ANIM223 – HISTORY OF ANIMATION – FALL 2019

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.

One of the first cut out animation examples I’ve ever seen was charlie and lola when I was a child. Cut out animation is interesting because It’s essentially a precursor to digital puppet animation. even the previous show I mentioned switched to digital puppet animation most likely to cut costs and make the animators job easier. The way that characters move in that style feels different from any other type of animation. Another example is Prince Achmed by Lotte Reingner. The whole animation is comprised of black silhouettes on colored backgrounds. Despite the lack of facial expression and being made of just paper the characters are able to properly articulate themselves. Emotions are clearly conveyed through precise posing and gesturing. The narration through text also helps the viewer understand what’s going on. The backgrounds are vibrant and give the setting it’s own personality. It’s a work that’s ahead of it’s time and reminds me of another film that is about arabian folktales. It’s a movie called “1001 Nights”. Although It’s an anime that’s hand drawn from the 70s they both retain a similar energy.

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.

The influence that Felix the cat had on media as a whole was astronomical. Most cartoon characters tried to imitate him such as the titular Oswald the rabbit and early mickey mouse. They were essentially just clones of Felix the cat. They were all far more raunchier than our idea of what Mickey used to be like. Mickey used to smoke, drink, lie, cheat and steal same as Felix. The characters acted more like how actual people act now than the beloved mascots that they are represented as today. Once the Hayes code was passed attributes such as the ones expressed by Felix, older mickey and basically all of the Fleisher’s creations had to be put on hold. It’s kinda tragic because Disney wasn’t really known for it’s raunchiness even back then so the adjustment to this new dogma was pretty easy but this law directly ruined cartoons like Betty Boop’s chances of ever being on the same level of success. One has to wonder how history could have been different if that code was never in place. Personally I think it would have led to the public to take animation more seriously in the west and allow cartoons to tackle heavier themes more often than once in awhile.

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.

These devices were the first forms of animation we had as human beings. It’s astounding how humanity came up with a method of animation that early int time. Although the first camera was invented before in 1914 the phenakistoscope came a few decades later and doesn’t utilize the camera. In some ways the average phenakistoscope follows pretty basic animation principles. Not in terms of squash and stretch necessarily but in other interesting ways. Some examples would be solid drawing, arc, timing and staging. Before we even understood this medium at all the fact that that is what we were able to accomplish is extraordinary. This was just meant to be a child’s toy but over the course of two centuries blossomed into an art form and eventually into an actual industry. The stigma of animation being just for children can probably be traced back farther than Disney’s domination of 2d content in the early 40s.

Octocat has a special place in my heart. Being about 8 or so when youtube first started I feel the animation is a reflection of an earlier age of the internet where things were more simple. Some may view octocat as ugly, crude, indescribable and weird but It reminds me when independent animation used to rule the entirety of youtube as a platform. Even the alias of the creator is of 13 year old randy peters. He was much older than that when he made them but it’s truly a testement to how great youtube animation used to be. One of if not my favorite aspects of Octocat is it’s spontaneity. One moment octocat will be just walking along and the next moment he’s in space. I truly believe that octocat is part of a movement in the mid to late 2000s of independent animators to broadcast their ideas without studio interference, budget or any limitations other than their own imaginations and that’s part of what makes octocat special.

In class 9 , we studied a new word called “pixilation animation” which is one kind of animation that created by live actors and stop motion.

During the class ,we watched a couple pixilation animation which very interesting and some of them combined video game element into the animation.Those animation are very inspiring ,especially the one which applied the elements of “Mario Kart”. Although the team didn’t use real racing cares to create this animation, the movement of the actors and audio recreated the scene of the original game.

Here I would like to share another pixilation animation which is created by a few Japanese high school student almost 10 years ago. I am amazed by their wonderful camare moment and the plot. I can’t believe how talented they are that they were only a high student when they created this video. And it is also a goog reference for our next project.