Coat's und Umbrella's Character Design

Animation is going to be about an umbrella who is lascivious over the women rain coat. So I have adjusted character design according to the story.
I've designed a raincoat which doesn't lack of female body shapes. I chose yellow for it is a stereotypical colour of raincoats.

The umbrella itself seemingly has two different designs . The first one is before the moment he sees the raincoat - its modest and quit bland , like Bill Plymton - a notable animator,who created 25 Ways to Stop Smoking points a sensible note of why should characters be designed that way:

"I think characters should be ...really normal; sort of non-discript in his characteristics, because when something weird happens to him, when he's excited.. there is a real contrast. That's the secret of good animation, the movement between something that is sedate to something that is extreme"

The modest version of umbrella has coloured contours, but the shape and the type of it is rather choppy and should remind a ruff and old umbrella for a man.

But than in the story umbrella gets excited after seeing a very sexy raincoat and tries to impress her in a way very similar to how birds try to impress mating partners - by their charming looks and mating dance.

And I suited that by giving some extra patterns and colours to the "ruff-looking" umbrella.
I got the inspiration for patterns and colours after seeing peacocks and bird of paradise mating dances. ( The blue colour I saw in the bird of paradise never left my mind :D )

I still left a question mark about the design of the characters. I might go for simplifying the design, purifying from unnecessary details.

Seeing Px3+J=? exibition

This Saturday couple of us went to Whitstable to see tutor Phil's photoshop Phil's and also one another Phil and Jan work exibition.

After a day few works I saw there are still in my mind, in particular, three: Astrantia major ( tutor Phils pfotography of a flower), totem 7 ( Jan's picture of abandoned constructions in the beach) and plaster head 10 ( photoshop Phil's work of a man with pilots hat and goggles)

But in truth there was more to enjoy, since a variety of works in different medias was presented such as sculpture, photography and paintings.

Also a variety was suggested in concepts, like (as we disscussed all together) from no deep concept (Like Photographies of Phil's flowers ) to such a developed one that without knowing about it I wouldn't have understood the purpose of art exibited. That would be an example of Jan's pictures of himself naked in the indoor's environment.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of both the ewxibition and the lovely town of Whitstable and ofcourse the seeside :)

ANimation Workshop: Morphing

I decided to go for my full name and try to use objects to represent the shhapes of the letters my name consists of. This is my first steps into hand drawn animation, so hopefully all the next project record the development

Little Nemo (1911) - Winsor McCay

Simply put, Little Nemo revolutionized the comic strip.

While he wasn't the first person to make an animated cartoon, he was the man who defined the industry. The quality of his cartoons would not be matched for another 25 years. His pacing and understanding of the medium was far ahead of his time. And he drew all of the 4,000 cels of his first film, Little Nemo, himself! The Little Nemo film was released to theater and used in his act, as was his second. How a Mosquito Operates - this 6,000 drawings long. When these films were released into wider distribution, McCay's fame spread, especially to the fledgling animation community.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) - Don Chaffey

Jason is prophesied to take the throne of Thessaly and he travels to Colchis to find the Golden Fleece with the assembled crew of the finest men in Greece, including Hercules. Their voyage is full of battles against harpies, a giant bronze Talos, a hydra, and an animated skeleton army, all brought to life by Ray Harryhausen.

Ray Harryhausen is a Creator of Special Visual Effects in this film.
He created six and half skeletons (the legs are missing on one), the Hydra, Talos and the Harpies for the film. And it is estimated, he executed 184,800 movements.

The construction of the famous skeleton fight scene took something about 4 and a half month to create and that lasted for just a bit longer than 4 minutes on the screen. It was alaborious work that demanded devotion to it.

But this devotion comes from strong passion for what he is doing. He tells himself that from the very early days he remembers being fascinated by dinosaurs and monsters and that the film King Kong (1933) influenced him enormously , in fact changed his life. From that point he started looking for answers - how the monster was brought to life, started constructing his own model and attending various classes toimprove his designs as well as the ability to produce his visions as accurately as possible.

"He had discovered ... that drawings helped visualise what was in the imagination. Without that visualisation people wouldn’t be able to understand what you were talking about. So Ray learned that this was just as important a part of the process of animation as animation itself. "



Watching the film I found the most fascinating , the animation of Talos, huge metal statue. I couldn't believe its just a 15 inch figure as I read after watching the film. You could tell from watching the animation that this is a enormous object made out of metal. It is the moves were so specific and believable - the performance was believable.

Also I thing the scene was successful because there were no interactions with people ( like in the scene with skeletons, where Jason and his crew seemingly fight with the air ).

So the performance of monsters in the film is convincing, even though if it is not as smooth as we are used to.

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/index.php - official website of Ray Harryhausen

Life drawing

This time we were asked to to take shadows seriously imagining there's a spot light above the model.

More Umbrellas and Women Raincoats

King Kong (1933) - Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Scheodsack

It is a great monster movie that is even more stunning when you remind yourself that a lot of efects were used for the first time in film history.

The playing monsters (King Kong, Dinosaurs) are not there only to roar and beat its chest, but they interact with the world and objects in it– taring apart dinosaur, grabbing and throwing away characters and doing all the things that would normally happen if you were to imagine they exist in real life, not in a film.

I noticed the masterful use of layers: often the background was a screen with action projected on it (like a film screen), midground was where stop motion action or acting took place and there were props and setting to smartly blend it all in the foreground . For instance the scene where Ann looked down how the beast was fighting with a giant snake. Ann on the rocks was a film played on screen, Kong’s and snake fight was a stop motion performance and in the foreground there were rocks where we saw captain waiting for a good moment to run to Ann .

Painted backgrounds, stop motion animation, actors performance and actual settings, Layers of images blend unnoticeably.

Attention to performance. Meg Bizineer said Friday in our Animation Workshop- it is all about a convincing performance.
So O'Brien studied the movements of gorillas in zoos and other large animals to develop his characterization of Kong as well as attending professional wrestling matches searching for ideas of how to make his creation battle the other prehistoric denizens of Skull Island. It is this attention to the performance of his models that sets O'Brien's work apart as a pinnacle of the art.

Despite the genius construction of scenes special effects and convincing performance the way it’s editted suggested the continuity of the story. For instance, where we see the beast smashing the train. It could look simply a peace of stop motion animation , but the continuous cutting to people in the train falling, lights turning down, really suggests the horrible experience taking place.

Roger Ebert marked It's simply to observe this monster movie, pointed the way toward the current era of special effects, science fiction, cataclysmic destruction, and nonstop shocks. "King Kong" is the father of "Jurassic Park," the "Alien" movies and countless other stories in which heroes are terrified by skillful special effects.

This film still does it’s magic.

Phantasmagorie (1908) Emilie Cohl

One action morphs into another one or disappears gradually preparing the space for the other to take place. Characters transform into objects in order to keep continuous relationship between them ( for instance one character, the champagne bottle, takes the clown captive then turns into a blossoming flower setting him free and so on),

So you become aware of the good continuity kept throughout the animation.

Phantasmagorie (Fantasmagorie) is considered to be the first fully animated film ever made.

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) Stuart Blackton

AT the beginning of the animation we se a face actually drawn by hand. And then suddenly a woman figure next to the already drawn man ‘draws itself’ magically.
We see expressions of both change in time. At the very end man blows a ball of smoke into the womens face.

James Stuart Blackton, the creator of this film, is considered to be the father of the animated cartoon.

Getting to Know Characters

Just started drawing to understand how the shapes of these objects work and what causes difficulties in bringing clarity. So far I think the raincoat could be more simplified. as well as umbrella lacks of 'manly' appearance.. I'm still looking for my art direction as well.

Give Up Yer Aul Sins - Short Film (2001)

The story goes back 40 years. When one teacher rcorded her pupils telling the stroy abput John the Baptist. Those recordes were about to be thrown away, but by a lucky accident were saved.

The original soundtrack was full off sounds like dogs barking, desks falling ect, so Cathal Caffney in this 5 minute short cleverly combined animation‘s exxageration with documentary style ( all the background sounds were also animated, there is a camera constantly appearing in the frame) so everything gives the feel of reality – of documentary but infact gives the comic effect to animation

Homage to Eadweard Muybridge (1877-1885)

http://americanhistory.si.edu/muybridge/img/gifs/i_0_01_ani.gif



Eadweard Muybridge is known as father of animation.He first divided second into fractions (frames) and captured the ordinary movement of human (as well as horses, dogs, cats etc. ) in a way never seen before, showing each stage of walking cycle and other moves ( he proved that there is a moment when all four of horse legs are in the air when running).

The work he did found place in both art and science.

Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay, 1914)

The very first steps of animation.

WInsor McCay interacts with animated dinosaur and at the very end joines her in the animation.

Its hard to be too interested in this animation, but this is to be apreciated because it's one of the first live action/ animation hybrids.

There were specific details giving, probably comedic efect to the animation, monotonious repetition of certain moves ( head swinging etc.), the weightlessness of the dinosaur when jumping and few more things.

On the other hand, concidering it was one of the very first animations, the attention to slightest moves of tail, of searching-head and so on is what gives life to Gertie the cute dinosaur :D

The dialogue.. "are you in a habit of seing things?" ... :D ... That's all I have to say.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY40DHs9vc4 - to see the animation.

Essay topic: Hayao Miyazaki or Norman Mclaren?

My emediet choise after reading the essay topic was Hayao Miyazaki - he is a big fish, and I heard few other classmates chose this animator? :)
but after Tuesdays animations.. .I stared thinking more about Norman Mclaren..