Terrified walk-cycle

I finished it today but I will scan the pictures tommorrow.

Unit 5 animation: Jack in a box idea, P.S For Phil

My next idea that I thought was really good was that my glove was a magic glove and it got scared by a Jack in a box, in response to it's fright the glove zaps the Jack in a box to make it disappear, but in stead it back fired and the jack in a box got more scary.

In the first image I was just brain storming, to see how will my idea play out. At first I thought I could use a real magician's glove with magic powers and it got scared by a Jack in a box. Then I thought why not make the glove an accessory to a children magic kit. And the glove was exploring it's surroundings. Until it saw the Jack in a box thinking it was a music box. And so when the glove was turning the handle the jack pops out and scares the glove.



I also wrote down the three acts of my idea and did some sketches of how the objects would look like in my story. I also did a transformation for my jack in a box from a cute clown to a frightening clown.





Act 1: Starts with my Glove peeking out of it's box to look at it's surroundings. It then saw a box with interesting patterns. The glove crawl out of it's box to investigate the the other box.
Act 2: While the glove was examining the new box the glove saw a handle. The glove flick the handle and some music came out of the box, the glove flick the handle again and more music came out, the glove was happy. So then the glove started turning the handle, when the music was about to finish a clown popped out of the box. The glove got scared, out of anger the glove zapped the clown and made it disappear. Just when everything looks okay the handle from the box started turning, The glove knew what was gonna happen next so it tried to stop the handle from moving but failed. The music was about to finish so the glove decided to hide somewhere. When the music stopped nothing happened. So the glove cautiously investigated the box again. It was checking if the box was broken.
Act 3: The glove sighed in relief that nothing happened. Suddenly a monstrous clown popped out of the box. The glove screamed out of fear and ran to it's own box to hide. The glove peeked out from inside it's box and saw that the jack in the box is closed up. The then nervously went back inside scared to death.






In my storyboard I did some changes to the original idea. Instead of the glove keep zapping the jack in the box, making it more scary each time, the glove will zap it once. And the just when everything looks alright A monstrous Clown popped out of the box and scares the glove. This idea had more of a horror theme to it. The storyboard wasn't finished but I had a some what idea for my story. I shown this idea to Meg also but she said the I put in too much things in my story, saying the having my glove casting magic was a bit too much. And I think she was right it was a bit too much so Maybe I could change a bit of this concept like having the jack in the box act like a bully to the glove.

Unit 5 Animation: Designs of my glove P.S for Phil

Here are some designs on my glove.
The first sketches are designs on the type of detail on the gloves body and the type of expressions that a glove would made in the hole was the eyebrows.


The second sketches are my own way of making the glove look cartoony but giving it a deformed look.


The third batch of sketches were more designs on my glove, also one design to see what it would look like if it had an arm attached to it


The last batch of sketches are my glove in different views and some more emotion designs

Unit 5 animation: my glove scared of it's own shadow P.S For Phil

My next story idea was to have my glove scared of it's own shadow.
Act 1 of my first three act story idea of this concept Starts with my glove sleeping, only to be disturbed by a light that's shines on it.
Act 2 my glove gets up yawns a bit and turns around, only to see its own shadow. The gloves own shadow looks like a monster, the glove screams out of fear. The glove runaway only to hit a box.
Act 3 on top of the box was a torch. When the glove hit the box the torch rolled off and lands on the glove. The torch then still rolled off.





When I thought of this idea it sort of okay but I still felt it could do a bit better.

Act one of my second idea for my concept starts with my glove wondering around the room it was in, until it notice a torch. The glove then decided to investigate the torch.
Act 2 While examining the torch, the glove accidentally turned it on. The light from the torch was facing the glove and it blinded it. The glove dropped the torch so it the glove can tend to it's eyes. When the touch the ground it was still facing the glove. The glove turned around so it won't see the light that's coming from the torch. One the glove can see again, it saw it's own shadow, the shadow looked like a monster.
Act3 the glove screamed out of fear that it ran away in the direction of the torch. The glove tripped over the torch and fell off screen. This made the torch spinned around. When the torch stopped spinning it was facing the audience. The light from the torch then turned off.





I actually like this idea a lot more then the first idea. I was aiming to treat my glove as a creator that was curious of it's own surroundings. I also know that gloves don't have eye's but I thought it would be a bit funny that something that has no eyes gets blinded. I have shown this idea to Meg after class and she told me it started out fine but the way it ended treated the torch like it was the main character while it should be the glove we should be focusing. If Phil sees this I hope he could help me a bit on my story idea.

Unit 5 Essay and questions

For my essay I will be looking at Winsor McCay and the questions I will ask are:
How did he get involve with animation?
What are the animations he is known for and how are they different from each other?
And what impact did McCay's animation had on the public?
The animations I will look at are 'Little Nemo', 'How a Mosquito Works', 'Gertie the Dinosaur' and The Sinking of the Lusitania'. I chose these animation because they are different from each other, Little Nemo was an experiment to explore hand drawn animation. How a Mosquito Works involved human characteristics to a creature. Gertie the Dinosaur explore the characteristics to creature a bit more as well to have very detailed background. And The Sinking of the Lusitania was meant to be an animated version of a real event. All of these animations are different and they are also the first of almost every idea, like comics into animations, characteristics to creature, fine detailed background and an animation the represented a real sad event.

Farther and Daughter

I have finally found the animated short film Farther and Daughter.
The short is about a farther gone out sailing while the daughter waits for him. Through the years the daughter carries on with her life but she still waits for her farther..
This short is really touching, just seeing how the daughter hasn't given up on waiting for her farther's return even though she moved on with her life. The music in the background also helps set the mood of the short as well, especially the ending where the music really put in a lot of emotion in it.

Looking at some of Jan Svankmajor's work

Today I was watching some of Jan Savnkmajor's animations, to understand his style a bit more. He animations has this nightmarish yet comedic atmosphere to it, showing that dark ideas can still be enjoyable. The Animations I have watched are Darkness/Light/Darkness and two scenes from Alice.
Darkness/Light/Darkness is about body parts coming together, at points it was scary but also funny. It was mostly how the timing of the animation was done.
The Alice scenes are quite different from each other. The Bonecreatures scene is very disturbing, seeing the different types of creatures out of bones and animal bodies, some don't even look like animals. However disturbing, the Bonecreatures are also at the same time interesting to gaze upon, because of the imagination the went into their design. While the beginning scene carries a mysterious atmosphere. Especially when Alice sees the rabbit making his way to wonderland. What also make both scenes unique to watch is when we see the lips of Alice when she says the name of the characters and hear her voice when she speaks for the characters. Jan Svankmajor's animations carries the theme of dark comedy but it works and are very enjoyable.

Darkness/Light/Darkness



Alice - Bonecreatures scene


Alice beginning scene

I'm Here - A Love Story in an Absolut World

While I was surfing on the Internet I came across a trailer for a short film. When I finished watching it, the film has interested me.
The name of the film is 'I'm Here, A Love Story in an Absolute World'. The film was made by Spike Jonze.



The film is what the title describes, it's a love story, but with robots.
The film focuses on the relationship between the two main characters Sheldon and Francesca. Two robots who are completely different from one another. Sheldon is a shy quite character who works as a Liberian. While Francesca is lively and energetic who is a maid. When Sheldon meets Francesca he then started to be more lose with himself. However there have been a lot of bumps along their relationship, but that only brings the two closer.

It's a cute little movie about love and how far someone would go to be with that person. However I can't help but think that this film has a more deeper meaning to it. An example would be when Sheldon and Francesca are out to a rock consert. When the two of them where having so much fun, Francesca has lost her arm. When Sheldon learnt about this he then gave her his arm. Another event that happen's in the film is when Francesca lost her leg. Sheldon then decided to give his leg to her, but Francesca said no. When I saw Francesca slowly breaking appart I can't help but think that she was meant to repersent the free spirit who is actually very ill. And Sheldon is the supportive boyfriend who would give an arm and a leg to keep her alive so the two of them would be happy longer.
Like I said this film is cute and sweet. If you want to watch the film here's the link, don't know how long it will last thought. Also the website made like a cinema so there is a wating time for the next showing.

Link (copy, paste and wait):
www.imheremovie.com

Disney's Steamboat Willie

I have always wanted to watch this short but I always forgot.
Basically steamboat willie was the first Disney cartoon that had synchronized sound. The plot is basically Micky wanting to have fun, but Pete just wants to get the job done. Which is collecting cargo and deporting them somewhere.
While watching this I notice that the characters are quite rubbery and very surreal. One of the known surreal things is when a goat is used as a phonograph when it ate only a music sheet and a small fiddle.
What's funny about this cartoon is that Mickey is one big jerk to animals. While listening to music he used the animals around him and used them as instruments.
I could embedded this so here is a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4

enjoy.

Unit 5 Story Telling 3: My Storyboard and my Character Expression

For the past few days I was making the storyboard for my character, as well as making some hands expressions.
I came up with two ideas for my animation. The first story is about my glove getting hit by lots of footballs.

The first idea starts with the glove going to the goal, it looks around in a confident fashion. Suddenly a ball just came at it in a fast speed. The glove was startled and saw more balls coming at it. The glove then duck and waited until the barrage of footballs stop flying at it. The glove then nervously peeked to see if everything was clear. So when the glove thought everything was okay one last football hits it. The glove then froze, then faints.

When I came up with the I of having my glove being attacked by balls I didn't think where it will take place or why are there balls being fired at the glove. This could take place at football practice, I don't know.


Story idea 2 takes place at a football stadium. Its the penalties and the glove has to defend the goal. However his opponent is the best football shoe around. The shoe is too confident in it's skills but the shoe gave the glove a threatening stare which scares the glove. The shoe then then gets ready to kick the ball, which is sleeping, and the shoe is powering up the kick the glove is panicking like there's no tomorrow. The shoe then kicks the ball with full force and the glove takes cover. Moments later the glove peeked to see if everything is okay. The glove then started to look for the ball, but when it looks up behind it, the ball is soaring through the sky while saying weee at the sametime.



This idea was meant to be like a dumb luck story, where someone is the best kicker ever while the other is the unlucky victim, only to have the unlucky victim to be the victor of the competition. I like this story a lot because of the funny suspense where the football shoe gets prepared to kick the ball with full force only to miss. Plus I also gave the football some life, being unaware of the situation only to get kicked and enjoying it as well.


The next lot of sketches are of my hand, to drew it at different angles. I also did some thumb nails sketches to see what the emotions would look like if the hand can produce some. The emotions consist with terror, happy, sad, worried, excited and thinking in that order. also on the first sketch I did some different versions of how a hand would look like it was terrified of something.

Casey At The Bat (1946)

When I decided to do a football theme for my terrified glove story, it reminded me of a Disney cartoon I've watched called Casey at the Bat. The story is about the over confident Casey who thinks he is the greatest baseball hitter ever. Soon his over confident took the better of him and it cause him the game.
The look of terror from the pitch when he saw Casey was what I was going for, having someone who looks weak up against someone who is strong. And the outcome is just hilarious seeing that Casey missed the ball. I thought I could use this story as a reference to how mine should play out.
A cowardly goalies glove taking on the best football shoe in the penalty part of the game.

Todays Animated Shorts

Today I have watched some very old animations. Each of the animaters have a different way of animating.
Lotte Reiniger uses silhouettes animations. The animation I watched, which was made by her is 'Cinderella'(1922). Cinderella had no sound but the the story it was telling was very strong. This version of Cinderella had a bit of surrealism to it. For example when the prince and Cinderella finally meet, the evil step mother blew up. I know that her blowing up is meant to show that her world has crumbled or she died of a heart attack. Either way this animation is funny but also quite dark, but I wouldn't mind watching it again.

The next animator is Norman McLaren. He is know for drawing his animation on an actual film reel with a pen. His animation shorts I watched are Begone Dull Care, Lines Horizontal, Hen Hop, Le Merle (The Blackbird) and an interesting film called Pas De Deux (Dance for Two).
Begone Dull Care has a lot of colours matching to the beat of the music that is playing in the background. However random the animation is I felt there was a story to it because of how the beat of the music switch from energetic to gentle to energetic again. Could be showing the type of mood the music is in.
Lines Horizontal also follows the beat of the music, but while I was watching it I could actually see different shapes like rectangles turning, a cylinder and a pillar that is lying down.
Hop Hen has a dancing chicken, but in a surreal way. The feet of chicken is dancing, the head is dancing even the chicken is dancing.
Le Merle is just a surreal blackbird dancing to the music. The music is about a blackbird losing each of it's body pieces, which is happening to the dancing blackbird.
The last animation I have watched which was made by Norman McLaren is Pas De Deux. Pas De Deux has ballet dancers dancing around the screen, while leaving an after image behind. The after image is then slowly catching up to the dancer, but when it does the dancer starts dancing again. This short film has a dream like quality, where we see two people dancing. This could also be telling a story about love and a quest for it.

To finish today of watching short animations I watched Disney's Fantasia.
Fantasia is about animated cartoons which are representing and following the sound of the classical music played by an orchestra. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Nutcracker Suite, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was just an introduction to the instruments that will be used in the film and what are the feelings that come from them.
Nutcraker Suite has the fairys and plants dacing to the music that is playing.
The Sorcerer's Apperentice has Mickey filling up a well with water, he finds this too difficult so he wears the Sorcerer's hat and brought a broom to life. He tells the broom to fill the well up with water. Later the broom went out of contral and over flows the well with water soon the entire house.
The last one is Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria. This short Animation combined two musics which was very different into whole story. It starts with a spooky tone with a demon attacking a small village. The demon (whose name is Chernabog) also summons all sorts of evil things, like dead spirts, imps, harpys, fire dancers, all sorts. It ends with a beam of light from the sky hitting Chernabog and locking him in his mountain. The village people then leave their home to find a new one.
Fantasia was showing that animation isn't just to tell short stories, it is an art that can be meaningful and unique.

Unit 5 Story telling 2: glove research

I decided for my story I have a Goalkeeper's glove being scared of footballs. I thought this would be funny because it explains why some goalies suck at catching the ball.
I did some research on the different type of goalkeeper's gloves

Goalkeeper's Glove








My old idea was to have a rubber washing glove running away in fear because it doesn't want to clean the toilet.

Rubber Glove








my final idea was to have a builder stuck on builder's beam, thinking someone put glue there. While in reality it was his glove holding on to the beam with all his might because it is scared of heights.

Builders Gloves






But like I said I settled with the goalkeeper's glove being scared of footballs idea.

Unit 5 Story telling 1:researching gloves and how I think they move

Yesterday I did some research on the movements of spiders and crabs as a reference on how a disembodied hand or a glove would move. I also looked at Thing from the Adams Family to look at the different emotions a hand would make. I even found a Spores model Thing which has a rough idea of how a hand would move by it's self.

Hermit Crabs


Crab


Spider




Spore's Thing model

Winsor Mccay: Little Nemo, Gertie the Dinosaur and The Sinking of the Lusitania

Today I watched three short films by Winsor Mccay. Little Nemo, Gertie the Dinosaur and The Sinking of the Lusitania.



All three animations starts the same but are very different. Little Nemo and Gertie the Dinosaur starts with the creator Winsor Mccay talking to his friends/colleagues, we then see him finishing his frames and show them to one of his friends/colleagues, only to have the order of his animations muddled up by Mccay's assistant. Finally he presents his animation to his friends/colleagues. They way the animation start with Mccay is done in a comedic fashion. The difference between Little Nemo and Gertie the Dinosaur is that Little Nemo has a weird trippy effect, which I soon learned that Nemo and the other casts are from a comic by Winsor Mccay, and the comic is about a world of dreams. Which is why Little Nemo didn't make too much sense because in the world of dreams, nothing make sense.



Gertie the Dinosaur was showing that dinosaurs can have exaggerating facial expressions, we can see them be happy, grumpy or sad. Which make Gertie more lovable. Another interesting idea that was done on this animation was the interaction between the cartoon and the human, even though we don't see a real human interacting with a cartoon,it did however gave us the illusion that Mccay was really interacting with Gertie.



However The Sinking of the Lusitania has a different intro. It shows Mccay working hard on this animation with some of his workers to make this animation. The story of the Lusitania is that it was attacked by a German submarine's torpedo and sank to the bottom of the sea. This was the most frightening event I have ever seen I think what ive's this animation more emotional effect is that it was done in 2D animation, and since cartoons are always aimed at children. Seeing that, hand drawn with so much grim really show that animation doesn't necessary have to carry a child like atmosphere to be entertaining or meaningful.

All I have left to say is watching Winsor Mccay's animations really gave me a new way of looking into animations.

My final Storyboard: Don't Jinx It!

This is my final storybord idea, the plot is that the main character was tricked by one of his caulligues into doing his work, suddenly the main character dropped one of the decoratiosn so it is up to him to save it.

I posted two versions of it, the uncut version and the edited version.

Uncut


Edited


The difference between the two is that the edited version dosen't have the character looking confused, it was ment to show that he sort of saw the falling decorations but he thought he imagend them. I thought it would be funny for us to see the other decorations falling without him being non the wiser.

My three maya homeworks

Bouncing Ball 2, Center pivot




Pendulum




Moving Paper Clips