The Proposal of the Definition of “Obake,” in the Theories of the Ecological Psychology, Mathematics and Physics

Abstract

The “Obake,” for “ghost” in English, is roughly defined as the meaningless shapes that excite apparent motions or illusions of motions when artists create animations. But this definition supposed to be validated on the theories of ecological psychology, physics, and mathematics. In this article, the definition of “Obake” is analyzed and revised as follows. They are not the unmeaning tools for making illusions or apparent motions, but “perceptual information that identifies movement” itself that has sufficient meanings and properties.

Creating motions in animations is the work of converting the information that identifies the motion, that is, the information obtained as a result of differentiating the invariant term of the motion by the time term, into some frames of moving images and rearranging it according to the arrow of time. There is no room for an illusion, perhaps. Even if you can’t perceive what is drawn at first glance, it is information that necessary for composing the movement found by the creators. It may not be creating “The Illusion of Life.”