Essay subject - Ray Harryhausen

I have decided to base my essay on the legend that is Ray Harryhausen. When growing up, I used to watch a lot of the films which he played a part in, from making Skeletons come to life and have epic battles with swords to making giant apes possible. The art of one stop motion animation plays a huge role in the step between drawn animation and 3d animation, a tedious art which is still used to this day for certain filmographic appeals.

An awesome guy with a lot of awesome stories to tell!

Chris

Time management plans... yup!

Indeed, a bit of a random post however ive realised how badly ive abused my time management on this course. The whole reason im studying this is because its something I wish to pursue and understand, so why have I lacked the ability to just get on with it? Im not sure, no excuses but to just say im pretty much failing myself.

In that case, ive gota get down to business. Heres my plan!

• Get to the Library, get books and internet research for Essay... do that asap
• Keep working on my concept for my "Fastidious pot plant". Brainstorming ideas and making character sketches is needed!
• Get ALL my Maya tutorials up to date when I have access to the computers at Uni.
• Finish editing my pre vis from the last unit.
• Keep blogging about relevant subjects.

This is like my personal post it note to say "if you wanna do it, then do it" and remind me exactly what I need to get done... I know I can do it! and I know I wanna!

Chris

Fantasia

Of all the films that we have watched, one that brought back a nostalgic appreciation from my childhood would have to be Fantasia. As a child I always overlooked the amount of effort that was put into the film, therefore appreciating its magical and poetical dance flickering on the screen before me. On the contrary, this currently gives me a better understanding to its overall power and artistic indulgence.

The film was made in 1940 by the magical hands of Walt Disney, being the third full feature length film from his legacy of films to come. Fantasia is based on merging moving imagery with musical scores that, in effect, work harmoniously together to create an elegant flow of artistic expressionism. Although a masterpiece of craftsmanship and hard work, Fantasia became a flop in popularity and ceased to gain a name for itself for many years until recent changes in acknowledging its greatness. Many different editions have been brought out, each over time trying to restore as much of the original film as possible.

Here are the different chapters set within the film Fantasia. Each other them depict a different scenario with a change in the mood of the music played.

• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
• Nutcracker Suite
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• The Rite of Spring
• Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack
• The Pastoral Symphony
• Dance of the Hours
• Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria 

The most famous out of these scenes would probably be the Sorcerer's Apprentice. This may be due to the fact Mikey Mouse is in the story as a main character plus giving the audience an understanding of the personality he endeavors which also becomes typecast to his nature in films to come where he is featured.

The flourishing extremes of blossoming colour and the strong sounds associating to the dancing imagery speaks words about its powerful underlying beauty. The film imposes different storylines and metaphorical messages of morality through this means of exhibiting information.

I'm also fond of the crushing twist at the end of the film, where the closing scene is dark and based on a demon like character portraying death and destruction through dragging civilization to hell at his own will. What is this to say about mankind? or the nature of Animation?

Overall I really enjoy this film and the effort put into creating it.

Kwiss

New project - Animation

Here we are once again, new project and plenty to do. As for the last project, I will continue to upload the tutorials and get the pre vis completed.

We have been asked to create a 2d animation using real back to basics methods. This will mean using a light box to draw out our frames by hand before editing them via a computer.

Again, we have each been given two randomized subjects that fatefully decides what we are to be basing our projects around for the next 5 weeks. My fate lays with a fastidious pot plant!

Kwiss

Final Animatic! One man and his Cakes...

Heres my final Animatic entitled "One man and his Cakes". I got started on my pre vis however didn't finish, because I used my time management incorrectly and underestimated the time it takes to create an animation in Maya. Lesson learned!




Enjoy!
Chris

Storyboard - final concept

Toon talk - expressions

Ever noticed how in some of the best Cartoons our favourite characters manage to portray their emotional states through their actions and exagerated facial expressions? Unlike real life, the contortion of the facial features in cartoon characters are delivered to the audience in highly unnatrual streams of movement. This however does create a much more detailed understanding of how the character feels, plus reminding the audience that it is just, after all, a cartoon. The uncanny effect is instantly taken away using this method. In a CG Animation, where subjects start to become more "real", the use of over the top extended jaws of shock, bulging eyes when excited and puffs of smoke as a character moves quickly starts to look strange and somewhat uncomfortable for an audience to view.

Here are some examples of typical Cartoon expressions:

Here we have Dexter from the Cartoon Network series "Dexters lab". Notice how his body is all directionally aligned to the same posture, and his eyebrows frowning, teeth grited to give the expression of seething anger.

Here you can see a scene from Family Guy, where Stewie is caught shaving by Brian the Dog. Look at how Stewie's head is turned around, yet facing the opposite way to Brian. This shows how he is embarassed to look directly at Brian, also this is a way to show Stewies facial expression in more detail. Brian is covering his face in shock, yet still able to peer over his hand creating an interaction between the two characters eye contact.

Here you can see the Characters Buzz and Woody from Toy story. Here we have two CG Characters, however, their cartoonish style and over exagerated features help to keep the characters movements away from the uncanny and retained in the world of cartoon humour.

Here is a film which uses elements of CG and contains real life actors, however retains the elements that build up that of a typical cartoon for the characters actions. In this film, which is marketed mainly towards kids, really invokes a slight uncanny experience to the viewer. The cartoon stylization behind the real life characters becomes somewhat strange, and doesnt feel quite right. This kind of approach to image has been used in other childrens films and media, for example the recent tv series "Lazytown".

Chris