This lecture was about showing us how to see and think about things we wouldn't normally take notice of in our daily life. We need this skill because this is what separates us from everyone else as animators or graphic designers. For example a person walking in the street, everyone will not take notice of the details they will just make a quick note in their head that a person is walking on the pavement next to the road while creative people will use a skill that will make them think about excessive detail especially as an animator they will take note on that person's movement.
I generally focus on the little things including when people walk, by looking closely you can see that every single person has their own style of walking or movement even if it is just slightly different.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Narrative Design
Narrative design is how something is structured and presented to tell a story. Literally every film has the same structure: The beginning with a rising action, the middle with a climax and then the end with a falling action.
Allen Feldman said "The event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated."
Narrative as an animator is creating a narrative for an animation that solves a problem.
Nancy Duarte said "The audience does not need to tune themselves to you - you need to tune your message to them."
Allen Feldman said "The event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated."
Narrative as an animator is creating a narrative for an animation that solves a problem.
Nancy Duarte said "The audience does not need to tune themselves to you - you need to tune your message to them."
Thursday, 5 May 2016
Rebecca Perez
Rebecca Perez works at Dream Works another company who make animated movies I love. Because I like these movies I decided to do some research on animator who works there.
Rebecca first became inspired to do animation at the age of 15 when she saw a commercial about a animated Listerine bottle done by CGI, later she discovered the animation was created by Pixar. When Rebecca was old enough she enrolled at the Ringling School of Art and Design where she received a BFA in animation but later on decided that she still didn't have the skill she needed to work on films so she hired a animation mentor. Rebecca's first job after education was at LucasArts where she had the job of 3D Technical Artist, putting completed animations into the game engine of the game the company was producing. Even though she wasn't working with animation she still could learn from the environment and study each process that happened in the gaming industry.
Eventually after building herself up Rebecca received a chance to work at Dream Works where she worked on a number of movies:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
How to Train your Dragon (2010)
Megamind (2010)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Turbo (2013)
I have seen all these movies and they inspire me to be an animator. All the movies from Dream works follow at specific style and have very interesting stories.
Rebecca first became inspired to do animation at the age of 15 when she saw a commercial about a animated Listerine bottle done by CGI, later she discovered the animation was created by Pixar. When Rebecca was old enough she enrolled at the Ringling School of Art and Design where she received a BFA in animation but later on decided that she still didn't have the skill she needed to work on films so she hired a animation mentor. Rebecca's first job after education was at LucasArts where she had the job of 3D Technical Artist, putting completed animations into the game engine of the game the company was producing. Even though she wasn't working with animation she still could learn from the environment and study each process that happened in the gaming industry.
Eventually after building herself up Rebecca received a chance to work at Dream Works where she worked on a number of movies:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
How to Train your Dragon (2010)
Megamind (2010)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Turbo (2013)
I have seen all these movies and they inspire me to be an animator. All the movies from Dream works follow at specific style and have very interesting stories.
John Lasseter
John Lasseter is known for his 3D animation with Disney Pixar and taken part in the creation of amazing animated movies. I am a massive fan of Disney Pixar and have seen just about all of their movies so I have decided to look in to a animator who works for them. Most of John Lasseter's work is with Pixar but he has also been involved with other animations like Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
John Lasseter was inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Disney's Sword in the Stone to become an animator himself. Lasseter started his higher education for animation in Pepperdine University but left shortly after, after seeing a better opportunity to learn character animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Here he was taught by 3 members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators along side his fellow classmates who also become great animators including Tim Burton and Brad Bird.
After education John Lasseter worked for Disney for a short time before getting fired because he was caught promoting computer animation as Disney have a passion for hand drawn animation. Lasseter then went to work for LucasArts who wanted and explored in the use of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) but in 1986 this part of LucasArts was sold to Steve Jobs who turned the company into Pixar. John put his CGI skills at work for Pixar and directed some of the best Disney Pixar movies everyone knows and loves.
Toy Story (1995)
A Bug's Life (1998)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Cars (2006)
Cars 2 (2011)
I have seen all these movies except cars 2 and I love them all. Pixar was the first animation studio to use CGI in 3D and make a full length feature movie from it. All the movies have a similar and obvious style to them and a Pixar movie can instantly be recognised. In the future I want to learn some aspects of 3D animation and Pixar is my inspiration to do so.
John Lasseter was inspired by Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Disney's Sword in the Stone to become an animator himself. Lasseter started his higher education for animation in Pepperdine University but left shortly after, after seeing a better opportunity to learn character animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Here he was taught by 3 members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators along side his fellow classmates who also become great animators including Tim Burton and Brad Bird.
After education John Lasseter worked for Disney for a short time before getting fired because he was caught promoting computer animation as Disney have a passion for hand drawn animation. Lasseter then went to work for LucasArts who wanted and explored in the use of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) but in 1986 this part of LucasArts was sold to Steve Jobs who turned the company into Pixar. John put his CGI skills at work for Pixar and directed some of the best Disney Pixar movies everyone knows and loves.
Toy Story (1995)
A Bug's Life (1998)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Cars (2006)
Cars 2 (2011)
I have seen all these movies except cars 2 and I love them all. Pixar was the first animation studio to use CGI in 3D and make a full length feature movie from it. All the movies have a similar and obvious style to them and a Pixar movie can instantly be recognised. In the future I want to learn some aspects of 3D animation and Pixar is my inspiration to do so.
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Tim Burton
I am a fan of the horror genre and if there is a opportunity to play a scary video game or watch a movie that falls in to this genre I take it. Tim Burton is a animator who likes to explore with the horror genre through his animated movies, his movies aren't exactly scary but the setting and atmosphere are eerie and dark. Because I am fascinated with Tim Burtons style I decided to research his past to becoming an animator.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burtons first animated movie that he wrote and produced was for Disney in 1993, it was a stop motion musical based on his imaginative world and characters called The Nightmare Before Christmas. The cartoon received positive reviews because of its stop motion, music and original story making $50 million as a box office success.
James and the Giant Peach
Tim Burton's next film came out in 1996 and it was a mixture of live action and stop motion footage. The movie was based on Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and it was nominated for academy award for best original musical.
Corpse Bride
Tim Burton's 3rd animated movie was called Corpse Bride and this stop motion animation brought out his unique style of the dark eerie setting he is so well known for. The movie was released in 2005 and it was Tim Burton's first full animated stop motion feature length film he had directed himself. Corpse Bride was Burton's interpretation on light and dark through a musical.
Frankenweenie
In 2012 Tim Burton brought out another stop motion feature length animation called Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie was remade from a short film Burton made in 1984 also called Frankenweenie, the idea came from a memory from Tim Burton's childhood when he was growing up with his own pet.
All of Tim Burton's animations are stop motion and he sticks with a constant theme and style of the setting and characters. I have seen Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie and these movies I enjoyed very much, the models and stop motion are very interesting to watch because I like to think about how they made it and analyse specific scenes. During my time looking at Tim Burton's work I have realised he is another animator that sticks with his own style with every project and I feel the need to do the same.
James and the Giant Peach
Tim Burton's next film came out in 1996 and it was a mixture of live action and stop motion footage. The movie was based on Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and it was nominated for academy award for best original musical.
Corpse Bride
Tim Burton's 3rd animated movie was called Corpse Bride and this stop motion animation brought out his unique style of the dark eerie setting he is so well known for. The movie was released in 2005 and it was Tim Burton's first full animated stop motion feature length film he had directed himself. Corpse Bride was Burton's interpretation on light and dark through a musical.
Frankenweenie
In 2012 Tim Burton brought out another stop motion feature length animation called Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie was remade from a short film Burton made in 1984 also called Frankenweenie, the idea came from a memory from Tim Burton's childhood when he was growing up with his own pet.
All of Tim Burton's animations are stop motion and he sticks with a constant theme and style of the setting and characters. I have seen Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie and these movies I enjoyed very much, the models and stop motion are very interesting to watch because I like to think about how they made it and analyse specific scenes. During my time looking at Tim Burton's work I have realised he is another animator that sticks with his own style with every project and I feel the need to do the same.
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Hayao Miyazaki
I am very interested in Japanese cartoons and I spend some of my free time watching various series so I decided to do some research on a animator named Hayao Miyazaki who created the most popular feature length Japanese animations.
Hayao Miyazaki directed his first animated movie in 1978 called The Castle of Cagliostro and it won the excitement of film critics all over the world and it was heard that Steven Spielberg himself said the car chase featured in the movie was the best he had ever seen. Ten years later 1988 wasn't until his studio (Studio Ghibli) was recognised world wide thanks to his next movie My Neighbour Totoro. In 1997 the Studio Ghibli team brought out another animated movie named Princess Mononoke and this time breaking all of box office records and made $150 million in Japan. The next movie released by Studio Ghibli in 2001 was called Spirited Away making a total of $250 million and also winning the golden bear at the 2002 Berlin film festival. The Studio Ghibli team also made a ton of other animated movies in between these master pieces including: Castle in the Sky (1986), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Porco Rosso (1992), Whisper of the Heart (1995) and many more. Miyazaki more recent cartoons have also become very popular in the UK and the US as well as in Japan and these include: Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), From up on Poppy Hill and again many more.
The Castle of Cagliostro
My Neighbour Totoro
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Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
I have watched Studio Ghibli movies My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo and I loved every second of them. The movies all follow a similar style and when you see any footage from these movies you know instantly that it is work from the Studio Ghibli team. The animations are very powerful and offer a unique experience that no other animators can, to me these movies are a massive inspiration to who I aspire to be and encourages me to follow the path of an animator.
Hayao Miyazaki directed his first animated movie in 1978 called The Castle of Cagliostro and it won the excitement of film critics all over the world and it was heard that Steven Spielberg himself said the car chase featured in the movie was the best he had ever seen. Ten years later 1988 wasn't until his studio (Studio Ghibli) was recognised world wide thanks to his next movie My Neighbour Totoro. In 1997 the Studio Ghibli team brought out another animated movie named Princess Mononoke and this time breaking all of box office records and made $150 million in Japan. The next movie released by Studio Ghibli in 2001 was called Spirited Away making a total of $250 million and also winning the golden bear at the 2002 Berlin film festival. The Studio Ghibli team also made a ton of other animated movies in between these master pieces including: Castle in the Sky (1986), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Porco Rosso (1992), Whisper of the Heart (1995) and many more. Miyazaki more recent cartoons have also become very popular in the UK and the US as well as in Japan and these include: Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), From up on Poppy Hill and again many more.
The Castle of Cagliostro
My Neighbour Totoro
<
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
I have watched Studio Ghibli movies My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo and I loved every second of them. The movies all follow a similar style and when you see any footage from these movies you know instantly that it is work from the Studio Ghibli team. The animations are very powerful and offer a unique experience that no other animators can, to me these movies are a massive inspiration to who I aspire to be and encourages me to follow the path of an animator.
Monday, 2 May 2016
Generating Ideas
I did some further research into creative thinking and techniques for generating ideas. I found a number of different ways that I want to try during my next project or brief.
Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping I would say is the most popular out of these six techniques of brainstorming ideas. I have used mind mapping in the past but I have not being a big fan of it but from this video and the other five techniques I think I will use mind mapping more often. Mind mapping involves taking the word of the topic and then branching off it coming up with other subjects that relate. This breaks down the topic hopefully creating a different view and approach which helps realising something that couldn't be seen before.
Right Braining
This technique interested me the most because I find myself to be a visual learner and I think it would be a fun way to come up with ideas. Drawing incomplete images that relate to a chosen topic and then redrawing theses images so that they merge together can trigger an idea as again something might be seen that wasn't obvious before.
Provocative Actions
This is also an interesting method for generating ideas. Maybe taking a scene relating to a topic or subject and do something that a normal person wouldn't do like use a object in a wrong way or differently. Like in the video turning all the chairs in a dining room upside down could spark an idea because this wouldn't be seen on a daily basis because this isn't how chairs are used. Also a out the box comment could be made which causes people to start thinking differently like What would happen if fish could build?
Break and Build
This technique doesn't really appeal to me but I will try it. By taking a general idea it can be broken down into more detailed pieces of information or it can be built up to a more simple viewpoint. This is another method of breaking down information or pulling key points to approach something differently.
Pessimist vs Optimist
I would like to try this because it does sound like a good idea. Two people take a role each, one person is the negative person who says they can't and the other person is positive and comes up with a solution on the top of his head until they come up with a solution. Starting with a statement the pessimist person starts with why it can't be done and then the optimistic person answers with a solution to the problem.
Randomness
This method also sees like a fun productive one. Taking a general topic and choosing a random object. Describe the random object in every way an then apply the descriptions to the topic so that it relates and creates something that triggers an idea.
I now have 6 new methods to try and experiment with to generate new ideas and hopefully at least one of these will be the best one I can use over and over again in the future.
Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping I would say is the most popular out of these six techniques of brainstorming ideas. I have used mind mapping in the past but I have not being a big fan of it but from this video and the other five techniques I think I will use mind mapping more often. Mind mapping involves taking the word of the topic and then branching off it coming up with other subjects that relate. This breaks down the topic hopefully creating a different view and approach which helps realising something that couldn't be seen before.
Right Braining
This technique interested me the most because I find myself to be a visual learner and I think it would be a fun way to come up with ideas. Drawing incomplete images that relate to a chosen topic and then redrawing theses images so that they merge together can trigger an idea as again something might be seen that wasn't obvious before.
Provocative Actions
This is also an interesting method for generating ideas. Maybe taking a scene relating to a topic or subject and do something that a normal person wouldn't do like use a object in a wrong way or differently. Like in the video turning all the chairs in a dining room upside down could spark an idea because this wouldn't be seen on a daily basis because this isn't how chairs are used. Also a out the box comment could be made which causes people to start thinking differently like What would happen if fish could build?
Break and Build
This technique doesn't really appeal to me but I will try it. By taking a general idea it can be broken down into more detailed pieces of information or it can be built up to a more simple viewpoint. This is another method of breaking down information or pulling key points to approach something differently.
Pessimist vs Optimist
I would like to try this because it does sound like a good idea. Two people take a role each, one person is the negative person who says they can't and the other person is positive and comes up with a solution on the top of his head until they come up with a solution. Starting with a statement the pessimist person starts with why it can't be done and then the optimistic person answers with a solution to the problem.
Randomness
This method also sees like a fun productive one. Taking a general topic and choosing a random object. Describe the random object in every way an then apply the descriptions to the topic so that it relates and creates something that triggers an idea.
I now have 6 new methods to try and experiment with to generate new ideas and hopefully at least one of these will be the best one I can use over and over again in the future.
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