Around the time Toy Story was coming to theaters, a high school art teacher of mine said she couldn’t consider something that was computer animated to be art. I think this opinion stemmed from the misconception that once you learned to use computerized tools to do 2D or 3D animation you could create anything with very little effort. This position didn’t sit well with me at the time, but I didn’t have a basis to refute it. Since then I’ve dabbled a bit in 3D modeling and animation and there’s no doubt in my mind that—while computers do make many tasks easier like all tools do—it still takes talent and effort to produce a compelling computer animation. I’ve learned it’s a talent of which I don’t have even a modicum.
Yesterday I watched The Third & The Seventh (via Daring Fireball), a fully computer animated short film featuring iconic pieces of architecture. Watch it full screen and in HD on Vimeo’s site if you have the bandwidth. If this isn’t art then I don’t know what is.