Spirited Away

The animation viewed this week was different from the usual animations that we view.  We watched more about the making of the animation, through the storyboard process and such.  The actual animation, is a full length animation created by Hayao Miyazaki, and is called Spirited Away.  Although we didn't view the actual animation, just from watching how the storyboards are made you get a lot of information regarding the process or animation and various techniques that are used.  Since a lot of the time we do animation using flash, we miss a lot of the in-between steps that are used with hand-drawn animations.  Here we see how all the main scenes are drawn and then how the animators have to go back and do the in-between scenes.  It is twice as much work as it would be on the computer, but it creates an amazing piece at the end.  The other interesting aspect about the process of story boarding and animation, is the use of the real world to create this imaginary world.  For one instance, in order to see how they would draw a dragon opening its mouth and using its teeth, they actually went to study a dog and how his jaws open and how his teeth clamp down.  I hear alot of animators doing this, such as with the Disney movies studying the savannah for the Lion King, and studying the Great Barrier Reef in Australia for the Finding Nemo movie.  Now, even with this animation that is done half way across the world, the same techniques are used which really shows how beneficial it is to study the things around you in order to get a real understanding of how to create this imaginary world.

The Moon and the Son Animation

The animation viewed this week was created by John Canemaker, and was title The Moon and the Son.  It was a longer clip than most of the others viewed, and therefore, it presented alot of ideas as to how animation can really tell a story unlike a film with live action.  The whole animation was a documentary between John and his father, and he mixed together pictures and video of his real life with animation to develop this story of how he perceived his father throughout his entire life as a child.  The use of style in which he animated really helped understand the point of view that may not be able to be achieved using life action. For one example he made the images look as though they were drawn with crayon and not exactly in the lines, such a child would have made the images which helped to reiterate the idea that this is what John has seen as a child.  As the story progressed animation was used to deliver the literal meanings of metaphors and especially the color that was used.  Most scenes started out with warm colors and quickly changed to dark colors or reds to express this change of emotion.  The way in which he showed how animation can be used within someone's life to help them express their thoughts, along with this own techniques he used to deliver his own story made for a very effective and amazing final animation.

The two animations viewed this week consisted of Billy Plymptom's The Fan and the Flower, and Adam Phillips Bitey Castle Animations.  Both of them portrayed the personalities and stories of characters in unique ways but without the characters really talking in any way.  In The Fan and the Flower, we see a story of forbidden love being played out by a fan and a flower who love each other but can never really touch.  We see the "personality" of the fan come through in the way it spins it's blades and the actions it does to attract the attention of the flower.  The flower we see portray the characteristics of a typical girl in a relationship, and is the only object in color in the whole animation perhaps to show beauty or differentiate herself from the other objects in black and white.  Although it looks like a simple animation it is able to give a lot of information about a story through color, narration, and shadows.

Adams Phillips Bitey Castle Animations are a lot more in depth with color and style, but still portray characters on the same level as the first animations.  We get a sense of the character Bitey who comes across as an instigator and somewhat of a teenage boy.  Although all the characters are fictitious, they all come alive in their own way and come together to create this amazing short story that looks almost real in a sense with the way light, color, and the details that are used.  Both are extremely interesting pieces showing the portrayal of characters and events that take place in very different ways.

Alex Budowsky Animations

The two animations viewed this week were Bathtime in Clerkenwell (2003) and Last Time in Clerkenwell (2007).  Both of them were very similar with just different storylines although there were both connected to one another.  They both revolved around this idea of birds in the cuckoo clock taking over London, and then by the end of the second animation bugs had taken them over in London.  Although the storyline was quite interesting there were many other aspects that actually made it fascinating.  The animations were done strictly in black and white but it was very effective, because there were so many things going on that colors would have made it look chaotic, but the simple black and white made it a little simpler.  The part that was most fascinating to me was the way in which the sounds and music were put with the animations.  The animations were synched so well with the beats and rhythms that it really made the animation.  From a flash perspective you could tell how he used plenty of nested loops and had control over all the various movements of each part, and it all just came together incredible well in both animations.

Dimensions of Dialogue, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Oculart

This week's animations consisted of three very different animations, however, they all presented very unique ways in how a story is created and various techniques and styles in how to do it.  The three animations consisted of Jan Svankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue (1982), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (end credits), and my pick from Oculart's animation, Pigalle 1913.  Each animation brings such a unique style to it, that it is hard to put all three next to each other and compare, but what each one does do is present different ways in how stories can come together.  

If we look at Dimensions of Dialogue, the approach with clay is very unique because the way it is used allows for so much creativity in a way that no one else may have thought of.  The way that the clay is used in an abstract way actually helps with the storyline, because the rest of the actions of the characters help to fill in for what the abstract pieces are missing.  The characters are created out of the same material with with they are destroyed with as well, and just simple details really give the characters enough personality to make a story.  The facial aspects, especially the eyes, are almost enough detail to help convey what the character is thinking even with only one material being used to create them.

A Series of Unfortunate Events really creates a story out of making you think a creature or object is one thing and than changing it to be something else to create an incredible flow of events and a retelling of a story just within the credits.  For example at one part what appeared to be thin, branched trees turn suddenly into creepy, grabbing hands.  The way in which the animation was done in a silhouette look and the flow of one scene to another really gives a new look at how a story can be created and how much of what we see is within our own perspective.

The final animation of Pigalle 1913 is very abstract and full of collages, but I picked it to view because it seemed similar to the other two animations in how one scene just gradually turned into another scene, and the layering effects of all the objects gives the viewer so much to look at and so many stories for them to assume about what is happening.  It's an animation that is particularly interesting in that it comes full circle and continuously begins and ends in the same spot so it just keeps going.  It really creates a world within another world and does so with both a 2D look and then turns into a 3D look at other parts giving it another very interesting dimension.  All three really give very different perspectives on creating stories and the small and/or simple details that can really bring it to another level.

The Danish Poet and The Old Mill

The two animations this week were made in very different time periods and with very different styles, but still conveyed the same animation principles.  The two animations viewed were Disney's The Old Mill (1937) and The Danish Poet (2006).  

The Old Mill really used the principles of animation to express the feeling of a place, in this case it was a mill.  If we look at the three principles, anticipation, exaggeration, and follow through we can see it in the event that took place.  The beginning scenes of the mill gave a feeling of the place with all the different animals, not just one main character, and the simple movements that gave each character their own personality.  As the story continued an intense storm took over the mill, which would be the exaggeration portion, and the follow through demonstrated the aftermath of the storm.  Each small motion of the individual characters came together to create one large scene with details really bringing it alive, and the final addition of music gave a final touch that really enhanced and brought it all together.

The second animation, The Danish Poet, was created with the look of a much simpler animation.  The backgrounds were not as complex and the movements were much more simple, however, with less complexity the main story line and character personalities were able to be conveyed much clearer.  There were multiple characters once again which helped to bring the story together as a whole, and really demonstrated how all the characters in a story interact with one another.  A lot of the time we think the more complex an animation is the better, however, this shows that simple animations can be more effective because by exaggerating simple movements the same idea can be conveyed as a complex animation.

Low Morale: Creep

This week's video was Creep (2006) created by Low Morale, and demonstrated a lot of different aspects of animation.  It made you not only think about the animation itself, but how one may go about creating an animation.  If you just focused on the animation itself it was similar to looking like a hand-drawn cartoon, and although it was a complicated clip to make, it focused on simple animations.  It doesn't present complex motions or overly busy scenes, but focuses on one item at a time, while creating some movements in the background to make it more entertaining.  The main thing I noticed, however, was how the scene was built basically from the ground up.  It started with one man, and slowly more and more items were added to the scene.  It was an example how the basic skeleton of an animation has to be created before more complex things can be added.  Even the characters that were eventually added into the clip started off as being drawn like skeletons.  It really demonstrated two messages as I see.  The first one being that you have to start simple and go from there, and eventually all those small details will come together to create one bigger picture.  The second being the idea that you have to think about not just what your drawing but beyond that.  For example, although his climatic scene was really just a brick building looking in at the character singing, we knew what was going on inside that building because it was shown to us, but as animators we are the ones who have to visualize and create the feeling as to what we want to be happening within the walls or our own animations.