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.