Blog 10

I think my favorite thing that I learned about animation was learning how illustrators were taught to create characters to look as though they are thinking. I think this aspect is one of the most amazing innovations of animation. I think that when an illustrator is drawing a character and changing his or her facial expressions to convey a certain feeling or mood to the audience really says something about the imagination and sheer talent of an illustrator. I thought it was interesting how from the 20's to the 30's, Disney's priorities completely changed from creating cartoons with the common goal of having a funny plot line to then creating animated films with the intent of them becoming major motion pictures and having serious story lines along with being as realistic as possible. It's as if Disney envisioned himself as a traditional film director and he wanted his animated characters to be real like actors and wanted these characters to not only act as if they were real but act as though they were the best actors in the world. Walt Disney was essentially asking these illustrators to play animator/actor at the same time. He continued to push his illustrator's to do what constantly was thought of as impossible. Disney asked a lot from his illustrators and his ability to get the most out of who he hired is what I think made him one of the greatest minds to ever walk this earth.

Blog 8

The 9 Economical Ways that Animation Can Build Emotions in the Imaginations of the Audience are

1. Rear View which is viewing the characters from behind them and at a distance giving the audience a chance to imagine the characters feelings rather than seeing them.

2. Shadows which are characters in silhouette which add interest and variety to a picture while saving the illustrator time needed to detail the characters.

3. Shadows Over The Character which are when shadows are drawn over a solid character. They add drama and excitement to a scene while making it easier to focus on the shadows as well as a character that may be present in the scene.

4. Overlays which are when a scene has several layers drawn into a picture which create more of an aesthetically pleasing scene.

5. Dramatic Layout which can be something like a large layout with a character drawn very small in it to represent that character as feeling lost or alone. This adds feelings of dramatic sadness and/or loneliness.

6. Pictorial Shot which is a drawing of a background with a point of interest off in the distance to convey feelings of dreaming or wishing one could get to that point of interest.

7. Effects Animation which are aesthetically pleasing scenes which represent what the character is seeing and how they are feeling while viewing it.

8. Held Drawing With Camera Moves is a still frame of a drawing in which a simulated feeling of a camera moving closer into the character to create a certain dramatic mood or feeling felt by the character.

9. Offstage Sounds which are sounds that are used typically for a still frame scene which can build images in the imagination.

The 5 Points to Remember When Animating Emotions are

1. Make sure the emotional state of the character is clearly defined which means to make sure it is clear to the audience how the character is supposed to be feeling.

2. The thought process reveals the feeling. Sometimes it can be shown with a single, held drawing or a simple move. Other times there should be gestures body moves, or full action. Determine which is best in each case. In other words, when making a character look as though it were thinking, make sure to use the appropriate actions to convey the correct feelings and thoughts to the audience.

3. Be alert to use of cutting and camera in helping to accentuate the emotion, which means to be aware that making correct use of scene cuts and camera movements will help deliver further characters emotions.

4. Ask yourself constantly: What am I trying to say here? What do I really want to show? How do I want the audience to react? In other words, when animating emotions, put yourself in the audiences shoes and think of how they would receive and process the emotions you are delivering to them.

5. Use the element of time wisely: to establish the emotion of the character, to convey it to the viewers and to let them savor the situation. Don't be ponderous, but don't take it away from them just as they start to enjoy it. In other words, make sure to allow the audience to view a scene for the right amount of time in order for them to fully understand what the characters are feeling.

When reading this blog the first video that came to my mind was the scene from Bambi when Bambi's mother is killed. After viewing this scene I was surprised to find 7 of the 9 animations for building emotion and felt they perfectly delivered the feelings they were supposed to. Offstage sounds of gunfire are used when his mother is killed, a dramatic layout is used when Bambi is shown very small in a forest when going back to search for his mother. Effects animation is used with snow falling when Bambi is searching for his mother symbolizing Bambi feeling cold and lost inside. Shadows are used when Bambi is pictured in silhouette form while searching for his mother through the woods. Overlays are used when Bambi is running through the forest and snow and trees are drawn over him while running. A held drawing with camera movement technique is used when Bambi first meets his father. The camera zooms in on his fathers face while he stays still. Finally the Rear View technique is used when Bambi and his father are pictured from behind as they walk off into the distance symbolizing Bambi. Regarding the 5 points to remember, point 1 I feel is clearly defined when Bambi is running back through the snowy forest looking for his mother. He feels scared, lonely and cold inside without his mother. Point 2 was clearly defined when Bambi is told by his father his mother can't be with him anymore. Bambi stairs at his father with a stunned look on his face. His head and eyes then slowly droop down showing the utter despair he is feeling. Point 3 is best shown when the camera cuts from a surprised Bambi to a silhouette of a large buck and then zooms in on the buck's face to convey to the audience Bambi's stunned reaction. Obviously point 4 was used by the illustrator because of the outstanding artwork throughout this scene and Point 5 is used perfectly as well when the camera stays on Bambi face after he learns his mother is dead. The camera stays there long enough for the audience to grasp the complete and utter despair he is feeling after losing his mother. This is one of my favorite Disney movie's and is a great symbol of the glory days of Walt Disney animation.

Blog 7

Fred's 14 points of Animation are

1. Appeal in drawing - Are the animations something that an audience would like looking at?

2. Staging - Are the characters placed on a stage according to depth and their appearance?

3. Most interesting way? (Why would anyone other than your mother like to see it?) - Are the characters drawn with the most interesting attributes to them? i.e. big round eyes, nice bodies.

4. Is it the most entertaining way? - Are the characters drawn to be as entertaining to the audience as possible?

5. Are you in character? Have you drawn the character in model of yourself. The book states Fred drew Dopey has a reflection of himself; innocent, but with a touch of mischief; naive, but with just enough worldliness.

6. Are you advancing the character? - Are you having the character grow or mature mentally and/or physically.

7. Is this the simplest statement of the main idea of the scene? - Have you made the main idea of the scene easily understandable for the audience?

8. Is the story point clear? - Have you made the point of the story easy for the audience to understand?

9. Are the secondary actions working with the main action? - Are the secondary actions making sense with the main action and not drawing unwanted attention or drawing wanted attention?

10. Is the presentation best for the medium? - Is the presentation conveying the message of the story in the best way?

11. Does it have 2 dimensional clarity? - Are the characters 2 dimensional features such as the face clearly defined?

12. Does it have 3 dimensional solidity? - Are the characters presented with good 3 dimensional characteristics?

13. Does it have 4 dimensional drawing? (Drag and follow through) - Do the characters features such as hair and body parts keep moving the way they are supposed to even when a character stops?

14. Are you trying to do something that shouldn't be attempted? (Like trying to show the top of Mickey's head) - Have you made sure to not show a character in a way they are not meant to be seen? Different points of view of the character.

The last 12 points of animation are

1. Inner feelings and emotion - Do the characters display emotions and convey to the audience their inner feelings?

2. Acting with clear and definite action - Is it clear to the audience what the characters are doing or trying to do?

3. Character and personality - Do the characters have a clear, definite and consistent personality?

4. Thought process through expression changes - Are the characters clearly conveying to the audience what they are thinking through the use of facial expressions.

5. Ability to analyze - Are the characters able to think through and correctly analyze a situation?

6. Clear staging - Are the characters correctly placed on a stage according to depth and their appearance?

7. Good composition - Does the layout of the picture make sense? Do the ingredients of the drawing fit in well with each other?

8. Timing - Do the drawings of each frame create the correct motion in between frames creating a smooth flow of the character that makes sense?

9. Solidity in drawing - Does a silhouette drawing determine what the pose is communicating?

10. Power in drawing - Do the drawings create images that are entertaining and appealing to the audience?

11. Strength in movement - Do the characters move smoothly and create a sense of how that character is feeling?

12. Imagination - Does the animation convey a strong imagination from the illustrator?

The following video of a scene in Pinocchio I feel displays most if not all of these characteristics. I felt that the Italian was drawn with a correct stereotype of all Italian's being overweight, talking with their hands, doing anything possible to make money and even having a fiery temper. I also felt all the puppets in the scene have great movement of a typical puppet and even having Pinocchio having slightly more human like movements but not enough to look humanistic since he is essentially in the middle of being just a wooden puppet and being a real boy.

Blog 5

In chapter 5, when Disney says "the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them." This coincides with Disney's thoughts from chapter 4 where he is becoming more concerned with characters becoming as lifelike as possible. This isn't only directed towards human like movement but characters being illustrated to look as if they are thinking. Disney wanted his characters to convey to the audience what they were thinking and how they were feeling on the screen as if it were a real life movie. The book uses an example of Disney explaining how dogs act and the funny things they do when their sniffing things. Disney would sometimes act these things out to animators to show them how a dog may sniff something they are on the trail of and then look up and out into space as though they were thinking and sorting things out in their head. He wanted these acts to be drawn out so the audiences would recognize that the characters are thinking. In this Pinocchio video, you can see the facial expressions in the characters, specifically the cat. The cat is a good example of a character thinking because it only has one form of communicating and it is by facial expressions. The cat has various expressions of happiness, annoyance, physical pleasure from being pet. At 5:18, Pinocchio is petting the cat but then leaves to go see the fish. The cat falls over and exemplifies some displeasure and maybe even jealousy that he has been left for the fish.

Blog 9

I read chapter 11 The Disney Sounds and found it very interesting. When thinking of Walt Disney, the first thing that comes to mind is animation but Disney thought of everything when creating his films. I never knew that Walt Disney had his own music created by musicians he hired from all over the country. Disney envisioned specific music being played for his films. He knew from watching movies that sometimes music created the perfect mood and feeling for an audience more than any animation ever could. In order to create the perfect mood for his pictures, Disney knew he had to have music created specifically for his films. Disney would hire musicians and music writers and have them work closely together with directors to plan out entire pictures before any animator began a scene. I would have never thought that creating music for these films would have been such an intricate process but after seeing how bar sheets and such were used I was surprised. Musicians and directors would work together to create music and animations and then eventually work them into falling in sync with each other. The music was expected to fall into beat with the movement of the characters. Exposure sheets and action notes were put together in long processes in order to make this work. It's amazing how something so important and complex had never even occurred to me as playing a major role in animation!! This is a video of another one of my favorites which so happens to have a lot to do with this chapter. Fantasia's music is referred to in the book as "free tempo" (p. 293) meaning it did not adhere to a strict beat as most other films did.

Blog 6

Brainstorm List

So today I was having trouble putting together a good brainstorm list and organization list. My brain is not working properly today. I don't even know what else to say about my website.

Maus

Wow I just finished reading Maus. I was pretty angry with the ending and looked up critic reviews on the internet just to gain any further insight to why it ended that way and found out there is a Maus II! Apparently it's about Vladek and Anja's experience at Auschwitz and the horrible time they had to endur. I also read it centers more around Vladek and Artie's relationship and why it is so strained. I will definitely be getting this novel. I read this whole novel from start to finish, I could not put it down it was so great. I love how Art even explains in his own novel through dialogue how people who aren't even familiar with graphic novels will be interested in this book. It's so true! Fantastic choice Monica.

Blog 4

1. Squash and Stretch - A fixed shape's marked rigidity that is emphasized by the movement.

2. Anticipation - Anticipating a characters form when in movement.

3. Staging - Characters that are placed on a stage according to depth and their appearance.

4. Straight Ahead or Pose to Pose - Key frame to key frame creating poses of action.

5. Follow through and overlapping action- Not everything stops when a character stops i.e. hair, clothes etc. will keep moving. (Following Laws of Physics)

6. Slow in and slow out - Unlike mechanical movement, the Slow in and slow out feature gives a character a more life like movement such as a finger being wagged in a human-like fashion instead of a robot like fashion.

7. Arcs - The world bends so people bend, arcs are used to make motion smooth.

8. Secondary Action - A character completing a two actions at the same time just as a person walking can simultaneously swing his arms or keep them in his pockets. He can speak, whistle or use facial expressions.

9. Timing - The number of drawings used in any move determines the amount of time that action will take on the screen. (Thomas and Johnston p. 64) Frame rate x seconds = frames

10. Exaggeration - Embellishing a characters features or expressions. Things tend to look better with bigger features.

11. Solid drawing - A silhouette determines what the pose is communicating.

12. Appeal - Creating characters that are aesthetically pleasing to the audience i.e. faces, expression, blinks.

A good part within this scene which can exemplify many of these principles is when Zazu the bird is smacked by scar into the rock wall. Squash and stretch can be seen when Scars paw makes contact with Zazu. Follow through can also be seen during this sequence as well as slow in, slow out and arcs. Secondary takes places throughout the whole scene as the anicmals are running and completing yells and facial expressions at the same time. The excellent life like movements of each character represents perfect "Timing" created by the illustrator. Exaggeration is displayed on each characters faces by looking at their large eyes and embellished facial expressions. Anticipation can be noted during each of the characters while they are running. Staging can be seen when Zazu points out Simba to Mufasa and Scar as they are looking over a cliff. Solid drawing could be seen numerous times with the characters creating a shadow in the sunlight. Lastly, the characters are all aesthetically pleasing to the audience giving them a good "appeal. The only thing I could not find demonstrated in this scene was straightahead or pose to pose.

Blog 3

There are contradictions of Disney's thoughts from chapter 2 in chapter 4. In 1923, Disney had only Alice's Wonderland to his credit. He was surprised to receive a contract for another 12 films. At first Disney was only concerned with only creating funny scripts and not so concerned about the movement in the animation. "They could not know it at the time, but actually there was little chance for these cartoonists to improve, given the type of material they were animating" (p.30). In chapter 4 Disney's priorities in animation began to change. It is now 10 years later and Disney has become more concerned about making his films as lifelike as possible. He brought in Don Graham, a top instructor at Chouinard's Art Institue to help illustrators take part in action analysis. The illustrators would observe the intricate movements of models and be asked to illustrate these movements. Disney wanted his characters to have more lifelike flow in there movements and also wanted his films to have secondary actions. Secondary actions even in the layout such as doors closing in or out or curtains moving in the windows. This first film is of Steamboat Willie in 1928. Notice the very limited action of these illustrations.

This second film is Snow White of 1937. Notice the much more life like movements and flow of the animations. There is even small movement of the fire in the fireplace.

Blog 2

A caricature is a drawing of someone or something that has exaggerated features that are easily identifiable with the audience and make the character more interesting. Typically caricatures are seen in comics and political cartoons but they are also used in animation. When asked "what is more true, caricature or realism?", another question has to be asked - "What is considered true?" One can think of "true" as meaning "real" or "genuine". It is easy to say that realism is more true because obviously the ultimate intent of animation is to create realism through drawings and the more realistic the drawing, the more "true" the character becomes. Caricature has the ability to express the "true" feelings of that character though not through a realistic approach, such as eyes bugging out of a character showing their astonishment of something. This example brings up a second question "Do you apply the word 'true' to the look of a character or the feeling of a character?" This question is impossible to answer because realism and caricatures are both true, just in differenct ways. It all depends on how the audience accepts the character, which will be different for each individual viewer. My selection from the original cartoon Superman relies almost solely on realism for the look of its characters. Very little, if any caricatures are used in this clip. This may be because of the age of the drawings and the audience of adults which cartoons were mostly meant to appeal to back then.

Blog 1

As it says on pg. 15 in The Illusion of Life, "Conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communication in any art form. What this means is that it is most important for the artist to create a feeling in the viewer by using the tools of communication. This doesn't necessarily mean verbal communication because within art, nonverbal communication is a necessity. Communication such as posture, gestures, facial expressions and even music have become essential forms of communication. Since animation was invented, an artists' ability to enable their characters to express themselves have improved rapidly through these forms of communication. The clip I chose is an excellent example of how an artist can help it's viewers understand what it's characters are feeling through non-verbal communication. It is from the Lion King and in this clip the baby lion Simba gets caught in a dangerous stampede. His close-up facial expressions show the fear he is feeling. Once his father, Mufasa learns of his son being in trouble he races to the scene. After saving Simba, Mufasa attempts to save himself by climbing up the rock wall to his brother Scar. Mufasa reaches out for Scar's help but Scar plunges his claws in Mufasa's paws and utters "Long live the King". Another closeup of Mufasa expresses the astonishment he feels to learn that he is being betrayed by his brother. Scar then throws Mufasa to his death into the underlying stampede. This clip does not show Mufasa ultimately trampled to death but through the sight of Mufasa falling and Simba yelling "NO!" as he watches, the artist conveys the feelings of Mufasa and Simba to the audience.

Online Identities: Good and Bad

Wow. A Rape in Cyberspace was extremely deep. As I was reading it, I quickly jumped to the conclusion that this was a moronic column that was disrespectfully trying to compare these "minor" acts of online assault to the actual heinous act of rape. I was actually beginning to take offense to the fact that this writer was trying to compare the two but as I read on, I began to view the bigger, deeper picture. I began to realize that this was the story of the birth of a new form of assault. These assaults no longer had to be physical or verbal to be hurtful. These were cyber assaults on people with zero protection from them. This was a story not about a physical rape but an emotional and mental rape. During the debate which took place in the story over the Bungle Affair, young Quastro asked, "Where does the body end and the mind begin?" This question was in response to others stating that no real physical harm had been done because these were just words that should be discarded as meaningless insults from a mindless and faceless person.

Online identities although very beneficial for communication with friends and family, have made it possible for any hateful and sexual deviants to roam freely out in public, disguised by a simple name and/or picture of their choosing, enabling them to mix with all kinds of people, male/female, young/old. Most people in the United States refrain from such deviance whether online or in society and try to be "model citizens". But just as there are criminal citizens in society, there are also criminal citizens in the cyber world that we need to be aware of.

As stated later in A Rape in Cyberspace, the actions of Mr. Bungle were rooted to a NYU dormitory and were most likely performed by not just one person but just a bunch of young idiots not realizing the immense repercussions their acts could have. Obviously this was a much lighter assault than that of the tragic story of Megan Meier. I remember hearing about her story on the news. Lori Drew's intentional assault against 13 year old Megan are unfathomable. It's a shame that the laws put in place after this incident only came about as a result of Megans death. Unfortunately it seems the only time laws are made are because of tragedy.

Website Idea

When I was first asked in class what ideas I had come up with for designing my webpage I was a little caught off guard because I honestly had not thought about it at all. My first choice was to do a future employment opportunity such as about the FBI/CIA or some government related field. Then I decided to think of my passions in life. I thought of hockey mostly but I didn't want to do that, I've done things about hockey in school all my life. Then I decided on a future hobby of mine, Scuba Diving. I've loved the water ever since I was little and I have always wanted to scuba dive. I plan on getting my scuba certification before next summer. I will use this web design class to learn more about it and display my interest to everyone. Here are pictures of some of the beautiful things you can see and do while scuba diving.