graphic visions of nature

[Trace One]

I was interested in the difference between Miyazaki’s vision of nature in Ponyo as compared to Cameron’s (et al) in Avatar. Both used some historic landscapes – the Pleistonce fern landscape predominated in Avatar, which definitely had a horticulturalist helping with the graphics (from the specificity of the plants).. Cameron presents a much more light – oriented vision – each scene is as though you are there with the limitations of human sight. . Miyazaki is different, but still using some geological planting schemes..Both very interesting..
anybody else any thoughts on graphic visions of nature?

[Tanya Olson]

I’m so glad someone else has been thinking about this! The way landscape is portrayed in film and media makes me wonder how it forms a landscape aesthetic in children.

Miyazaki has an astounding view of nature – I particularly love ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ – or really any of his films – he changed the way nature was represented in animated films – especially hand-drawn….I mean check out his water!

I think Cameron tried to represent nature so realistically that he lost some of the richness that becomes apparent through editing the frame of vision. Even though I loved the film, I think most of the complexity was spend on the beings. He gives you the IDEA that his natural world is complex and complete, but I didn’t find it so. I think it might be because they rendered every leaf and that is not how humans percieve nature. Generally that is the thing I like the least about computer rendered projects – the artful hand is lost in the detail. The plants were too geometric. The splintering tree was pretty amazing, though, I have to say.

Somehow Miyazaki captures the magnificence of sublime natural settings the way that humans perceive them….The only time in Avatar that I thought of Miyazaki was when they were swimming. I still think Miyazaki’s water looks wetter.

I’ve been thinking about the graphic representation of nature in animation since I notice a distinct ‘design’ that to me seemed closely related to the AJ Downing version of residential homesites in a Tom and Jerry cartoon of all things. Compare that to more modern cartoon animation – one ‘bush’, one lollipop tree. Makes a person wonder how deeply that gets embedded in the psyche of the youngsters. Thanks for bringing it up.

[Trace One]

Yeah, thanks Tanya, interesting comment..Check out Ponyo if you havent’ seen it yet – I think the best yet, especially in terms of the imagined landscape, although it IS hard to beat “Totorro.”
Yes, it would be interesting to see if these images influenced childrens visions of nature..Personally I grew up in TinTin land..

I have always been interested in documenting landscape in film..
I think one change with Avatar, one ‘advancement’ that I think is new is the reliance on documented plant species, instead of vaguely imagined shrubberies – and using documented species from an entirely different era of the earth…Ponyo does the same thing – creatures and plants from ages past populating the earth, although I do not think either film is consistent to one era..
But I think I am incorrect in referring to the ‘Fern Age” as the Pleistocene..Having trouble tracking that down, exactly..
🙂

[Wyatt Thompson, PLA]

I read an article in Wired about the making of the film. He did indeed have horticulturalists on staff, as well as botanists and others. His team actually created a an encyclopedia of sorts with a classification system (complete with diagrams, measurements, habitat, etc from what I understand) for all the plants and animals in the movie. This is similar to what Lucas did with Star Wars or Jackson did with LOTR. Admittedly a lot of the science doesn’t show up on screen (even in 3D), but the thought that went into the film is pretty tremendous.

[Tanya Olson]

I think the ferns were predominant in the Mesozoic era which includes the triassic and jurassic periods. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Ponyo when it was in the theatres…..looking forward to it on DVD as I am a huge Miyazake fan.

What did you think of the glow-in-the-dark plants? It reminded me of velvet black light AC/DC posters…ha! They did do a great job on the stiffness and movement of the plants and the details like sensory hairs on the plants that retreated into the ground when touched and the way the grasses moved in the wake of the helicopters.
Yes, it was clear that they used botanists and horticulturists. I read that the language was meant to sound like it COULD be a human language, but it was entirely made up, so they used that philosophy with the plants. They looked like they COULD be plants from another period in earth’s history, but they weren’t.
I thought they captured the personality of Grace, the botanist perfectly. ‘I need to get a sample’. Classic.

[Boilerplater]

Did you see the LA Times article about this? They had the UC Riverside Plant science and Botany department head as a consultant. I tried posting a link but it crashed my browser. Been having some problems with this site. Maybe its time to upgrade to IE7.

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