The Jungle Book (2016)

I'm not sure if anyone's posted about this yet, but I was watching Jimmy Fallon last night and Jon Favreau was on it, talking about new Jungle Book movie, which he is the director of. The movie is the third live action adaptation of The Jungle Book, and there is only a few live action actors on the film, while the rest are voice actors for the computer generated animals. I imagine that this would be difficult for the actors as well as time consuming for the animators but  the animation looks very mature and captivating and as a lover of the Jungle Book, I'll definitely be seeing this movie. 

Drawn to Animation

I, like many, have grown up watching some form of animation, from classic Disney and Pixar films to Spongebob. I’ve always thought about the difference in production time between two-dimensional animation and stop motion animation. The two offer completely different feels, especially two dimensional because of the vast amount of artist styles that can be employed. Well I guess the same can be said about stop motion and and three dimensional and just about any type of animation. The fact that animation can range in not only content but style as well is very interesting to me and a reason I chose to at least learn a a little about it.  

I’ve always felt more connected to stop motion animation, only because my skills with a pen and pad aren’t as great as skills with a camera and figure. Growing up the animation in Henry Selick’s “Coraline” or Tim Burton and Michael McDowell’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas" has always mesmerized me and on many occasions I have thought about making them myself. (I’ve realized I might not have the patients for it, although now I’m in an animation course that will be equally time demanding.) Watching these films now I think about the movement and precision and the dedication each person these sets must have. Recently I watch the film, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s “Anomalisa" and was completely astounded. When I first viewed the trailer I was amazed to realize that it was stop motion animation and not a live action film. (The trailer also lead me to believe the film would be taking a completely different turn than it actually did, but that’s a topic for another time.) Clearly during the film you knew the character weren’t live action humans from the line that splits the face as well as the the way the characters walk. It was a stunning film as strange as it was.

All in all, even though I seem to be stuck on stop motion, I do enjoy many different animation styles and I am excited to be learning new skills throughout the next couple months that I will hopefully develop beyond this course. 

Excessive Expression

I've been looking at a lot of foreign made animated content lately, and I've noticed that many of the pieces have no dialogue whats so ever. I like that a lot of animations cut the dialogue to make their content more universally understandable. Take this thesis film for example, made by incredible artist and animator Vivienne Medrano.

The animation, while being silly and lighthearted includes themes of prejudice, queer themes and love. Just from the characters color pallets and expressions we have a clear idea of their personality. 

Also the music is really something else. There is hardly any diegetic sound, but the music does such a wonderful job of disguising it that you rarely even notice. The art style itself is fun and poppy, and the designs of the characters speak volumes about their personalities ie the police owls. 

I really feel as though you can't make these kinds of films with live action. Human movement is too clunky and awkward to choreograph in this way, and acting would be a nightmare since so many of the characters expressions are so silly and over the top. 

I hope you guys enjoy the animation. I've watched it about 3 times now, and I'm always finding something new about it to enjoy! 

Live Action mixed with Animation

I came across this pretty cool video on Youtube the other day. Typically when watching videos you don't see too often people combine live action and animation because it's not an easy thing to do, but this video does it. The concept itself has no meaning but the actual animation is pretty good! Here's the original video:

After I watched that video, I watched how it was made. That was cooler to me than the actual video. At first the video shows how the film was originally shot compared to how they edited it. I found it interesting that they used a rubrics cube for the cube, but everything else the actor had to just guess the size. After that it goes into detail on how each animation was made. I believe the program that they used was called Blender which is a 3D modeling program. I don't really know anything about it though and why someone would use that over Maya lets say. But there were a few things that they did that we learned in class so that got me excited like tracking. Though I don't know how to do that through Blender, I do know how to use it in After Effects! Here's the video on how the first video was made. I highly suggest watching the whole thing:

VHS Effect

In anticipation for the Name Project, I'd like to share one of my favourite YouTube videos. I've decided to go with a 90's VHS style effect for my project, since I love trying to mimic things in After Effects. A great example of this is the following video, in which someone cut together a 90's style opening to Game of Thrones.

There are so many things I love about this video. First of all is the look. I've tried VHS-ing videos myself, and it's a lot of fun trying to degrade the quality. However, it's not as easy as simply dropping the resolution. Film grain and scan lines need to be added. Chromatic aberration (seen in the following image) also helps achieve the look.

Also experimenting with the Fractal Noise effect in After Effects can help add the "fuzz" often seen in VHS tapes.

I also love the editing in the video. Certain shots are chosen which suit the style, and go well with the high-pass filtered music.

Here's another great example of the effect put over Breaking Bad.

Cartoons in the Real World

I’ve been trying to determine my feelings toward the trailer for the new Spongebob Squarepants movie. This movie will follow our favorite under the sea characters onto dry land, combining live-action with 3D animation. I think there’s something about bringing cartoon characters into a live-action setting that makes some part of my brain a little uncomfortable. I think this is especially true when a 2D cartoon becomes 3D—it takes a second to get used to, and even after that second it takes a minute. Despite this, whenever animation interacts with live action, I am impressed, and the Spongebob trailer is no exception.

Of course, Spongebob isn’t the first 2D character to become 3D in the real world and definitely not the first to bring cartoon characters to live action. We can’t forget about classics like the live action Scooby Doo franchise or Who Framed Roger Rabbit. What I find interesting is that Who Framed Roger Rabbit doesn’t feel as unnatural and brain-itching as Spongebob or Scooby Doo does, despite its decidedly darker themes. I feel like the juxtaposition of 2D in a 3D world doesn’t feel as wrong because of how obviously the 2D doesn’t fit. Because it makes no attempt to fit in, it doesn’t feel as unnatural as it is. In 3D animation, the characters are designed to masquerade as something that could be apart of the real world by attempting to match the structures of a real life 3D world. Even though the quality of the animation is, I think, really impressive in the Spongebob movie, the characters are still the characters they’ve always been--they’re still brightly colored, they’re still exaggerated. Their cartoon-y characteristics are still very present, but structured and designed to move about in a world that isn’t natural to them.

"Movies that scar"

David Fincher: A Film Title Retrospective from Art of the Title on Vimeo.

"I don’t know how much movies should entertain. I’m interested in movies that scar."
               —David Fincher

David Fincher is arguably one the main reasons growth in the importance and design of title sequences  has happened. In all his films he has moved the use of the title sequences into a new direction. His films are very "distinct from one another", but are an undeniable Fincher film. From reading through an interview between Ian Albinson and Fincher it was really interesting to see how much influence this director has over his title sequences. The titles can prepare the audience for whats to come in the film. Fincher finds the titles to be well made not for pleasing the eye, but moreso for an engangement to set the scene and pull your interest. Movies that will be good always have superior title sequences as well.

For example, the title sequence for Seven, designed by Kyle Cooper. This carefully designed title sequence was able to give a glimpse into the world of the story you're about to enter and "did very important non-narrative things."

Another incredible sequence most people have seen is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This sequence, not directly having anything to do with the plot of the film to come get your psyche in the mindset of the film.

My personal favorite sequence and movie though is the wonderful Fight Club. The microscopic view from inside Edward Norton's brain and zoom out to a shotgun rack focus to his face is simply incredible. He think the title sequences themselves are "part of the entertainment form."



Source
 

Toy Story - Live Action

Toy story has become a classic movie of our generation with its cutting edge graphics and editing techniques to tell a story. Two fans Jonason Pauley (19) and Jesse Perotta (21) wanted to visit the facility where it was all created. Unfortunately for them Pixar does not let any visitors in unless they have done something fantastic. So armed with $1000 and 150 friends they created a shot for shot live action remake of the entire movie. The result is quite spectacular and the effort that must have been put forth is immense. What I find to be interesting is seeing this story told without animation. The characters are literally less animated with no facial expressions or fluid movement. This makes the scenes less believable and its harder to connect with the characters. That aside it is a very cool project and definitely worth a look. 

Aside: They learned yesterday they get to tour pixar.

Cigarette people

Well after not missing a post all year I guess it's fitting I forgot the last one haha.  So I'll just leave you with this sweet music video.

http://youtu.be/voBNpdXkLnU

It's from The Prodigy.  I think the concept for the video is really cool.  The characters are people made from cigarette boxes.  I had assumed the video had to be made using stop motion because the textures looked too real but after finding this "making of"video I found that they actually did live action work with puppetry and green screen.

They also used animation along with the live action.  It still amazes me to see the level of planning and sophistication in order to make one 3 and a half minute video.  Really cool stuff.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one movie that I'll always be impressed by. It was the very first movie I saw where animation was mixed in with live action and interacting with the actors and being such a big part story line. As they say in the youtube video below, "Interaction is key". If they didn't any different, I think that it wouldn't have worked, it wouldn't have been a success. The live action actors grab the cartoon animations, talk to them, rely on them. And the cartoons push objects around and use things just like any other person would and eye contact is extremely important. The youtube clip below gives a lot of insight to the making of the movie and all of the concerns they had and I love how they approached this complicated movie just like any other movie they've filmed. There are four parts to this "Behind the Scenes" for Who Framed Roger Rabbit but I will only be putting up part 1.