Pre-quarter assignment

Posted on by hazelyin

Since it is hard for me to pick an all-time favourite artist, I would like to introduce you guys one of my current favourite followed on Instagram called “Little Thunder”. The user name on IG is ”littlethunder”.

She is a popular local illustrator and she often does 2D animation or comic. Sometime you can see her work in commercial advertisement  and crossover functions. For example, she cooperated with an coffee bar and roll out a beautiful design of bottle coffee last year.

She mainly work with water color and ink with her amazing skills. I feel like that her style is kind of like a mixture of Japanese manga style and some traditional Chinese element which is very unique, elegant and gorgeous. Her life drawings always perfectly capture the beauty of female. Sexy but not filthy.

I admire her a lot and consider her as one of the best artist in Hong Kong. She has just published her own comic and art books in Japan and Taiwan. Since she is born and raised in Hong Kong, which is also known as a cultural desert, it must be a hardship to develop such a big achievement. I hope I can polish my skills and succeed just like her in the future.

Pre-Quarter Assignment

Posted on by victoriacourchesne

Goro Fujita

For this Pre-Quarter I am going against the grain by selecting one of my favorite artists currently instead of “all-time”. Goro Fujita has recently in the past year become someone who inspires me every day to create art. His art in the creative VR platform Quill manages to escape the limitations of the screen and impact viewers on a global scale. His scenes usually have a since of wonder and beauty crafted into them with each brushstroke. He is a self-claimed illustrator and art director, but he is most known for his revolutionary work in Quill and being one of the program’s first pioneer artist’s.  Since the creative platform is in it’s infancy, Goro has acted as a mentor for all who are trying to learn the program as he gives many free tutorials online along with livestreaming his work in process videos. He is one of my favorite artists because through determination and will, by practicing every day, he has become a great artist and chose to share what he learned with others.

-Victoria Courchesne

Check out his work here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/virtual.animation/

https://twitter.com/gorosart/status/1157040847050936320

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbTQ4StJhp1RDisqUTuJSZg

Pre-quarter Assignment

Posted on by Jiawen Tan

My favorite illustrator is Wlop from China. Wlop studied information engineering in university. He learned digital art by himself without any foundation or guidance. He spent a lot of time practicing painting, just to express the world he imagined. Because he has always regarded painting as a hobby, his style of work is unrestrained and does not need to cater to other people’s opinions, which means that he can express himself better.

Wlop’s most famous work is Ghost Blade. I like the wild brush strokes and real colors in his works, as well as the magical world he created. I think his illustrations are not very elaborate, but full of personal style, which is the realm I yearn for. I hope I can create works with my own unique style just like him.

Pre-quarter Assignment

Posted on by Eunhae Mary Park

My favorite animator who is Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a Japanese animation film director best known for his works at Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded in 1985 with Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. His large body of works each contain several, but different messages that concern the world. These themes include nuclear power, the environment, war, morality, friendship, family, and self-identity. Miyazaki’s films are consistently made for children and a large body of those films portray young girl as the main character and hero. Among those works is Miyazaki’s representative film, Spirited Away, 2001. Spirited Away shows the journey of a young girl who feels like she has lost everything to find herself and protect the people important to her. Spirited Away is seen to be one of the greatest movies of the 21st century.

Eunhae Mary Park

Pre-Quarter Assignment

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

Ami Yamato is an animator on YouTube who I’ve been watching for about 1 year now. She does 3d animation and a running gag in her video comment section is that she is the animation and yet neither she nor her subscribers acknowledge it. Ami is Japanese and lives in London where she produces parodies of her favorite movies and TV shows. Some of these parodies include Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and Star Wars.

Ami’s ability to entertain is what really inspires me. I have never seen Star Wars, yet each of her videos based on those movies always has me laughing and wanting more. She only uploads once every two months, but that is due to the dedicated time she puts into animating, compositing, and editing each creation. Ami Yamato has also done a wonderful job of making her character “Ami” a likeable and relatable personality, something I will strive to do with my future animations.

Sydney McPherson

Pre-Quarter Assignment

Posted on by Bobbi Ho

As of right now, my favorite animator is both a short film animator and illustrator, based in South Korea, named Puuung. I found her as I was browsing social media, and immediately fell in love with her cute short and relatable films. Although short and quite simple, the message she tries to display is clear and anyone watching can’t help but say “Aww”.

She works in 2D and her whole production is very simple, but as a new animator, still learning the basics, I felt very inspired. That something simple as this can be created and yet still send the intended message and lesson across in the clearest way.

Pre-Quarter Assignment

Posted on by Sammy Liu

My most recent favourite animator is Glen Keane, who was introduced by professor last quarter. Keane is one of Disney’s foremost lead character animators, having been a Supervising Animator for many classics such as; The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan.

The fluidity and swiftness of his mark-making seen in his animated shorts, such as Naphtali and Duet is definitely one of the reasons to why I adore his work. It’s sketchiness upon dynamic gestures gives his characters depth and life.

As well as Keane’s visible work, I absolutely love hearing his values and rooting stories that lead him to everything that he’s done; e.g. how his father was a massive inspiration for him throughout his life, or the first moment he saw his new-born daughter. It is very goose-bump-rising to hear how he put all of these very human experiences onto paper, into the characters, and to his audience to give everyone something very relatable and intimate.

Pre-Quarter Assignment

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

My favorite animator is Hayao Miyazaki, who is well-known for his works as the animation director in Studio Ghibli. His works have inspired me to pursue 2D animation. When he started out as an animator, it was from the 1960s till the 80s and the animations he produced were amazing for the time. After observing his works, his animations had character within the movement of each frame. It was simple yet very complex. To show these movements during this time was really phenomenal. The most notable movies he animated on were Lupin the Third (1972), Doubutsu Takarajima (1971), Soratobu Yuureisen (1969), Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko (1966) and many more. Here is a video featuring his animated works.

Regarding his illustrations, there is something whimsical about it. There are so many intricate details when looking at the world building concept illustrations. One notable thing about his art is his use of ink and watercolor.  Through the medium of ink he is able to use hatching to show dimension clearly. In addition, he is very skilled with watercolor which he uses to not only color but show even more demension. Each illustration tells a story, with how the way the setting feels and its composition. There are illustrations that feel melancholic, exhibit curiosity, or even nostalgic. The worlds he creates are full of life. These are seen frequently in his concept art for his Studio Ghibli films such as, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Spirited Away (2001), and The Wind Rises (2013). These are the films that were directed by Hayao Miyazaki. His films are very well known among different generations of people and have left an impact on them.

Julia Reymundo

Pre_Quarter

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

Of all the animators out there, I would have to pick James Baxter as my all time favorite. Not just because he inspired me to become an animator but I think his work perfectly embodies the purpose of 2D animation. He is a British animator who worked for Disney during the height of its 2D Era. He is most well-known for his amazing understanding and execution of perspective as well as his ability to keep characters moving in it.  He was one of the key animators of the famous ballroom scene from Beauty and The Beast. He also had a hand in many other Disney Classics including but not limited to The Little Mermaid, The Lion Kind, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Recently, he was a featured animator on several Cartoon Network shows that ranges from Steven Universe to Adventure Time. To me his most memorable and impressive work will always be the ball room scene from Beauty and The Beast. I included a video of a rough pencil test from it. https://vimeo.com/78018499

Blog posts and Rules

Posted on by Prof. Jake Zhang

Hi Welcome to ANIM 223 – History of Animation

Here is the place for you to share your thoughts regarding to our class contents and topics. There are two main parts of the blog posts, the 1)major posts and 2) project WIP posts

1. MAJOR POSTS

It’s required for each student to post at least 16 blog posts related to or inspired by class content/topic/discussion reflecting his/ her understanding the class contents, introduced artist and art works.

Each post has to be at least 150 words. Images and videos are allowed to post with the text. Your full name has to be included at the end of your post. 

A title is required for each post. 

When you finish your major post, PLEASE remember to check the box of “Major Post” in the categories on the right. 

2. PROJECT WIP POSTS

It’s required for each team to post to show work-in-progress to record the process for assignments. The content can include but not limit to: initial brainstorming, meeting and discussion notes,  inspirations, sketches, make-of video/ images, team working photos, storyboards, etc. There is no limitation of how many extra posts you need to post for each project.

The naming of Project WIP posts has to follow “Project# – WIP# – title of the post”

Please include all the team members’ names at the end of each WIP post. 

When you finish your project WIP post, PLEASE remember to check the box of “Project WIP” in the categories on the right.

3. COMMENTS AND INVOLVEMENT

All students are encouraged to participate in the discussion about the posts other classmates created. Please give related thoughts and comments posts and keep the dynamics of the blog. All extra comments will be counted as part of “participation and extra posts” for grading.

4. OTHER POSTS

Students are recommended to share animation pieces, animation events or articles with some simple comments. For this kind of posts, students don’t have to follow the 150 words requirement but have to click the “uncategorized” as categories. 

All of this kind of post will be counted as part of “participation and extra posts” for grading.

5. TAG

It’s recommended to add some related tag to each of your post. It will make easier  to search contents related to some specific topics or categories.

6. ABOUT HOW TO POST

It’s highly recommended to write your regular posts in word and paste into the wordpress after in case of the browser crash sometimes.