14. My Final Animation

There is no assigned reading for this week, so I figured I’d talk about my animation. My animation is a 2 minute experimental stop-motion about a Ken doll. When I started to think about what I was going to for my sop-motion, I wasn’t what the story line was going to be or what characters I was going to use, but just randomly I found this Ken doll over spring break and thought it would a good thing to use. The story behind the doll is a very simple one, but I’m not how it translates just because of the fact that it is an experimental animation.

The story involves a man represented by the Ken doll, and he has cheated on his girlfriend. The animation begins with a “Garden-of-Eden-esk” location, and Ken is seen walking up to an apple. He is surprised when snakes pop out of the apple and strangle him. This scene portrays, how Ken has succumb to temptation, and now is paying for it through mental and emotional turmoil. There are many other set-ups with the girl portraying Ken’s significant other and scenes of Ken contemplating his life.

The actual making of the stop motion was very very hard to do as well as time consuming. A lot of my shots were from directly above the doll, so I had to stand of on a chair from time to time to look through the viewfinder to make sure everything was framed correctly. In one of the set-ups I actually got one my friends to help me and the process wen to much faster. Editing the frames was the most tedious part about the project because I could not find a preset to change the duration of the pictures on the timeline. So, I ended up having to just edit what I got when I dragged the pictures onto the time-line. This whole project has given me so much respect for people who do stop motions. My set-ups were relatively easy to do, but I can’t imagine how complex some of the set-ups can get.

13. Lara Croft's Polygons and Gender in Video Games

I read the article about Lara Croft and gender analysis and it talked about some pretty interesting things. I’m not an avid gamer at all but I used to play lots of video games when I was younger, but I do have a roommate who is a bona-fide gamer. I understand that the character Lara Croft was no mistake. Her breasts were intentionally made to be huge, her waist small, and she was meant to have legs for days. She was also made by and for men. This type of idealized woman doesn’t really reflect what any kind of woman looks like, and I’m sure this would upset feminists...but there is quite a lot that could upset feminists. The thing that feminists are forgetting is that the way that men are portrayed in video games is exactly the same. My roommate has recently been playing God of War, a game about Kratos setting out to kill Arez, along with the rest of the Gods. All of the male and female forms were extremely unrealistic and idealized. Aphrodite was extremely sexed-up wearing little clothing with her breasts exposed, but she is also the Goddess of sex. The male Gods also wore little clothing and were unbelievably muscular. I understand that the majority of the creators of the games sexualize and put the female form upon a pedestal but the same can be said for the male characters.

The article talks about Lara Croft being a positive role modal for women, which I can hardly agree with. I think that video games for the most part are a waste of time, and if we are letting younger elementary school age kids play these games where the point of the game is to rip some guys head off, blow up some some building, or shoot this guy in the head, is that a good thing? I don’t think violent video game characters could ever be considered role modals. I also think that you could be doing something more productive with your time than playing video games...Tasks that actually accomplish something.

The part in the article about the game patches was interesting because I had no idea that that could be done. They were referred to as hacker artists, and I was a little confused when I read the term, but it makes sense now. These people hacking and ‘rewiring’ the game so that it appears different when played can be considered art. A person has to put a lot of time and effort into a patch to make a bad guy appear as a giant chicken or some kind of farm animal. Although the effect is for comic relief, it is still considered art in my book. As for the “Nuderaider” created I’m not really going to say much, except that it is silly and...when you think about it, How weird is it that some creepy dude is slaving over a computer for hours entering codes to get a naked video game character?

12. Digital Animation

Chapter 9 in Furniss’s book, Art in Motion, discusses digital animation and how developement and advances have been made throughout the years. One aspect of the digital animation industry that is a downfall is the rapidity of change paired with the duration of time it takes to create such a film. Cel animation compared to digital animation is quite a big difference with the point of a pencil being the smallest image you could see on a drawn animation, but with digital animation a pixel , being much much smaller, is the smallest image one could see. The book even commented on the term filmmaker, and how a lot of the time in the digital field it’s not a relevant term because there is no need for the filmmaker to touch or even handle film stock. Some studios integrate the new and old technologies, using handmade puppets, as well as enhancing the image with digital animation. One film that I know that has done this is Coraline, which was a fantastic film.

Many other films with live action also use digital animation to create special effects or settings that could not be achieved otherwise. Movies like the Harry Potter series use a slew of grandiose props along with the use of blue and green screens to achieve the ambience of Hogwartz. Also, in the third film I’ve heard that the superimposition and animation of the hipogryff ‘Buckbeak’ significantly slowed the production of the film down because the animators were so meticulous about animating each feather. Another big name film that used an infusion of difital animation and live action was Avatar, DUH! James Cameron has taken action tracking to a new level, putting cameras on the actors faces. I’m not exactly sure about all of the little intricacies of the technology, but Cameron has for sure made history with his film, giving birth to more life-like characters than ever before.

The chapter also talks about programs that can be used for digital animation and I am slightly familiar with some of them, such as Maya, After effects, and well, photoshop, of coarse. One interesting tidbit that I didn’t know was that most advancements in digital animation is in the making of commercials because they take so little time to complete and most all commercials are very different. Another reason they can be very developmental is because advertisers have the money to spend, and they are willing to go the extra mile, in their wallets. Another fact that I wasn’t aware of was the cost of digital animation. I knew it was expensive, but the book say that it can actually save money. although the wire framing, texturizing and preproduction on the animation can be very tedious and expensive, once the character is created and ready to be manipulated, animating them can be very easy and cheap because you’re just reusing the same digital figure.

11. Cinema and Spectators

Well talks about the relationship between the spectator and the cinema in chapter six of his book Understanding Animation. The relationship specifically talking about animation is different than film because people have different preconceived notions about animation. The animated cinema is different because people know and accept that it is fake and everything is created through drawing or some other medium that has no real life to it. Although we all understand these notions, we all take and understand the things that we see on screen as real. I think this particular part of the chapter is very interesting because unlike movie-star fanatics, animation fanatics are idolizing something that isn’t actually real; it’s an idea. To me this seemed kind of creepy at first, but both concepts are by and large the same because most likely a movie-star fanatic will never meet their idol, just as it is impossible for animation fanatics will never meet their idols.

The chapter goes on to talk about how adults actually really appreciate animation because they find it to be a different experience. Apparently many people see animation as amazing because it can be any and every one of someone’s deepest desires. Anything you can think of to draw or compose can happen on the screen; there is no limit. The chapter also addressed a debate of whether or not Fantasia could be considered art. I thought this whole section of the chapter was kind of stupid because all animation is art, no matter how crude or dumb it is. I even think Ren and Stimpy is art. Even though the show is a little off-beat and weird, that doesn’t mean the artistic value is lost.

The last part of the chapter was very enjoyable for me because it made me start to reminisce about all of the old Disney movies that I was trying to recall. I actually cannot remember the order that I saw any of the Disney movies in; I just remember bits and pieces of the films. The disney animations are very successful because they are able to reach out to a large number of people and relate to them. Many children identified with the characters in that they wanted to be a beautiful princess like Cinderella or live on the wild side like Mowgli. The animated films also reached out to the audience with the introduction of fear. Children identify with the idea of a mother figure, and if she was ever taken from them, it would be the end of the world. This is why when we become aware that Bambi’s mom was shot or Dumbo’s mom was locked away, we empathize with these characters.

10. Stop-Motion and Pixelation

Chapter 8 in Furniss’s Art in Motion is all about stop-motion animation and the different techniques and elements that are associated with it. Will Vinton was the first American to trademark claymation. He became famous for his films Closed Mondays and The Great Cognito. He was also very famous for the commercials he did for with the California Raisins. Another animator that was very well known in the stop motion genre is Jiri Trnka. He became very well known for his film, The Hand, as well as his collaboration with Brestilav Pojar.

One related field that I have been interested in is the use of marionettes. This technique is different from stop-motion because it is not animation; it is actually filmed in real time. The book also talks about ‘super-marinonation’. This kind of marionation involves wires that control the movements of the puppets mouths to match the dialogue. It is also called ‘muppeteering’ which leads most people to think of Jim Henson’s muppet television series, Sesame Street. This of course eveolved into a very large franchise which spawned many movies such as A Muppet Family Christmas, The Great Muppet Caper, and many more.

Another part of the chapter that was particularly interesting for me was the section on pixelation. Pixelation is basically the exact same process as stop-motion with puppets, except it is using real people. I have seen many of these types of animations in commercials and other youtube videos, and it baffles me how hard it must be for the actor. I sure as hell could not hold my position for that long of a time. We actually watched a pixelation in class, Neighbours (1952) by Norman McClaren. I was very impressed with this animation because I seemed as though the movements were so fluid and quick. I can’t imagine how much patience those actors had to have had with McClaren. The Bolex Brothers are another pair that are known for pixelation. They said that they used pixelation because it was cheap. They didn’t have to pay for expensively made stop-motion puppets.

9. Astro Boy and Early Japanese Animation

The article on blackboard that I read talked about early Japanese animation in the United States as well as Tezuka and Astro Boy. Much of the animation was construed differently in the United Sates because of added narration and shifting of dialogue meaning. In the original Japanese Astro Boy his death was a result of an unknown factor, but in the English version released in the US the accident causing his death is implied to be caused by faulty future highways. Tezuka was outraged about the editing and censorship of the cartoon in America. I think it’s very interesting that the Japanese version is hard to even find on the anywhere anymore, many people only come across the japanese subtitled versions. It just doesn’t make much sense that the original version of something would be almost phased out.

I also was thinking about the re-popularization of Astro Boy with the release of the CGI film in 2009. This could explain why the Japanese versions of the show have become nearly extinct. Americans became interested in where Astro Boy originated and started to watch more of the old episodes. Tezuka, the creator of Astro boy is deemed as the “Godfather of Anime or Manga”. His style of animation really set the stage for all other anime artist because much of his work is reflected in the anime of the present. He is known for drawing large eyes and exaggerating other prominent features of the characters. I thought it was strange that the article said early Japanese animation used many different techniques from many different styles of animation around the world because anime and Japanese animation has such a distinct form about it with its exaggerated drawing style and its sometimes heavy subject matters.

Astro Boy was originally named Atom, which is a very unnerving coincidence considering the fact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with an atom bomb. His name was changed from ‘Atom’ to ‘Astro Boy’. ALthough the program was more violent that regular American TV shows it did well with audiences, so good in fact at one time, it had beaten out Superman and Lone Ranger.

Animation Assignment #3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3FlxIbvY_0