Research on the 'Uncanny Valley Theory;

Timeline of key points in animation history

We have been asked to develop a time line to show key points in the progression of animation, and show examples of films and why they revolutionised the industry for the better, and worse. 

'Little Nemo' - 1911

1911 - Little Nemo: During the birth of the motion picture era, artists discovered ways to create the illusion of movement, by displaying their illustrations image by image, much like the birth of film. One of these artists was Winsor McCay, who was not the first ever person to make an animation, but was one of the first to become mainstream from his work, and to really kickstart the animation revolution, and without his work and others, I feel animation would not what it is now.

'Little Red Riding Hood - 1922' 

1922 - Disney Presents: Little Red Riding Hood: Disneys rendition of the story 'Little Red Riding Hood' was one of the first ever productions to come from the Walt Disney Studio, and is often considered as Disney's first attempt at animated story telling. What is interesting with this film, is that it was considered to have been lost for many years, and it wasn't until 1998 it had been found in Briton in a London film library. The film was restored for archive, and has since been re released on DVD. The film is 6 minutes long, and is silent.
  

'Jason and the Argonauts - 1963'

1963 - Jason and the Argonauts: During the 1960s, movie developers found it increasingly harder and harder to get their ideas on to the big screen, and actually make it look decent. The infamous ‘skeleton scene’ in Jason and the Argonauts did, and still looks as impressive as ever, and is a fine example of why stop motion animation ages better than CGI animation. Still to this day, scenes such as this and many more from this era can still make people surprised, and somewhat still in suspense because of the quality and time taken to perfect such scenes. 

'Toy Story - 1995'

1995 - Toy Story: Toy story was the first CGI feature film ever made. It was released by Disney and Pixar, and really set a standard for future films, and created a genre of its own. It created a brand new platform to animate with, and opened the door for both copycat studios, and pixar to create films they'd never have imaged possible 5 years + before. Toys were the main focus, as at the time they were far easier to render and much quicker to model. They could also use the characters very easily for merchandise, which in Disneys eyes was 'big win' but they didn't have to worry about that, because when Toy Story premiered back in 1995, it was at the cinema for literally months, gaining the attention of nearly everyone. It was new, fresh and it felt like the future, and made Disney a hell of a lot of money. Some people may feel that the CGI revolution killed animation, and made traditional hand drawn and stop motion forms redundant, but personally I feel it did the opposite. It attracted much larger groups of people to enjoy animation, and to see it for what it really is. 

'Avatar - 2009'

2009 - Avatar: Avatar was a breakthrough in computer visuals, and introduced a huge majority of the world to stereoscopic 3D. Avatar set the standard for both 3D and CG quality, along with strong story making it a memorable and highly credited film. It also created a lot of media buzz, and sky rocketed in movie charts week after week, and managed to maintain a place in most major cinemas for months, eventually becoming the highest grossing film of all time. 

Rotoscoping development

I decided to give the animation a very rough feel.

We have started to look in to rotoscoping and how big a part it plays in animation. Not only have we researched different examples of rotoscoping, but we are developing our own short film based on a video portrait recording we captured recently. I will update the blog accordingly to my progress in development, but as it stands, here is where I am. 

Mise en scène writeup - Crooked Rot: Short Film.

The short film Crooked Rot can only be best described as an experimental short film, combining several different techniques of both animation and effects, to bring together a very unsettling and disturbing piece.

David Firth is often known for his dark approach on his work, and this is by no means lost in Crooked Rot, as this was his first stop motion animation, which enabled him to bring a lot more to his films than his previous 'cell animation' work.

The film begins by showing off some pretty stunning light effects, followed by some eerie opening titles. When the film begins, we see what appears to be a skulls head with a tube inserted in to the back of it, in a dark room, with a halo spinning around. It is obvious that this is the main focus on the shot, and that David Firth wants to welcome you to his unsettling world of weirdness.

The shot continues and comes to a pan across what appears to be a table, with more skulls, and prop hands sitting still, with the halo moving about quickly. Then we start to see some very interesting uses of stop motion animation.

It is obvious that the centre of attention objects are lit up in a dark environment, to give an 'on edge' feel to it, and the use of different camera lenses and different shots, make the film constantly moving about, almost like a jagged feel to it.

David firth has also placed some very unusual, and again unsettling music to work alongside the video, to help build the somewhat disturbing mise en scene. He also uses clever use of Foley, and sound effects to bring the piece to life. 

The film doesn't have any story, plot or characters (to my knowledge) and to me, comes across as an experimental horror animation, combining different effects and different sources of animation, but heavily relying on stop frame.

As far as these sort of films go, it achieved everything it wanted to. It causes a very disturbing atmosphere, and received positive feedback from viewers.

In conclusion, this film's mise en scene clearly portrays a freighting chain of effects, video, sounds and music, and I thought this would be a brilliant piece to talk about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjny4qNy24

Caricature Research

We have been researching different uses of character caricature, and what uses it can have on media, politics and entertainment. We looked at several different examples, including Napoleon taking a slice of the globe, which is a very famous piece of art. It's funny to see how artists can transform someone's face so much, but keep all their characteristics!