Sooooooo I don't know if any of you have had to opportunity to see the Disney film Tangled, but I seriously love this movie. Tangled is the story of Rapunzel with a twist: Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby when it was discovered by an evil witch that her hair of gold had magical properties. Her famous locks had the capability to heal injuries and restore youth and beauty when she sang a magic song. It sounds kind of weird, I'm well aware, but once you dig a little deeper into the story, it makes much more sense.
There are many things that make this film so enjoyable. The cast who voices the characters was simply perfect, led by Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi (CHUCK, for those of you who might know him from the NBC comedy of the same name) as Flynn Rider, a thief who finds Rapunzel by chance and agrees to help her in her quest to go to a festival in the castle (where she doesn't know it, but she is actually the princess. Sorry I'm not sorry for that spoiler...). In addition, I thought it was pretty interesting that apart from Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, not very many of the characters actually speak. For example, Rapunzels' best friend is a chameleon named Pascual, and Flynn Rider is aided in his quest to save Rapunzel by a white horse named Maximus. Neither of these characters speak (because they're animals-DUH.) but they provide a lot of comedy in the film. The king and queen never speak either, and upon being reunited with their long-lost daughter, I think it makes all the difference to how the audience reacts to the film. You wouldn't necessarily think that an animated film would reconsider the use of voice in this way, but I personally think it makes it that much more powerful.
Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and the chameleon, Pascual
However, I think the best part about this film, apart from the flawless animation is definitely the writing. In any animation, the story is almost always the most important aspect, and in this case that is most definitely true. Writing a film that is animated and making that film suitable and enjoyable for all ages is an admirable feat, and Tangled accomplishes this and much more.
I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate the animation of Rapunzel's hair in this film. To me, animating hair seems like a really tough job, and I feel like more recent animated films, such as The Incredibles, have done a really cool job of making hair look super realistic. In a film about a girl with super long hair, it definitely has to look as real as possible, and I think their use of animation is fantastic. It looks so realistic, as does the entire film, but I think learning about animation and then watching this film gave me a greater appreciation for how this film was made.
If you haven't seen Tangled, I highly recommend it. Even though it's a G-rated childrens movie, it's very classic disney and it will not disappoint. If you do give it a chance, let me know, I'd love to hear what you think! See you all tomorrow...
While I was researching different tutorials for After Effects I found a new way to use the particle animation that we talked about in class. Someone actually posted the tutorial that we saw in class on this blog, but just for those who didn't see it, its from VideoCopilot and it demonstrates how to create particle animation.
Well, on Greymachine there is a tutorial on fairytale lighting that illustrates a whole other way to create particle animation. Rather than using the Particle World effect, go to "Effect" then "Trapcode" and select "Particular." It allows for a whole new usage and control of particle animation. Now I wasn't able to figure out whether or not the tutorial was done on CS4 or CS5 but I still found it to be an informative tutorial in terms of lighting.
There is also a new Trapcode Form 2 which is seen in this tutorial that would be really interesting to work with for different projects. It allows for a different format of particles that Harry Frank goes on to explore during the tutorial.
