It may just be a trick of the eye: A combination of the larger-than-life cartoon backdrop and an ambient sense of child-like wonder combine to make it seem like you've shrunk when you enter Animation, the 6,000 square foot interactive exhibit at the Museum of Science, Boston. Then again, tricks of the eye abound throughout the exhibit hall because, after all, that's exactly what animation is.
The Animation exhibit, which was developed by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in collaboration with Cartoon Network, is a totally immersive experience in understanding the process of creating cartoons from start to finish.
Dennis Adamovich, senior vice president of marketing at Cartoon Network, said on the exhibit's Web site that Animation is meant to reveal "in full interactive detail ... the number of different skills involved in creating animation, from voice-acting and recording to computer programming and scoring, from screenwriting and storyboarding to sound-effects and editing."
The flow of the exhibit chronicles the history of animation from the early mutoscopes (extremely fancy, crank-operated flip books), to stop-motion animation (taking a series of photographs, then playing them back one after another to simulate motion), up to computer animation (utilizing technology to fill in the tedious "in-between" frames that constitute motion in cartoons). At the same time, the displays also follow the animation process, from storyboards to foley artistry (sound editing).
Every display offers both a text explanation, written in fully understandable and informative terms, and an interactive component. Undulating crowds of giggling kids and their equally giggly parents are particularly large around a few key displays in the exhibit.
Dexter's lab, a life-size replica of the cartoon laboratory, is filled with special cameras, which record action shots and play them back with special effects inserted.
Kids dart in and out, alternating attempts at timing their cartwheels and super-kicks just right, and watching their mid-air selves, frozen onscreen in a rotating 360 degree view.
On the interactive pixilation stage, actors coordinate a series of 17 poses that are photographed and then played back onscreen as a movie.
Interactive pixilation simulates movement of static objects by stringing together these images of the objects in slightly different positions over time.
The human brain is wired to see motion, and it will detect motion even where there is none. This is the principle behind flipbooks, and it is the reason why interactive pixilation works.
In the foley department, a short cartoon clip plays on a screen once through without sound effects. It plays a second time, this time with a microphone on record, while amateur foley artists bang, smack and crash on a collection of mundane items to create sound effects.
The clip plays back a third time, with the newly edited soundtrack. The electric toothbrush's buzzing and the ding of a bell for a character's good idea give new life to the animation.
There are also a few conventional display cases, filled with cels and sketches of popular cartoon characters, along with limited edition maquettes, which are 3D models of cartoon characters in action.
The design of the Animation exhibit is ingenious. It inserts truly educational material between layers and layers of visual stimulation and downright fun activities.
While at first glance the exhibit may resemble a fantastical indoor playground, a closer look reveals the presence of a true learning experience.
Of course, some people are just pressing buttons without giving a moment's pause to consider the outcome of the action. The teams of third graders carefully organizing their tangram characters beneath a stop-motion camera to create a string of pictures that tell a story really are getting something out of the trial and error process.
They're gaining an understanding of the amount of work and the importance of the details that go into making their favorite cartoons.
Inside the exhibit everyone regresses to childhood a little bit, with high fives all around for the creation of a great stop-motion cartoon, or the successful animated lip-sync of a cartoon character to the sentence "We are the kids next door."
Though there is an extensive exploration into the technology used for animation, Animation asserts that it is a good story, strong characters, and, above all, creativity that really make a cartoon.
In sending that message to its visitors and by encouraging kids to hold on to innovation and creativity that are easily lost in a sea of advancing technology, Animation secures its position as a truly great exhibit and an awesome learning experience.
