Monday, 20 February 2017

Reading- Animation and Authorship WELLS

Wells states how genre and authorship are the language of animation, the conditions, purpose - who makes it, the production and the process.
this sense of auteurism is created, suggesting animation is a form of art, a form of expression-- Well's goes on to express how animation is the most important art from of the 21st century.

Wells highlights how this visual culture has been dismissed as childs entertainment and only in recent years has been recognised as art.

This reading has highlighted for me the importance of aesthetic and that just drawing characters does not make a successful animation, it is in the movement and sequence of the piece that makes a beautiful animation.-- the quality of the sequence is more important than the quality of the images
art of animated film is in the action

Blair -- animation is a vast and virtually unexplored art form

A medium of universal expression embraced across the globe

Wells talks of the disney model as very influencial in the animation world-- some go lengths to imitate the philosophy and aesthetic of the disney model whilst others defer from this style

some of the most influential studios to look at include FLEISCHER, WARNER BROS AND MGM

"the process of drawing and photographing a character- a person, an animal or an inanimate object - in successive positions to create lifelike movement


STAGES OF ANIMATION

CONCEPT -story
TREATMENT- plot and script
VISUALISATION- exploratory sketching 
RESEARCH- character/prop design/sound + music/ animatic 
ANIMATION
AUDIO/SOUND- sync 
TITLE + CREDITS


Some initial ideas for the brief

project brief:
Select a historical, environmental, cultural or economic event and investigate its cause and effect. Devise an animated story that relays the human impact that your chosen event has had.

IDEA 1:

the death of David Bowie--- world renowned aritst. idol, icon. Shocked the world. The release of his final album leading up to his death and, the effect on his fan base, effect on music
* themes around the concept of mortality
* hidden messages in final album
* at root of this idea is death (but not sad or tragic)
* maybe some darker elements explored through aesthetic
*if you are famous can you ever truly die?


IDEA 2:

2015 Refugee crisis --- Syrian crisis
the concept of Home? the rejection on hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge in Europe, strikes up debate of whether we have a birth right to the country we were born in?
scapegoating people for terrorism as escape from responsibility as people to look after fellow humans
dehumanising refugees/ not human --so deserve less???

IDEA 3:

Terrorism-- capitalist terrorism
media put attention on idea of terrorist/ism in head of the public-- stereotypical
but terrorists reside within capitalism----RUPERT MURDOC
wolf in sheep's clothing, control over the media control over the public mind

MISE EN SCENE AND AESTHETIC

Today's presentation and slides helped me to develop a clear understanding of aesthetic and the importance of this. esp. in relation to concept, theme, context

visuals have to explore the plot/idea fully. for example if the narrative has dark + cynical tones, this should be easily identified within aesthetic via mise en scene -- elements such as low lighting, lots of shadows, crooked design and bizarre aloof/alienated characters

This has made me think about keeping my main narrative/plot ideas as simple as possible and to use visual and sound elements to express the narrative further.

We watched Len Lye's 'Free Radicals'. I liked the scratchy and rough aesthetic the colour scheme, text and movement within the animation, it worked well in conjunction with the sound.
I would like to research Len Lye's work further in the future, during this project -- I really admired the dark visual philosophy in his works.


Something I need to start considering is my audience and how I am going to present my narrative through aesthetic to said audience.

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

What is animation??

- the most important pictorial form of the 20th century
-it is an ART, an AESTHETIC, an APPROACH
-informs any aspects of visual culture e.g commercial advertising, film, web cartoons -- mass produced in today society for large audience, wide target audience


-commercial
-technological part of it

Americas influence on animation; determined popular style, method, imperative

animation and CGI, more about showcase than narrative often

norman mclaren
daniel greaves