Thursday, 17 December 2009
Lip synching- expression
An example of over-expressive animation
An example of under expressive animation
I feel that over-expressive takes gives more feeling to the characters, but consumes alot of time to the animator, and that under-expressive takes are complete opposite; less time consuming, but reduces the felling of the character
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Animation- Don't feed the Bear
Animation reels- Gene McGuckin
Animation reels- Raul Aguirre
Raul is a animator, artist and illustrator from LA who worked for Walt Disney studios for 8 years (1994- 2002) He worked on many features such as Tarzan and Atlantis, and was among many animators who worked on Treasure Planet.
this reel is good evidence to proove this, as it shows test animation on many Disney characters, as well as some pure production animation from Treasure Planet.
Animation reels- Heather Wittich
Heather Wittich is currently an anonymous animator, but his/her animation showreel is very good to watch, and really helps looking over the motion of each frame.
This animation reel mostly contains examples of lip syncing, which I think would be a good technique to learn in college.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Tarzan Animation tests
I love how this animation looks so fluid and free. It shows how different animators tested the anatomy of Tarzan befor the animation was confirmed
Monday, 23 November 2009
The day after tomorrow
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Nerdfilms website
This is the official website for the nerd show ie nerd films. The website is animated all the time, which can be a problem if your computer cannot cope with it.
The actions are used more or les with help of filming and photography, except the lego iphone, in which that is made by stop motion.
When you move your mouse over an object, it animates. However, when you scrool over the lego brick Ipod, you will hear a disturbing 'Meow', it's only when you click the ipod and watch the following video will you understand what the meow was about.
Mini Ninjas official website
This is the official website for the Mini Ninjas video game.
The web site's theme fits neatly with the theme of the video game. The textures used for the grass and bamboo has a very realistic-cartoon cross feel to it.
the site's interactivity is simple and efficient as well, the links for screenshots and trailer are easy to spot and click to. Everything is animated in this website, when you scroll your mouse over, when you click on something or even when your not doing anything, a ninja will appear and animate.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Red Bull Project- The secret half-pipe
Codemasters loading banner
Xbox games- Left4dead
Mario Bros. Wii website
Ice Age, the survival guide
Farmers will need to switch to more resilient animals, such as rabbits and fish.
Plants will grow faster in warmer areas.
Farmers will have more greenhouses.
Shelter
Smaller homes with more people inside each one.
More sources of heat.
More insulated with lesser windows
Cities will become biospheres
Water
Boil snow and ice
In populated tropics, current technology allows to safely desalinate salt water.
Fire
Burn almost anything, including trash
Renewable sources of energy, such as solar, wind, hydro, and fusion, in the future
Clothing
Thick socks and woolly underwear.
Thick boots for travelling in the thick snow
Thick coat with a thick hood
Cover nose and mouth if necessary
Cover extensively during dark nights
Thursday, 19 November 2009
the Ice Age in Popular culture
When one mentions the Ice Age, most will refer to the animated movie released in 2002 created by Blue Sky productions.
In fact, this movie (and the sequels to follow) takes place in the Pliocene epoch. This era contained many animals that were included in the film, but have long been died out, Including:
Wooly Mammoth
Ground Sloth
Sabre-tooth cats
Giant Rhinos and Armadillos
and so on
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Lee's Apocalyptic lesson- The Ice Age
I don't yet know if this is an actual apocalyptic event. I will have to see to him about that.
outsider art- Adolf wolfli
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Michael Foucault- Madness and Civilization
"Foucault begins his history in the Middle Ages, noting the social and physical exclusion of lepers. He argues that with the gradual disappearance of leprosy, madness came to occupy this excluded position. Theship of fools in the 15th century is a literary version of one such exclusionary practice, the practice of sending mad people away in ships. However, during the Renaissance, madness was regarded as an all-abundant phenomenon because humans could not come close to the Reason of God. As Cervantes' Don Quixote, all humans are weak to desires and dissimulation. Therefore, the insane, understood as those who had come too close to God's Reason, were accepted in the middle of society. It is not before the 17th century, in a movement which Foucault famously describes as the Great Confinement, that "unreasonable" members of the population systematically were locked away and institutionalized. In the 18th century, madness came to be seen as the obverse of Reason, that is, as having lost what made them human and become animal-like and therefore treated as such. It is not before 19th century that madness was regarded as a mental illness that should be cured, e.g. Philippe Pinel, Freud. A few professional historians have argued that the large increase in confinement did not happen in 17th but in the 19th century.[2] Critics argue that this undermines the central argument of Foucault, notably the link between the Age of Enlightenment and the suppression of the insane.
However, Foucault scholars have shown that Foucault was not talking about medical institutions designed specifically for the insane but about the creation of houses of confinement for social outsiders, including not only the insane but also vagrants, unemployed, impoverished, and orphaned, and what effect those general houses of confinement had on the insane and perceptions of Madness in western society. Furthermore, Foucault goes to great lengths to demonstrate that while this "confinement" of social outcastes was a generally European phenomenon, it had a unique development in France and distinct developments in the other countries that the confinement took place in, such as Germany and England, disproving complaints that Foucault takes French events to generalize the history of madness in the West. A few of the historians critical of its historiography, such as Roy Porter, also began to concur with these refutations and discarded their own past criticisms to acknowledge the revolutionary nature of Foucault's book.[3]
Foucault also argues that madness during the Renaissance had the power to signify the limits of social order and to point to a deeper truth. This was silenced by the Reason of the Enlightenment. He also examines the rise of modern scientific and "humanitarian" treatments of the insane, notably at the hands of Philippe Pinel and Samuel Tuke. He claims that these modern treatments were in fact no less controlling than previous methods. Tuke's country retreat for the mad consisted of punishing them until they gave up their commitment to madness. Similarly, Pinel's treatment of the mad amounted to an extended aversion therapy, including such treatments as freezing showers and the use of straitjackets. In Foucault's view, this treatment amounted to repeated brutality until the pattern of judgment and punishment was internalized by the patient."
Beginning of the end of sanity- Batman
Begging of the end of Sanity- I'm a cyborg but that's OK
Monday, 16 November 2009
sound art- John Cage
John cage is a popular sound artist. Sound art is an unique genre of art that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus.
John cage's most renound work is a peice called 4′33″. The title is reffering to the time of silence between acts.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Brian's lesson- different character styles
Greg the Lion- The many faces by ~GregTheLion on deviantART
During our new animation project, we were assigned to experiment with character design, so I took one of my ideas and generated it into six different styles with official copyright.
Illustrators of said styles taken (top left-bottom right)
Yuji Uekawa (Sonic The hedgehog)
I remeber it being Yuji's style of cartooning that got me into drawing in the first place. It looked fun and exciting. Of course I'm very fond of this style, and always will be. I made a note on the comparison to the head, hands and torso.
Takaya Imamura (Star Fox)
keeping with the human-animal anatomy, or Furry (Anthro) style, I looked up this design because the comparison looks more realistic, and the style was slightly more lifelike. I'm happy with this designs clothing, however the facial design is difficult to pick up and so could be a but tedious when animating.
Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse)
This design's alright, but it's not what I would want to stick with. othing really seems to fit with it and it's just not the style i'm looking for. It doesn't look alive, it doesn't look like it's gonna jump out of the screen and do a hand stand.
Masaki Kajishima (Tenchi muyo!)
Ever since it first aired in the UK, I fell in love with this show. It was funny, exciting, and at times pretty cheeky. The Style itself is also pretty fun to experiment with. This has to be the second favourite style I used. The only thing im not happy with are the arms and legs. The feet are a good design though.
Preston Blair (Disney, MGM, Hanna-Barbera)
This style of animation was aided by an animation book, written by Preston. In a sense, his tyle is somewhat Disney, with a hint of Tex Avery. Unfortunatly, it doesnt exactly fit with the design I needed, It just seems too child friendly. the head is especialy the let down.
Matt Groening (The Simpsons)
Matt's style of design is all about circles. Almost every character created in The Simpsons and Futurama has started as a circle, or a similarly round object, and always have corcular eyes, and round teeth. Much like Preston Blair's style, this is just too child-freindly for the design im looking for.
With all these pros and cons in mind, I am now ready to mix and match different parts of these styles and come up with a final charcter style I am happy with.
animated music video-
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Brian's lesson- Animatic
Beginning of the end of sanity
Function of traditional storytelling
Storytelling traditions vary all over the world, yet have many things in common. This section is an attempt to gather information on customs of the oral tradition world-wide. Many people today are rediscovering the pleasures of telling stories, after their culture has lost most of its traditional storytelling, yet cannot easily find out much about the countless millennia of oral traditions with all their wisdom and techniques. I hope this site will help you discover and appreciate something of the central role which traditional storytelling has played in most cultures, and in some places still does.
Your help will be welcome if you know or come across any facts or resources to add, current or historical. To begin with I'll be adding bits and pieces as I can, mainly from the perspective of musical commentators. Later on we'll have overviews and this page will split into various areas - this is a big subject!
One thing to bear in mind is that in many old traditions storytelling is synonymous with song, chant, music, or epic poetry, especially in the bardic traditions. Stories may be chanted or sung, along with musical accompaniment on a certain instrument. Therefore some who would be called folk musicians by foreign music enthusiasts are just as accurately called storytellers - their true roles are more profound, as their names reflect: bards, ashiks, jyrau, griots amongst many more. Their roles in fact are often as much spiritual teachers and exemplars, or healers, for which the stories and music are vehicles, as well as historians and tradition-bearers. For instance bakhshi, the term for bard used in central Asia, means a shaman / healer who uses music as a conduit to the world of the Spirit. You can see photos of some of the above people in the Gallery and hear some of them on world music recordings. Also see the Musical Instruments for Storytelling page, for descriptions and discussion.
For genuine initiates of these bardic disciplines, they draw directly on the conscious creative power of the Divine and transmit it through the words they speak and sing. This is not the same as merely 'being creative' or 'feeling inspired', and involves considerable spiritual training. Different cultures and religions have different ways of describing this, though in general the practice is highly secret. For example, for the West African culture of the Manding, who call this power nyama,
“It controls nature, the stars and the motions of the sea. Nyama is truly the sculptor of the universe. While nyama molds nature into its many forms, the nyamakalaw (handlers of nyama) can shape nyama into art. The nyamakalaw spend their entire lives perfecting special secret skills that are passed down from generation to generation. The nyamakalaw are the only people in Mande that can use magic and are often skilled as sorcerers, blacksmiths, leather workers or bards.”
The World of the Mande: History, Art and Ritual in the Mande Culture, and Caste Systems in Mande Society, Anthropology/Africana Studies 269 and Anthropology/Africana Studies 267, Prof. Mandy Bastian (Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA) 1997-1999
But this section isn't only for the bardic traditions of storytelling - all other less formal traditions are part of the picture too, from hearthside informal telling or street tellers engaging passers-by, to traditional dramatic presentations, so if you can offer any details at all send them to me, Tim Sheppard.
Many traditions have spread across neighbouring countries because of old patterns of migration, empires, or religion, so this site is organised by geography. An alphabetical list of countries covered so far is also provided, but for the full picture do read the regional introduction on each page.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Family storytelling
stories told by other family members are always very interesting to hear becuase even one who's story is being told does not exactly know what the teller will say, even if one knows the teller so much.
what is personal mythology?
One way to create a personal myth is to look back a past event; did anything unusual happen in your childhood? have your relatives and/or relations been vanished without any word?
stories like these can be turned around and turned to dramatic and exciting stories, when including magical extracts and monstrous landscapes.
Shane meadows
Shane meadows is a british film makerfrom the midlands.
One of shane's work is a film titled Once upon a time in the Midlands. The plot that takes place in the movie reflects the hard life of the typical average brit living in such areas.
Adam Elliot
Adam Elliot is a film maker, who is known for his stop-motion features, but his media is more well known for the stories that is tells.
Adam was born in 1972, in the outback of Australia with his family. When Adam's father moved the family to melbourne when adam was 12, he became interested in art during school. His most noted work would have to be Harvie Krumpett, and his latest release, sam and max.
Harvie Krumpett is a story about a child who was born in a strange world, and as he grew, his life was going to be even stranger.
chris marker
Chris marker is a french film director, born in 1921, and started his filming career in the 1950s with Olympia 52. His most noted work is a flick entitled La jetee (1962).
There has been a rather large debate wether La jetee is of an animated genre or not. I belief is that it is an animation, in which still photos are placed in sync with the narration, while another belief states that it couldn't possibly be an animation, as there is not enough stills, as do the stills stay on for too long. Following this belief would state this movie more as a slideshow, rather than an animation.
Louise Weir
This is the oficial website for Louise Weir. Louise is an illustrator that works mainly on ads and self-portraits. She usued the old traditional method of painting on canvas. Here paintings always seem very realistic. When you look at it closely, the technique is in how many different storkes of darker colour have been used.
Darren hopes
celia calle
Rebecca horn
Mona Hatoum
Franko B?
Franko B is a london-based Performance artist, born in italy. A performance art is basicly a work of acting displayed so it is portrayed as art. In this case, Franko used his own body as a canvas, and his own blood to shape emotions of the human condition.
I think this is absoultely disgusting. Not only is he naked and very pale, which itself is a horendous sight for some, but he's bleeding! There's no other subject about it, it's a naked guy bleeding! Fine if it's on a canvas painted or digitised, but this is a performance art, it's done live! You can say all you want, but that is my opinion.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Storytelling screen-grabs- scale and centre
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
The Raven played by Vincent Price
The Raven is a poem written by Edgar Allen Poe; it illustrates how a man's sanity is challenged by a bird on a door.
Vincent Price is a great narrator for this story. His style is gentlemen like, while also having a sense of insanity.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Jabberwocky story
The Jabberwocky is a poem written by Lewis Caroll, who is more popular for Alice in Wonderland , hence why it seems that Alice is narrating the poem
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Alvah and Leah- My Original characters
Alvah- The new look by ~Alvah-and-freinds on deviantART
So this is the new character design for my OC, Alvah. He had to be developed more for my animation course, but the character himself was created over a year ago, for a Final major project.
I even have a good story too:
Alvah is the prince of Rottingspam, which is now Nottingham. 1000 years ago, on Alvah's 18th birthday, he was abducted by a giant flying monster and ended up at the the realm of the evil countess, Leah;
Dark Lordess Leah by ~Alvah-and-freinds on deviantART
Who attempted to attain Alvah's hand in marriage, so she can claim his land.
When Alvah declined, she banished him to the dungeon.
While Alvah was contained in a dungeon cell, a Wormhole appeared in front of him. With a slight hesitation, he entered it and ended up 1000 years in the future.
And, now he's here.
But what of Leah? Is she still alive and searching for Alvah? If so, what will she be planning for him after dissapearing all those years ago?
Friday, 9 October 2009
interactive website research- Rayman raving rabbids
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Storytelling project: film leader
This intro is a very old film number countdown, also known as a 'Leader'. This was usually seen in films way back from 1930-70's.
I'm planning to make my 'animated' story to a retro 1930's style, so this will be included in my final cut document.
Monday, 5 October 2009
How to story board, by Indy Mogul
This is a video which I came across when searching for storyboards. It shows how the storyboard came to be and how it is used to further construct the plot of the story. It also includes some tips to include onto your storyboard to further make the storyboard more unique.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Animatic example- Birds of a feather
This is a nice example of an animatic. The style itself only composes of one colour.
This is the style I'll be using for my animatic.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Interactive website research- Garfield about page
Interactive website research- Pokemon GTS
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Lightwave 3D research- Da vinchi aircraft
Lightwave 3D 'in the future' idea
The Jetsons (lightwave research)
futuristic City. (Light Wave Research.)
3D tutorials
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Bald eagle sounds
These are some examples of bald eagle cries that may come in useful for the animation project
Dinosaur animation
What's unique is that it is all traditionally animated, yet most of the time it looks so 3D
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Animation - Character ideas- Alvah
Alvah Reference sheet by ~GregTheLion on deviantART
Alvah is a character I created two years ago for a final major porject in college. Since then, I have been more connected to this character and the story it's in.
If my tutor will allow me to use this character, It will be used for an aniamtion idea.