Software, Animation and the Moving Image: What's in the Box?

Software, Animation and the Moving Image brings a unique perspective to the study of computer-generated animation by placing interviews undertaken with animators alongside an analysis of the user interface of animation software. Locating software at the centre allows Wood to develop a novel framework for considering computer-generated images in visual effects, animations, games and data visualizations. The idea of software can be intimidating, but approaching computer-generated animation via software need not rely on prior knowledge about programming or any particular animation software. The methodology developed in this book takes the user interface of software to be meaningful because it is culturally legible. The primary case study of this project is the computer animation software, Autodesk Maya. Interviews with animators provide a tangible way into software, and throughout these are allied with Wood's analysis of the spatial organizations of the user interface. Informed by the digital contours of software protocols, this study brings greater definition to something that remains implicit in many discussions of CG animation: more-than-representational space that reveals an origin in digital rather than physical space.