Visual narrative in animation

The article deals with analyze of the visual techniques of animated films. It shows that color, composition, and movement speak to the audience in a special language of images which is parallel to the verbal language. The author believes that the visual narrative of an animated film has greater flexibility than a verbal one, and is capable of briefly and succinctly expressing a thought with a use of not only facial expressions, gestures, color combinations, frame composition, but also a feature characteristic of animation - transformability of visual images. The animated film The Old Man and the Sea by A. Petrov, based on the work of the same name by E. Hemingway on the base of these principles is analyzed. It is shown that the film is dominated by natural shades of blue, brown, white with bright red accents in the day scenes and dark blue, black in contrast with mysterious green or soft gold in the night scenes. The frames of the film are characterized by a harmonious arrangement of parts: the balance of large and small, dark and light, pointed and rounded creates the mood desired by the author. Also, animators used an interesting techniques to convey the necessary level of dynamics: So, the number of frames per second in the movie is very different. The more dynamic the scene, the more frames there are in it.