer.
'Chaotic Order' by Mirai Mizue
This is exactly how I would like to animate my visuals to the music, each visual will have it's own sound only I'm hoping that rather than building up to be chaotic it will build up and become harmonious. I may even use the same method to create my piece.
'Emergence' by Susi Sie
This is a great way for me to see how the blood may flow around the circulatory system and it reminded me a bit of the nervous system design that I drew up. This piece gives me tons of inspiration for the movement of my animation.
'In Abstracto' by Emanuele Colombo
Again this one is quite graphic-y in style, a great sense of 3D form using flat colours. It's very dynamically animated.
Overall I have tons of new inspiration to work from and I think that this research will not only help me develop my style for the animation but also make me think about the composition and layout of each shot, the way in which I make the systems move and what sort of soundtrack I will be looking at using.
