Virtual Veracity: Animated Documentaries and Mixed Realities

Do we currently exist in animated realities? And how does virtualized culture shape new forms of animated documentaries? This paper analyzes non-photorealistic animated documentaries in the 21st century in relation to the virtualization of culture. I discuss animation as a leading virtual aesthetic, map out three kinds of virtual documentaries and explain animation's importance as documentary imagery in an era of mixed realities, i.e. the merging of the physically and digitally real. I cover animated documentaries of online game realities; the use of games as a platform to create cinematic documentaries about non-game physical realities; and the rise of VR and documentary games. These three forms of animated hybrid documentaries each use animation differently and contribute to the discourse about animation's use and status as a believable non-fiction aesthetic in today's media sphere. My main claims are that a) animation is a central visual language for virtual environments due to its dynamic nature and ability to reflect interactive user input in real-time; b) since online animated platforms function as animated realities and often converge with physical reality, today's mixed realities require animation as a documentary aesthetic that exceeds the capacity of photography as more traditional documentary imagery.