The Simpsons Halloween special

Well, I was searching randomly on youtube and found out this short clip from The Simpsons. I was attracted by the adventure time characters therefore I clicked into that.

I was so amazed that The Simpsons has play around with different animation characters like famous Japanese anime Attack on Titans and Bleach; South Park and even the minions from The despicable me! Although I am not a big fan of The Simpsons, they always have great humours and push the boundary of their story. In my view, it is already more than a family cartoon but a far-fetched cartoon that anything could happen in The Simpsons. 

I think from an industry point of view, co-operating with other companies could generate more poportunities within the business world. For instance, despite of the scary and awkarked 3D looking Simpsons, I think they have done a great job promoting other cartoon as well and showing the flexiblity that they can actually be capable to apply different style. This is brilliant for a Halloween special but I do not think this will as impressive if they do it everyday.

Personally I do not like a mixture of 2D and 3D animation because it just too much and they do not have matched style not even in this short clip. However, the creators still manage to get a good balance in between so that the 3D characters will not take over the whole scene. If I could produce a mixture of 2D and 3D animation in the future, this will be a good reference to look back and to study.

The Jump by Charles Huettner

Nyan!

The Late Night Work Club was introduced to us in the lesson at the beginning of term and one of the animation within has caught my attention since that day which is The Jump by Charles Huettner. Huettner is a 2D animator who has an unique art style. The illustrations are simple but strong in presenting the story on their own without much text and the use of colour is very bold and surreal. 

The Jump from Charles Huettner on Vimeo.

The Jump is probably the best short animation I have ever seen these months. The animation are brilliantly made that has includes a huge amount of details and the animation principles are applied in it. The plot is interesting and creative that successfully project the fascinating thoughts Huettner has in his head. The staging is suitable for the story and the quality of the drawings are good. He has created some good characters that are most appropriate for the story in this case teenagers that are curious to investigate the world but got themselves into a sad ending at the end.
I really into the story which I think I have discovered many hidden messages when I repeat watching it like treasure life and no pain no gain.

He has the sense of humour in his work. Simple and it works.

I found this Q&A really thoughtful and inspiring from Huettner's website:

''FATHOMSMOVIE: HEY DUDER, REAL QUESTION TIME! MY IMPRESSION IS THAT YOUR WORK IS VERY IMPROVISATIONAL AND IN THE MOMENT. OR IS THAT JUST YOUR SUPER CHILL VIBE? WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS LIKE IN DEVELOPING / PLANNING / CREATING SOMETHING LIKE A SHORT FILM THAT CAN'T BE COMPLETED IN ONE OR TWO SITTINGS? DO YOU OUTLINE, STORYBOARD, WRITE STUFF? IS THE PROCESS WILDLY DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON YOUR MOOD? WHAT'S THE DEAL?! THANKS, JOE

Hi Joe. thanks for the thoughtful question.  First off I want to say, if you’re looking for advice, my main tip is to ignore any rules you might have been taught and focus on what works for you. There is no right or wrong way to animate. So do whatever you want to get sweet results. 

Yeah you guessed it. I mostly just animate off the top of my head.  I’m not big into pre production. I never make animatics for my own stuff. I only do rough animation if its a complicated shot that i might fail at. Otherwise i just go straight into final clean animation. I’m not saying that’s the best way to do things, but its best for me. I do make storyboards for longer stuff.  They’re super sketchy and loose.  Mostly just make them to quickly reference what happens next and to keep the big picture in mind.  This is the storyboard I used when making The Jump.''

''You’ll notice I cut some stuff out and didn’t bother planning out the ghost memory stuff.  I think if story meant a lot to me I might be more into planning. But it doesn’t, so I’m not.''

The sentences that underlined give me a lot of thoughts. When he suggests ignore any rules and focus what work for you and there are no rights or wrong in making animation, I feel motivated due to the sense of support and the flexibility in the animation world. However, I do think learning the basic animation rules is vital in the stage where I am at at the moment in order to create a firm fundamental base for making high quality animation in the future.

Huettner's storyboard for The Jump is loose and this is working for him. For me, sometimes it works for me as well but not always. The sketchy storyboard I made initially for the pixilation project did not help me at all because it is way too weak in terms of it's content and information. Anyway, I do not think his storyboard would be understandable if I have not seen his animation before. There are hardly any notes or description to demonstrate the key frames which might be a problem if the information is sent wrongly to the other teammate.

Lastly, there is a photoshop tutorial from his website and I found this more useful than the photoshop induction we had...and it is interesting to know how he produces and process the animation with his signature drawings.

http://charleshuettner.tumblr.com

One Piece by Oda Eiichiro

Now I am introducing the best manga in the world to you! One Piece is personally the best manga and anime that I have ever experienced in my life. Mr. Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎) is the brilliantly talented artist who has written and illustrated this magical and extraordinary story. The story begins with the King of the Pirates Gol. D. Roger who announces the great treasure, One Piece, is there available for anyone who finds it just before his death and therefore countless pirates are so eager to find this treasure.

The main character Monkey. D. Luffy is a young pirate who wants to become the next King of the Pirates. He finds a crew of talented members and set up the Straw Hat Pirates. The members are: Roronoa Zoro theSwordsman; Sanji the chef; Nami the Navigator and Weather forecaster; Usopp the sniper;Tony Tony Chopper the doctor; Nico Robin the archaeologist; Franky the shipwright and finally Brook the skeleton musician. Within the crew, Luffy, Chopper, Robin and Brook have eaten a fruit called Devil fruit which is believed to be the mysterious power of the ocean and once they have consumed the fruit, they will never be able to swim but they get some amazing powers from that. In the case Luffy ate the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit and turns into a rubber man; Chopper who was originally a reindeer but accidentally ate the Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit and becomes a human- like creature; Robin ate the Paramecia-type Flower-Flower Fruit that enable her to grow any body parts in anywhere; Brook was a special one who ate the Paramecia-type Revive-Revive Fruit before his death, nothing happen when he was alive but his soul went back to his body when he die and now he has another life in the body of skeleton. Every devil fruit is unique and they can be categorised into three class: Paramecia-type (changing the body mechanism), Zoan-type (contain an animal's features)and Logia-type ( become an organic substance for instance water and lighting)

examples of the Logia-type! from top to bottom, left to right are:smoke, fire, sand, thunder, frost, black hole, light, lava and smudge.

ate a Gum-gum fruit and...

turn into a rubber man!

The crew has been through a lot of big event that amazed the world with their great power. Their fame grows bigger as they sail along the sea and getting closer to One Piece. One of the best thing in One Piece is the main characters have bad times and not like the typical manga or comic, the hero wins every time. When Luffy loses his brother, he was extremely upset and nearly die but he was supported by the friendship and his belief which enable him to get through all the pain and bad memories. I really appreciate Luffy's personality, he is silly and funny, I may say no brainer. However, once he has made up his mind, nothing can stop him, not even he got so injured or facing death.

Monkey. D. Luffy the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, bright red top and the distinguish Straw hat. Brave, silly and lively that attract a lot of good people but also always get himself into troubles.

I will use amazing to describe the plot and storyboard that are unique and bold. One Piece is one of the best known manga globally which has already released in different languages, has video games, movies and light novels. I think the success of One Piece allows Oda to have more inspiration and motivation to produce a better manga he wants. The fans always believe that there are a lot of hidden messages that reflect problems we facing in nowadays society and how we should get over them like the main characters with friendship and belief. What is more, I like the character design of every character in this story because everyone of them have a story behind and their appearance matches the past or can show a lot of personality. 

The original character designs of Sanji, Robin and Franky. I do not like Sanji in curly hair, as a chef I think he needs to look more sophisticated. I can not imagine Robin in short hair which long hair suits her personality perfectly.

Talking about character, Robin has a complicated background and secret identity. Nico Robin known as the devil child comes from Ohara which was an island full of talented archaeologist. She learns how to decipher the writings on the ancient stones called Poneglyph ( In the world of One Piece, there are 20 years without any records or historical facts left due to the conspiracy of the world government )when she was eight which are scattered around the world. The world government wants to stop people from knowing truth of the past, therefore they destroys the whole island and Robin is the only people left from that crisis. Since that day, she has been chasing by the world government while searching for more stones. Oda creates Robin in a spy-like woman full of mystery at first, she always wears black and leather clothes which can makes her personality stands out from the rest of the crew. The more the crew get through, the greater the trust has built, Robin has totally depended on other members and disarms her protection which she dresses differently and changes the state of mind. 

One Piece is still releasing weekly so I highly recommand everyone should read or watch it! The story is very touching and exciting. It makes me want to set up a pirates crew and sail to explore the world with my trusty friends! 

At the end, enjoy the latest opening of One Piece!

Eric Power- Ericpowerup

Ericpowerup is Eric's way of showing a side of his personality he's often unable to share through regular interaction therefore working on animation or videos are a great way to experiment in different techniques while expressing himself in the best appropriate way. He Started animating when he was in high school, and he had so much experience now with making music videos, clay motion and generating digital animation.

click here to visit Eric Power's website!

Eric Power makes cut-out animation and which is boyish and full of his own style. His delicate crafting skills allow his work to stand out from the crows. I can see his animation being an advertisement, illustration and graphic design as well. I think he always tries to include a bit of himself in the animation and explores a fun way of presenting a story. His animation is quite famous on the internet. I do not think his art works aim at a specific group but to share his idea with everyone by the vast communicating channel-internet.

His characters are full of emotion and feelings. For instance, his early work-Clayman's Last Supper was animated so well. Every body gestures, movement of joints and the sound effects are very well considered. Recently, he has used felt and a computer program to create his new art work piece. I think experimenting is a good way of learning. I particularly fond of his new computer animated 'Mario on Paper 'as the whole animation has a really new plot with the delicately crafted characters. The animated characters move in an extraordinarily natural way compared with the other characters in his collection which I think Eric power may want to take this to another level. If i were him, I would just stick with one type of material in a animation so as to reduce the level of difficulty but to increase the quliaty. He manages the storyboard really well which is like watching a movie and the scenery is fantastically created to allow the characters to stand out.

Study Task 1- Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn? 2014

Why you chose to study on this programme?

Animation has a great influence on me since I was small and it is a fascinating subject that I have been dreaming to do. Animation actually requires more techniques than other illustration or graphic design courses where I find challenging when considering about the scenery, scrip, storyboard and character design. What is more important, it allows the characters come to live so as to tell a story. I enjoy storytelling and bring out messages, which I hope people can aware of in today’s world. It is believed that pictures have a bigger impact than words especially moving images therefore I hope to embrace what I will have learnt on this programme in order to share my thoughts to the public while entertaining them simultaneously.

What do you want to learn during your time on the programme?

I wish to recognise a specific pathway for my future career through the programme as well as learning practical and theoretical skills so as to produce animation professionally. For instance using computer programs to generate 3D models and backgrounds and also to learn the fundamental bases in creating effective layouts, storyboards and character designs that are able to communicate ideas efficiently. What is more, learning how to present ideas and processes confidently are also the main aims of these three years for myself.

What skills do you think are your strengths?

I think character designs and storyboarding are my strengths and they are the most enjoyable parts in creating an animation in my view. I see myself as an experimental person. Since the characters are the absolutely essential to the whole production, testing and exploring different ways of presenting the characters and the stories enables me to achieve a sense satisfactory. Observation is one of my strength as well. I pay attention to my surroundings and the facial expression and conversation of people where I usually find my inspiration.

What things that you want to improve?

I hope to improve my presentation skill priorly as English disadvantages me in presenting confidently. Additionally, I have an immense influence from the Japan anime which I really enjoy drawing but obviously most of the anime characters are not realistic are not in a prober scale therefore life drawing and sketching according to portion are also my weaknesses and what I really want to improve.

What ways you will evaluate your progress?

I have learnt to document every little step through the working process since last year in the foundation diploma course, which includes taking pictures of during the production and making notes on how I achieve the final product. By doing so, I can identify which methods work and which do not; figure out how can they improve the quality of work or what I have done wrongly. I found making reflection on work daily allows me to improve effectively and more importantly asking other people for feedbacks and suggestion helps me to evaluate my progress.