As a child, Saturday cartoons are an escape from the real world of school, nagging parents and chores. However, for a group of students on campus known as Carolina Animators Anonymous, Saturday morning cartoons were much more than an escape from reality. Animations provided a framework and superior design in storytelling.
Carolina Animated Anonymous, known in short as AniAno, was established in 2016 and is UNC's first animation club. AniAno strives to provide a place on campus for people to come together and practice animation.
"We like to describe ourselves as like group of friends that just kind of gives tips to each other and to other people on how to bring art into a storytelling form," sophomore James Chang said.
The storytelling aspect of animation is the driving force for AniAno's group members. Sophomore and president of AniAno, Liza Furr, said animation can push boundaries in ways other media forms are limited. For example, extravagant action scenes do not cost extra money in animations like computer-generated imagery would in live action.
"If you look at recent movies like 'Spider-Verse,' they can really push the medium by showing different styles for each character to show where they're from to show more of their personalities instead of relying on the acting," Furr said.
Rohaid Bakheet, a sophomore in AniAno, said animation engages the audience by conveying abstract ideas and emotions in a relatable way. Among the group members, there is a sense that animation creates a unique mode that allows ideas and characters to come to life.
"In conjunction with the character design, it really has to be the movement," Chang said. "You see the way they distort Tom after the way Jerry injures him. You can really seal the impact on the top of the way Tom's head gets flattened."
Chang said this scene is more believable as a cartoon than it might be in 3D animation because the transitions would cause loss of impact. The ability to communicate through dramatization was a theme the creators shared.
The sophomores said they began to become interested in animation during their earlier years. Chang found his passion for drawing and animation before he arrived on campus at UNC.
