White Winter Hymnal, Beautiful Clay Animation

I stumbled across this animated music video a few years ago simply because I liked the song White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes, however I couldn't be happier that I did. Every time I hear the song I think about this "simple" and beautiful animation, directed by Sean Pecknold. It is a claymation that was carefully constructed with gorgeous textures in the materials and also fittingly uses and animates all organic materials. The palette of the film adds to the atmospheric feeling that the animation and diffused sense of lighting provide, only to be complimented by the music.

There are great moments that have stayed with me, like the animated snow melting into puddles of water with the play of light reflecting as clay flowers sprout from the ground (starts at 1:19). The video tells a simple story about time that is whimsical, beautiful, saddening, and overall very cinematic.

Kinetic Typography

I have always loved watching the creativity of kinetic typography projects. Kenetic typography is the idea of taking words and animating them.

FROM PAPER TO SCREEN from Thibault de Fournas on Vimeo.

For the most part these projects are timed to music:

or sometimes music videos:

Some projects have some really interesting messages and tell really beautiful stories:

ChildLine: First Step from Buck on Vimeo.

But I think that this style of media is the most powerful because it forces your audience to read and watch you message in a one of a kind way. Similar to the way Prezi adds interest to a presentation, Kinetic Typography makes any poem, lyric, or written work come to life in it's own way.

Over the Garden Wall: A Dark Sort of Animation

   
    You know those series that you kind of snap out of watching in a fumbling, blurry mess, not knowing where you are or what time it is? It's kind of like getting drunk, but then having the hangover happen almost immediately. You love it but you hate it, you question your life over it but you'll do it again. And for me, this (the binge-watching daze not the drunk one) happened late one night when I was looking around for something to distract me from doing actual work.
     And luckily I happened to stumble across this little series, Over the Garden Wall, by Cartoon Network. The little eight year old within me perked up at seeing something that resembled the cartoons I had grown up loving fondly. And so I thought, why not, and plunged into the abyss. And so I found myself awake at 4am, desperately wanting to tell someone to experience roller coaster of emotions I had just been thrown on.
     This was everything that I love about cartoons because it's not something that can be explained completely in one sentence. Like I said, it also felt like a throwback to my childhood: a strangely dark and oddly twisted sort of storytelling.
      Written by Patrick McHale, it started off as an award-winning short called Tome of the Unknown that was picked up and produced as a full-length, ten-episode mini-series. Gathering some well known talent such as Elijah Wood and Christopher Lloyd, they've put life into these characters that is realistic in style and performance. Every single actor put life into their characters and they certainly wouldn't have been nearly as interesting had they not had the right voices.
    Over the Garden Wall follows two brothers (Greg and Wirt) who finds themselves lost in the woods, trying to find a way home. Their journey takes them across many lands and into many people, all of whom they effect in different ways. But while their journey seems whimsical on the surface, there's a darker tale that follows them like an ominous shadow. It's as if Alice in Wonderland and Courage the Cowardly Dog had a lovechild that was into musicals. It's a crazy sort of storytelling that you can't keep your eyes off of.
    And the aesthetic is something that made this a truly outstanding thing to see. It's a dark sort of animation in both context and illustration, one that only helps to express the tone of the series better than anything. It's as if we too are lost in these imposing woods, surrounded by an ominous feeling of being watched.
    Seeing the credits roll after the final episode, I was left feeling unsatisfied. Not in a bad way, but in a way that makes you question the universe. Because it was a story about two brothers more than it was a story about two brothers being lost in the woods. There's a sense of astute realness to their conversations and their actions (without the rigid confines of a writer trying to be too serious and prolific). And while it may have been non-sensical at times, there was still something about it that made sense in a linear fashion. Looking back, you can almost piece together what would happen next, given the many hints and clues that allude to what exactly is in "The Unknown."
     It's definitely a series to check out: if not for the aesthetic, for the story (and vice versa). It'll suck you in and it won't let you go until you've long since passed the urge to turn away. It'll leave you with more questions than answers, but you'll be okay with it. Because in the end it's just about two brothers. Two brothers who went over the garden wall.

Catch Me If You Can: A Story in a Title Sequence

The first time I saw Catch Me If You Can, I didn’t really have much idea of what the movie was going to be about. My knowledge going in was Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a dream. The title sequence for this movie is pretty cool and sort of sets you in the mindset for the movie. The sequence itself actually tells the entire story of the movie in just 2.5 minutes. With no knowledge of the plot at all, I didn’t catch this on my first view, but the style and execution of the sequence gave me an idea and something to expect. I entire sequence is a little bit whimsical and a little bit mysterious. The illustrations are easy and the colors are nice and it’s pretty easy to follow the story the title sequence is telling. After seeing the movie and knowing exactly the story the title sequence is telling, I can appreciate those colors even more. The color change from scene to scene within the sequence is a very deliberate reference to the overarching theme of the movie. I think it was handled in a very cool way. It’s amazing that you can tell the full story of a 2.5 hour star-studded movie in just 2.5 minutes using cartoons and colors.

Emotional Stick Figures: Animator Vs. Animation

A few years back, a video called Animator Vs. Animation became viral. This video features a self-aware stick figure made in Flash fighting with its creator. A huge hit, the creator, Alan Becker, released two more episodes over the following couple years. Just a few days ago, after years of nothing, Becker released the fourth installment of Animator Vs. Animation.

Each Animator Vs. Animation video has the sentient drawing interacting and fighting with its environment. There is a narrative occurring across the four videos, but each video can easily be watched standalone. Stickman also interacts directly with Animator via Animator’s cursor and together they wreak havoc on whatever venue they’re in—be it the desktop, Solitaire, or, in the new episode’s case, Facebook and an iPhone. Stickman takes tools from Flash to use as weapons, he hits ‘Likes’ statuses on Facebook, he knocks around aps on the iPhone. The final scene of the newest video is Stickman high-fiving Animator by Animator choosing the Hand tool in Flash.

Not only is the animation really cool and really clever, the use of relatively non-verbal storytelling is pretty cool. Especially in this newest video, though there is text present throughout, much of the narrative relies heavily on just visuals and sound effects. It’s amazing that we can catch the emotions of a faceless stick figure, but body language and head angle really does a lot.

Storytelling in Animation: South Park

This week I thought I would switch things up a bit with a look into the storytelling behind South Park since I've always wanted to write about this topic! While many of us are consumed with the aesthetic elements which make up our animations as we progress we should really  incorporate a strong plot in order to convey a cohesive product. Lastly while I am not trying to tell you to create ridiculous animations this is food for thought in what provokes your audience and how you can catch their attention.

  
  South Park has long been considered a major source of uncertainty for millions of Americans and citizens of other nations alike. Often known for exploiting social hierarchy, corporate America and depicting hundreds of other cultural references South Park uses unique provocative satire in their storytelling along with animation to construct social criticism and exploit wider issues in society.

Satire is found in many past and present-day plays, literature, television shows, media, commentary and has been a crucial part of South Park’s success in their 17 seasons as an American adult animated sitcom. South Park embodies a complex set of comedic values to project preferred meanings about social criticism, corruption of America and other political and social concepts involving worldwide phenomena. The storytelling behind the animated sitcom is considered so controversial it has been the source of much critical analysis by college students and scholars alike in the media and literary fields. The cultural norms displayed on the television series are often an exaggerated form of comedy used to shock the audience. While many people might explicitly reject these absurd recreations of human interaction, the questions raised by the production team in many of their episodes are something to consider. An interesting aspect to explore with the show is how the graphic material affects the way in which the individual views the world and therefore how their actions are based on their reactions to what they are viewing. For example, in many occurrences episodes contain disturbing even comedic mockery of major catastrophes and tragic events that have occurred. While some people are outraged at the show and even call the witty artistic expression a disgrace, people in America especially tend to alienate themselves from information about foreign/ national events making the show an interesting pill to swallow for the people of this nature. The show can also utilize subliminal tactics making it hard for the uninformed to pick up on the irony, satire or symbolism being used; this is sort of an “inside” joke if you will. This also raises another interesting question about whether the American public and international citizens alike can handle the ugly truth of worldwide corruption. The fact of the matter is while South Park may not be the actual event occurring in live time the animations created by this unique production team exposes the traumatizing real life truth of the world we live in.

South Park remains a controversial source of media due to the programs ruthless demeanor and unorthodox form of artistic expression. Consequently, South Park producers Matt Stone and Trey Parker utilize a compacted and convenient television show as its medium to deliver brilliant manifestations of irony and sarcasm focusing on critical worldwide issues to awaken an other wise naïve audience.

        Here are some examples of my argument... 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/south-park-sacrifices-red-heifer/

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes

The Smallest the Biggest and the Best

After watching Rebecca's very cool stop-motion animation, a medium I really love, I though I would post a few samples.

This one is supposedly the tiniest stop motion animation. I am a big fan of stop motion and have worked on many, so I can tell how precise and time consuming it must have been. But it is cool. Enjoy

This one made with Nokia phones as part of a campaign is though to be the biggest stop motion. I think it is an interesting exercise but not as effective as a final film. What do you think?

Finally, of course, we have to always go back to the masters, which in turn learned from other giants of the field.

Some of my favorite stop motion artists are the Brothers Quay. Their films are among the most haunting that I've ever seen. They have a dream like quality that resides permanently in your psyche. Very powerful storytellers. They in turn learned form Ray Harryhausen , Jan Švankmajer  and Jiří Trnka among others all of whom you should seek and know their work. They are history at its best.

Here is a short sample of  Quay's films, you can find their work and that of the others mentioned above at our film library:

The Smallest the Biggest and the Best

This one is supposedly the tiniest stop motion animation. I am a big fan of stop motion and have worked on many, so I can tell how precise and time consuming it must have been. But it is cool. Enjoy

This one also made with Nokia phones as part of a campaign is though to be the biggest stop motion. I think it is an interesting exercise but not as effective as a final film. What do you think?

Finally, of course, we have to always go back to the masters, which in turn learned from other giants of the field.

Some of my favorite stop motion artists are the Brothers Quay. Their films are among the most haunting that I've ever seen. They have a dream like quality that resides permanently in your psyche. Very powerful storytellers. They in turn learned form Ray Harryhausen , Jan Švankmajer  and Jiří Trnka among others all of whom you should seek and know their work. They are history at its best.

Here is a short sample of a Quay's film, you can find their work and that of the other mentioned at our film library:

How To Do It

Welcome everyone!. The following project structure is intended to provide you with a methodology to be both specific and help you track the progress and meet your milestones. Since individual projects vary widely some points might not apply. However, you can use it as a roadmap to define/clarify your deliverables and go back to it frequently and methodically.

It has four distinct phases:

DISCOVERY

This phase helps you understand the big picture and the opportunity to achieve the main goals of your project; to take an idea from conception to completion in the most effective manner.

Brainstorming, sketch models, scenarios, analysis and feasibility assessments.

Define the requirements, scope, timeline, budget (your time and resources) and benchmarks for the project.

Requirements of Analysis:

• Prioritize and validate requirements based on quality(1) and strategic factors
• Determine success criteria and metrics
• Define a preliminary list of production requirements.

Synthesis:

• Produce a final document with the discovery result.
• Develop a high-level implementation plan. (storyboard)
• Present a timeline and a budget estimate.

DESIGN

During this phase, create the look and feel of the solution (style). Develop the story requirements, the creative components, the technical design and infrastructure that supports the project.

Creative Design:

• Storyline
• Script
• Storyboard
• Art Direction
• Audio Design
• Production Design

Technical Design:

• Software requirements
• Set/backgrounds/location/plates
• Lighting diagrams
• Special efx design
• Models, textures

PRE-PRODUCTION

Develop and integrate all the creative, technical and information components.

Creative Production:

• Story
• Character Design
• Prototypes
• Graphics, 3D video/audio production needs
• Technical integration

Technical Production:

• Green Screen
• Lighting
• 3D camera
• Sound
• System testing
• Problem resolution
  

DEPLOYMENT

Demonstrate the solution after all final specifications and testing results.

Live environment:

• Rendering
• Audience Test performance and feedback
• Implement promotion/communication strategies

Showtime!

That's all folks!

1-Quality: the true nature of things, the peculiar and essential character

All Illustrations custom made by Rich Powell