Author: Bobbi Ho

I thought everyone did a really good job with all their paper cutout animations. A lot of unique and unexpected storylines. I thought it was funny that a lot of the groups had a similar camera setups, using the glass tables in the living room of Gold Coast. Other groups who don’t live at Gold Coast had to be a little more creative with what they had. Some groups were more elaborate with their projects, such through using traditional ink for their details to using after effects and filters to further enhance the storytelling of their scene. The process pictures shown in the presentation for each group were all different, showing how different each animation was with their pre production. It was nice to see various types of storylines. There was horror, romance, and comedy, getting a taste of different genres. Overall Great Job to all the group projects!

After presentations, we were shown a film about Norman Mclaren and basically a run down of how he came up with his animations and the pre production behind them. Seeing the way he animated directly on the film was interesting. I can see how effective it can be. You can see all the drawings previously at once, and you just have to move the film up and down to add more drawings.

A lot of the experimental artists such as Marry Ellen Brute, Len Lye, and Norman Mclaren, created films that resembled music videos. Following the beat of the rhythm gave the abstract pieces of their films, a narrative story, just as the professor had stated at the beginning of the class. Although they were intended as abstract pieces, the audience is able to follow along with what is happening throughout the scene.

My favorite film shown in class, was Rainbow Dance (1936) by Len Lye. The music was very funky, and the animation matched it perfectly with the different dance moves, and colors flying across the screen. It is a big contrast from his first animated experimental black and white film, Tusalava (1929). Which had no color and only used abstract, germ-like figures. In all honestly, made me very uncomfortable to watch.

Class 09 went over the next project, Pixels. When first hearing about the project, I had assumed it was going to be creating works in pixel form, as in cube by cube. My first thought was of those artists who use post-its to create large pixel art. Watching Norman Mclaren’s Neighbors (1952), really confused me. It wasn’t till the end of the film, when I found out that it was a form of pixel animation. The video itself, made me dumbfounded with the ending, it was very unexpected. Seeing more examples of other projects, made me see that Pixel art, is no different from the other project assignments we had done in the past. The only difference is that people are apart of the animation.

I am a big fan of Walt Disney and the Disney Company as a whole, so finding out that we were going to be covering it as the topic for class, was really exciting for me. I did a lot of papers on Walt Disney in my elementary school days. Walt Disney was the reason that I had gotten into animation. I had watched Walt Before Mickey (2015) and learned a lot about his financial struggles that he had faced getting into animation, and it was no surprise that we talked about it in class. It’s quite inspirational, from nothing, to following his dreams and passion, Walt Disney was able to go from the grounds up to creating one of the most renowned companies in the world. Seeing the development of the first “golden year” animations to what Disney is today, is such a milestone. 2D propaganda to 3D animations and simulations, Disney has come a long way, with how he ran his company in a small cramped room with a few animators, to a large company that basically runs the animation industry.

Side Note: I thought it showed commitment when they had hired the child actress of Alice in Wonderland, to move from Kansas City to Los Angeles, to continue their project.

The Early Years of Animation around the 1920’s, changed the face of characters to more round-about cartoons, focusing on character development and facial expressions. Such as characters like “Felix the Cat”, “Betty Boop”, “Bimbo the Dog”, and “Koko the Clown”. Compared to the use of realistic human-like animated characters, first experimented by Emile Reynaud, taught in the class previously. The characters are amusing to watch as they defy the laws of reality. There is always an unexpected turn of events that keeps the audience entranced.

While learning about the process, and the different artists invested into cutout animations, it gave me a sense of respect for them. The amount of time and precision it takes to cut out each frame, can be assumed as time consuming and requires a lot of patience. Watching Lotte Reiniger’s Prince Achmed (1926), was inspiring. Her film was detailed and were all black cutouts, which can become tricky when trying to best express the intended action, without them resembling like a blob. She changed the game for women in the industry, becoming a stepping stone for women today.

As future animators, we have to appreciate and thank the inventors of the Phenakistoscope, Zootrope, and the Praxinoscope. The idea of hand drawing frame by frame actions to create a moving picture was evolutionary. With the advancement of technology and what we now know about animation, cannot be compared to the first animators who had to discover different techniques to create such experimental media. Learning about the different animation techniques such as the stop trick, the lightning sketches, or the substitution trick was interesting. Although I personally didn’t find it as interesting as watching the short films about animated cartoons, I still appreciated the patience it would’ve taken for the actors and the artist themselves to create such a time consuming, precise entertainment. It had never occurred to me, before learning about these animated techniques, how they originally came to be.

Taking my first animation class, I can fully appreciate the concept of using pegs and cels. It makes animating a lot easier and manageable. The process of hand drawing each frame is time consuming and the use of pegs and cels, helped ease the process a little bit, although it was still time consuming.