British Animation Awards

This week were the British Animation Awards, which celebrate the best films and animation in the UK. While Shawn the Sheep took best long form (to no big surprise) the other films all seem really interesting.

The biggest headliner is that Martin Freeman won best voice acting for his performance in BBC One's The Stickman. It is actually a rather remarkable little short, but isn't currently available to stream in the US. Check out the trailer below:

Orphan Black Magic

Orphan Black has been a major hit show for the past two seasons and is one of my absolute favorites. Not only because of the characters, but also because of the special effects put into the production to make this show a possibility.  The special effects used in this show allow Tatiana Maslany to play all six clones during filming instead of having six different people playing the six different clones.  Through their use of robotically controlled dollies and the software Fusion, a scene like the one below can be created.  (hint, all four women in this scene is Tatiana Maslany)

While Tatiana does all her work with stand ins acting as another clone, Fusion allows for the editors to manipulate the footage and put all the different Tatianas into the scene at once.  If you have not seen the show I strongly encourage you to watch it.  It will satisfy your creative, technical and slightly weird side that all of us hide.

Orphan Black: A Story of Clones

If you’re a fan of the Parent Trap (and are still in denial about Lindsay Lohan not having a twin sister), take a seat because I’m about to introduce you to something that will make those effects look like child’s play. Orphan Black is the name, but simple cloning is not its game. Created by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, Orphan Black is a drama aired via the BBC that deals with the concept of clones. And while you may think “making a clone video isn’t that hard,” I’d say to hold off on your judgement just yet. Because Orphan Black brings a new twist to the classic clone genre: these ones can actually interact and appear in the same moving environment as the other. Don’t really understand? It means that one clone can smack the other in the face and not be blocked out of frame with a stand in.

It’s a very unique and very complicated process, but the effort put in can really be seen in the final product. I ended up binge-watching almost the entire first season in one night not only because the story was absolutely engaging but because I wanted to see just how far they were going to take these special effects. It’s a strangely thrilling process to watch as they balance tennis balls to save a place for putting in clones, shoot their shots five different ways (and times), and create a whole new element of cloning that I haven’t seen in any digital media for quite awhile.

It’ll make you do a double-take, leave you feeling more confused than satisfied, but it’s an addiction that is not something you’ll regret.

Making a Parody: Need A Title Sequence

There are many factors that go into making a good parody, and one of the most overlooked aspects is the title sequence. Now, it might not seem that important but a good title sequence can make or break any production.

Take a look at the famous youtube channel, the Hillywood Show:

For quick introductions: the Hillywood show is a channel on youtube co-created by sisters Hannah and Hilly Hindi. They produce parodies of widely popular shows and movies, to the beat of re-mixed songs, dancing, singing, and acting as the original characters. Amazingly enough, they do it without a huge production crew and they've attracted the attention of many celebrities (like Lady Gaga and Psy). 

And the parody aside (how fantastic it may be), we need to give some props to the people who created that opening sequence. For any non-Whovians, Doctor Who is a British sci-fi series produced by the BBC that follows the Doctor as he travels across time and space with his many companions. It's one of the longest-running shows, dating back to 1963, but it's become a cult classic in recent years. 

Even if you only head of this show in passing, you've probably heard of the most iconic thing to this show: the Tardis. It's essentially the Doctor's "space ship" that he uses to propel himself where he needs to go (or where he happens to end up). Without getting too much into the logistics of the show, the important thing to take away is that the Tardis is iconic in more ways than one. 

And you can't have a cult classic without an anthem, but this one is slightly more unique.:

As you can see, it has no lyrics but that doesn't take away from the feel of the show at all. If anything, it sets up an almost invigoration vibe. It's as if we too have joined the Doctor on his quest through time and space. And the animation of this sequence is legendary. Although it has changed throughout the years, the concept remains. Swirling stars and galaxies whiz by, as the Tardis comes spinning too and fro. It's a journey and it's one that should be appreciated.

And getting back to the Hillywood show, they have people and users like Tom Dicker and Thomasjt017 to recreate their titles just like the original. It may not seem like much, but it really sets up the parody to be something great because it's familiar. For all those fans who passionately sing along to the BBC's version, they have something to look forward to in the Hillywood's one. As "the Hillywood Show" dances in-line where "Matt Smith's" name would be, viewers from both communities find something of equal purchase.

And that's why opening sequences matter. Because animation means something. It's iconic in the most subtle of way, especially in live-action shows. It sets up the atmosphere and it pulls us along for the journey. Some may say it even grabs our hands and tells us to "run."

Doctor Who: Don't Blink

 I have come to admire about the Doctor Who show has been their creative ability to make some of the most brilliantly subtle characters with the budget they have. One of my favorite episodes from the third season is called Blink. This episode I admire on few different levels.

For one this episode barely features either The Doctor or his companion, but rather focuses on the lives of the everyday people that may occasionally find themselves sucked into his world of aliens and monsters. This style of storytelling I'm sure has been done done in one of the previous seasons of Doctor Who. But what makes this one stand out is how the Doctor is remains in background through a series of DVDs that give the present day protagonist the instructions on how to deal with enemies for the episode.

The Full Speech on DVD

But the main thing that I enjoyed about this episode were the Weeping Angels that played the antagonists for the episode. The Weeping Angels are a race of extremely fast aliens that can only move when you're not looking at them. When you do they become frozen in their statute positions as part of a genetic defense mechanism. What makes these angels so terrifying is that whenever you blink at one of them they are able to move closer to you.

At first I thought the Angels were statutes that the people in production design had created in a variety of posses but I later discovered that they were actually done by actresses. From what I've gathered the make up department made a series of casts on the actresses faces in an array of facial posses: neutral, shock and feral. Afterwards after getting into their stone like costumes, all the parts of their skin that weren't covered already were painted over the various shades of stone grey.

I've come to think of these Angels to be almost like the Xenomorph Aliens from the 1986 Ridley Scott film. The reason I say this is because both of these creatures blend perfectly into the background.

Not sure if there were any in this particular shot
But a lot of them did tend to hide like this

Little changes in expression to keep on your toes.

Life, The Universe & Animation Today

While I have very little experience working with animation, I have come appreciate the immense amount of time an effort that goes into making the various title sequences that help films and television shows standout. For instance in the Bond franchise each film has its own unique opening sequence style and theme that helps set it apart from its predecessors.                  

One of my favorite pieces of animation growing up were the various guide entries of BBC's 1981 adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One of things that stood out to me in researching these animation sequences was the fact that they were hand drawn rather than created on the computers of the day. Today everything is animated via computers.

Today with programs like after effects and maya we are capable of creating entire three dimensional life-like worlds. After seeing Alex Roman's Third and Seventh I was truly astonished to learn that the entire video we watched was one hundred percent animation. This realization both shocked and amazed me for two reasons. One, the fact that this one man was able to accomplish this by himself in the course of one year. Secondly, the thing that slightly scares me about this is the potential that if someone had a large enough team and equipment, they could easily fool the untrained eyes and blur the lines of reality and illusion. While this may sound like something out of a dystopian science fiction story, we're probably not too far off with all the technology currently available.

While this I don't think I have that level of dedication to create the same quality of work as Roman, I am looking forward to working this semester. Seeing the work of Roman as well as some the videos  of the previous versions of this class has given me something to shoot for. Although motion graphics and animation are not my primary areas study, I hope to continue dabbling in this field after the semester is over.

For those of you who like to go back and look at past posts on this site, here's a video I found a while ago of an interview with Rod Lord.

Motion Graphics in Sherlock on BBC

http://www.peterandersonstudio.co.uk/the_html/title-sherlock

So a couple weeks ago I shared the Sherlock opening titles, and I realized that I also wanted to do a post on the motion graphics in the show, because I think that they are some of the smartest I've seen on TV. It's hard to find video of this on youtube, above is a reel from the studio in the UK that makes them, however. What is amazing to me is both their simplicity and their effect. The graphics studio has said that their primary effort and inspiration in their designs is trying to get the viewer into the mind of Sherlock Holmes. Keep in mind that in this rendition of Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a neurotic, crazed, aloof genius. So the motion graphics in this show display this kind of "stream of consciousness to them" that is really cool. In one of the first ones (The second video on the website), you can see Sherlock sorting through what this writing on the floor of a woman who died means. He rotates through possible options, choosing one but then disregarding it, which is shown by the dictionary term for "Rache" (the word on the ground) being shattered. He then looks on the ground and cycles through letters, coming to the conclusion that what the victim was trying to say was "Rachel".

The show also really smartly handles texts in the show. For me, it has been a problem of shows in the past few years being able to integrate texting, because the visuality to it is only on the phone itself. Some shows do close ups on the phone to show what is going on, but Sherlock, in my opinion, does it better. The graphics studio has the text floating next to the person writing it, and while it might seem to be distracting or too not real for this type of show, it really works in this case

Overall I highly recommend watching Sherlock's graphics for an example of understated, modern style of motion graphics on TV.


Some more examples from the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOOXlvai0bU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqlh8qlvX4w

Sherlock Title Sequence

This is the titles for series 2 of Sherlock, from the BBC. The thing I want to draw your attention to is the elegance at which the title sequence flows, but the sheer amount of assets used as well. The more complicated the sequence, you would think the more confusing and complicated the video would seem to be. However, I couldn't talk up the slickness of the compositing in this sequence. Each piece of video flows into the next, and so the whole thing flows incredibly well. I want to draw your attention to a couple of incredible edits in this piece. First, there is a transition with a flashlight that really impressed me. The flashlight at :18 flashes in front of the camera, and transitions to a shot of the front of Sherlock's apartment. In the shot of the apartment door there is a light bloom effect to give the transition more effect. There is also some incredible compositing between :5 and :15, each giving depth and a sense of character for Sherlock and Watson. And of course, Arturo has been talking a lot about the importance music in graphics, and this sequence masterfully matches the audio, making for just a superb piece.

Never.no and Vizrt to be partners

Over the past two years and especially during the current presidential race there has been a growing trend of integrating social media into live television. Viewers can tweet everything from questions for a political debate to comments about a live broadcast with the chance of it showing up on television screens across the nation. I'm sure a few of you, like myself have wondered exactly how this is done. As it turns out the system is much more complex than I first thought. Apparently television channels like the BBC and NBC out source this function to a variety of companies offering various options for creating an interactive environment for viewers by integrating  social media and mobile phone applications with live television. On top of the company who develops the technology to make this happen an entirely separate group of companies are hired to design the real time 3-D graphics you see on the screen. According to braodcastnewsroom.com two of the leading companies on both ends of this new technology have just announced a partnership that will not only be lucrative for them, but also has potential to make getting access to this technology a lot easier for clients. The website quotes the CEO of never.no (one of the companies involved in the partnership) as saying "Vizrt is the world leader in real-time 3D graphics, and never.no is the world leader in social TV solutions. Together we bring to the market an unmatched end-to-end solution to connect the audience directly to the action on TV." So, will we be seeing more and more social media on our television screens over the next couple of years? My guess it yes. Let's at least hope they come up with some good looking graphics to go with it!