Extra Credit- Museum of Moving Images

The Pre-Process of Animation
Over the past weekend I made my second trip to the Museum of Moving Images in Astoria, Queens. It was a very unique experience from two years ago, partly because during my first trip the museum was under construction and partly because I have learned a great deal since my first time. I remembered many of the exhibits, enough so that I was able to notice the addition of prosthetic legs used to illustrate a bruised and mangled up Winona Ryder in Black Swan and choice costume pieces from Mildred Place.
Regardless of those additions, what really drew my attention was the timely Jim Henson exhibit, simultaneously promoting decades of genius work and the new Muppets movie. The Henson exhibit gave viewers a remarkable look into his thought process as he created pop culture icons such as Kermit, Miss Piggy, and even Big Bird. It was organized so that viewers could go from room to room viewing storyboarding techniques, rough character development sketches, and even some avant-garde films. Going through the Henson exhibit, I was reminded me a lot of the recent Tim Burton display at the MoMa, both fantastic visionaries from the film and animation community.
With the final project, I have had to try my part and follow the traditional pre-animation process of abstract, character development, story boarding, and all other parts of pre-planning that would make my life easier when it came down to creating original work. Therefore, I really found value in looking through an esteemed artist as he followed the same steps I was taught in class.
Henson’s story boards were not always detailed but always concise in portraying key action and expression in a piece. Sometimes he would use a lot of color to show each character and other times it would be a brief and seemingly rushed doodle. Still, I was able to really understand the plot and structure of the story by his drawings.
It was interesting to see how Henson’s rough sketches and doodles of inspiration were interpreted to great puppets and elaborate scenes. One sketch on display was of rows and rows of uneven arches inside of boxes, with the outline of a character placed inside each arch. Upon first look, I had no idea what that could be for. Then next to it, I was able to see the final product, a brilliant set design of windows evenly aligned that enabled the Muppets to peak their heads through the ornate arches. It was with these transformative designs that made Henson a true visionary.
I was surprised to find that Henson delved into experimental movie making. There was one video entitled “Time Piece” that showed the effects on keeping time. It was his go at unorthodox editing; it looked like pieces of plotline streamed together in a collaged sequence.
My second trip to the Museum of Moving Images was very different from my first. I was lucky to have been able to see the season exhibit of Jim Henson that was very relevant to the course as well as take a second look at artifacts overlooked the first time.

Week 12

I am not too familiar with Yo Gabba Gabba, a childrens show that gained popularity after my acceptable age to enjoy such shows passed. Nonetheless, the flash content used to create the webpage was very extensive. The games and videos are all linked through one flash page, creating in my case fast load time. The animations used to carry users from page to page were looped but still compelling while I wait. While playing the mini golf game, I noticed a major use of masking as well as buttons. Also whenever the ball would hit a wall there was a sound, and visual linked. Similar to what we were learning in class about on-click commands.

Week 11

Lotte Reiniger was an extremely detailed oriented silhouette animator, using stop motion animation to capture her animated movie shorts. Just watching her with a pair of scissors was unexpectedly fascinating, she shows her years of experience cutting out an intricate character in about ten seconds. Her style of character development reminds me greatly of our work in class putting together the skeleton piece by piece. The way the pieces of her character were hinged together also reminded of the bone tool in flash. Her type of animation relies only on silhouettes, therefore impossible to show character emotions and facial features. Her expression is shown through body movement and interaction with surroundings.





The Art of Lotte Reiniger (1953-1971) by baraqueafritz

Week 10

It's OK Michael

It is a simplistic rotoscoped animation that shows the relationship between the narrator and a homophobic bully Michael, that is revealed to be gay. The animation does not show facial expressions and relies heavily on dialogue and metaphors. The growing red ink coming from the side of the screen could illustrate many things and in that sense is very effective. The audience could believe that the red is the narrator being beat up or Michael releasing his anger and frustration at being a gay teen. The note paper background could show school boy innocence and also expression. Paper is used for writing down words, words are used for expression, therefore it using the paper as a background could be an artistic choice of expressing oneself.

Week 9

Surgat by Dusan Vukotic is a fascinating piece mainly because it has such an experimental vibe. It incorporates character animation. Since there is only music and no voice-work, the key to understanding expressions among the characters is through hand and facial gestures. Everything created in the world is simple shapes. Vukotic creates a world filled with balloon type objects and leaves the audience guessing what is real and what is just filled with air. The entire piece I assumed the triangular main character was real and the world was his creation, but that was dispelled within the last few seconds as he too explodes. The piece is very clever and funny, something as simple as shutting a dead fish's eyes had me laughing. I believe that this experimental animation was very well done.

Week 8

Imperial Silence: Los ABCs

An eerie animation chronicling deaths and misadventures through upbeat song. All of the characters were skeletons, giving the image of death returning to share last moments. The animators use simple, little detailed features for the cartoons: big eyes, teeth and slits for nose. The animation has minimal movements with a primary focus on the clothes of the characters and the background. There is no use of walk-cycles or wheel movement in cars. Characters and trucks glide across the screen. Despite this lack of detail, the animation still works because the primary focus is not on how the characters are moving but what they are wearing and where they are. Besides, each segment is so short that there is not need to be entirely detailed to still get the message of each section.

Week 7

I Met the Walrus is a pretty fantastic example of experimental animation. There are instances of kinetic typography, rotoscoping, original design, and it even appears as if there is some live-action video as well. There are also tons of instances of a vector mask throughout the piece: to reveal a sidewalk, to show a building, to illustrate a flowery design and much more. One example of the shape tween used appears at 4:10 to shift each country into another.

The interview comes alive in a way that is only capable through animation. Every word is animation in a cohesive way, each part is connected and leads into the other.

Creep Animation

The creep animation as mentioned in class uses fairly simple masking techniques. That being said, the animator must be very detail-oriented because the animation is extremely detailed, I could only imagine how long this took to create. Each object has several layers that are revealed one at a time. Two examples that stuck out to me where the chairs and people. First the office chair is revealed and then several seconds later a coat is revealed to be on top. Also, for the coworkers, first a skeleton appears and then the outer layer. It is this extreme attention to detail that put forth an emotionally effective message of a man feeling useless in a world where he is just a "layer."

Week 6 - Writing Exercise

Activity 2.4

I struggle to escape the Proactive commercials on television. Each commercial is about a minute and a half too long for the impatient and short-attention spans of television users. Still, I think that the Proactive commercials are a good example of a narrative commercial.

Now, most of the Proactive commercials begin with a celebrity endorser, who will tell their story. Recently, dancer Julianne Hough has taken the reigns at Proactive. She explains her struggle to have clear skin (with a image of her dancing playing the background). This sets the scene of the story. A beautiful dancer struggling to look great as she performs.

As the commercial progresses, more characters are introduced and their brief stories are told though before and after pictures. Each character struggling to maintain clear skin and how wonderful the product has been for them.

Cue a scientific description of the product, telling the “doctor” approved side of the story.

All to end back on the Julianne character and the success she has found with proactive. A perfect story told in the span of three minutes.





Activity 2.6

In animation artists control the pace of the narrative. Detailed animation can lead to more realistic, faster pace narratives. Minimalistic narratives can serve to drag out an animated piece.

In South Park, the characters are reacting to popular culture events in exaggerated and often unbelievable circumstances. Audiences follow the characters week to week and begin to laugh along with the parallels between South Park’s imagined world and the world today. I feel as if shows like South Park, The Simpsons, and Family Guy offer escapism from our everyday life. The characters are often family oriented and relevant to our own lives, yet treat situations in ways that are seen as strange or implausible.

The Incredibles may have been marketed showing off the famous voice actors, but for me the voice behind each character was irrelevant. Familiar voices do nothing for me in animation, I treat each character as distinct and oftentimes the familiarity of a voice dissipates within minutes of a movie or show. The Incredibles is a successful movie with insane detail. Each character is an exaggerated silhouette of an everyday person. The father’s facial features are similar to a human but he has a large chin, huge torso and small legs giving him a grandeur persona of a “macho man.” By stretching out or elongating even the smallest of things in an animation can change a viewers entire interpretation of a piece in a way that is impossible to do with live action movies (unless the budget allows for insane amounts of makeup and CGI).

Week 5

Jan Svankmajer: Dimensions of Dialogue Part 2

The first part of the Dimensions of Dialogue is insanely captivating, creative and compelling. The use of claymation adds significant depth to the piece. I loved the use of clay in the beginning of the piece when the couple is having intercourse. They are connected and intertwined with each other, so the clay forms one solid being. In the end when the man and women are clawing at each other, the clay is now being ripped out chunks at a time, showing frustration and fury. The potential "baby" is just a lump of clay, yet to form a shape, allowing the characters to mold the lump, toss it, and push it aside, displaying their desire to rid the burden.

Week 4

Norman McLaren-Neightbours (1952)

I love the animated short Neighbours. Right when the flower first dances at 1:20, the viewer can see what this short is all about. The way in which the flower dances beckoning the two men is great. The narrative maintains symmetry throughout which I found both interesting and compelling. The symmetry levels the playing field so to speak with both characters. Neither man is better then the other or deserves the flower more.

The flower causes the two neighbors to almost go on a trip, the flower is euphoric to them. This is magically displayed by the use of stop motion. The characters become quite strange and trippy, hovering in the air and gliding across the ground. McLaren does a good job showing the drunkiness effect of the flower. I loved the part in 4:18 when the character are putting up and tearing down the fence. The fence plays an important role in the remainder of the short and it was interesting to see how they introduced it. The obvious message of the piece was to display greed and that if people indulge or are selfish about something good in their life they will lose it. As the universal message states in the final credits "love you neighbor!"

Week 3 Animation Blog

Lenka--Heart Skips a Beat
The addition of animation in the music video for Lenka's Heart Skips a Beat adds complexity to an otherwise simple video. Even simple and repetitive animation jazzed up the video, making me want to continue watching the video. I loved the example of rotoscoping on 1:30. Just the drawn outline of the singer perfectly portrays all of her distinct features such as her nose and hair. I think that this example will help me with my rotoscoping exercise because I can better visualize how I would frame a face and shade in the mouth to illustrate movement and shadowing.


Out of the Inkwell--Modeling
I loved when the clown drew the face of the model posing for the sculpture in 3.37. The animation in this piece is very innovative and timeless. I still connected with the piece even though it was created in the 20's. The entire time I was imaging how precise the artist had to be in order to make this piece. The end result it fantastic. I love the interaction between the drawn characters, the inkwell, and the live action characters. It is an upgraded way to interact with an animation in relation to Gertie the Dinosaur.