Hedgehog in the Fog

        Though i'm a live action major I really enjoy watching animation videos. One of my favorite animation videos this semester is Hedgehog in the Fog. The video was directed by Yuriy Norshteyn and it is said to be one of his best works and one of the best animated videos in history.

     The video is ten minutes long and it tells the story of a little hedgehog that gets lots in the forest while going to visit his friends. While in the forests the fog starts getting thicker and suddenly all kinds of normal things start to look scary to the hedgehog.






      I was really, really impressed by how Yuriy made the fog because it looked great. The style of the film looks like paper cut-outs and I like that. The film has Christian inspirations here and there. I agree with the critics in that this film is one of the greatest films; I don't even know what to say about this film, it is just adorable and and cute. 

Sand Castle

It is a short film stop motion animated. Its media of creation was sand which is very clever. At the beginning there is this sort of human puppet made out of sand that emerges from the sand. This character started to create more puppets from the sand and makes a plan to make a castle as shelter for them. The other creatures created help to develop this castle. Once it is done they started to celebrate! What a pity that the celebration had to stop because of the wind. The castle helped as a shelter from the wind in which all were protected. The first character to appear made sure that everyone was in the castle when the storm hit the place they were on. His first creature reminds me of God. He appeared from the nowhere. Then he created more creatures out of the dust. As the story continues, he makes sure that every one of the creatures are safe and helps them to build a safe place for them. He takes care of everyone putting himself last. Once everyone is safe, he looks for shelter. Later, when the storm is over, everyone starts to jump and play again. The cycle is repeated once again as the representation of the cycle of life.

The Stain

      I couldn't find an Image from the Film so this will have to do, sorry.

 I assume you guys know what film I'm talking about. You know the one about the to eighty-year-olds who get in an argument over stain and kill each other? 

 I have to say that this film was awful...In the best way possible. From the overall design, to the constant, unwarranted medium switches and the quiet narration made for a very unique experience.

First the way in which the story was first conceived was pretty clever, though morbid, the writers (I wish I could remember their names) were able to reverse engineer a very interesting story.
The film also creates a very surprising tone, it is unsure whether it is funny, sad or angry. This is something that would easily ruin any other story, but here it just works. There is no easy answer to the film, therefore, it makes sense that the tone would be just as uncertain.

Finally we have the actual design of the characters. The film does not concern itself with continuity and is perfectly willing to shift the characters any way in which the scene demands. The film does an amazing job of bringing together elements that just don't work and they do not necessarily make them work, they just fit the movie perfectly.    

 I am really sorry that I don't have visual aids to help elaborate what I'm talking about but, I just couldn't find anything (But I found a ton of images of Tide products)

Anyway thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the film.                                

Quiz #2

     Little Dog Turpie was a film that we watched in class during our children's week. This film was able to deliver its message without being too intense or too violent for children. While this film still has a sense of violence and brutality to it. I could imagine that a young child learning about this film would not view it as I do. I think that this film can really evoke the feeling of being rather sorry for the dog. He is only trying to help his owners and his owners are reacting rather irrational and not giving little Turpie a chance. 

     

     I may be going out on a whim, but I think that Little dog Turpie represents God, the elderly couple represents the human race, and the the creepy men from the woods, the Hobyar Men represent sin. And it seems that all too often, God is always trying to stop sin by protecting us and we just get so annoyed with him and in a figurative sense, we cut his limbs off and we try to put a limit on how much we want him to protect us. But… There are those times where sin gets in our life and sometimes it feels like sin takes over more than half of us. And when we realize that sin has affected us, (usually this happens too late) we pray and ask god for help and to get us on the right path, like how Turpie is rebuilt. And then, in the end, we can always go back to god and he will put everything back together, just like Turpie solving the problem and freeing the mans wife….. I highly doubt a young child would share the same view as me.

The Man Who Planted Trees Q#2

 The man who planted trees was my favorite film shown during this past section of class, even more than the pixar shorts! Crazy I know! Normally I dislike this style of animation but it was done so well that I can't complain.  This film spoke to me about the power of one man and his diligence to his task. The man planted trees through two world wars and never stopped to bother about what was going on outside of his task. He kept his nose down and produced one of the single most magnificent man made marvels (I just put five "M" words in a row. Booo Yaa!) ever known in my opinion. I wish this was based on a true story. The world was completely upturned and crazy but he just planted trees and did more good for the world than any war could ever accomplish. If we all focused on what we can do to help the world through our actions and diligently performed that task, then I don't see how that could have any negative side effects.

The Stain

As a live action major, I have been having trouble staying interested in some of the videos that we have been watching in class for the past couple of weeks. Not to say that these videos weren't interesting per say, but sometimes I felt that the conversation leaned toward animation technique too much to really make me want to have joined in on the discussion. However, I found the "Women in Animation" week fascinating and wanted to share my thoughts on my favorite short during that segment (and perhaps of the entire semester) "The Stain."

Foremost, I highly enjoyed the mixed media that the animators used. My favorite use of this was probably the juxtaposition between the innocent looking two dimensional drawings and the eerie, uncanny clay sequences. This always kept the film unpredictable and made me a little uneasy watching these characters passively transform into different figures.

Second, I thought the method of telling the story primarily through the older daughter's perspective was fascinating. The story is founded on the actions of the two older brothers, but there was a huge emotional dissonance created by not allowing the story to be told from their point of view. As a result, they were almost demonized and portrayed as nearly sociopathic in nature. However, their thoughts are never truly revealed so we are left to decide their "true" character for ourselves.

The story is especially heartbreaking for the youngest daughter who was paralyzed by her older sister from envy and fathered by one of her two older brothers. I think the story is really about her tragic life and how her mere existence is inadvertently the cause for all of the conflicts even though she never really does anything to catalyze these events herself.

I think this may possibly be a metaphor by the creators of the film, claiming that women are often blamed for a lot of problems caused by the male-dominated society when the women are in fact the true victims of the male's actions. I thought this was a beautiful film and possibly beats any live action short that I've ever seen.

Quiz 2 blog

Pfffirate was probably my favorite indapendant film shown in class. The simple story and beautiful art style was almost a great example of what a small group can do together. I must say that I look the plastic look that the artist put into this video. Like Leeper said, the plastic look is the easiest look for 3D animation, so it was a great choice on their part

Speaking of great choices, I really thought that this film shows the whole idea of simple ideas going far. For instance the ocean was all a hard surface of plastic. This resulted in the animators not needing to animate water, which from my understanding would have been a huge pain in the butt. Another great choice on the animator's part was that the mice didn't really move that much, they merely bounced around, while keeping their body stationary. Yet another way that they spent their time and resources wisely. One last example of great choices was that there was no words. I know it sounds obvious now, but I hadn't put much thought int o it before. Without real words, there is nothing to sync up to in the animation, thus resulting in an easier time.

The stories that are shown in these short independent films are usually some of the most touching stories, because there is only the end resulting emotion that we really have time to feel. For this film it was laughter. In my private studies, I have lately been feeling sadness coming from the films. It makes you wander what emotion you will show the most in your works.

I think I learned alot about smart choices and how to apply them. Immediately after class I personally was thinking up some simple short animations. Hopefully someday one of them will come to life. 

Finally, 3D CG!!

Finally Leeper shows some good animations! Thursdays class was full of great quality, appealing 3d animation. 3d being my personal prefferance it was exciting to see some professional pieces. As great as pffffirate was I actually find the music education short more memorable. Its simplicity in story telling and interesting render style served it very well. Also the curiosity of the context held your attention until all came clear at the end. A very difficult task to accomplish in a short commercial. The award winning short with the two characters and a doorway was another memorable one for me. It was just as entertaining, and the characters' personalities were very well defined through expression and body language. This is a sign of fantastic animation, where no dialogue is needed to support the character's persona, and the progression of the plot. As I go to consider my options for senior project I wil be keeping this in mind. In my portfolio I wish for my same basic character model to come through with entirely different personalities in each clip. As for the style of 3d I agree with Leeper, there are few boundaries wih 3d animation software, and It can easily aid in many different media, but it sure is easy to get lost in trying to capture realism in every step of 3d production.

Onslaught

 

Beauty Pressure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The short video we watched called Onslaught addresses a predominate issue in society. The video addresses beauty and its crippling affects on the female mind in a materialistic world. The video partakes in illustrating an "experimental truth" about the beauty and fashion industry taking advantage of young women. The fast cuts and edits through the montage present an intense short video, a video that "conveys emotions and meanings that were intended without actually having to say so." This film is significant toward the reading as it illustrates a unique sense of storytelling that infiltrates the audiences empathetic mind through the  utilization of a tangible representation of young women becoming corrupted by the beauty industry. By showing the little girl in the film the audience will associate a face to the "victim" of beauty making the issue appear
dire and in need of adjustment and action, while also implementing a basic truth. Not only does the film contain significance through storytelling, following the Pixar reading, but the film also contains importance through its "artistic flexibility and social significance" (Yuri Norstein Reading). The film could have been constructed through several different positions and yet it is constructed in a unique sense. Most importantly it is essential to discuss the young child portrayed in the film. In film and in theater an actor must NOT break the fourth wall but in this film the child does break the fourth wall ... but unlike common theory saying that breaking this wall makes the audience disbelieve the action, while feeling uncomfortable, this film deals a different hand. The act of breaking the fourth wall in this film establishes a social truth and seeks to challenge the audience... almost as if the child is daring you to succumb to the beauty industry and to remain unaffected. By allowing the child to break the fourth wall, to "penetrate reality," the filmmakers had to have a lot of artistic flexibility and the fact that they encourage a social truth establishes a social significance. This film is significant to me because I am tired of living in a world where beauty and materialism can allow a person to climb the steps of the ladder, to receive more opportunities, to become an "exclusive" member of society, and it saddens me to observe people who are oblivious toward the beauty God has bestowed upon them, people who only see the "ugly disfigurements" society proclaims them to be. I fear that the world will succumb to a standard definition of beauty and that what makes us unique and beautiful will be destroyed through materialism and the IDEA of beauty, therefore destroying the true beauty God has bestowed upon us. I weep for that loss and I weep for the clones the beauty industry seeks to create. I weep for the beautiful children of God who are told you are not good enough, you are not pretty enough, and that to lead a successful future you most be supermodel thin with pounds of makeup on your face and numerous cosmetic surgeries. A world in which the beauty industry creates clones, that is the world I fear. The film Onslaught provides awareness against some of these issues because a picture, or a video in this case, can indeed speak a thousand words.

                                                      Stay Beautiful and God Bless,
                                                                   Randi Orr

Quiz #2

There was most definitely many great films that we have seen so far. However, I thought I would write about Pfffirate. Even though this film was not the most impacting to me, it still had some meaning to me . I find myself viewing films much more differently as each day passes especially after the International Chicago Children's Film Festival. I enjoy the idea of this short film a lot, not only is it clever in style. Pfffirate was made by using wise budget, time, and concept decisions. It made me think about how water can often be a big challenge in the animation world not only in the way its animated but how expensive it can be. Pfffirate challenged that idea by making the water simple and complex. It kinda reminds me of how the students managed water in a stop motion film here at HU, by using the clear spiral porch ornaments and twisting them, they made it look like there was moving water moving under a bridge. It was cheep, innovative, conveyable, and clever. I had seen Pfffirate once before and at the time I only saw it as pure enjoyment...which it is. However, seeing it again after spending more time evaluating media, I was able to see the film in a whole new and enjoyable way. Also who wouldn't like to see alien metal birds cause mischief. I say they are alien because they are metal in a plastic blow up world. Which is an interesting concept that can be taken in many different directions. It makes you wonder how the metal birds got into a fragile plastic world, or maybe the birds were there all along. The outcasts of society.      

Quiz Question Blog

Geri's Game strikes a powerful chord within me because as a child I remember seeing this film and not getting the joke until the end. It was such a surprise that I remembered it to this day.  The illusion that there are two men is near perfect. Aside from the fact that they look exactly alike (disregarding the fact that they might be twins) Both behave in such distinct manners that you believe they must be different, and the pace of the chess game keeps you busy so you don't have time to make speculations. 

Geri's game is a powerful yet simple film that conveys its message and dialogue with out words, but with gestures, sound effects, facial expressions, and hammy over-the-top acting presented in a comical and light-hearted style.  This movie blazes a trail in CGI by being arguably the first success at portraying a believable and friendly human in a field that only had dagger tosses preceding it. it used highly-stylized and exaggerated features to give it a childish feel yet maintaining believability. All in all, Geri's Game is a fantastic short film that progressed its kind by leaps and bounds.

Quiz - Work In Progress

The film that I chose is "Work In Progress" by ILM in 2000. 

I did a little research and this short was made to explore a Frankenstein-esque story/world and to stretch the technology/CGI techniques of that time as well. However, this short was a huge success! Not only visually but also technologically! This short was an experiment to further new in-house production pipeline software and the like. 

I don't know about you but I love the concept and story of this short - a mad scientist and his henchmen creating a shell or a skeleton of an animal or living being while the child adds life and heart into the being. 

While watching this animated short I really liked the dynamic relationship between the mad scientist, the henchman, and the child. These three characters in a sense all contribute to creating and designing a new life form. The each have their own role to play in creating life: the mad scientist = brains, the henchman = building the base/skeleton of the being, and the little girl = breath of life. Immediately, I thought of these three characters working together and coinciding as the trinity in a way. In the film the characters have the power and the freedom to create life and a world of their own and I find that beautiful and inspiring. Another thing I noticed while watching this film was when the mad scientist said this about the girl, "We don't need her or her bag of tricks." This reminded me of the attitude that people have sometimes towards God. We feel that we can do things on our own and do them better than God can. We struggle in giving God full control of our lives because we think that we have a better plan for our lives than what He has planned. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this short and found it the most relatable out of the others that Professor Leeper showed in class. This is not to say that I did not like watching Caroline Leaf or Norstein's work but I found this one not only aesthetically pleasing but also relatable on a personal level. 

Quiz 2

One of my favorite videos that we watched in class was the video Hell’s Kitchen.  I found it to be hilarious.  We recently stated in this class that comedy is unexpected.  I find that this film does this really well.  The film does a great job at leading you to believe that something is going to happen but then delivers something else.  When the lady steps on the robot brain and wanders into the street, I expected her to get hit by a car.  I don’t think anyone was expecting the woman in black to scream and then apparently choke to death.  The unexpectedness of the scream made it all the more funny.  Then the lady in the street is hit by a car, which sets off a chain reaction of other cars to hit the lamppost.  The following events are more predictable but still unexpected after the frail old lady is thrown out of the way and into the streets you hear sirens.  I expected an ambulance or a fire truck to come speeding into the scene and kill the old woman instead a school bus skids to a halt and tips over.  The bus catches fire and cheerleaders come scrambling but they are not scared, as one would expect, but they go into a cheer and then the funniest part of the whole clip in my opinion is what happens next.  It is the most predictable and the funniest moment in the whole clip.  I realize this contradicts the point I’m trying to make but… I don’t care, it was funny.  After the bus blows up a catchy song starts playing, the song is called That Great Gettin’ Up Mornin’ and it has nothing to do with the comedy of the clip or my article I just like the song, in fact I’m listening to it as I write this blog. (I may or may not have turned on the song just before writing that last sentence so as not to be a liar)

Sand Castle (Quiz 2)

This film wasn't the one that I liked the most out of the last section but it did stand out the most to me. It was the most stunning as far as craft in my opinion. The sand was animated very well in a way that I hadn't even seen until this class.

It had a lot of parallels to the creation story in genesis. The sand “God” created all of these creatures and he gave them all a unique ability, much like every person and every animal. What I especially liked was how at the beginning there was nothing to create the sand man. He just created himself. I thought this was really cool and important in the parallels they were making with the creation story in the Bible.

Another thing that stood out to me about this short was the ending. There is a sand storm and all of the creatures and what they made are destroyed. I liked it mostly because it didn't just go with the cute happy ending that we all expected. It went with a sadder ending that was more real than the happy ending. It shows that everything has there time and that everything will come to an end. We may not like to think about it but its true and I really liked that the film wasn't afraid to end in a way that was more real.

Sand animation is a beautiful medium and this films just shows how powerful it can be.

Quiz 2: Pfffirate and Keith Lango's Four "Pints"

Last week we saw a short film titled "Pfffirate". When Professor Leeper talked about how expensive it was to make water in animation, I had a flashback of when I saw Veggie Tales' "Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue." I recalled watching the Behind the Scenes footage where one of the animators mentioned how expensive and hard it was to make water and elements similar to water. These elements require a lot of flow and free movement, take a lot of time and money to animate to perfection. However perfection is not the key to make a media product successful.
Keith Lango's four points (or "pints") may not have been present at the time that this short film was made, but they definitely correlate with this short film. They wanted an experience of making a short animated film when they were studying and they worked hard on it and succeeded in making a great film. They did it to exercise their skills and what they had acquired.
Instead of confining themselves to the conventional, expensive way of animating the pirate's arms and the sea, they removed the pirate's arms to give him free movement without spending time on animating his arms. Moreover, the idea of animating water like a balloon and giving it an extra layer to show the water moving in a specific direction was brilliant. Without wasting time in animating arms and water the "best" way, they found a way to animate them, one that would fit in perfectly with their story.
These young filmmakers did not make a story to impress critics. They had a fun idea that they thought would entertain people, and that was a success for them. The idea was original and entertaining and the filmmakers were successful in using techniques that were profound, something that was not confined inside a "box." It seemed that they enjoyed making this animated short film.

For the Birds

  When I hear about Pixar it brings back memoirs of when I and everyone was a child. I saw "For

the Birds,"  it was funny to see all the same size birds. There is this one bird that you see  that is the

same color and everything just tall bird. It shows one by one of the birds getting on the telephone pole.

One bird argues with each other. Then one by one hit each other start to argue with each other.

  The big bird is just laughing at the little bird. I would like to see this in a movie. It was a funny short

film but I feel like it could be a movie. I feel like it would be better as a movie because you could add more content.

It would be funny to see the birds in another pixar film.

Two little birds  pick on the big bird when it flip over on the telephone pole.

The two little birds peck at the feet in till one toe is left.

Then one bird  realize that they were down to the last toe and they were almost to the ground.

Then Big bird toe lets go of the wire and the little birds flew up then came back town with no feathers.

The big bird laughing at the little ones.

I think that adults can relate to how their kids act towards the brids. The birds are cute and funny.

Relates to how family can be sometimes, where one person picks on another person.

The Stain and Stuff

  

      I'm a wee bit late to this party but I'm choosing The Stain to write about for mah' quiz thing. There are so many labels, I don't know which to choose. *sobs*
     SO ANYWAY. Yeah, I chose this video because in my opinion it was /one/ of the most powerful videos we've seen. It tells it from almost a child's perspective which, if you aren't paying attention, seems almost innocent-like. Which technically is how a child would see things. The voice and music made it creepy I thought. I'm pretty sure this would be labeled a tragedy, because, unless you're completely twisted, you shouldn't be laughing or see this as a comedy. (I know comedy doesn't automatically mean funny but still).
     I have to mention the animation because it was amazing. I love the transition between different mediums, it flowed smoothly and gave the story a lot more character than if it was just one or another. I also liked how the older sister's version of "cleaning" was just throwing everything in a box or even when she did other chores, it showed what appeared to be her view of it, and then the actual view. And also I like that this was inspired by a newspaper article, but they completely made their own story about how the story went, that took some great creativity skills right thar'. Along with that they even tied a story into it that would've touched base with some people and things others may have gone through. This company cranked out some powerful animations about topics that may be hard to talk about, and put them in a creative manner that still gets the point across.

Here's a youtube version of it, not the best quality, but yeah. :U

    

A Feather Tale

Out of the many films we have viewed in Intro to DMA, there is one short movie that really left a big impact upon me. A Feather Tale is such a powerful, meaningful animation that displays a whole slew of emotions in only five minutes. The story is about a woman who is forced take on her lover’s sexual fantasies. His method of handling her is demeaning and leaves her feeling vulnerable. Any form of true love is stripped from their relationship, only leaving the cruel reality of desperation. The poor woman is left to wallow in her nakedness and is constantly disturbed by the bad touches she has experienced. The story of this film is truly heart-wrenching, as the acts symbolized in this movie often occur in real life. It isn’t easy having to experience such tragedy. I know some people that have gone through these kinds of situations, and it’s something that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Rape is a very touchy subject, and not many people wish to speak about it for the sake of their own discomfort. However, this should be a topic that we are willing to talk about as it is such a huge issue in society today. People that have gone through these kinds of things need help with coping with their pain. One can’t easily adjust to touch again after an incident like that. Being touched again brings up those harsh memories and leaves a feeling of vulnerability and uncleanliness. No matter how much you try to wash yourself, you still feel dirty and weak. A Feather Tale captures all of those emotions perfectly and is truly a piece of artwork. The style of the animation works very well with the message presented, as it mimics the movements of a live action video, which gives a very “real” feeling. Something I also like about this movie was the creativity thrown into the most simple scenes, such as the egg whites for the tears of the woman. Or making the feathers the “clothing” for her. The transitions for the scenes are also fantastic. The one part where you can see the lady’s face on the car wheels or when the little car is driving over her bare body is so symbolic and astounding. Also, the fact that a female animator made this movie makes it even more significant as it also really meant something for its creator. I like feeling that connection between the artwork and the artist. This short film is very much impactful and should definitely be played again for future classes.

The Hell's Kitchen for Quiz #2

The Hell’s Kitchen is a beautiful animation short that we got to see in class. I truly loved this short as it was a very simple idea and simply put. It had one very long shot starting out static until slowing moving up along the city sky light and going into the scratch on film with music.

This short can be seen as a tragedy as the characters are just going through life and because of random happenings they find death. Death could be right around the corner for any of us, we just don’t know it yet. The Hell’s Kitchen shows many deaths that started with just one incident creating a chain of reactions. This shows as well that any choice or thing we do in life can start a chain that can lead to who knows what. I feel like I am overanalyzing this to an extent but at the same time The Hell’s Kitchen conveyed this to me as I watched it. 

The last part of the video saluting those that first started creating animations by scratching on the film I also believe to be tragedy. It was a very significant thing they did by putting that in and creating it. Sometimes we as humans forget so easily who started what we do, who made it possible for the things we do, who really had the passion and took the time to start this art form. It was a very noble act of the creators to add in the scratch film animation at the end. 

I just overall loved the animation at the beginning but then was in awe at just all of the video, especially the scratch on film animation. just a fantastic piece.

THE STUPID..ER I MEAN INFORMATIVE(yeah leeper'll buy that)BLOG ON CHILDREN'S MEDIA THAT IM REQUIRED TO POST ON FOR THE QUIZ.....YOU REMEMBER.....QUIZ# 2?...THE ONE FROM YESTERDAY...???

Even though it was already blogged upon (no thanks to you Seth! Thanks for stealing my thunder!) I too shall take it upon myself to give Co Hoedeman's "The Sand Castle" some insight. 

A long time ago in a LAND(didn't say galaxy so Im totally not plagiarizing ;) ) far, far away there lived a man named Co. Co was a dutch-canadian animator with a high sense of quality and entertaiment. Being the talented soul that he was, Co decided to also be a total boss and show the world how sand animation is done. It took him a very hard and miserable year of blood, sweat and tears(minus the sweat probably)but Co eventually finished his film. His gritty year in a sandbox had finally come to an end and the result...well, it speaks for itself.  

In short, the film details the actions of a sandman creating animal friends out of sand and leading all of the creatures to their main purpose: Building the world's most utterly stupendifyingly(totally a legit word) awesome sand castle!...I mean what else are you gonna do in a desert wasteland?...certainly not hallucinate sand creatures coming to life and building a giant sand castleOMMYGOSH....I just blew my own mind.


In all seriousness though, I really love this film. It is a perfect example of what I think we as filmakers should strive for: The act of pioneering in excellence. Co Hoedeman may not have been the first person to try to animate with sand, but in a time when sand animation was still a relatively new tool to animate with, Co saw the potential in the gritty, dry quality of sand and took it upon himself to make a difference in media with it. 

To animate already takes a lot of dedication, but to animate with something as feeble and brittle as sand takes even more dedication and Co was willing to give his time to pursue making the film he wanted the world to see. Hoedeman is still a boss to this very day. LEEPER! PLEASE CALL UP HOEDEMAN AND MAKE HIM VISIT CAMPUS AGAIN!!!! DO IT FOR THE FANS...namely me. :)