The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.
Marc Chagall
Since we are not going to have class next week, other than the tutorials on Friday and that following Monday, I thought we could all meet on campus for a small group critique on Thursday 19.I spoke with several of you today about meeting and there was interest in the idea.
This will be a chance for us to get together outside of the classroom and use each other as a support network. I am really interested in hearing what everyone is doing with their projects thus far, frustrations, inspirations, new ideas, insights, jokes, ramblings, etc.
So, I hope we can all bring what we have thus far for our project B to the meeting; sketches, photographs, book layout ideas, etc.
Like Bernie Bower spoke about in class last week, we get so close to our work, that we need to step back and see what other see.
The time is not set in stone, but I think Thursday works best for most of us. Please send me a message and let me know if you can make it! I am not sure about where we will meet. We can check on our classroom for that day, but if need be we can always meet in the library.
When someone says animation or cartoons the first name that comes to mind is Walt Disney. I grew up with his cartoons and animated films and wanted nothing more than to work with his company when I grew up.
Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, but his family soon moved to Marceline Missouri where he spent most of his childhood.Walt was one of five children. With a strict father and very little money Walt was encouraged by his mother and older brother to pursue his dream in the arts.
Walt Disney created the first full-length animated musical feature, Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs, on December 21,1937. It premiered at the carthay Theatre in Los Angeles. The next five years Walt Disney studios created Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, which was just the beginning.
Even thirty some years after Walt Disney’s death, we are still grasping his ideas and creations in animation.
Walt Disney was not the first person on the animation scene though. The first animated film ever made was 'Humorous Phases of Funny' by cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton in 1906. It is the earliest surviving example of an animated film, which used single the fame method and was projected at twenty frames per second.
Humorous Phases of Funny (1906)
'Little Nemo in Slumberland' (1911)
Winsor McCay, New York Herald comic-strip animator and sketch artist was a very influential part of animation history. McCay wasn’t the first to create an animation, but he helped to define the new industry. He was the first to establish the method of animation graphics. His first animation was of one of his comic strip characters, Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1911, which consisted of 6,000 frames.But, his first successful cartoon character was Gertie, a brontosaurus in Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914, which was created with 10,000 drawings including the background images.
'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1914)
The first animated feature, that can be verified, is 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed', 1926 by German filmmaker and avant-garde artist Lotte Reiniger. It was based on the stories of the Arabian nights. Because the animations were silhouetted, used paper cut outs and they were done in Germany, Reiniger’s work is often overlooked in the animation world. He was very creative in his use of wax and sand on the film stock, very innovative.
Traditionally animated films are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing is sketched a bit different from the one before it. The drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent sheets of acetone paper, which are filled in with paints on the opposite side of the line drawings. The final drawings are photographed separately onto motion picture film against a painted background by a rostrum camera. Some examples of traditional animations include Pinocchio, 1940, United States, Animal Farm, 1954, United Kingdom and Akira 1988, Japan.
The traditional animation process became outmoded by the beginning of the twenty first century. Today, drawings are scanned in or drawn directly in a computer program. There are many programs used to color the drawings. The final animated work is output to several different mediums, including 35-millimeter film and digital video. The look of the traditional animated work is still preserved and the character animators’ work has remained the same for the past seventy years. Animated films, which were produced with computer technology, include Lion King, 1994, US, Spirited Away, 2001, Japan and Les Triplettes de Belleville, 2003.
With computer animation has become quite a science. Lucasfilm was launched in 1979. The graphics division of Lucasfilm, LTD. was then purchased by Steve Jobs in 1986 and established as an independent company, “Pixar”. Pixar is an animation studio with technical, creative and production capabilities that have created a whole new generation of animated films, computer animated films.Partnering with Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar created and produced several films including Toy Story, 1995, A Bug’s Life, 1998, Toy Story 2, 1999, Monsters, Inc. 2001, Finding Nemo, 2003 and The Incredibles, 2004.
Many individuals are creating their own animations and mixing media as well, like‘Procrastination’ by Johnny Kelly.
I definitely think animation will become more interconnected, like Andy Martin’s work in Earth Bonding Point, with use of painting, photography, graphics, computer illustrations and typography all together to create animations. I think there is a great potential for exploration in this area of animation.
The film ‘Waking Life’, directed by Richard Linklater is a digitally enhanced movie. This film is a great example of exploration in mixed media. It was shot with digital video and then a team of designers using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame of the film (a bit like rotoscope style) to create this dream-like animation, which conveys the odd topic of lucid dreams and the meaning of life exceptionally.
In the future animation will be more interactive. There are films now that give the viewer choices of the outcome. I think the same will occur in animation, but all through the animation the participant will be able to make changes and choose the outcomes throughout the entire animation film, a bit like a video game.
I think in the future of animation there will be more experimenting with holograms. Creating entire animation films that are projected onto a three dimensional viewing field would be fantastic. Maybe even having an interactive feature that can have multiple outcomes.
Now that I have decided to create a book about conversations in every day life, I need to start gathering data and experimenting. I will be using either conversations from my facebook website or my tape recordings.
Yesterday I recorded a conversation between me and a couple of classmates. I wrote the conversation down on paper so I can organize the data. I have a few pages and need to look through the conversation so I can break it up and begin experimenting.
I also found a few interesting conversations on facebook and contacted my friend for permission to use the conversations for my book. He was happy to help me out.
After meeting in class today I worked out more details and tasks I need to work on next regarding my book design concept,"Talking heads brought to typographic life".
I started a list of places I might find my source of conversations.
Through recording conversations throughout my day, which was my original thought:
This might be more ‘scheduled’ and predictable than I would like. It could also be a good source depending upon my location and if I am around people to collect conversation.
Emails, facebook or texting:
These might be better sources because I will gather conversations that others already had rather than having to set up a time and date to record.
Once I gather data from selected areas of conversation I will begin designing samples/roughs of visual conversation. It will be all about having fun and playing around with typography at this point!!
I checked out several books on layouts today and began brainstorming material; paper, binding, etc. I might use for this project.
I recently had a chat with Stefan Bucher of 344 Design Company and the creator of an amazing collection of monsters!!
I really admire Stefan Bucher's work and wanted to get a bit of advice from him regarding my book design and print. Luckily with technology I can do that!
