Author: Bobbi Ho

I learned a lot about different featured artists and different techniques to animation that I didn’t really think much about before this class. I enjoyed all the films we watched and learned about in class, even the weird and disturbing ones. Each one showed me the different concepts and themes that different artists can create. There was a stretch of animation development that we covered in this course. From watching a lot of stop motion to ending the quarter with advances such as computer animation. Of course, I think I most enjoyed the playful silly animations over the ones about eating people or of bugs. The course became even more engaging with the group projects to create our own stop motion. It really gave me the hindsight of how tedious and time consuming stop motion really is.

Overall, I want to thank Professor Jake, for showing us so many different animations, stretching from various mediums. Hopefully I can take what I’ve learned in this class and can apply it to future animations I may partake in.

The slides weren’t in dropbox so my info of digital animation is based off of memory. We had talked a lot about the advances of animation from traditional art to computer animated art, the use of technology to create the new wave of animation. I remember the professor showing us snippets of pixar and disney short films, especially Luxo Jr.(1986) because it is such an iconic short film of the pixar studios, it being part of their logo. I also remember listening about Toy Story(1995), and about the director, John Lasseter who first introduced computer animated films.

I recently wrote a math research paper about the relation between geometry and animation. I used Pixar studios as a prime source and example. Ed Catmull, who I believe we mentioned in class, created the Catmull’s Clark Algorithm that allowed modelers and animators to create curves on 3D surfaces, that is now applied as the basis of animation today. Not only was he the previous Pixar Studio’s President, but he was also a retired computer scientist, hence the algorithm that changed the playing field. The video that was hosted by Tony DeRose, a senior scientist at Pixar Studios, explains how this algorithm was applied to character models such as Geri from Geri’s Game (1997).

Sheila M. Sophian. Watching her film was very hard and heavy to the heart. The documentary was very raw and real, touching upon the issues of the justice system in the U.S. It’s hard to hear the hardships and evils that happens in a system that is suppose to bring evil to light. Sophian exposes the truth and I suppose it’s just really hard to watch and listen to. A corrupt justice and social system that brings in the wrong people during the wrong time. I had just finish watching all the seasons to Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which talks about the good the police do to society. So, watching a playful fun sitcom about the justice system to watching a heavy hard-hitting documentary of the injustice of the justice system, is such a big contrast.

All the featured films presented in class was really heavy content. All had a story or message to address, not typical ones that we’ve addressed so far in class. When one imagines the term “animation”, we think of cartoons, bouncy characters and what not. Directing away from some animations, such as the ones presented, to be heavy political and social problems that should be addressed. I’m talking about A is for Autism(1992) by Tim Webb, I Met the Walrus (2007) by Josh Raskin, and Ryan (2004) by Chris Landreth. I thought they were very different to the usual films we’ve watched in the past classes. A is for Autism and I Met the Walrus was really interesting in the fact the artists used the aids of children to produce these films. An outlook from a child, that could be so innocent and yet address the real problems that is faced.

Of course there were some films that were less heavy and were more playful. I quite enjoyed Subconscious Password by Chris Landreth. I thought the whole concept of the film was relatable. I as the audience can put myself in his shoes, where there was a time where i don’t remember people’s names on a daily. Although my thought process is not as complex or vibrant as the artist’s, i can see the amusement behind them.

I never really gotten invested into watching anime, and that would be my only recollection of Japanese animation. I’ve watched a few anime’s out of boredom, but other than that I never got too invested like my other fellow animators. I did watch a few of the Studio Ghibli films because my family had them on tape, and really liked the storyline behind them. I especially like the cute characters in each of the films. Anime then became a huge social euphoria today to watch anime. All my friends are very invested in anime, purchasing merchandise, going to anime conventions, you don’t have to be an animator to really appreciate the art behind it.

The featured films shown in class today were familiar when it came to recognizing the characters, such as Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. I’ve seen him plenty of times when I was younger, as figurines or snippets of the show. It was nice to see the variety of animations from japan other than anime, such as Mt. Head (2002) Koji Yamamur or The Demon (1972) Kihachiro Kawamoto. Mt. Head was probably my favorite of the films shown in class because of the unique camera angles that was shown, as well as the storyline in general was really trippy and entertaining. From the start, the audience really doesn’t know where the story will end.

Good Job everyone with finishing fun and interesting pixilation films! All of them were entertaining and different from the last project. It was also nice to work and see other groups work with new people, getting a larger diversity within each group. It was especially amusing to see Professor Jake in one of the projects as a wanted man/alien? Our group had actually thought to mention the Professor as a blooper ending scene, but we had ran out of momentum and energy to even add that while shooting our last shot. It was a bigger coincidence when our project was very similar to another groups project, although both post productions were very different in editing and audio choice. The concepts were very similar, but nonetheless, different films.

The featured films shown today were (in my opinion) a little slow, at a pace that replicated the traditional Japanese Geisha dances or any traditional Japanese performance. It shows a huge development gap from the historical Japanese animations to the modern-day well known animes. Popular animes nowadays are fast paced and action packed. The featured films are more in resemblance to the Studio Ghibli films, when it comes to story telling and ambiance.

I was absent for class 14 and had to review the class slides on my own time. Watching the different films made from Chinese Animators showed a huge difference between their works and works from the featured artists from previous classes. Based on observations of the films, you can see that the characters are drawn with round, organic lines. A lot of the characters are also inspired by animals and or are based on fictional/spiritual stories. There is a basis of royalty and societal hierarchy within the films that drives the story line of a lot their animations. I really like the different mediums that were shown in the slides, showing the experimental sides of Chinese animations. There was a variety of techniques using ink, origami, rotoscope, to even cut out animation.

Since learning about stop motion animation and actually working on stop motion animation projects, i see stop motion animations quite often. From social media influencers that I follow to ads. It never stuck out to me how often stop motion is used for projects outside of films like Caroline and Chicken Run (my automatic thought to “stopmotion”).

The featured artists such as Hermina Trylova and Jan Svankmajer, use an interesting combination of stop motion and live action. In a way, exemplifying pixel animation. There is a nice transition and interaction between the puppet toys used in Hermina Trylova and Frantisek Sadek’s Vzpoura hracek (Revolt of the Toys). The storyline was kind of cute in a playful childish way. Where as in Jan Svankmajer’s Dimension’s of Dialogue (1982) and Food (1992) were extremely uncomfortable. It was a live action film while using the media of clay as a factor to the stop motion aspect. The surrealist artist really lives by his reputation ” Famous for his distinctive stop-motion technique, and ability to create surreal, nightmarish, and somehow funny pictures”

I also see a repeating pattern of the use of bugs in animations such as Ferda Mravenec (Ferda the Ant) (Hermina Tyrlova, 1944； 1941 filmed) from one of the featured artists presented in class, as well as previous classes in films such as The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) Ladislaw Starewicz. I don’t like bugs at all, and watching these reminds me of The Bugs Life from Disney Studios.

Films like The Nose (1963) by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker or The Night on Bald Mountain by Alexander Alexeieff, use the pinscreens technique. A method of animation that uses small pin tubes that are adjustable to a board, in order to create images. It is the same pin board to the mini toy that you can find at Walmart’s in the States. The toys you use to press against your brother’s face out of pure amusement. I didn’t think that the origins of that the toy could be used to create animations such as these. The use of the adjustable pins allows the artist to change the length of the pins, coming out of the board, creating a 3D effect. Not only were the characters 3D like, the artists created smooth transitions between scenes, that I can really appreciate. The scenes itself were not as smooth, and sometimes hard to make out because of the constant moving black and white images, but the transition from one scene to another was surprisingly smooth.

My favorite film featured in class 12 was The Killing of the Egg (1977) by Paul Driessen who had also worked on the Yellow Submarine (1968) by George Dunning. I thought it was very cute in that ironic sense. The style of the film reminds me of a comic book style, or that of the small daily funny comic strips featured in newspapers. It was short and had a funny ending punchline.

Cameron and I had used small toys for our first stop motion project. We found some difficulties when it came to moving the different figures, and holding them in place to keep the position we wanted them to stay in. Watching the featured artist’s works in class was a painful reminder of how difficult it was to use figurines. However, it was 1000xs worse because compared to our film, which was only a few seconds long, films like The Cameraman’s Revenge was minutes long.

This film by Ladislaw Starewicz made me really uncomfortable just because the characters were bugs. I absolutely despise bugs, and don’t understand their existence. The storyline itself was so scandalous, with the adultery and a very curious cameraman. It makes you wonder if the little creatures on the ground really live life on the edge in that way.

The Mascot (Puppy Love) by Ladislaw Starewicz was impressive with the character acting. It was clearly displayed and easy to understand what each figure/character was trying to show.

I had also really liked Screenplay by Barry Purvis. The stop motion animation was so smooth, with the different scene transitions and the motion of the narrators hand. I had practice Geisha dancing when I was younger, and watched a lot of various performances that told stories through dance, so watching this film was really entertaining and interesting to me. Although, I personally believed the ending was kind of unnecessary.

I was absent from Class08, and didn’t get to learn more about UPA in class. I searched up the company and John Hubleys outside of the presentation pdf. It’s interesting to learn that a company that was created from a strike against Disney, became successful. The examples shown in the slides, show a lot of involvement with sponsorships and collaborations with other companies, which I can assume helped advertise and get their name out into the industry. The introduction of Mr. Magoo, showed a transition from more realistic features, to more abstract shapely figures and background scenes. I get a Pink Panther impression when watching some of their works

I really enjoyed watching Rooty Toot Toot, which I think I’ve seen before this class. The background music is catchy and the storyline is very silly and entertaining. The audio really suits the style of the animation, and adds to the entertainment of the whole film in general. The use of colour to show the different moods, such as the lawyer who was killed at the end who changed colours from white to blue to show death is quite clever. I also think the way they coloured the characters was clever, some were outlined with a hard black edge but some were not, which effectively showed the action of the characters.