Stage 2: towards a grammar

A grammar of animation is being developed in the PhD work of Gisela Leao: Narrative processes: actions and transactions Conceptual processes: change of state

Creating representations: change of state

[element] appears disappears reddens grows bigger transforms into [other unit]
elements can be any graphic element: (parts of) letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, or other signs (e.g. letter transforms into picture)

illustration occurs when the element and the movement express the same idea, e.g. a spinning movement on the word cycle

Komninos Zevros

Creating representations: actions and transactions

Actions [element] falls bounces spins stretches Transactions [element] bounces off [other unit] squashes [other unit] fuses with [other unit]

Keynote Presentation

PowerPoint

Adobe AfterEffects

Dynamite

Control
Users need not think about how to achieve a
coherent aesthetic output. This is the task of the visual framework that defines the overall look but at the same time enables the user to choose from a large variety of animations
Paper produced by researchers at the Sony Corporate Lab

Control (2)
Software that does not allow access to the underlying code is more restrictive and positions writers more narrowly in lie with what corporate planners and programmers intend M. Sorapure (2006)

Architectures of Comparison

Self-exemplification

 Structure of the heart

 Water Cycle - Earthguide Animated Diagram

The Structure of the Heart

Verbal text
Mostly relational clauses (size, location, composition, function)

Diagram
Analytical, with labels. Shows size and relative location more clearly than diagram But elements which are simultaneously present are shown one after the other, with pre-set, brisk timing

Animation

Some material clauses (e.g. valves control, valves open and close) but processes not represented in sequential order.

Shows electrical impulses stimulating heart, heart contracting, blood flowing through the heart, and (briefly) blood flowing through the vascular system

Function of the lungs is not represented

Blood flow through the lungs is not shown

Water cycle diagram

Verbal text
Participants and processes are labelled in nominalized, scientific form.

Diagram

Animation
Labels appear one by one, in a dynamic naming process (but the sun is not named and its agentive role is not explicitly indicated). Participant naming (Where it exists) is separated from process naming (Changing form)

The Did you know? text represents process and participants very abstractly (water moves in certain directions... reservoir of water.. evaporation requires input of energy) Text represents additional participants and processes: sea level rising and dropping, ice melting and forming) Text indicates that some

Represents key participants pictorially in typical hydrological cycle picture

Represents processes through moving red arrows. There is some sequentiality: precipitation starts the cycle, evaporation follows. Raining and snowing can also be viewed pictorially. The sun wiggles.

All processes occur at same

Ford, S., Forlizzi, J,. And Ishizaki, S. (1997) Kinetic Typography: Issues in time-based extended abstracts. Proceedings of the CHI 1997 Conference Extended Abstracts, 269-270 Forlizzi, J., Lee, J. and Hudson, S. (2003) The Kinedit System: Affective Messages Using Dynamic Texts, Proceedings of the CHI 2003 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 377-384.