Spirited Away

Spirited Away is an animation revolving around a young girl and her family moving to a new home. Before they reach their destination they are brought into a "parallel universe" showing their true character. This animation is very much about greed as well as love and kindness.

In Spirited Away the animator uses bright and vibrant colors to illustrate a surreal world, even at the colors are saying something. In Metropolis, the colors feel darker, but doesn't give off an ominous feeling. These two animations, in general, are very good examples of developed worlds and world views, unfortunate characteristics of some sorts. Animation techniques such as camera angles and panning emphasizes hierarchy or importance of one thing versus another.

Metropolis

In the movie Metropolis, the animator uses the three types of camera angles: worm's eye view, bird's eye view, and normal angle view. The use of worm's eye view within the crowd of people in the very beginning of the movie was used effectively because it makes you feel small in the midst of the larger crowd. Also in the same light, it illustrates the theme of Metropolis and the rise of the ziggurats. The animator also uses bird's eye view during the the same setting - immediately after he uses worm's eye view. The bird's eye view is an example of the rise of the ziggurats and how it will be towering over the people.

In the very beginning, just as the title appears, the animator pans out and just as it stops, a large vessel hovers over and drives into the screen. Panning in this scene was very cinematic because two opposite actions are occurring (in worm's eye view) - the screen panning outwards and the vessel driving inwards - giving you that feeling of smallness and inferiority that is reiterated throughout the movie. The opening scene reminds me of one of the scene's from the movie Independence Day, when the spaceship (U.F.O) is hovering over the White House and the rest of the East Coast.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

In Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, three wealthy children's parents are killed in a fire at their home. When they are sent to their distant relative, Count Olaf, they find out that he is plotting to kill them and take their fortune left behind by their parents.

In the end credits of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, where most of the computer animation is done, the animator reinforces the material/content of the movie with very macabre closing. To reinforce the macabre theme throughout the movie - the animator slowly pans into the three children only the small raft while displaying the end credits. Just as the children are within a reachable distance, they are picked up by a silhoutte of their relative, Count Olaf, and shortly after they float off into the sky. The animator illustrates the children's loneiness by placing them on the raft in the middle of the ocean.

The animator also reinforces the content of the movie with the material chose for the end credits. The animator reuses desolate and macabre settings such as the cemetry, the valley the children ride their bike through, and the use of leafless trees. The animator also reuses creepy eyes throughout the ending.

Haiku - We Much Prefer Candlelight

So today didn't go as expected - I thought everything would go downhill in regards to the haikus. Everyone seems to have put in quality effort towards their individual animation, which you have to pay homage to. Even though mine was incomplete it was still successful in some ways.

For today, I was assigned to critique a animation by Chris Meyers, another classmate. He was the first to showcase his animation and I was impressed. Despite the difficulties to get his desired effects - his animation was very successful. "We Much Prefer Candlelight," was illustrated by, a matchstick lighting a candle - done in fotoshop. I really liked how the matchstick moved in towards the candle and after the candle was lit, the camera zoomed out of the scene.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is based on the stories from "Arabian Nights." The evil magician enters the courts of The Great Caliph, impresses them with a magical horse, and tricks Prince Achmed into riding the flying horse. Prince Achmed is taken on adventures were he meets and falls for the Pari Banu. The entire film is animated using the silhouette technique - paper cutouts - against a tonal background.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is one of the earliest animated films, and truly a pioneer for present animation. Currently, I am unable to make this or any animation similar to this one. The use of the limited palleted animation helps simplify the project, from my perspective, because it minimizes the detail needed to illustrate what is going on - decreases the signifcance of a background, and limits the actions of the characters to a handful.

The most recognized and contemporary animation, that comes to mind, similar to The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the iPod commericals with silhouetted characters dancing to the music. Another piece from this animation that I always see in cartoons today is the use of perspective. Even though the atmospheric perspective in the film was an artisitc decision, it is always seen in cartoons today.

Stairs Bounce

I tried to make it as realistic as possible, but this was the end result. I played with a little easing to make it appear as if the ball was picking up speed as it went down the stairs.

I did pretty well with the stairs illustration - I' more of a two-dimensional fan.

Flash vs. Photoshop vs. Illustrator

The first week of school came ended moderately quick for me: the week began with IDD 301 - Animation and Motion Graphics and ended with Sci 101 on Thursday. Complete opposites.

The first assignment for IDD was to draw a beach ball in three programs, Flash, Photoshop, and Illustrator, easy enough? And then to animate all three in Flash. When the assignment was proposed I didn't really see any major difficulties to keep me from doing the assignment, but little did I know illustration in Flash is completely different from illustrating in Photoshop or Illustrator.

From completely illustrating with platforms I know, Flash came to me as a surprise. In Flash, the pen tool acts completely different from that of Photoshop or Illustrator. As I am trying to illustrate the beach ball as best as I could I pen tool just wouldn't curve as directed. And with my meticulous nature, I could'nt get over this hump until I firgured out how to make it rounded.

Again, illustrating in Photoshop and Illustrator is completely different from Flash. Photoshop being a universal designing program, I use it for nearly everything I do. I felt so much more comfortable illustrating this beach ball in Photoshop, and it shows in the performance of my work. As for Illustrator, I feel I don't know the program good enough to top the performance of my work in Photoshop.