Do it in Ten - Dark

Show me the animation is a website that has a monthly competition to create a ten second animation of a theme set for that month. For the month of February the theme was dark, so myself and my class mate decided to enter as we currently at the time only had drawing tasks and no animating tasks. We also wanted to try and compete in a competition for practice and possible show reel animation.

The animation we created was a three scene animation of the grim reaper and the devil playing chess with those who passed away as the chess pieces.

We worked together on designing the characters and the storyboard, then my friend worked on backgrounds and scenery, along with the lighting, while i worked on the animating of the characters and fire. Shading of the characters was shared between the two of us, majority of it was done buy my partner while i shaded the hand in the final scene. I collected the royalty free sound and we rendered each scene independently in after effects then rendered it in one piece with the sound on premier.

This was when i first experienced my 5 hour fruitless wait for rendering to finish, it was stressful to say the least.

Research 18 - Maleficent

Like the horned king i want to go into more detail about this villain as she has had to versions of herself created.

The first is the villainous and terrifying Maleficent from the animated movie, where she cursed the child, mostly because of an evil temperament and the fact she wasn't invited to the ceremony. She's calm collected and evil down to her core as a character who is out for her self. Twisting horns wrapped around a full body cloak with green skin and yellow eyes with a crow perched on her magical staff. Her sharp features reflect her cold and sharp personality as an uncompassionate creature becoming a quite literal cold blooded creature when she becomes a dragon.

In comparison Angelina Jolies Maleficent is driven by heart break and sorrow caused by King Stefan with whom she was in love with in their youth, which led to her cursing the princess. However she then feels guilt and love for the young girl and as she grows protects her from harm, even eventually freeing her from the curse. This to me was unneeded, Maleficent was already a well established and hateful villain, but doing this caused her to come across more weak and almost pathetic than her original representation, to make her the hero who saves the land leaves a very different story with no actual correlation to the original as it destroys the original view of this character.

Research 17 - The Tale of Princess Kaguya

My main reason for liking thus movie is how it was animated  which i will go into detail on in a moment. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a japanese fairy tale about a small child that is found by a bamboo cutter once he cuts into a bamboo he was chopping. He runs back with the child to his wife to show her when the child grows abruptly into a small baby. The couple wonder where she came from and then went on to find some one to breast feed her but the woman then found her self able to produce breast milk and so went about feeding the child and caring for it as there own. The child grew quickly, being able to walk in just a couple of days able to talk and run around with all the other children of the village. She continues to grow to be about 8 when her father cuts more bamboo and finds gold in one and priceless robes in another, he took as a sign that their little girl, whom he village boys had called little bamboo, because of how fast she grew, was destined for much greater things. So taking the family away from the village and to the city they bought a massive castle for her to live in. She was also given a proper name, Kaguya, to mimic her beauty. However Kaguya did not like being away from the village, nor did she want arranged marriages or royal robes and loftily halls. she only wanted to be with her friends and to be able to play in the forest once again.

The art for the animation is made up of an old fashioned japanese drawing style, more closely based upon the old japanese wood blocks and less animesque. The lines are scratch and violent in some scenes and smooth and flowing in others. Its a really nice way to present the mood of the animation. Its really interesting to see the Ghibli art style in this muted white world of water colours.

The animation is a beautiful piece of art to behold it makes me want to try and do some traditional animation in the near future (hand drawn not digital). The scratchy lines leave an effect that makes the animation so much more appealing than if it was domelike a regular Ghibli film.

Research 16 - Spirited Away

Spirited Away remains to this day as the biggest block buster movie to come out of Japan. Its about a young girl named Chihiro who is moving to another town with her parents, and she's not happy. Her father tries to take a short cut and ends up in front of an abandoned tunnel of which the family decides to enter, going through the tunnel they happen upon what appears to be a deserted town but it is fully stocked with piping hot food that her parents start to gorge on. This concerns Chihiro and she runs away finding a young boy who asks her why she's here, telling her to go away. Frightened Chihiro runs back to her parents only to find that they have been turned to pigs. As the day turns to night the streets begin to bustle with shop keepers and customers of the spiritual variety showing a wide breadth of shapes and sizes. As Chihiro starts to disappear from the world because humans do not belong there the young boy comes up to her and forces her to eat so she can stay there with out turning into a pig. From there the boy, Haku, sends Chihiro to see Yubaba and demand a job no matter what and so her life in the spirit world begins.

Spirited Away is most definitely deserving to be called a master piece of animation. It immerses you in the rich Japanese cultures and beliefs of the people and for those who didn't believe in these things paid for it just like Chihiros parents did when they didn't heed the warning of the statues around the tunnel. It wasn't a place for humans. Once again Miyazaki is bringing our attention to change. how younger generations, even young generation parents, no longer had the willingness to believe what they were doing, Chihiros parents are a good example of this where they chose food over their daughter, took it with out asking, hadn't even questioned where it had come from and yet took it like it was theirs.

Unlike Nausicaa, Spirited away doesn't look at change on the world but on the people and its a great way to show the changes hat have occurred in society today. We believe in myths less, we take and don't give back, wanting only for ourselves. I realise i focused mostly on the parents gluttony here but i also really like Yubaba as a character for her fearfulness, as well as how much you can come to dislike her.

Research 15 - Nausicaa of the valley of the wind

Nausicaa is classed as Ghiblis first feature film, its not, but its the one that starts their long list of movies. Nausicaa is the princess of a small village set in a post apocalyptic world where an infected and diseased fungus has created a poisonous world thats slowly dying. Nausicaa loves all living creatures in the world even the infected and mutated insects and its because of this love for life she will fight to save all creatures through peace and diplomacy, in comparison a woman by the name of Kusharna has the same motive of saving the people but by using what was an ancient weapon that led to the original destruction of the world, she believes that to save the land she must destroy the insects and the forest however Nausicaa has other ideas.

Nausicaa Shows how the same motive can be approached from two very different angles, both women want their people to be safe, but while one wishes to do this through peace and coexistence with the forest and the large Ohm insects, the other wishes to eliminate the forest through any method possible even using the ohms young baby.

Nausicaa is an example of great story telling that appeals to all ages, with exciting characters, fast paced action and blossoming romance, but it looks at a bigger picture we don't notice, and thats things such as climate change, our effect on the atmosphere and the world and how our world could be like that in 1000 years.

Research 14 - The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the frog is a 2D animated movie of disneys that wasn't a huge success but i enjoyed it, mostly because of the jazz songs. Set in the 1930s in New Orleans, Tiana, a hard working full time waitress with two jobs, has a dream to open her own restaurant and for it to be the biggest thing in new orleans. However her plans are de-railed by a foolish and loose with his money playboy of a prince, Naveen, who got turned into a frog by the shadow man by voodoo magic. Now a kiss from a princess would turn him back but Tiana isn't a princess and thus gets turned into a frog as well and so their journey through the bayou begins.

I love the music in this movie as it has a jazz, swing, blues sound track to match the time period and it gives the whole movie such a good feeling that makes it enjoyable and because the soundtrack is reminiscent of the time period you get immersed into the world of New Orleans. My other favourite part of this movie is the characters, they are all big and larger than life characters with so much charisma, this includes the villain to the princess down to the side kicks, they all have motives and a feeling of purpose and direction in their own worlds.

In comparison to Guida that gives a happy feeling from the simple things in life this movie gives the same feeling but through an excited and adventurous happiness. Its also a good example of giving context to a time and place, or the setting, through music.

Research 13 - The Horned King (villain from Black Cauldron)

Now, I've blogged about the film but i wanted to dedicate a blog to the villain of the Black Cauldron, The Horned King.

He is a menacing and terrifyingly designed character with a ragged and tatty hooded robe covering his tall, thin and skeletal green body, with two sets of horns protruding from his skull, tearing through the hood.long, spindly, boney fingers with spots rot and over grown and sharp nails. A skulls head with empty eye sockets until he becomes enraged with pinpricked eyes of red or blazing red in the entire socket alongside jagged cut off teeth all placed within a withered and dried up face. Well he's designed to give nightmares isn't he?

His personality is fierce, dominating and powerful. He won't joke or have any humour to him and he has one goal, to have rule over all.

The thing that causes the horned king to be so terrifying for me is most likely ingrained into myself from when i was a child, watching black cauldron and being scared of this devil like character. His demonic presence haunted my dreams and left such an image on me that even now after many years, re-watching the movie i still flinch, wince tense up and hide my eyes away from him because of how i remember him. Even though I'm terrified i love how this character can still scare me after all these years, it shows an example of such good character design all the way back to the 70-80s, that can leave a life long impact on someone even in what was classed as a bad movie.

Research 12 - The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron is a Disney movie from 1985. Based on a Welsh tale it experienced little success and was one of disneys biggest failures. The story follows Taran, an assistant pig keeper who dreams of being a warrior. After he learns that the pig he's caring for has magical abilities to see the future and its this ability that is wanted by the villian of the story, the Horned King, probably the most interesting character in the animation only because he was the character that left the biggest imprint on me as a child. The story is a series of unfortunate events for the boy, pig, princess and a minstrel, as they interact with the king, witches and a small annoying troll creature called Gurgi.

I wouldn't have a large interest in the film if i hadn't seen it as a child and if the horned king didn't leave such an impression on me. The movie is one of disneys most dark and almost adult films intentionally directed towards children. It was also a few firsts for disney; the first PG rated movie they made and its also the first full length feature not to have no musical numbers in it, ironically they have a minstrel with a harp however.

There was something strange about a couple of the scenes in that white lines would surround the characters at times, to my knowledge its due to cel shading but i might be wrong. It was a movie that left a big impression on me as a child because it really broke what one saw as a typical Disney Movie, that being said it was a badly paced and over acted movie to me because the voice acting seemed very 'hammy'. I do however like how it breaks from its formula and was an unconventional change. Id like to keep a variety in my work as well as apply the idea of the unconventional to my animations every so often.

Research 11 - The Master (MAF)

The mater was a very disturbing yet thought provoking stop frame animation. It shows us a sausage dog which appears to be waiting for its owner to return and after some time, checking the door every so often we see a caged monkey is also in the room which is very strange. The monkey seems quiet violent scaring the dog especially when it breaks out of its cage and starts to destroy the house, however this is when the film starts to seem more symbolic. The monkey begins to don the clothes of the owner of the house and moves on to abuse the dog, buy food and even sleep with the dog. This ultimalty leads to the death of the dog when the foolish monkey finds a gun and once the dog dies from the gun shot wound as well as having had its leg broken by the monkey, the monkey proceeds to shoot itself in the mouth committing suicide.

Its a very morbid and disturbing animation with taxidermy like designs for the characters which makes it seem disjointed from reality as if the events between the dog and monkey are happening in another world. The actions of the monkey towards the dog reminded me of what an abusive relationship could be like, the monkey hits the dog as it whimpers ad runs away then the monkey got food as an apology, even sleeping together at one point but then returning to fearing the monkey once it started to drink and get drunk leading to the dog hiding under the sofa. Other views could just look at it with dominance over others but to me its dominance in a relationship and an abusive one at that.

I like how it was possible to have multiple interpretations of an animation with its true meaning being rather obscure. It has a really curious concept to it where it comes down to how a person views a situation.

Research 10 - Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's well known, princess classics. Story follows the princess, Aurora hiding away in a forest for her whole life because as a baby she was cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel needle and sleep for ever on her 16th birthday by an evil woman called Maleficent  She was hidden away in a deep forest and cared for by three blundering and loving fairies who bestowed gifts upon her to counter the curse, true loves kiss will awaken her from this curse. As she grows up she meets a young prince with whom she falls for in time but this doesn't last long as she then falls under the curse, so her prince must fight his way through the thorns and battle the evil Maleficent.

Personally I'm not all that interested in the movie or the story. The story is taken straight from the fairytale and its got pretty ok characters, except for Maleficent. An example of a very scary and overbearing villain with so much power and dominance. The backgrounds have a really nice geometric theme with overlapping layers of colour and shapes with a really appealing look to them.

Personally, the main reason i looked into sleeping beauty is for Maleficent as she is such an interesting character to watch through her actions. It shows just how blatantly evil and corrupt a character can be causing the audience to enjoy her presence yet despise and fear it.

Research 9 - Guida (MAF)

While at Manchester Animation Festival i saw a lot of animations and this is possibly my favourite. Guida, a fifty something woman has lived her life quietly and happily working in a library allowing the time to pass by. She then notices a small ad in the paper from people looking for a life model, she laughs it off, smirking to her self finding the idea of herself as a greek statue with saggy breasts amusing, but she finds that the idea is constantly on her mind, reminding her of her dream and of her childhood as a dancer. While she poses, the drawings of her become different possibilities and lives such as a violinist or a boxer and as she looks around at the drawings of her she finds herself feeling happier than ever before

https://vimeo.com/132668364

The above is a link to the video. What i love about this animation is, well all of it. The art style shifts fluidly with smooth transitions from one moment to the next, with a really relax line on sepia toned backgrounds done in water colour gives the whole animation a soft inviting feeling as if its made to be warm. The sound tracks fairly minimal however near the end there is a lovely song playing as she begins her life modelling and it feels as if it signifies a new beginning for this woman. I love the fact that the story is almost plebeian and is merely about the life, no big adventures or terrifying revelations just a woman passing through life.

The simplicity of the story really shows how animation can be used to show a simple lifestyle or just give off a good feeling and warm feeling. Happiness is a difficult thing to convey in animations and sad stories are much easier but if you succeed in making a happy film you can convey a much stronger feeling and response from your audience, it won the MAF award for a reason.

Research 8 - Backwater Gospel

This is another BA animation graduation film, however in comparison to Entropy it had a much bigger production team working on it, with a director and a producer. The film is very dark and is about a back water western town that is visited by an undertaker, who is closer to an angel of death with black wings to boot, he gets viewed as a harbinger of death and it is believed people will die because of him. This has angered the corrupt and twisted vicar who has controlled the towns people with fear and religion and tells them to take their anger and blame out on a penniless, disabled (physically, missing a leg) homeless man who finds the whole event ever so amusing, mocking them for their fear. However once the towns people kill the man there is now a corpse for the undertaker to work with so he has no reason to leave now. This leads for the towns people to fall into mass panic murdering each other screaming that it won't be them whose murdered or die. The film goes on to end with the undertaker measuring a corpse for a coffin, black wings spread wide and ominous.

The first time i saw this animation i was really scared of it, mostly because of the cell shaded like art style of the characters. They had this heavily shaded flat look to them based in a 3D world. There was a wide breadth of shapes and sizes in the characters. Its design was what really made it creepy along with the disturbing story, the whole town was crooked in warp in shape and personality with the church and vicar being the most twisted of them all. It definitely presents religion in a corrupt manner however i think it was more a case of using it as a theme of control in some form and for a small back water town it fits.

This animation works with a really twisted and dark view of the human mind to me. how the town is gripped in fear, manipulated by the vicar and quickly descends into mass hysteria. Its a terrifying way of presenting a concept as well as drawing attention to a subject. The animation had a some symbolism in it when the beggar died, specifically, how his corpse and blood splatter created a cross and signalled the madness to take hold.

Research 7 - Entropy

Entropy is a BA Graduates animation that follows the story of a young girl called Entropy who is trapped in a dystopian world. While she's sitting, listening to a untuned radio she hears a small song playing in the distance so she goes to find it. she ends up at the edge of a cliff and gets blown away with the wind and carried to the moon. When she gets there the land is distorted and warped. There she meets a young man playing the song she heard using stars trapped in bubbles. She joins him and this transitions over to them dancing to the music but then as the moon seems to vanish into darkness, maybe signifying the shift to daytime, she is pulled away from him and finds herself in her dystopia again but this time she has a small star to play her song on.

I have really enjoyed this animation for quite sometime, it is mainly because of the motion and the sound track. I really enjoy 2d animation and there is a really nice feeling of subtle life to the movement of the characters as they shift about and have weight in their actions and body. The sound track has a single simple song playing through it and at the end in the credits there is a short section of lyrics that sound so fitting with the tune and the singers voice also appeals to me.

What amazes me is that its a student film so it is a very viable possibility for me to make something of a similar quality or length in my 3rd year which i really like the idea of and it also really excites me to think of the possibilities.