When I was pitching my senior thesis to the department chairs four months ago, I explained to them that I wanted to focus on presenting the film with forms that would be moving. They asked me to iterate. I explained to them how I had attended a panel by Teddy Newton at SIGGRAPH back in 2010; about the technically ambitious process of making Pixar’s Day & Night.
I had been inspired by the entertainment of the short initially, but after the panel discussion I found myself intrigued by the process and how genius of an approach to storytelling.
Similarly, Toppi’s turned the traditional format of comics on its head, rejecting the rigid panel-based approach and opting for one rooted in emotion, using abstraction, scale, and any means at his disposal to pull his readers into the pages and transport them to another world. His works often read more like musical compositions than they do comics. His careful orchestration of seas of rhythmic strokes work together to weave fantastical tapestries of texture, punctuated by his masterful use of negative space to guide the reader to the visual crescendo like a symphony for the eyes.
After about 15 minutes of back and forth on the matter, I remember one of the five in the room now said “ it too ambitious for the skillset of the students.” I explained again that this would challenge the student body on this project, give them a chance to experiment outside of their comfort into various areas of the medium; whether 2D, 3D or Stop-motion. Again, he stated that it was a hell of an idea, but with the limited time-frame , it would be impossible.”
I’ll look to revisit this idea again, but can’t say I didn’t push for it…