Glen Keane's art for the new movie, 'Tangled' (Previously Rapunzel) really inspires me and I thought I'd share some of my favourites.
His characters are so expressive and dynamic and his sketching is so clean, plus I really admire the way he can get a character to look like the same person everytime he draws them. Then again he is a Disney veteran so maybe if I keep at it one day I'll be this good.. *ignores looming shadow of doubt*
Just thought I'd share a few of my favourite animations from the Gobelins animation school in France. Hopefully I'll get to go to the Annecy festival in 2011 and meet some of the students. I hear they also have an English-speaking summer school program, so I'll look into that.
I like the vibrant colours in this one and the slightly-slapstick humour. The motion is so smooth and the story is told exceptionally well for the short running time; we learn alot about the characters considering how briefly we're introdiced to them.
This is one of my favourites and certainly my favourite 3d-animated student film. The characters are so believable and the story is told very well; this film in particular has a very French feel to it; which is probably a mixture of the music and the Brittany-style town the chase takes place in. It's not the most realistic of films but then that's why i like it.
This is one of those stories you don't really understand until the end and it draws you in as your watch; you want to know why he's in a hurry. The palette is very well matched to the theme and it gives the whole film a warm, homely feel.
The fluid motion in this piece really holds my attention and as with the previous short the story pulls you in. Although not as light-hearted as the previous videos it does not fall into the trap of becoming too serious for a short film.
To sum up; the animation industry in France is full of talent and I'd really like to visit Gobelins and see how they do things there.
Today Ivan claimed to be radio-active. He also stood at the front of the room cradling dolls but that's by the by.
Perception of Reality
Our perception of what is real is often challenged by modern media. The above sculpture by Don Mueck demonstrates this perfectly. Despite the size of the sculpture, the subject itself is photo-realistic - if the sculpture were to be placed in large room without spectators, it would look perfectly real in a photo. In this case I think the warped scale of these figures is necessary in order to seperate them from the crowd of onlookers - if they were actual-size they may easily be overlooked. In their enlarged or shrunken state we can view the pieces as art in their own right, however if they were created entirely true-to-life, spectators may find them uncanny.
The Uncanny Valley
← A character from the 2001 film, 'The Spirits Within'.
There is a certain eerie, soul-lessness about alot of realistically rendered humans. Some people (particularly older generations) can find them spooky. When we watch a film with a clearly unrealistic human cast (ie; How To Train Your Dragon, The Incredibles etc) our minds fall more easily into the story because we are subconciously sure of the media. However, when a human is rendered to look real, it unnerves us. We are being told that it is real and yet we know it isn't.. yet it does look real. Is it a lack of soul? More recently animation seems to have stepped either side of this dilemna; if a film is to be told in a hyper-realistic manner, a fictional character is often graphted onto an actor. This gives the character a far more believable existance and gives it that 'soul' it lacks.
Actors Andy Serkis and Zoe Saldana actings for the films LOTR and Avatar.
Immediacy and Hypermediacy Immediacy: the medium vanishes, eg; 'getting lost' in a book, suspending disbelief in a film. (note; immediate in this sense means 'without mediation', ie; real) Hypermediacy; the medium draws attention to itself, eg; judging a book. The medium becomes obvious through its immediacy.
I like the feeling of 'getting lost' in a book or a film. It allows us to transcend reality for that moment and believe in a world however-technically unrealistic for a while. Almost like a dream. It isn't real and in the back of your mind you probably know it isn't real; but while you're in that dream it is real to you. I believe media aspires to rival dreams in that sense.
I believe it is the media that makes it real alongside the story and the animation itself. With an increasingly real media (ie; 3d cinema) the most unreal can become believable. For example; watching a film like Toy Story on an old PAL colour-tv, you are aware that you are watching a film; however watching the same film wearing 3d glasses gives the audience a feeling of being there and in that world.
Perhaps the job of the media itself is to extinguish that subconcious knowledge that we are watching a film? Whereas the job of the animators themselves is to trick the concious mind?
(( Notes from the lecture on October 7th given by Ivan Phillips. ))
"The human race is hooked on spectacle."
This was probably the best lecture I've ever attended and I particularly enjoyed watching the old films, so I thought I'd start by sharing my favourite one for those who didn't see.
What exactly do you put in a lecture blog?
We looked briefly at cave paintings and venus idols.
I like the idea of prehistoric mankind huddled up in caves with nothing but pelts and stone tools, telling stories through art; it's comforting to think that humans who lived so long ago were so similar to outselves in that way. Their art tells of the way they lived back then and the way they thought, it suggests a sentience we can connect with and transcends both a cultural barrier and a lack of language. Art seems to be what separates us from other life-forms on earth and at the same time bonds us together as a race. It is a 6th sense that has evolved with humanity; over the ages it has grown to encorperate scale, perspective, colour theory and more recently branched out into an aray of powerful media. With this new media we can communicate with the masses.
..and things that go BANG!
With media we can communicate with people all over the world, regardless of their culture or the language they speak. (almost regardless; the amish are particularly particular about this). We can portray our most vivid dreamscapes and share our darkest imaginings and people might even pay to see it.
☆★ ☆
Creation of the Impossible
Something I find especially enticing about animation is the way you can pull an audience into your world. Once they are in that world you can suggest any number of weird and wonderful creatures, gadgets or theories as plausable - I like the idea that someone in that audience might invent such a thing.
