Animation from America to Japan

Today's post will be a bit more of an intellectual one.  I have put together a term paper for one of my classes focusing on an aspect of animation I have been interested in learning more about, and will present it here as a post.  I hope you find it interested, and please feel free to contact me with questions or feedback.

Animation from America to Japan and Back

by David Hixon, © 2011

As early as 1915, Japan has been creating their own animations for public display.  However, despite these early films, animation in Japan didn't really come into its own until after WWII.  Anime as it is viewed today around the world really began with artists such as Osamu Tezuka, who created a series of manga which eventually became animated in a unique style.  However, if it wasn't for the animation from other countries and artists, in particular Walt Disney, he may never had inspired the anime genre as we know it.

I will explore the international influences that shaped anime into what it is today, and how that unique animation style has begun to affect mainstream media throughout the world.  Many people believe that the essence of anime has changed due to western influences, but I argue that western influences have always been strong in Japanese animation, and it is this clash of cultures that creates what is exciting and different.  I will begin by exploring how Western artists have influenced Japanese animators, focusing specifically on the works of Tezuka Osamu.  I will then explore the ongoing influences that go between eastern and Western artists, and how the cultures of these artists have begun to globalize.  I will finish by showing how the Japanese style of animation has invaded what we watch in theaters and on television today around the world.

The roots of anime really begin with early animators from America and Europe, such as Blackton and McCay.  In fact, by 1915, there were 21 foreign animations played nationally in Japan.  Both American and German artists, such as John R. Bray, the Fleischer brothers, and Lotte ReinigerIt, were strong inspirations for early Japanese animators.  A slew of animators emerged in Japan, including Shimokawa Oten, Kouchi Junichi, and Kitayama Seitaro, the earliest Japanese animators.  While they pioneered the techniques and genre, there was little they produced which was particularly worthwhile.  Shimokawa Oten was  trained as a caricaturist and cartoonist before being hired by Tenkatsu Studio to animate specifically in the style of Émile Cohl, while Kitayama Seitaro was particularly experienced with the Western style of painting.  Already, in the earliest years of anime, the Japanese style of animation was heavily influenced by the works of Western artists, not merely the techniques they pioneered.  These Western style influences were not limited to the origin of anime and continued into the 1930's.  Artists such as Ikuo Oishi broke away from other contemporary Japanese animators' styles, and modeled his characters after American animations such as Felix the Cat.  Yokoyama Ryuichi founded the Otogi Studio in Japan after having fallen in love with animation through Walt Disney's Skeleton Dance, which aired in Japan in 1930. He created several animations and manga, and would appear in the Mainichi newspaper.  He had the privilege to visit the Disney Studios in 1955, and met Walt Disney himself.

In the 1930's and 40's, the many Japanese animations were made as propaganda films during World War II, which probably caused a strain on the animators in terms of inspiration.  It seems likely that could they directly copy the styles of Western animators now that they were at war. And yet even during this troubling time, the animators would sometimes portray American soldiers as recognizable characters such as Bluto from Fleischer's Popeye as seen in Mitsuyo Seo's Momotaro, Eagle of the Sea released in 1943.  Political references like this continued throughout the war and beyond.  Even after the war, the government of Japan encouraged animators to make films that showed the possibilities of the West, such as the 1946 film by Masao Kumagawa, The Magic Pen.  However, this had little to do with the style of the animation, and more to do with propaganda.

It wasn't until a medical student decided in the 1950's to try his hand at manga and eventually anime that the modern style of anime was born.  Tezuka Osamu was privileged in his youth to have access to both manga and film, including animation.  Tezuka is said to have watched films like Felix the Cat in his youth, and was also influenced by Disney films, and French New Wave Cinema.  This lead to his unique way of looking at animation and manga as a cinematic experience in terms of film editing, camera work, and other cinematic devices.  His love of art and film from around the world gave him a unique viewpoint into the world of animation.  Even the character design of Astro Boy was an homage to the early Walt Disney character styles.

On the first day of 1963, Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu) was aired in Japan, and in America soon after, which was during a time when there were limited channels and airtime on television.  One of the more interesting facts about this relationship between America and Japan was that Astro Boy would regularly mirror the civil rights struggles in America of the day, adding to the relations between the two countries and furthering the expansion of anime into the American market.  While Astro Boy started off roughly, it soon became a world famous show, spreading the art of Japanese animation early, and invading the homes of people around the world.  Tezuka produced several more series both before and after Astro Boy, which made big waves in America and abroad.  Of these, Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor) was among the most popular on American television. 

In1967, Yoshida Tatsuo's Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go) was aired in America as well.  It gained popularity on American television, and eventually the original manga it was based on was released to western audiences as well.  It became an icon of Japanese animation in its own right.

We can clearly see here that the Japanese styles used in animation were heavily influenced by their American and Western colleagues since the earliest days of Japanese produced animations.  These influences continued throughout the decades, culminating in the cinematic styles that Tezuka adopted.  While it is clear that the origins of anime were influenced as such, the American audience was also being slowly introduced to the phenomenon known as Anime, and despite the often controversial and bizarre shows, it became engrained in the minds of future American film makers and animators.

Astro Boy has been translated into over a dozen different languages, and Tezuka himself was one of the first Japanese artists to attend international festivals for comics and animations.  He not only pioneered airing his shows in America, but around the world, and was critically recognized for his work.  The influential styles of Japanese animation were not limited to Japan, and had already been seen by artists and future animators around the world.  One film which shows this obvious cross-pollination of story telling and visuals is Disney's 1994 hit movie The Lion King.  Many critics have pointed out the many similarities between this film and Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion.  Kimba aired on American television stations in the 60's and 70's, and many of the animators who worked on The Lion King would have grown up watching Kimba on television.  Critics have claimed Disney heavily “borrowed” from Tezuka, and controversy over the idea of homage versus plagiarism sparked.

While the films and animations of Japan continue to spread throughout the world, both the styles and culture of Japan spread with it.  Historically, Japan has been heavily influenced by Western cultures, and yet continues to hold onto their own unique perspective and cultural identity.  It is this mix of West meets East, tradition meeds modernization, that has shaped the very soul of modern day Japan.  Japan is becoming a country of a globalized culture, where they struggle to find their own identity and a place to fit within the world.  Anime is one way in which Japan has turned the tables, and allowed their art to influence other cultures more than their own, and yet it also conforms to many globalized standards.

Characters in anime productions are often depicted with large eyes, multiple colors of hair and eyes, and even skin.  While the characters are not always intended to be from another country, they are more often than not Western looking, copying the styles and appearance of Western cultures and people.  Characters often have blond, brown, or even red hair, as well as a slew of eye colors, which directly mimic these foreign people.  On the other hand, many anime characters also sport blue, green, purple, or even pink hair, as well as red or purple eyes, and even blue or green skin.  This seems bizarre, but is one of the defining characteristics of anime, and brings it out of any particular culture and into something all it's own.  By adopting a non-Japanese, or even “stateless” look in the characters is part of what makes anime so easily acceptable by cultures around the world.

Such mixing of ideas and styles goes both ways.  Several television shows and movies in America directly reflect the Japanese style, and even the anime characteristics that define it.  Avatar: The Last Airbender is one such show.  The directors and producers not only copied themes, styles, and designs as well as cultural references for their series from Japanese animation, but they also researched what studios to use, and chose a Korean studio that had previously worked on Japanese anime and were familiar with the style and demands of the process.  And it is not alone.  Several studios are adopting an anime style for certain shows, in order to reach the demographics they are looking for.  They are not just trying to mimic the look either, they are looking to emulate the style to a point where it is impossible to tell the difference between “Anime” produced in Japan versus America, at least in terms of quality and story-telling.  At the very least, studios are trying to take visual and stylistic cues, and leave the real anime style to the Japanese masters.

Many American and Japanese comics are already cross-pollinating, and both manga and anime are becoming less and less a product strictly of Japan, even if the primary demographic is Japanese.  The majority of Japanese anime with Western money backing it seems to be from making sequels and projects that did poorly in the Japanese market.  The West's desire to acquire or produce Eastern, and particularly Japanese art dates back to the 19^th Century.  Anime shows a mix of traditional Japanese art that was so fascinating to the people of the time, such as Kabuki and Woodblock Prints (Ukiyo-e), and modern and even experimental cinema and artistic tools.

While many American studios have shied away attempting to emulate the Japanese style, and others have tried to make it their own, there have been several projects developed that are joint-projects between Japanese and American groups.  Warner Brothers Studios  commissioned a series of short animations from various anime studios and producers in Japan on more than one occasion, each time with a different movie they are to be based on.  Animatrix, released to home video in 2003, is a collection of short animations, each with a different Japanese director, focusing on telling more of the story of the Wachowski Brother's Matrix.  Again in 2008, they released Batman Gotham Knight under the same pretense.

These collaborations have extended into full length films as well.  Several remakes and re-imaginings of different anime and manga stories have been produced in America, and several more are in production and planning.  In 2009, a mainly American produced version of Astro Boy was released to theaters, with some limited interaction and approval by Tezuka Productions.  This followed the 2008 release of Speed Racer, and several other anime-to-live-action remakes.  This trend, to turn anime into live-action films, tends to produce mixed results, and yet there are several more films in the works for the next few years.

Beyond remaking anime series and movies for a Western audience, either through live action or animation, the most notable influence of anime in western cinema is the style it inspires in original Western works.  Blockbuster films, such as 300, The Matrix, Kill Bill, and even Up, and Ratatouille, are directly inspired by the cinematic and visual styling of anime.  Kill Bill went so far as to include an animated sequence produced by a Japanese animation studio in the middle of the film.  However, the most interesting influences are those between anime and animation.

Hayao Miyazaki fell in love with animation in 1958, when he was in high school, and went on to create one of the most influential animation studios in the world.  His first major motion film, which was Castle Cagliostro, made way for his much more epic masterpieces, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, that defined his style and the studio he started, Studio Ghibli.  He was not a fan of Disney-style animation, in both the use of cinematography, and rotoscoping.  He wanted to create a truly Japanese style of animation which focused more on the essence of animation in expression and motion, rather than smoothness of motion.  However, he was still heavily influenced by western cartoonists such as McCay, Fleischer, Back, and Norstein.  Because of his unique way of looking at animation, from writing the telling the story to the art style and visuals, his animations have influenced artists world wide.

Many artists, including those at Pixar Studios, grew up watching Miyazaki's films as a children, and continue to draw inspiration from him in their movies.  Many have studied the drawings and animations Miyazaki made, and used what they could learn from him to his work in films like Up, and Ratatouille.  Miyazaki himself became friends with John Lasseter of Pixar, visiting him at Pixar Studios on what Lasseter announced was “Miyazaki Day at Pixar”.

This type of international relationship between East and West are becoming more commonplace, and as a result, the highly stylized art and often adult and mature themes of anime have begun to spread globally and permeate cultures around the world.  As a result, it can be said that Japan is losing its singular unique identity, but replacing it with a unique cultural identity of contrasting elements of society and art.  Japan is both traditional and modern, conservative and edgy, and this contrast is reflected in the animation they have produced.  As a result, it is easily accepted in many cultures around the world, and has influenced the artists, cartoonists, sequential artists, and filmmakers of tomorrow, and today.  While the rest of the world struggles to keep up with the style of anime, the Japanese artists have drawn on inspirations from other cultures to make their art more unique and universal.

The future for anime is bright, and with international collaborations, it will prove to be even brighter.  Anime was born from the unique perspective of Eastern artists studying Western art, while drawing upon their own past and experiences to support it.  Thanks to efforts from artists such as Tezuka and Miyazaki, anime will continue to be an international influence on film, pushing the envelope and advancing what is possible on film, by unleashing the imagination.

Bibliography

Cavallaro, Dani. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki.  Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.

Drazen, Patrick. (2003).  Anime Explosion!  The What? Why? & Wow! Of Japanese Animation.  Retrieved from

Kime, Chad. (n.d.).  American Anime: Blend or Bastardization?.  Accessed on October 9^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Koyama-Richard, Brigitte. (2010). Japanese Animation: From Painted Scrolls to Pokémon. Paris, France: Flammarion.

Lamarre, Thomas. (2009). The Anime Machine. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Lu, Amy Shirong. (2008).  “The many faces of Internationalization in Japanese Anime”.  Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal.  Retrieved from

Miyazaki, Hayao.  (January 28^th, 1988).  “About Japanese Animation”. Course Japanese Movies 7: The Current Situation of Japanese Movies. Iwanami Shoten.  Translated by Ryoko Toyama.  Accessed on November 5^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Napier, Susan J. (2005) Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle.  New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sharp, Jasper.  (2004).  Pioneers of Japanese Animation at PIFan.  Accessed on November 5^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Van der Lugt, Peter.  (n.d.).  Exclusive Interview with Pixar Storyboard Artist Enrico Casarosa.  Accessed on October 9^th, 2011.  Retrieved from

Zahed, Ramin. (November 2004). “Astro Boy's American Cousins”.  Animation Magazine, vol 18 (no. 11). 

Filmography

  Bender, Lawrence (Producer), Tarantino, Quentin (Director).  (2003).  Kill Bill Volume 1 [Motion Picture].  United States: Miramax.

Bird, Brad; Pinkava, Jan (Directors). (2007).  Ratatouille [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney / Pixar Animation Studios.

Black, Christopher (Executive Producer), Somers, Karen I. (Director).  (2007).  Anime: Drawing a Revolution [Television Documentary].  United States: Starz Entertainment.

Bowers, David (Director).  (2009).  Astro Boy [Motion Picture]. United States: Imagi Animation Studios / Imagi Crystal / Tezuka Production Company.

DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (Producers).  (2005).  Avatar: The Last Airbender [Television Series].  United States: Nickelodeon Animation Studios.

  Disney, Walt (Producer), Iwerks, Ub (Director).  (1929).  Skeleton Dance [Animated Short].  United States: Disney.

Docter, Pete; Peterson, Bob(Directors).  (2009).  Up [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney / Pixar Animation Studios.

Fleischer, Max (Producer). (1933).  Popeye The Sailor [Animated Short].  United States: Fleischer Studios/Paramount Studios.

Hanh, Don (Producer), Allers, Roger; Minkoff, Rob (Directors).  (1994).  The Lion King [Motion Picture]. United States: Disney.

  Hidehiko, Takei; Yamamoto, Satoshi (Producers), Ishiguro, Noboru (Director).  (1963).  Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) [Television Series]. Japan: Mushi Productions.

Kumagawa, Masao (Director). (1946). Maho no Pen (The Magic Pen) [Animated Short]. Japan: Kyoto Eiga-sha.

Melniker, Benjamin; Thomas, Emma; Timm, Bruce W.; Uslan, Michael E. (Executive Producers).  (2008)  Batman: Gotham Knight [Animated Film]. United States: Warner Home Video.

Miyazaki, Hayao (Director).  Katayama, Tetsuo (Producer).  (1979).  Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro) [Motion Picture]. Japan: Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS)

Miyazaki, Hayao (Director), Takahata, Isao (Producer).  (1984).  Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind [Motion Picture].  Japan: Studio Ghibli, Disney.

  Seo, Mitsuyo (Director). (1943).  Momotaro no Umiwashi (Momotaro, Eagle of the Sea)  [Animated Short] Japan: Geijutsu Eiga-sha / Zakka Films (USA distributor).

Tezuka, Osamu; Yamamoto, Eiichi (Producers).  (1965-67).  Janguru Taitei (Kimba the White Lion) [Television Series]. Japan: Mushi Productions / NBC Enterprises.

Tezuka, Osamu (Producer).  (1967).  Mach Go Go Go (Speed Racer) [Television Series].  Japan: Tatsunoko Productions Company.

  Wachowski, Larry and Andy (Producers).  (2003).  Animatrix [Motion Picture].  United States: Warner Brothers.

Wachowski, Larry and Andy (Producers).  (2008).  Speed Racer [Motion Picture].  United States: Warner Brothers.

Supplemental Material

Anderson, Craig. (November 2009). Kimba the White Lion's Corner of the Web.  Accessed on November 5^th 2011.  Retrieved from

Anime_Nanet.  (n.d.). The Anime History - origin and roots from 1900 to the 21st century.  Accessed on November 5^h 2011.  Retrieved from

Post-Finals... post

Greetings again one and all! I come to you today from the SCAD Atlanta campus at the DMC (Digital Media Center) building. I am busy working on a final project for a class. I said in the title that this is a post-finals post, and it is. This final suffered from an unfortunate event 2 days ago while I was rendering it.  A teacher decided it was a good idea to log off a computer in the computer homework lab while it was rendering, without realizing that when you do that you end up deleting all the content that the previous owner added.   So... All my 300+ files and hours of work was gone! I had to start from scratch and unfortunately I was unable to finish my project in time.   Luckily, my professor (who is an awesome guy) got word of this, and allowed me an extension, which is a God-send. So I am here having just finished rendering it again, and will present it to him in person Friday.   I hope he likes it cause I put many hours into this one (although I know there are people who put far more time into theirs, but I was busy working on another project for another class, which did get an A!).  So that's where things stand at the moment at SCAD.
Unfortunately, life at home has gotten a little crazy too.  Apparently today while I was out rendering, our building backed-up and flooded my apartment.   SO I have the joy of going home to a wet mess and people fixing and drying things.  This will probably take all weekend, and I still need to clean things up, so it might as well happen today cause everything needed to be washed anyways.

Long post short... let me present to you the project that I DID (just barely) finish on time. This animation got me an A for my Principles of 2D animation class... which brings my grade for the class up to an A! He even liked my sketchbook. So without further ado, Adam and the Flower:




 
I also have a sample page from my sketchbook. These are designed specifically to capture motion, and use quick gestural lines. I drew from pictures, master drawings, and real life. I visited Zoo Atlanta and took more than 400 pictures as well.  This is a sample of my best drawings.  Enjoy.

Here is the final animation for my Principles of Screen Design class.  The focus on this is motion, camera principles, and so on.  Still awaiting a grade (since I literally just finished it):

And finally, in the world of professional animations.... Pixar has out a new trailer for the film "BRAVE". Check it out!:

And Studio Ghibli has released a new trailer for their film, "The Secret World of Arrietty" (based on "The Borrowers"). Check it out too!:

Also, be sure to check out the latest episodes of 7th Row center!!  This week and next week's are all about (da da da daaaa) The Muppets!  So don't miss it!

So that's all for now!  In the words of Porky Pig...  Tha tha tha... Oh forget it.

Watch your head!

Well it's that time... crunch time!  2 weeks left of classes, that's only 4 classes left till this quarter is finished!  No time left to think, just time to enough to work.  I've been up late all weekend working on a term paper and now I'm down to the final tests and projects!  So before I vanish into the world of even more sleepless nights, cramped hands, and bloodshot eyes, I wanted to share my latest animation from last week.  This one is of Adam reacting to a pie being thrown at his head.  Enjoy!

Be sure to check out the latest episode of 7th Row Center.  I was too busy to attend this show, but I will be back for the next one (of course that means I'll be doing it in the middle of finals... lucky me!)

Ta Ta!

Walk Cycle

Well it is getting down to the end of the quarter, and the final projects are starting to get assigned and worked on.  Currently, I have finished a new walk cycle of my character (as in, the character which is a caricature of me), Adam, from TangentArtists.com's comic Donuts for Looking.  This character is actually going to appear in other places as well if I ever get the time to finish the other various projects, since my brother's character, Evel, is his evil twin, and we are planning on working on several projects together.  Get it?  Adam and Evel.  It's a joke.
Seriously though, here is Adam in his overly-optimistic walk.  Once again, this was intended to be a loop, but I haven't yet figured out how to do that in youtube.

Not perfect, and not my first walk cycle, but by far my best!  I know now that I can do better, and with finals coming up, I will have that chance.
I also have a slightly updated version of the flour sack animation, with slightly better timing.  Check it out here:

The fact that you can see the lines through the sack is merely an artifact/limitation of the software being used, Flipbook.  It doesn't do complex things like masking, it is only designed to do simple flip book style animations and pencil tests.
I also just finished a new podcast recording with Alex over at 7thRowCenter.  It should be up this weekend, so be sure to check it out!!  Subscribe on iTunes or check it out on his website, 7throwcenter.com.
Other than that, I am thinking about adding a video blog to my website at some point, if I have the time.  We'll just have to see how things turn out.  It will mostly focus on campus life at SCAD, and might have a few interviews if I can manage it.

So thanks for checking me out.  With finals coming up, look out for a lot of new content soon!

ZÀI JIÀN!

Halloween on 7th Row Center and more

I will keep this post short. Seventh row center has a new episode up all about Holloween movies, the scary and the not so scary. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever podcast are sold. :P

I am also trying to work on something new for the blog, a video blog entry every now and then. I should have more posted soon about that later as well as about my latest animation projects.

Well that's all for now.

ALOHA!

New animation!

Well for all those interested, I have yet another new animation for you.  This one is coming to you a bit late because our teacher was out sick on Monday.  Actually, that's not why it is late.  It's late cause I procrastinated and then tried to make up for lost time but ended up only finishing one project, and not the other... Moral of the story... don't put off today what you can fail tomorrow.
LUCKILY for me, my teacher was sick.  Not that I think it is a good thing to be sick.  I hope he feels better in time for the next class, and wish him the best, he really is the coolest guy.  But God put his hand in when he saw I was working so hard to catch up for bad judgments, and I was able to finish the animation for the next class.  So here it is!  I call it... The Great Sack Escape!... not really...  It is about a sack of flour trying to escape the bakery, only to get... well...  watch and enjoy.

So there it is!  Hope you enjoyed it.  Short yes...  I am not satisfied with the truck... didn't plan out the movement well enough.  But the sack turned out great!

So what was the other project I finished?  A storyboard... which I may or may not be able to show you.  it is big and glued together...  We'll see what happens.

Other than that, I have a new toy, but I'll go into that one later.  I will be doing a new episode of 7th Row center with Alex "da movie guy".  Should be up this weekend.  Also, if you have any suggestions of movies or genres or anything else you want to talk about, let me know, and I'll gladly bring it up with Alex!

Till next time

CHEERIO!

Behold the animator's pencil!

Great Metallic Balls

I have been really busy this last week.  With the completion of the GENERATE challenge (of which the Patchwork Pirates got 5th place), I have had to work on a hand-drawn animation of a waving flag (not an easy one for students to figure out), as well as an animation that involves following various principles of screen design and focusing on showing Z-depth (which is really just depth on a 2 dimensional screen), not to mention a presentation for a proposal for a term paper.  Busy all around really.
The cool thing is there are now 3 new excellent animations finished for my classes, all of which look better than I thought they'd turn out.
Also, I figured out why the bob-omb animation looked so bad.  Apparently I uploaded the wrong file, although the final one still has compression issues, but it looks a zillion times better.

Besides the bob-omb animation, I have the others to show as well.  Here is the flag waving pencil test:

This is the flag wave animation.  It took me several hours to complete, and I had to essentially start over at one point when I suddenly realized what I was doing wrong.  I kept drawing the various keys and inbetweens wrong, and it suddenly clicked, and I figured out how to make it work.  This is the result.  It is short, but fluid.

Next up is the Screen Design Z-Dept project, or as I all it... Marble Maze:

This animation is intended to loop.  The point of the exercise is to show depth in a 2D screen.  There are several ways to do this including scale, overlap, perspective, and more.  I originally intended to draw this out in Photoshop and then bring it into After Effects and animate it there.  However, after struggling to make it look the way I wanted to, I started modeling it in Maya, and decided it turned out so well, I'd just do the entire thing in Maya, and proceeded to do just that.  I used Maya 2008 (and 2012 for rendering on campus), and only used basic shapes and methods, but with very effective rendering techniques.  All the lights use Ray Tracing and shadows, the wood surfaces use many layers of textures to make it work, the rendering used mental ray, and Final Gathering, in order to get such effective colors and lighting etc.  It took me about 12 hours or so to render the final version (and I had to render it twice... one scene once... cause they earlier ones didn't look good), but luckily I could use multiple computers on campus, and managed the entire thing in about 4 hours.

In other news, keep your ears open for the latest episode of 7thRowCenter, where we talk about the power of cheese.  These movies are so bad, they are Gouda!

Till next time,

GUTEN TAG!

GENERATE CHALLENGE

     All day Friday and into Saturday Morning, SCAD Atlanta hosted the GENERATE 24 hour challenge.  This is a sort of contest where they take each department (animation, sequential art, etc.) and split them into small groups of 3-5 people.  Each department has a company come in and host a challenge that has to be completed within 24 hours.  Each group is usually assigned a unique topic.  My group was the Patchwork Pirates (so named because of our hodgepodge of members), part of the animation department.  This year, Turner hosted our challenge, and the challenge was to create a series pitch within 24 hours.  The pitch had to consist of:

A 15-30 second animatic of the opening

A Treatment

A 15 second Elevator Pitch

3-5 Character design style sheets

A full color style frame

3 Merchandise ideas in 3D

And an outline for an entire season

     All this had to be completed within 24 hours of the start, which meant 10am Friday to 10am Saturday.  Each group within the department was assigned a different network to pitch the idea to, which meant we had to research demographics, etc.  We were the group everyone wish they could have been, because we had Adult Swim as our focus.

     We did have some trouble though.  First, our original idea was poopooed by one of the professors who was leading the event.  The problem was the story idea had (unknowingly to the rest of our group) been used before by one of our members for various projects/classes.  So we had to rework the idea, change some of the character designs, and make things more edgy.  When we had finished that, we pitched the idea to the head of Adult Swim (or was it Turner Animation?) who loved it!  The second problem was that the member with the most experience in 3D and animation left for a previous engagement.  Unfortunately, another member also had to leave due to medical reasons.  That left 3 of us to do a huge task, and none of us were very experienced.

     Somehow we managed to pull though.  With the help from a friend, we managed to complete everything with an hour to spare.  Personally, I still think the look was too "cutesy", but since I was dedicated to doing the animatic by myself, I couldn't keep rejecting images so I just worked with what I got and tried to make it work.  Adult Swim usually does cheap, simple, exaggerated, and over-the-top animations, which are edgy and stylized.  I think we should have really pushed this more, but we would have needed more members involved through the entire project to assure the look we wanted.  However, I think we still managed to pull out a very good project with the limitations and complications that arose.  Since we did all that work, I won't go into presenting all of it again from scratch.  However, I will post the final PDF of the project as well as the animatic here, so you can see what we did.  Enjoy!

The Patchwork Pirates are:

Karen Chesney

David Hixon

Alston Jones

Colin Wheeler

Whitney Wheeler (no relation)

Special Thanks to Jenna Zona

View the PDF here!

GENER8

A quick update for everyone, especially SCAD students.  GENERATE (or as they call it GENER24E) will be this friday (tomorrow), and I plan to participate in this particular event.  It is really exciting because Turner is hosting the challenge, with a focus (from what I heard) on Cartoon Network!  I am really looking forward to this.  it will be my first time trying it, and I hope to have a lot of fun.
If you'd like to know more about Generate, check out their website.

A Slew of Pencil Tests

Today I'd like to thank everyone so far who has helped me out with getting into SCAD and helped me in Georgia. I would like to welcome all my new readers, and hope you all enjoy my Blog, and my "occasional" appearances on 7th Row Center. You may be seeing more of me up there, but for now check out the latest podcast at www.7throwcenter.com.

Now for more cool animation stuff! Today I'd like to present not one, not two, but 3 pencil test animations. The first I showed last week was intended to be looped (which i never figured out with YouTube), while these are not.
The first is a short pencil test of a bouncing ball. I've done this exact exercise before, except in a computer using Adobe After Effects. While After Effects works great with this type of situation, it kills the entire point of the exercise. You will notice in this one that there is a "squash and stretch" involved as the ball bounces. When played at full speed it looks natural, but frame by frame it looks odd. This is a standard technique to show movement in animation, and mimics how a photograph or live action film blurs movement. The important thing here is to get the timing and make a realistic looking bounce. Doing this in the computer lets the the computer do ALL the work. You give it a few commands, it does the rest. But by doing it by hand, you really have to learn how to draw, how to figure out the timing, how to adjust the speed of the ball, etc. One thing you have to do here is learn when and how to use Ones and Twos in animation. (see previous posts about Ones and Twos).

 

Next is a variation of the same thing.  Instead of just being a bouncy ball, it is a Bob-omb, with a cute twist ending.  I took a loot of effort to get the roll of the bomb just right, and I think it works out well in the end.  UNFORTUNATELY... youtube is crap, and has managed to destroy the file.  You can not see the joke, or even half the animation.  What you are suppose to see is a match fall on the left hand side of the screen just before the bomb is thrown.  Then as the fuse goes down, the match explodes instead of the bomb, waking up the bob-omb who is confused by the whole thing.  Sorry for the bad quality, I'll see what i can do to fix it later.

FINALLY... This last one is a pencil test of Timothy the mouse from Dumbo.  All the Key frames (which are the most important frames showing the extremes of the motion) are photocopies of the actual pencil tests of the character.  All the inbetweens are drawn by me.  In total, I drew 10 images out of the set of 16.  It is my favorite of these so far, and is really exciting to see.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to the character, Timothy is owned by Disney.  I have posted this as a student project in the pursuit of studying the animation.  As a Disney employee, if anyone has issue with this, please contact me directly.

 

Well that is all for now.  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.  I hope to soon post a review of the Lion King in 3D, with a focus on the stereoscopic 3D, but also on the movie as a whole.  Be sure to check out Dumbo on Blu-ray and DVD!  Till then...

Sayounara!

7th Row Center podcast

I am still having some technical difficulty with my latest YouTube video... I apologize for not being able to see the short animation. I will fix it as soon as I can figure it out.
Until then, I'd like to let everyone know about a few things that are happening.
First, Check out "7th Row Center" to hear a podcast all about animation, or more specifically about Disney, featuring yours truly. I'd like to welcome everyone who was directed to my humble blog thanks to the podcast. Feel free to leave comments, questions, or anything else int he comments section below or through email (cptgreedle@gmail.com). It is an excellent podcast, even when I am not in it, and will keep you entertained and informed about movies.
Next, I have 2 new animations to post, but I will do that on my next update. I only hope to fix the issue with youtube before I post them.
I should have another animation or 2 next week as well, including a test involving Timothy the mouse from Dumbo. I still need to make sure it is ok to post it, but I'll post something.
Also, anyone that might be tuning in from SCAD, if you are reading this, I hope you are interested in animation, and perhaps in the animation field. If so, be sure to check out the SCAD Atlanta Animation Society (SAAS), which will be having its next meeting soon. It is a worthwhile society for anyone interested in going into animation.
There is a chance that I will also have a very good short video to show next week, as part of a collaborative project, which I will post more details about later.
That is all for now, thanks again for tuning in, and be sure to check out Alex "Da Movie Guy" and his podcast at www.7throwcenter.com/

Au Revoir

Pencil test 1

Hey everyone.  I have finally finished my first 'official' hand-drawn 2D animation.  It is only a pencil test, and can be a little hard to see.  It is not inked, so it is rather light, but you get the gist of it.  The point of an exercise like this isn't just to draw something animating, but to understand the importance and dynamics of timing, shape, arcs, and the concept of "Ones" and "Twos".  To put it simply, if a single drawing of an animation goes by in one frame, and is following by a new drawing in the next frame, that drawing is on a "One", meaning it lingers for one frame.  If that drawing is on 2 consecutive frames, then it is one "Twos", meaning it lingers for 2 frames.  You can actually have a drawing linger for as many frames as you want, but for the illusion of movement, you should try to avoid anything less than a 2 unless the movement of the object as stopped.
I'm trying to get YouTube to loop this video.  I've seen a looped video before, so if anyone can tell me how to do it, let me know.  Thanks!
So this is a very useful pencil test, and I should have 2 or 3 new animations up next week!
Till then

ADIOS

SCAD so far

Well my first week of the fall quarter at SCAD is complete, and I must say I am enjoying all my classes! My first class is an introduction to 2D animation. I have done 2D animation before at GMU, where I used After Effects to animated a bouncy ball, a scrolling background, and even a walk cycle. Problem is, it taught me next to nothing about actual animation. The computer did almost all the work. I just told it what key frames to use and it did the rest. In the real world of animation, if you don't have a solid foundation in hand-drawn animation, you aren't going anywhere. This week, we've already drawn a swining pendulum. This was a simple timing exercise but it is essential for new animators to learn how to time an animation and how to make something flow smoothly. It wasn't as much work as I was expecting it to be, but I did have experience in animation, music, and timing before.
I've had a great time drawing it out, and once I grab a copy of the simple pencil test animation I did from the computer at school, I will post it here.
My next class is an introduction into screen design, aka making it look good. This is about the layout of objects on a screen, how to make a cinematic experience really work, and the rules of camera work and so on. We are studying movies and animations to get an idea of how to make a scene logically flow, as well as the tips and tricks film makers use to achieve the desired effect. Watching the opening scene of Laputa, Castle in the Sky, we learned in the first class how important these tools are, and how effective.
Finally, the history of animation class finishes my day. Literally.. all my classes are the same day, and give me almost no time between them. Nonetheless, I finish up with history of animation which is fascinating and has more to do with film and actors like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd than you'd expect.
I will be viewing the Lion King later, and will post something reviewing the new Stereoscopic version in theaters this week.

ADIOS!

In for the long haul

Howdy all!

If you haven't heard yet, I've added a Facebook page for my blog, which you can access by searching for Weakly Animated on Facebook, or clicking the link on the side of the page.
I am also going to e in an episode of the podcast SeventhRowCenter, which I will be adding a link to soon. If you are into movies, or want to know what is worth your dollar, this is the podcast to see... err... hear.

This will be a short post today. Tomorrow I start up fall classes at SCAD, with a focus on animation (yay!). I will be sure to post a lot about how my classes are going, what I've been learning, but also more movie reviews.

If you are interested in hearing about something specific, let me know!

Adios!

Bambi II, no more Mr Nice deer

Ok, so this is going to be a short post.

Essentially, one thing I've noticed about animation, both hand drawn and CG, is that the better the budget and quality, the better the actual animation.  I don't mean special effects, I don't mean story, I don't mean film quality.  I'm talking about the more effort the artists put into the movement of the characters.  If you take a look at a low budget cartoon, such as many of the Saturday morning cartoons on TV (going back as far as I can remember), you will see a series of characters with stiff movements, extremely limited movement, or no movement at all.  To put it simply, if you can't afford the quality, you don't get the quality.  Cutting corners is a very popular and well-practiced skill in animation, often leading to misconceptions that all animations are cartoons and for kids.

Now look at a high quality move, like one that Disney makes, or Dreamworks, or even a Don Bluth film.  These have far more actual movement of the characters, and often more interaction with the environment and other characters.  You can see subtly of movement with the characters, sometimes easy to miss, but drawn out none-the-less.  Often, with CG, studios will use Motion Capture to get around having to animate a character with all these subtle movements.  This is in some cases cheating, since Disney and Pixar have proven you don't need Motion Capture to create exceedingly wonderful moving characters.  In fact, I prefer Motion Capture to be limited to movies that are either using a digital character mixed with live action (such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.), or realistic CG movies (like Beowulf), and leave it out of traditional animations (such as Tangled, Toy Story, etc.).  You can always use references, Walt Disney has been doing that since Snow White, if not earlier.  It isn't exactly rotoscope, but it is a similar idea.

Why do I bring all this up?  Well, you can often see the quality of an animation just by looking at the way a character moves.  This does not speak at all about the story, the acting, or even the cinematography or any other aspect of the film, but if they have a decent budget, seeing a very well-animated character usually means they put an effort into the movie, and probably also other aspects of it.  Now, granted, the movie could still be bad, it could still be lacking in other areas, but for a visual sense, it has potential.  A specific case in point for me is Bambi II.  I have not seen this movie, and I am not one for sequels for the sake of making a sequel.  However, after looking at a few short clips of Bambi II, my jaw hit the floor.  I was instantly impressed but the subtlety of the movement of the characters.  From the way Thumper's ears flop around to the way the deers slightly bob their heads as they walk, these subtle cues along with an unexpectedly impressive visual appeal (color, lighting, etc) show that Disney put more effort into this sequel than some companies put into their headliners.
Plus it has Patrick freaking Stewart as the Prince of the Forest!

Now since I haven't seen this yet, I cannot give a real review, but I will say this: I am unexpectedly interested in checking out this movie in HD, and seeing for myself just how good the animation quality is, as well as the story and acting.  I hope this is a decent movie, but I will expect it to fall short.  If anyone has any comments or questions, or has seen Bambi II, please leave a message on the board.  Also, if you know if this was actually based on part of the book (which I have never read), could you let me know.  I've been trying to figure out if they made all this stuff up, or if they just filled in where the original movie skipped.

Check out the clips at the link below.  ADIOS!

Bambi II Clips

Hiatus halted

Greetings to everyone who has landed on my humble blog.

Recently, I have been busy with cleaning up my apartment, taking classes in Photography and Drawing, and spending time with family and friends as much as I can.  That isn't to say that I am making an excuse.  I really should just update my blog more often, and therefor I will be making no more excuses, and I will just update my blog.

From here on out, my posts will overall be shorter, but I plan to continue to do movie reviews at least once a week.  I have a lot of things to talk about, and am anxious to get started again!

First I would like to get people used to who I am, and what I think about.

For one, I have a BA in Digital Art at George Mason University, I have a passion for animation and film, and I am currently attending SCAD for animation, and I hope to get an MA.  I like to have and share my opinions with others, and I respect everyone's opinions as long as they are logically sound.  I believe in skepticism and you should investigate things on your own, and not just listen to rumors.  I am often proven wrong about things, and so I admit I am not always right, but I take these opportunities to learn and adapt my opinions.

Animation for me is a pure form of film as art.  Of course I love traditional film, with sequential photographs synchronized to sound, but animation is taking the limitations of photography out of the picture.  With animation, you are only limited by your skill and your imagination.  Granted, budgets are a major part of this as well.  Animation is all about being visually stunning, each and every element of the image being painstakingly crafted, so the overall visual field is a work of pure imagination and talent.

Animation is old, older than photography.  The original attempt at animation date back thousands of years to cave drawings which depicted movement through multiple limbs in different positions.  There has even recently been discovered a bowl in Iran that dates back 5,200 years that uses a form of animation called a zoetrope.  Throughout the ages, people have tried to mimic movement in art, from Phantasmagoria to the Thaumatrope to the Phenakistoscope.  Animation made it's mark in film 1900 with "The Enchanted Drawing", which depicted a man drawing a face, and then interacting with the face and other drawn objects.  6 years later, the same man, J. Stuart Blackton, created the first fully animated film with "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces".  The oldest films date back to the 1880s, meaning that animation has been a part of cinema since the very beginning.

Today, animation is seen as something more for children than adults.  True, there are the few adult animations like Heavy Metal and Fritz the Cat (among others), but the biggest industry for animation not solely aimed for children or families has been the Japanese Anime industry.  Today, you are as likely to find an anime intended for an adult audience with an 18+ rating as you are to find one for a small child.  Despite this, animation still suffers from an identification crisis.  Adults don't watch "cartoons", and anime is for "fanboys" and "perverts".  Luckily, this has not held back the animation industry, although it has had many rough times.  Even Walt Disney himself grew tired of making animations, and focused on live-action films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mary Poppins, and Davy Crockett.

For me, I like to explore animation not only for the innocence and whimsy they often portray, but also the art, the technical aspects, and the various themes.  I embrace animations for older audiences, and find joy in truly family films.


I will talk more about all aspects of animation, while I continue on my quest to earn an MA and find my way into the animation industry.
Other topics I will cover include video games (or interactive media/interactive animation), 3d (or stereoscopic), theaters, film, and even IMAX.  If you haven't read it yet, check out my explanation of IMAX using the search bar.

Briefly, I will mention 3D and IMAX, as per requested.  I feel 3D (stereoscopy) has a place in the future.  It has been around since the 1800's as many early photographers wanted to explore depth in their work.  I both like it and dislike it as it stands now.  There are times when 3D is used correctly, and actually can add another element to the visual field, however it has been abused too much and turned into a gimmick.  This of course hurts the reputation of 3D.  When a film is made with a 3D camera, you usually get a decent 3D effect, however it seems that today there are more "3D" movies coming out that are only made 3D in post-production, which is an atrocity and usually is a gimmick to add $5 to your ticket.  3D can cause headaches, eye strain, and can even be bad for children's eyes.  And yet, people still go to movies to see 3D films, and 3D has started to invade homes more than ever.  I suspect it will be here to stay, even if it starts to lose money.  I can only hope they perfect the technology, and stop making 2D films and then converting them into 3D!  Either make your film 2D, or 3D, don't fake it!  I can't blame anyone for getting turned off by 3D, with the massive price tag and gimmick factor it has lately been sporting.

As for IMAX, there is true IMAX format, and then there is IMAX brand name (also known as Digital IMAX).  Now usually the IMAX brand name is at least good quality, large screen, etc.  However, the films that come out in "IMAX" are for the most part not using the IMAX format film, which is a 70mm film format.  Instead, they just show 4k or 2k (equivalent to 35mm) digital film on a large screen, like any other theater will do, and charge you more for it.  While sometimes this is fine, and seeing things on a big screen is always impressive, often it is a waste of money.  If you want to truly see IMAX, then the screen better be a square, not a rectangle.  The IMAX format uses a 1.44:1 ratio, while typical films use 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 ratios.  This means that IMAX format with a true IMAX quality image will be close to the standard television aspect ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1) and not widescreen at all.  To top it off, the size difference of the screens are drastic.  An IMAX brand screen can be any size at all, but they are typically not much larger than a large standard movie theater screen, while a true IMAX format screen can be from 52 feet tall and 72 feet wide to almost 120 feet wide and 100 feet tall!
"But wait, I saw Harry Potter/Batman/Transformers/Superman/Spiderman/etc. in IMAX and heard it was filmed in IMAX."  Sure you did, and the pope wears a thong.  Seriously though, what you usually run into with major films are either IMAX DMR (or "upconverted") films, or partially filmed in IMAX films.  The first is a way to take movies like Apollo 13 and make it look better on a large IMAX screen through a complex upconverting process.  This actually cannot add any more detail to the image when it is on a large IMAX screen, it only makes it not look as bad as it would had it not gone through that process.  As for partially filmed in IMAX movies, usually only 1 or 2 scenes in a film will be made with an IMAX camera, in the IMAX format.  The rest of the movie (about 95% of it) will be with a regular camera and probably upconverted as well.  Any film that is made with only IMAX film will look far more crisp and detailed than the upconverted films, and will always fill an IMAX screen, while the others will not.
So it is my hope that the IMAX format starts to become more prevalent, and more IMAX format theaters open, rather than Digital IMAX.  I enjoy seeing the big screens and seeing big movies on them, and I have never run into a Digital IMAX theater I didn't like, but is it worth the extra money?  Probably not.  It is not as gimmicky as 3D, unless you see a 3D IMAX movie.  However, when it comes to home theaters, which is where most people end up watching movies anyways, IMAX filmed movies will look no better than any other HD movie.

So to sum up:
3D = bad, but with potential, but heading in the wrong direction to get any better anytime soon.
IMAX = be wary of what you are watching and where.
IMAX 3D = hole in your pocket.

Till next time!  ADIOS!

Getting back to my roots

Hi all.
This will be a short blog entry.  I am currently in VA, visiting with family.  My wife is staying up here, while she works and I go to classes.  It is good to see her again, but I hope we can get her to join me down south soon.
For now, I'll be working on spending time with everyone and relaxing.  I will continue my blog next week, and I'll try to post some more of my artwork on my next post as well.
Look forward to more movie reviews as well.

(You might also note I have tweaked my blog's look, as well as activated the new Mobile feature on the site.  Whenever you read this on your mobile device, be it phone or whatever, it will be in a mobile device friendly format.)

Ta ta!

Adding it all up

Well the school year is over, which means for me, my first quarter is finished, and it is summer vacation.  Odd, every time I've started school at a college (3 different ones now), I've always started in the Spring.  Anywho... I'm now taking a break for the summer not because I want to, but because there are no classes being offered that I can take.  So with that in mind, this summer I plan to do a few things I've been needing to do, and prepare for my next quarter in the fall.
Today, I officially got back my grades for the quarter as well.  My drawing teacher, Mr. Carl Linstrum, was very generous and very awesome.  We gave me an A for my final, which, combined with my 100% on my final exam, got me an A for the class (but only just).  He admitted I needed to do more work on my final drawing, which I am planning to do, since I want to submit it to the student exhibition, Beyond the Dot, next year, once it is completed.  It shouldn't take too long, but now I don't have to feel pressured for time to get it done.  I do have to make sure it is presentable, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  It was an Awesome class, and I'm glad I didn't try to transfer out of it.
My Public Speaking teacher, Dr. Todd Wirth, was great!  He was really fun, and liked to tell jokes at the beginning of each class (most of them groaners).  This teaching method involved a more hands-on approach, getting the class up and moving on the first day of class, and getting us used to the idea of standing in front of an audience and giving a speech.  While it still only feels like we gave 2 actual speeches, he actually made us give 7 in the class, most of which he snuck in to show us what it is like to give a speech of some sort.  The hardest part of the class wasn't actually the speech, but rather the final test.  I ran out of energy studying, and there was so much to cover, with things you never thought about regarding speeches, that I ended up with my lowest grade for the class, a B.  (I know, I know... I'm such a lazy bum for not staying up after 4 am studying after not sleeping the night before and only getting 3 hours the night before that).  Regardless, I ended up finishing the class with an A!  And if you haven't yet seen my last speech (which got an A), I'll post it at the bottom of this part.
Finally, there was my Color Theory class, with Ms. Marcia Cohen (easily recognized by her signature black and white checkered glasses).  She was a very tough but fair teacher.  She made sure we were professional in the classroom, and our projects were presented in a professional manner.  She was not the easiest teacher, but she was nice, and I liked her.  I consider her teaching style a type of tough love.  Now this was totally my fault.  I just couldn't get into this assignment, so I kept putting it off, and I ended up racing the clock to get it done.  That pointillism thing I kept talking about was finished about 5 minutes before class, not my best idea.  I really didn't want it to get that far, but I have no one but myself to blame.  I was just starting to get burned out from all the work I had been doing and didn't apply myself enough.  I ended up with a B on the project, which brought my final grade from a B... to a B.  Yes, I didn't get an A.  Oh well, it was still a B.  And like I said, I could have had an A if I just applied myself on that last project.
So that leaves me with 2 A's and a B for my first quarter, not bad.  Next I'll shoot for 3 A's.  It has been a difficult quarter, but combining opening a Disney Store with a full schedule at college has been a challenge.  I should be able to handle anything they throw at me, but for now, I get to work on some projects of my own.  Later this summer, I will be taking some photography classes and a portraiture class, for fun.  No grades involved, just a community education class to get in some practice and a little more know-how.  I will also get to see my wife, and hopefully get in more hours at work.  In the meantime, I have some books, games, and art projects that I want to work on.
I will of course continue to post here throughout the summer, with movie reviews, cool things I heard about, and just whatever else I feel like posting.  To all my fellow SCAD students and classmates, congrats on finishing up the quarter, I hope you all did well.
So till next time, enjoy my persuasive speech on why you should get your kids vaccinated.  (If you want to see the slideshow... just Google search the diseases in question).

TA TA