Blog Entry #7 – Clean Up Scenes With Animals

When we were watching the film “Snow White” in class, there was a scene of Snow White cleaning up the  Seven Dwarfs’s house with the woodland critters. Watching that scene reminded me of the film “Enchanted” where it made fun of Disney Movies. The film “Enchanted” also had a scene where the princess was cleaning up the place with animals. But because it was in New York, it was something else. Instead of birds, deers, and rabbits you had rats, roaches, and pigeons. Hmm…not sure if someone wants there place cleaned by rats and roaches from New York. I believe the look of an animated animal makes a difference in the film.

When we see from Disney Classics, there is always some scene where the animals help out tiding up the place. The critters are cute looking and adorable. That is what we discussed in class about animation. Where expression and the way they look have to be over the top. In real life, animals don’t look like that or act human like. So, in a film like “Enchanted” the creatures look like real animals and because of that the cleaning scene did not look so clean. They all had some human like qualities by singing along, dancing, and cleaning up but because they looked more real than animated, the place looked more like a health violation. If the health inspectors came by, they would have shut that building down immediately because it looked like an infestation.

It makes it more understandable that animals look the way they do in animation. With their bulging watery eyes and human like qualities, it works in animated films. But, if they looked like the animals in “Enchanted” clean up scenes do not look the same. The song is there and so are the dance numbers, but it makes you think if animals looked more real cleaning up your place, it wouldn’t fly. Maybe, it depends on what animals but I doubt it would be a rats, coaches, and pigeons from New York.

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Blog Entry #6 – Cat Shit One (Apocalypse Meow)

My supervisor showed me this trailer months back and my first impression was “Intense”. Even if the characters are a bunch of cuddly furry creatures you can still take this series with a serious face because of its approach. The music, camera angles, and its content makes it legit. After the long monologue in the beginning of the trailer, we see a truck driving through the desert storm. It almost looks real for a split second. The animation on this series is up to par with animation today. The cartoon entertains us with the story as its details entertains us visually. Originally it came from a Manga series based on the Vietnam War is flipped to be more based on today’s events. Because of it’s music, camera angles, plot, and visuals makes this series a one to watch.

If we go to (1:05) in the clip above, there is a scene from the sniper’s point of view. The sniper sees the enemy capturing some civilians and taking their lives. I know it’s a cartoon of bunnies but this is intense. The trailers gets action packed further along with gun fire, explosions, dialogue with much needed subtitles, and bunny’s eyes that you can’t say no to. The environment/background itself is so detailed. The animators definitely put some effort in it as well as the characters themselves. The way the furry creatures uses a gun or the way they move, they have human qualities. Watching this trailer reminds me of past animated films dealing with war. Such as “Waltz With Bashir” and “Persopolis” Although those films were based from actual events, “Cat Shit One” holds up because of it’s music, camera, angles, music, as well as its visuals and content. I’m definitely looking forward to see more of this.

Waltz With Bashir

Persopolis

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Blog Entry#5 – Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends

For all those people who had an imaginary friend you were the only one who could see them. What if they physically existed? “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends” took a creative concept and turned it into a cartoon. It is a reminder of past animations like “The Brave Little Toaster” and the “Toy Story” series about a kid loving their inanimate objects but gets rid of them because they’re getting older. “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends” is like that how kids get rid of their imaginary friends because they’re getting older and do not have the time to spend with their imaginary friends. The vivid imagery and fun narrative makes this cartoon a unique hit while also reminding us although inanimate things aren’t real, our creative imagination gives it life-like qualities.

The main relationship of the cartoon is between Mac and Bloo; who is the imaginary friend he created. Bloo is a simple looking character that is blue. Yet, he is very effective in all types of ways. Bloo shows all kinds of expressions with his tiny hands, eyes, and his mouth. In the video clip shown above at 2:44, there is Bloo and Cheese. Bloo does not like Cheese at all because he is Mac’s new imaginary friend he created. We can tell by this by Bloo’s facial expression when he is super angry and the way he folds his arms. The facial expressions are we can tell Bloo is jealous of the new friend. The animation itself is nothing fancy but it’s still effective because the narration, imagery, and creativity shows in cartoon.

The whole point of the show is how Mac has to be at Foster’s Home every day at this certain time because Bloo can’t live with Mac since Mac’s mother said he is too old to have an imagery friend. If Mac does not show up at that time, Bloo is available to be adopted by another kid. Mac does show up everyday and they always have some kind of adventure. Although imaginary friends aren’t seen as real, people have come up with such an imagination that make them do feel real. Even today when people are all grown up such as someone’s car and how they always wash it every weekend or go crazy if there is a scratch. Whether or not it is about your imagination or an inanimate object, the mind is a curious thing how we know some things aren’t real but yet, we give them the imagination where they are.

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Blog Entry#4 – David Lynch Animated Shorts

Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)

The Alphabet

David Lynch is notorious for being different. Surreal, dark, mixed in with a crazy soundtrack are the qualities in a David Lynch film for you. In his early career Lynch created a series of animated shorts that ties in with animation and live action. These days, we see that all the time but back in the 1960′s, not so much. From the first clip shown above, it is six guys vomiting their stomachs out, bleeding, and catching on fire. As much as I don’t really get the animated short, Lynch provides an explanation of him wanting to make his paintings in motion. As we discussed in class and watched clips of animators making 2-D drawings move is what Lynch was trying to do. To see a still image provide motion. The film itself is very experimental, different from what others like Disney were doing with animation. Whether you consider it arty or just plain weird, Lynch has created a different approach to animation compared to your friendly upright walking mouse that chuckles.

If we look at the other clip “The Alphabet” it is a mix of animation and live action. I repeat myself from before that sometimes I just don’t get a David Lynch film. As weird as his shorts are, the experimentation on them are interesting. Lynch shows us a more darker version of saying the alphabet. Thus provides us this scary thought between childhood and aging. When we see the animations in the past, they are happy, family friendly, but not the ones Lynch creates. That is what makes him different, because he guides us to a whole other aspect on how animation can also show a darker side. His shorts also tells us that animation is full of experimentation giving us more variety.

Here is a tribute to the Lumiere brothers. Lynch was not the only director to do this but 39 other directors did an homage to the original. In a Lynchian style, this tribute is dark and probably has some psychological issue in it. But though it is under the style of the Lumiere Brothers, it gives a what if the brothers shown viewers Lynch’s clip rather than a woman lifting her ankles or a train arriving? The results would be shocking. Whatever Lynch does, his films puts on a whole different approach to animation. If Lynch did an animation on a clown juggling, Lynch would make that animation the saddest clown ever physically and mentally. As experimental as Lynch is, his films are one of kind.

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Blog Entry #3 – Beast Wars: Transformers

A little too young to remember the old transformers but old enough to remember the animation series “Beast Wars: Transformers” The show was a fully CG animated series created in 1996 from Mainframe Entertainment of Canada. Where in class we learned Canada is notorious for its animation from way back of the 20th century. The animation on here is sick for ’96 and ahead of its time for a Saturday morning show. Not only were there a bunch of robots battling but they were disguised as a bunch of animals. As we discussed in class, animators use animals instead of humans because it was easier. That’s one thing. But to have the characters capture the movements of real animals and then transformed into detailed robots is another thing.

In the clip shown above, this might look like the same graphics of a giant creature on the SyFy channel. You could probably use “Adobe After Effects” to recreate the same thing. But, if we look at it back then, the show captures quite great detail. Look at Optimus Primal, from facial features to his movements is close to the traits of a gorilla. Going a little further in the clip we see Dinobot disguised as a Velociraptor. Though he is a dinosaur, look at his expressions. His facial and hand expressions are human like. The way he makes a fist and his hands are wailing all over the place. We can tell he is pissed. The animators were able to capture the characters so well it was recognized for an Emmy in 1997. Thus why, if anyone watched the show back when they were 8 years old can remember it now because the animation’s quality was so detailed compared to the 2-D cartoons unless you also watched “Starship Troopers”

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Blog Entry#2 – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

We tend to recognize animation among films, television shows, or anything we watch, whatever. What about in video games? I’m not saying it’s forgettable but rather it is not as highly appreciated as the ones in films. It is its own separate category.  Games today are trying to become more cinematic making have this film feel to it such as Halo 2, Gears of War, or Bioshock.  From games being in 8-bit format to them being as closely animated as the quality in Pixar. Last year’s 2009 most critically acclaimed was Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The animation brought video games to a whole other level making as if the characters were real. The difference between an animation movie and a video game is instead ofsitting you are playing with several buttons, analog sticks, select, and start.

Sometime last year, Playstation 3 came out with this commercial advertising the game. How the boyfriend tries to tell the PS3 company that his girlfriend think it’s a movie. The head guy says how it has everything of course she would believe that, but it has been two days. “Not an issue”. Even they believe the animation/graphics were so good that it looked like a movie. The developers say that when making this game they used “motion capture” which is something the makers of the film “Avatar” also were using. Naughty Dog got the voice actors to wear motion capture suits so they can capture every single action in their body, faces, everything when making this game. Not only that but they maximized the cells in their game engine making the game have this realistic environment. While comparing it to other games just a few years ago, the advancement on the animation has increased by a lot and IT’S BEEN JUST A FEW YEARS!

From the beginning of the scene there is this master shot where we see the main character Nathan Drake walking in the ice storm. From looking at the camera angle, one could imagine if it was real or not. The facial expressions and the body movements in this game are detailed and ridiculous to how close it looks to the real thing. Animation has advanced not only in the film world, but also to the video game world. The great thing about games like Uncharted 2 is instead of watching it, you’re playing it!

-Chuck

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Blog Entry#1 – Wallace and Gromit

There is always a story about man and man’s best friend, dog. In the animation world, “Wallace and Gromit” is able to show this throughout periods of time. Gromit is a silent dog that grunts, growls, basically he does what a dog does. He is a dog but yet he can build an small airplane and is very useful with electronics. What makes Gromit so peculiar is how he is able to communicate through his facial expressions and body language. It is truly remarkable how the animators is able to get the audience to understand how Gromit feels frame by frame.

In one clip in the film “Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave” Wallace and Gromit are rescuing Wendolene and her sheeps from the evil robot dog Preston. We see how Gromit reacts through his eyes and wherever his eyebrows may be at. When the motorcycle and side car separates Gromit’s eyes risen showing a sign of shock. His eyes especially gets bigger and his head starts to jerk back when hits a sign that says 2,000 feet drop. When the next shot becomes a shot of the bottom of the cliff my reaction is “Oh No!” but yet Gromit reacts fast and presses the buttons on his dashboard in which it becomes an airplane. As for a stop motion animation, it incredible in how they are able to show the characters blink and make it look smooth for it to become a feature film which did receive numerous awards for. To have this story shot frame by frame and for it to hold up with the reactions of Gromit without speaking is a work of art.

Clip from Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave

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