My favourite animated shorts

Favourite Animated Shorts.

Short 1: The Butterfly Dragon

 The Butterfly Dragon, being my favourite short animated feature was made without dialogue, the animator relies purely on facial expressions and body language. The music used in it emphasises the curiosity the little creature feels when she comes across the beautiful dragon, and the wonder at how such a thing came to be her friend. By shading the background and main character in different shades of violet, and illuminating the Butterfly Dragon in white, we get the impression that it’s glowing. The only issue I have is the ending is a little vague – no dialogue means no explanation, and the ending does leave you a little confused.

Short 2: Mau 

Although a very dark story, the sympathy we feel for the lead character in his situation makes this short worthy of being in my favourite three. Based in Ancient Egypt, it sticks to the truth quite well – Egyptians worshipped cats, many Pharaohs had them, and they did in fact go with the Pharaohs everywhere they went. Everywhere. Which is why the plot twist to this short is so heartbreakingly honest. The quality isn’t perfect, some textures go amiss, and a chicken leg even disappears from one character’s hand, but it’s a good idea for a story, and humorous at some points.

Short 3: Red  

Short, and jumpy in some places, I enjoy this one purely for its charm and its moral. Judging someone for their appearance, rather taking the time to know them – it’s very “Beauty and the Beast”. Although surprising gory, the blood is barely noticeable over the already red background. This mimics a similar technique used in “the Butterfly Dragon” which I mentioned earlier, and again, has no dialogue.

Animatic for First Year ident

Sketched by hand and scanned in, it's a little jagged round the edges but just something to help me time it properly and figure out what happens, when. Starring Exo, the self invented mascot for Exeter College. I'll redo this blog soon with the character reference sheet.
I chose the music box version of "Simple and Clean" which is from the soundtrack to a game named "Kingdom Hearts". I thought as music wasn't a necessity, I'd pick something simple which won't be a loss if the audio is later removed, but something to make the video watchable elsewhere.
The slogan at the end (if uninterpretable) says "Exeter College: Bring your ideas to life".

Photoshop animation experiment 2-Cut-out animation (Terry Gilliam-Monty Python style) - How to...

 To begin with, you need the right picture. If you're doing a celebraty, then try to get a picture where they are facing the camera (or almost facing the camera) and have their mouth closed. As an example, I found this rather unflattering picture of Katy Perry on Google so that I could show you the technique using her, because I like Katy Perry.
 << Here's the picture.

Right, so we 'Copy' the picture and open photoshop, click 'File' then 'New' and the settings should automatically size the background to be the right size as the layer. If this isn't so, you might be better saving the image in your documents then clicking 'File', 'Open' and selecting your image that way.

Be sure it's also a 'Film & Video', and change the timeline by clicking the button shown so it looks like this:

Then change the frame rate to 0.1 by clicking this:

Now we can get started. To begin with, we need to cut out the part that will be moving, so select the "Polygonal Lasso" tool found here:

You can use this tool to select your characters mouth. Make sure to include their chin too.

Then 'Cut' and 'Paste'. This'll put the chin onto a separate layer, and make it easier to move. Use the fill tool and flood fill the background layer, black. This'll make the inside of your character's mouth darker. 

(On a separate layer)

Creat a new frame so you can begin to move your character's chin. Then move the chin down slightly, opening the gap in the mouth a little bit - make another new frame, then open the mouth wider. Repeat until their mouth's are open enough, then begin to close their mouths again. You can repeat this for the length of audio you are using.

That's it! You should be complete, just save the file as an appropriate file type for you, and you are finished!

Animating using Carboard puppets.

 As you can see above, I'm not a proffessional at this. But if you follow these steps, you'll understand what you need to do to make a cardboard cut out character move (hopefully better than my attempt).
 First off, I used a Rostrum to acheive this affect. It's abled to hover the camera above the board in which you place your camera. And you can also alter how close it is to the stage by pressing the middle 'pillar' and sliding the camera up and down. It is also best to alter the lighting so you have as little shadow between your character and the stage as possible. To attach the limbs, I used a sewing needle, sellotape and thread. This provides loosness in the joints so he can actually move.

 But you need to make your character. It's best to plan a design before drawing it out in a way suitable for this method, but once you have done so, begin to draw it on a separate peice of paper IN PARTS. That is something I can't stress enough. Leave enough room to put the sewing needle through and attach the parts together. You'll notice my tiger doesn't have a neck - this is what happens when you don't leave enough room.

 Before cutting them out, stick the peice of paper onto a sheet of cardboard. Now you can cut out the individual parts. Sew them together at the joints so they can move fluidly, but are still attached. Sellotape the thread so it doesn't fall apart on the BACK of your character.
 It is now ready to be animated.

 Place the character onto the stage of the Rostrum and alter the camera and lighting to your own tastes. Put your character in its starter pose then take a picture - this is the first frame. Now move your character slightly... take another picture. Move again... take another. Keep repeating until you feel your sequence of images is complete.

 Now import onto your computer and resize the pictures to around 550 by 400 pixels. Rotate them so they're the right way up. The images are often upside down. Now import them to stage in your Adobe Flash as a sequence of images. The should now flow as a moving animation.

Squash and Stretch - Using PhotoShop

 Here's my example of the Squash and Stretch technique, through the use of a simple green ball shape. Using Photoshop is a bit more complex than Adobe Flash, but is worth playing around with to test different methods of Animation.

(Be sure to change your frame rate to 0.1 seconds)

To begin with, choose to make a Film and Video file on Photoshop, and select the appropriate settings for your file type. This will create your 'Stage' for the animation. When it opens, the bottom of the window should have a tab labelled "timeline", it might be more suitable to click the button shown here:

This button will change into a more manageable view, to see the individual frames easier, as well as easy navigation.

Now we draw a line, to simply show where our ball is going. Draw circles on the line to show the trail, but put fewer on the descent (as there will be less frames here, gravity will increase the speed of your ball), and bunch up more towards the higher points to show the slower speed of the ball.

You can begin to draw your ball by using the shape tool on the toolbar to the left of the stage. Make a new layer and make the ball roughly the same size as the circles you have drawn on your trail, and place it so it is just partially onto the stage. (You can see mine just peeking through on the left)

Add a new frame on the timeline below by clicking this button under your timeline:

The new frame will pop up, and you can now move the ball allow to the next step on your trail, adding a new frame after each small movement.

When your ball is about to fall, stop there. This is where we take it to the next step.

To make the ball have the appearance of squash and stretch, create a new frame - then make a new layer and draw another ball, this time, make it more of an oval shape. Then twist it to point in the direction the trail is going like so:

Leave the original ball where it is and now move the oval along the trail (using less frames than before) until you reach the end of your descent.

Now, on a separate layer, draw another oval. This time make it flatter horizontally. This is where your ball with have contact with the ground.

You can now move the original ball. Make sure you're on the correct layer and start by placing it just above the flatter oval on the trail. Follow the trail you have made, being sure to add a new frame each time you adjust the movement, until your ball starts to descend again.

Follow the trail again, and then place the horizontal oval at the bottom of the descent. Repeat for the number of bounces you have drawn for your trail.

If you play it back. It'll look messy and untidy. What we are going to do is clean it up a bit to make it look like there is just one ball.

By placing the three shapes on separate layers, you can make them invisible by clicking the eye on the taskbar by the layer you wish to hide.

Go through the frames on your timeline and figure out which ball you want to be visible and at what point. This will tidy up your animation and your Squash and Stretch will just look like one ball.

(You can see the difference in shape between frames)



Now click on the background and paint it completely white to remove your trail.

Your ball will now look 'free' without following the trail we had drawn previously.

You are now ready to export your animation as a video. Click 'file' and 'Export', then 'Render Video'. You will get a box pop up like the one below.

Name your file and select the appropriate file type (For me it's Quicktime (.mov)) and click Render.

It is now complete, and you can view it in your documents.

Animation History.

(Example of my Animation Timeline)

History of Animation.

The Magic Lantern (17^th Century) –

Essentially a slide projector, the magic lantern was a box with a candle, and glass disks with images. It was invented by a Jesuit Priest named Athanasius Kircher. Later in the century, it was made with a rotating glass disk, giving the illusion of motion. They remained popular way into the 19^th Century.

Persistence of Vision (1824) –

Peter Roget published a paper called “Persistence of Vision with Regard to Moving Objects”. It spoke of the lingering image left in human vision after the light has ceased, without which we’d see a constant flicker in films and animations.

Early Photography (1873) –

Edward Muybridge changed the usual static photographs whilst winning a bet with his friend concerning a galloping horse. He was sure that horses legs left the floor all at the same time during a full gallop, and set up a series of cameras to capture the horse at different stages of the gallop. He continued his work with further sequential photographs, such as “Animals in Motion”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrRUDS1xbNs&feature=colike

Thomas Edison (1888) –

Edison created a device for recording sequential images which were shown on a mutoscope. It was also called “What the Butler Saw” and was very popular in penny arcades and piers.

George Eastman patented roll film, combining this with Edison’s Mutoscope made the motion camera possible.

The Invention of Cinema (1895) –

Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed the first public motion picture projections in Paris. They consisted of scenes from everyday life. Louis believed cinema was an “Invention without a future”.

Animation Evolves (1911) –

Winsor McCay began to improve animation, in 1914, he made a film named “Gertie the Dinosaur” which was revolutionary. The film gave personality to animated characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY40DHs9vc4

Advances in Animation Technology (1913) –

Peg registered drawings started being used to create more fluent animation. Several animations were founded in New York and in 1915 Earl Hurd patented the Clear Celluloid Sheet (also known as Cel). This made is possible to draw the background only once whilst animating characters on top of it. Max Fleischer created the rotoscope which used a technique that involved filming live actors in costume, projecting the film frame by frame onto a glass plate and tracing the figure whilst adding other embellishments.

Fleischer Studios (1916-1929) –

“Out of the Inkwell” series featured a character called Koko the clown in which, the animator interacted with the characters.

Sullivan Studios –

The popular character, Felix the Cat was made. Sound was never included, and when the head of Sullivan Studios died, Felix the Cat faded away.

Disney arrives (1920 onwards) –

Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks started the Laugh-o-Gram company but got no profit from the distributors. They later made “Alice in Cartoon Land”, but lost so much money from the Laugh-o-grams that they declared bankruptcy in 1923. Disney moved to Hollywood and continued the Alice series, then was joined by Iwerks. There were 57 Alice in Cartoon Land between 1923 – 27.

Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse was originally named Mortimer Mouse and starred in two silent films, before starring in the very first sound cartoon, “Steamboat Willie”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWGCC_BYE8

Disney began to dominate the animating era. They changed from silent, black and white films, to colour, feature length films with voiced characters.

Disney introduced the Multiplane Camera which enabled layers to be used, with detail.

Fleischer Studios started making “Betty Boop” cartoons, and Universal continued making “Oswald” cartoons.

Tom and Jerry – 1933

Tom and Jerry got their start in an Ising produced film.

3D Animation – Began in 1917

Willis O’Brian began to use stop motion over 3D sets and made his first film “The Dinosaur and the Missing Link”. After several less successful films, “The Lost World” in 1925 broke new ground.

He is best known for the original “King Kong” in 1933, it gave real character to the gorilla, and people were recorded leaving the cinema crying.

Snow White – 1937

The first animated feature film proved people were able to sit through long films of animation, proving the theory of damaging eye sight wrong. Despite its success, Snow White lost money.

More feature length films were released, such as Pinocchio and Fantasia (1940 onwards) and Dumbo and Bambi swiftly followed.

Gulliver’s Travels – 1939

Fleischer used rotoscope to animate Gulliver, it was more rushed, so the quality wasn’t as good.

The Golden Age of Animation – 1937 to 1950s

Major studios of the Golden Age were Warner Bros, Disney, MGM, Fleischer, Terrytoons, and Walter Lantz.

Warner Bros was going strong with its Looney Tunes series (porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and roadrunner are examples).

Popeye was created to make children eat Spinach during the war time as they weren’t eating enough iron (MGM studios).

Walter Lantz left Universal and made Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

Bill and Hanna had huge success with Tom and Jerry, they weren’t as innovate as the Warner’s Directors, but were influenced by the others.

1941 –

Disney was rocked by a strike because staff wanted to unionise. Many animators lost their jobs.

1943 –

United Productions of America (UPA) was formed; Chuck jones directed the first UPA film. It was a political ad for Franklin Roosevelt. The UPA animation style consisted of stark colours and less realistic motion. It was graphic and very anti-Disney and caught on fast. UPA later created Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoingBoing.

1950s –

The cost of animated shorts was getting prohibitive and there was a drop in movie theatre audiences. This was the end of the golden age. Television began to take over. In 1960, Hanna-Barbera premiered the Flinstones.

1960s –

The National film board of Canada financed a number of films in Canada, many were experimental and really pushed the medium.

Jan Svankmajer began making intensively bizarre films, a mix between 3D Stop-motion and puppets. His work includes “Alice” and the feature length “Faust”.

Manga- 1970s

Japan introduced a new comic form known as Manga, this later inspired the animated form known as “Anime”.

Studio Ghibli began in 1985, after the success of Nausicaa Valley of the Wind.

Ray Harryhausen specialised in Stop motion animation and animated special effects.

1970s Ralph Bakshi made the first X-Rated cartoon “Fritz the Cat”.

1980s saw the release of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “the Little Mermaid”

The 90s saw Ren and Stimpy, who introduced sick and twisted cartoons.

1995 Toy story was released, and the Lion King was their most profitable film.

In 1985, Nick Park joined the Aardman animation team. He did work such as “Sledgehammer” and “Lip Synch”, which later led onto Creature Comforts.

Wallace and Gromit were made in two more films, “The Wrong Trousers” (1993) and “A Close Shave” (1995), “Chicken Run” was their first feature film in 2000.

1989, Matt Groening released the Simpsons which went on to be the longest running American Animated programme and sitcom

Why the Pokemon Franchise has gone downhill...

We all know what started the trend. The original Gameboy cartridges:

Red, Blue and Yellow
The good ones... The Kanto Region. Pokemon Yellow was my first ever game. And I loved it. I loved having Pikachu wandering behind me, being able to measure his happiness level by facing him and pressing A... It was the little things that made the game. And the Pokemon were very well designed, even if there were only 150 of them.

It was a good marketting point for the story as well, leaving home on an adventure with your best friend who was an adorable yellow mouse (that looks like a rabbit) with the power to electricute anything and anybody at will. Sounds evil, but it is meant to be a lovely story of friendship - I swear.

The Johto region came next, and I was excited. More Pokemon, more adventures. The downside was not having a little companion running behind you (Although that does change in heart gold and soul silver). It was a good game. As was Ruby and Sapphire and Crystal... And you get the idea...

It really began to go downhill at Diamond and Pearl. Like it was trying so hard to milk the franchise for every penny it's worth. The Pokemon began to look less real and more plastic. And this became that much worse on the introduction of Black and White - I mean... Vanilluxe... Trubbish... Chandelure...

The entire collection looks like something one would find in a swanky kitchen, and just outside a swanky kitchen. I know there's people that will disagree with me. There were pretty rough designs for the other regions too, such as Trappinch and Lickitung... (He also has a Black/White Evolution known as Lickilick). But I have never disliked a pokemon generation as much as this one.

Let's hope they redeem themselves after this.