Interesting Animator

http://stephenmcnallydraws.com/

Above is a link to the website of Stephen McNally, a very talented Irish animator I recently discovered while looking through Vimeo videos.  A lot of his videos combine the use of 2D and 3D animation, giving his work a unique style. He has also uploaded several making of videos that break down the steps he goes through to create such interesting animations.  I strongly suggest you check him out.

Here's his vimeo page too: https://vimeo.com/mcnallystephen

Color and Movement in MS "Ghost"

I was surfin the net like I'm one to do, when I came across a really rad animated music video. I usually don't like dubsteppy kinda stuff, but I found myself really liking this one!

First of all check out how bobby everything is! It's like the characters are actually dancing to the music. Also the skull guy, even though he don't have no mouth, is designed so well that you always know what he's thinking. Could you make this kind of stuff in After effects? I feel like the bobbing to the music thing is something I've seen us do before in class.

The only thing I really don't like about the music video are the colors of the main characters. Everything is colored really spookily, but the other main characters are these boring flat colors. It makes me more mad than when I strikeout in a softball game. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Social Change Through Animation

I find that some of the most effective ways to trap people's attention about something important is with well designed motion graphics. Below are some social messages I found on Vimeo promoting social issues, and what we can do about them:


The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo.



Water Changes Everything. from charity: water on Vimeo.





TakePart: Participant Media - Waiting For 'Superman' - Infographic from Jr.canest on Vimeo.



Beyond Bytes from Florian Köhne on Vimeo.



The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.



History of the Internet from Melih Bilgil on Vimeo.



Master Plan - About the power of Google from Jonas A on Vimeo.

Frozen Common Sense

Continuing with my recurring theme of cynicism and get-off-my-lawn-you-whippersnappers style of posts (due to my lack of ability to create a well worded, well educating one), I saw a video recently that kind of pissed me off (WOW, alert the press). Shown below, it's an animation of characters from Disney's Frozen doing shot-for-shot Thriller dance. Now of course, in traditional internet style, this video got worldwide acclaim over the past 24 hours or so. Now of course, anything Frozen-related is bound to be popular because it's the law. It's officially written in the law books that all abiding citizens MUST gawk at ANY mention of Frozen on the internet, laugh at it for hours, and share the hell out of it on social media and NEVER, EVER shut up about it in class/at work/while having sex/while on the bus/etc. You must sing Let it Go at all times, even while sleeping. And you NEED to take every Buzzfeed quiz you see to see which Frozen character you are.

I'm getting off topic.

BUT, take the entity that is Frozen and combine it with Thriller -- WOAH!! Nostalgia!! 90's kids!! Combine something from when everything was awesome (because nothing bad happened in the 80's) and something cool on the internet from the present and you have THE BEST THING EVER. It's amazing what people see as the BEST THING EVER. This is not the BEST THING EVER. Here's why:

As pointed out in the comments of this video, chances are, this video ITSELF came to be in probably under 20 minutes. When you watch it you think, "wow! this must have taken foreverrrrr!" but no. Some guy with basic MMD knowledge took pre-made models and pre-made dance moves, downloaded them and inserted slot A into slot B, then took all the credit. The real skill, however, lies in the people that actually MADE the models to look exactly like the characters, and the people who spent hours, days, maybe weeks, tweaking the models to do each dance move motion for motion. But those people don't get the credit. There may be a small grouping of the public that knows where all of the work actually came from. But it pales in comparison to the amount of people that think one guy did all of this. Hell, some people probably credit THIS website for making it. Now this guy DOES give credit to the people that made the stuff, but that's not what I'm getting at. It's that the general public's tunnel vision sees right past all of that. Credit is never fully given where it is deserved. That's the problem of the internet-well, one of millions. It's so easy to let other people get the credit for your hard work.

So, is this video cool? Sure! Is it legendary? No. STOP OBSESSING OVER FROZEN.

The Inverse of Progress

We as a society seem to be a living paradox. In the present, technology is at an all-time high level of advancement. Every day, more and more things are discovered/invented and one can looj back one week and say "I don't know how I survived back then without x". But, at the same time, the general public seems to have lower and lower standards every day.

You would think that with the level we're at, people would demand technological marvels lije holograms, jetpacks and futuristic things of the sort. But, in 2014, the most downloaded iPhone app was a game with primitive graphics that involved mindlessly and repeatedly tapping the screen. That is all it takes to demand peoples' attention. On the internet, anything is achievable. But, people continue to gawk at trivial things like memes and vague pictures that can refer to anything. The level of intelligence on the internet gets lower and lower with each passing moment. Now of course, I'm no better. I often find myself laughing at memes and reaction faces. I'm just as human as anyone else but I do realize there's more internet beyond memes and there are more technological wonders than Flappy Bird, and I try to broaden my horizons. But sadly, the foreground of the internet is cluttered with the same things rehashed and reposted over and over and over again. Standards for quality material sink lower and lower.

And the biggest offender, of course, is this asshole.

The Innovation of Loneliness

So this is my first blog post ever. I am looking forward to seeing all the different sources, videos, materials, and articles the students of this class will post this semester. The internet is an incredible source, when used correctly and intellectually.
With that said, I thought it might be somewhat interesting to look at the internet, specifically social media, in a new light. I found this video a few months ago browsing. It was ironic that I decided to post it Facebook and send it to a few friends because of what it is about. Even though it somewhat shut down Facebook, I knew people would see the post and potentially watch it.
This video's animation is so simple, yet so interesting to me. The color palette and style of this particular animator, Shimi Cohen is interesting and neat. The short The Innovation of Loneliness was nominated for the 2013 Forster Film Festival's Best Film and won the creativity award for the Festival. Aside from the animation of the work I do also identify with the message and position of the piece. I hope you enjoy!

Shimi Cohen source: Vimeo


The Innovation of Loneliness from Shimi Cohen on Vimeo.
What is the connection between Social Networks and Being Lonely?
Quoting the words of Sherry Turkle from her TED talk - Connected, But Alone.
(http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html)
Also Based on Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers hebrew article -The Invention of Loneliness.

Script, Design & Animation: Shimi Cohen

Final Project at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design.
Source