Proposal- (cookie monster)
for this animation I wanted to create the cookie monster. the animation would've been based on the cookie monster eating a cookie, however because my cookie monster (clay Model) got stolen and I couldn't find it, it was a case of someone else taking it and using the clay for they own animation or maybe the cookie monster decided to go and buy a cookie but didn't make it back to the plastic container on time. anyway since i didn't have the cookie monster model any more and i couldn't make a new one since it was time consuming plus it needed a lot of clay, I decided not to go with that idea any more.
Proposal-2 ( The Pong Game animation)
For this piece of animation i wanted to go with something easier and simpler, so I came up with an idea to create a piece of animation that was based on the Pong game, however this time the animation didn't work out because i felt it lacked something which i couldn't put my finger on, so due to that i decided to not make that as well, and i decided to come up with a different idea.
Proposal-3 (The angrybird man)
I had the idea for this animation when the cookie monster wen't missing, I made the models and everything, but because I thought it will take too long to create I decided not to go with the processes of creating, however due to my second idea being boring , I decided to come back to this idea, because it seemed more interesting
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Contemporary Sources of Animation
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy show produced in the late 60's by the Python troupe aired on the BBC. Their influence on comedy has been compared to The Beatles influence on music. The show was very popular during the era (and even now) due to the whole psychedelic theme of the program. As most people know the 60's was a very drug influenced era and most people were taking them; obviously this encouraged people's enthusiasm of strange things that seemed 'trippy'.
Monty Python was a show based on its comedy sketches; a lot of them were with real actors but other sketches were animated. The reason why they used animated scenes is because the animation could depict what people cannot; obviously with animation your imagination can go wild creating. This is exactly what Monty Python did by creating bizarre sketches with animation techniques. For example they have a sketch called Conrad Pooh's Dancing Teeth; the title pretty much explains it all, it is an animation of a mans teeth dancing.
Monty Python, like many others used animation to make their show a little more interesting. Anyone that uses animation can create anything they like, there's no limits. During the era everyone liked psychedelia which is why bright colours, weird drawings and weird animations were put into the show, so it would appeal to the audience.
Yellow Submarine
Like Monty Python the Yellow Submarine film was produced during the late 60's and followed a psychedelic theme. The movie was written by The Beatles themselves and stared animated characters depicting the band. As we know The Beatles were a psychedelic rock band that enjoyed singing about unusual things. The band was obviously very drug influenced like everyone else at the time and went with the weird themes.
The film is an animated fantasy musical; the story is based on how The Beatles travel from an underwater paradise to an Aztec island in their yellow submarine. Later in the story the island is attacked by the 'Blue Meanies' and the band eventually beats them with the power of song.
The animation style of the movie is compared to some of the work by the famous psychedelic pop art artist, Peter Max. This means that the art is very colourful and bold; the animated scenes are very weird and have sequences that don't even make sense but that is the whole point.
Even the way the narrator speaks is strange; he has a very mellow tone and speaks as if he is confused. The animation however is very bright and bold, the images depict fantasy things to make it look unusual.
A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly is a science fiction thriller that tells the story of identity and deception in a dystopia under heavy police surveillance in a drug addiction epidemic. Obviously the plot is rather unusual so the creators decided it would be a good idea to style it a bit strange as well to go with the theme. The movie was first digitally filmed and then animated using the interpolated rotoscope technique. Rotoscoping is where animators trace over footage frame by frame; this means they draw over the images already there to make them look like a cartoon. This is a great technique to use if they want an animated movie with realistic and stylised imagery.
Again, like the other movies, they used this technique to give it an unusual feel to it; the film has a weird plot so it fits that the style is strange too. The animation makes the movie more interesting as it can depict strange things while still having live actors in it.
Persepolis Persepolis is a French animated film in which the story follows a young girl coming of age during the Iranian Revolution. In the movie the girl starts to rebel against typical Iranian morals (e.g. women covering up). I think there are numerous reasons why the film is animated; one of the main reasons is because nobody would actually be able to film during a revolution and especially since the film is so controversial the country would not approve.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award due to it's gripping story; the animation itself is pretty simple. I think they chose to play down the style because a fancy style would distract from the story and the points it's trying to make. However the theme is very stylish and does represent the French style because it is sleek and simple.
Animation Techniques
Animation is used in all types of film without us even knowing, animation has evolved from old obvious lighting effects and characters, to now where you cant even tell animation apart from the real acting. In this blog I will be discussing the different types of animation and what they do, I will then include the different uses of this specific type of animation and give examples of when they are used in the animation world, the different types of animation techniques are;
Hand-cel Animation:
Hand-cel animation is a technique where each frame is drawn by hand; it used to be very popular until the development of computer animation. The first hand-cel animations were in the form of giant story boards that would be recorded scene by scene and put together. In the early days of animation there was no sound but once that had been discovered animators also has to record sounds and synchronise it to the animation. There was a lot of cartoons in the 30's that used this technique like Popeye the Sailor Man. It was a very long process drawing every frame and especially for full-length features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Cut out
Cut out animation is where you cut out pictures of props, IE, animals, people and houses, and take a photo from above them move the prop where you want it, you can use all types of materials for this; paper, card, fabric. this type on animation was the earlier of its type because it was so simple and easy to use, but it was very time consuming. an example of where cut out animation is used is in South Park, they use this type of animation because they want to use the cartoon effect that they get, the main reason is because they were fiercely in competition with family guy etc, so they wanted a different look, the way that they preform this type of animation is to film a real life scene then 'cutout' that scene and replace this with the cartoon version.
Claymation:
Claymation is a form of stop motion animation in which each animated object is usually made from plasticine clay or other malleable substances. Like cel animation and stop motion each frame is recording digitally then put together to form an animation. This technique was and still is very popular today because it gives the animation such a unique look. Famous films like Wallace and Gromit were made using this technique, much like modern kids show Bob the Builder. This technique isn't only used for children's productions though as it was used to make Adult Swims Robot Chicken (which is very inappropriate for children).
Rotoscoping:
Rotoscoping is an animation technique where animators trace over the footage of live-action or animated films frame by frame. The name rotoscoping came from the projection equipment (rotoscope) they originally used to re-draw over the scenes; however now computers have replaced the need for one. Max Fleischer invented this technique 1915 using it in his series Out of the Inkwell. The technique has since been developed and has been used to create such well known features like Looney Tunes, Flash Gordon and the music video for Aha's Take on Me.
The technique was invented by American animator Max Fleischer, as he used this technique around 1915 in his series 'Out of the Inkwell'. He has patented this technique around 1917 and used it in number of his later cartoons.
The Fleischer studio's most effective use of rotoscoping was in their series of Superman cartoons .
Flick Book:
A flip book is a book that contains a number of pictures that gradually change from page to page so that when the pages are turned at a fast pace the pictures appear to animate. The flip book is a very old form of animation as it first appeared in 1868; it relies on the persistence of vision to create the illusion of continuous motion. They played a very important role in the development of animation but now they are regarded as the simplest form of animation.
Stop Frame:
Stop frame is an animation technique used to make an object appear as if it's moved on its own. It works by taking photographs of frames in which the object has been moved slightly each time creating the illusion of movement when it's all been put together. Claymation is linked very closely to stop frame because they take pictures of the objects being morphed slightly each time; however other objects can be used in stop frame like dolls, humans or everyday objects. The first stop frame production was created in 1902 and was titled Fun in a Bakery Shop. After that stop frames were very common and the technique has been used ever since. One of the most recent stop frame films was Fantastic Mr Fox which became a huge success.
Flash Animation
Flash Animation is best known for its cartoons animations where, the main use is for people to draw and create pieces of art, but on a computer rather than on paper etc. it is mainly used for younger children to mess around with and used different colors and make pictures. The most common use for Flash animation is in kids TV programs because children are easy amused and if they saw a scene that have people talking they would be very interested, but if they saw some animated characters on the TV then they would find that more entertaining and watch it. Also because they are limited in the audience that will be interested in their TV shows then they wont have to spend much money on high tech equipment unlike the producers of avatar.
CGI
CGI stands for (computer generated imagery) this is the most common use of animation as it is the most advanced and is the best technology wise. it is used in art, printed media, video games and mainly films. CGI can be used in 2D images or even 3D graphics used for creating scenes or special effects. CGI is uses in almost every new film that comes out, the best thing out about CGI is most people don't even notice when it involved in films or TV programs, the best example would be, in Pirates of the Caribbean, Davey Jones, there are three stages to get his character to look how he does on screen, firstly they put loads of cameras/sensors all over his body that can track his every movement, the second step is to put that scene into an animated look, they then add in all of the detail and make the picture look realistic and add effects to give him a real life look.
