Beauty

"An examination of the most important emotions of life, from birth to death, from love to sexuality and from pain to fear. A tribute and its disarming beauty." 

~ Rino Stefano Tagliafierro

Another animation that I have seen around for awhile now online, "Beauty" showcases a remarkable list of some of Europe's most beautiful classic paintings being brought to life using the 2.5D effect.

The 2.5D effect (Also known as the animated photo effect) for this, was used mainly in the video game industry, used to describe either 2D graphical projections and similar techniques used to cause a series of images (Or scenes) to simulate the appearance of being three-dimensional (3D) when in fact they are not, or gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional video game that is restricted to a two-dimensional place.

Needless to say, this was incredibly impressive and awing to watch, with its incredibly soft subtle movements, if almost feels like you are slowly being pulled into these paintings the longer you stare. Seeing that the animation comprises mainly of compositing and editing through After Effects or Final Cut, there are some very small instances where some parts look a tad awkward (Seeing as their limbs can't exactly be stretched or squashed without getting some major editing done outside of the previously mentioned softwares)...

*squints*

Nonetheless, much like its title, "Beauty" is an eerie piece of animation that you can't help but quietly admire all the way through, the animation is just fabulously done (While I have already stated that there are some very small instances of awkward looking movements, most of it is actually very lifelike... in a dreamy sort of way), and I can't imagine how much time it took to recreate parts of paintings that had been covered by the parts that they chose to animate, especially for the darker and more violent paintings.

The blood splatter is really subtle, but it really works.

To be honest, even before all of these paintings came in (Before things got real), I already felt a sense of foreboding right at the beginning, even when they were just showing the more fairytale-like paintings, though I suppose this is due to the type of music they decided to use for it (Obviously, music and sounds can create an even bigger impact on any animation when done right... and that includes silence).

Very neat use of filters here.

... This use to be one of my favourite paintings too.

Suddenly the perception of immortality becomes reality.