Animation Aesthetics F18

I recently came across an influencer's Instagram account that caught my eye. The post that drew my attention was a photo of a girl sitting in her room next to a half unpacked suitcase. She wore a grey hoodie, a pair of blue jeans and expensive white leather boots. Her pose was casual, but confident, she was on the phone and looked like she was mid conversation with someone. The photo looked like it could have been any other intstagram influencer, the catch is: she's a robot. Her bio reads: ~ MIQUELA~ 19/LA/Robot. The LA based company Brud has created Miquela as well as four other Instagram accounts for robots that all have their own unique personalities and aesthetics. The CGI robots also have their own youtube channel and complex relationships with one another. They comment on each others posts, and promote real companies' products and fashion. They are very popular as well for not being real, as Miquela has 1.5 million followers. At first I thought this was incredibly bi

I've never really thought of animation as something for kids, even though I know it is very often how it is perceived by the film industry. I've watched and loved many animated films throughout my entire life and after taking this course, I still stand by my opinion that animation can be just as much for adults and teens as it is for children. I think many adult cartoons like Bojack Horseman and South Park are proof that adults can find enjoyment in animation. I see animation less as a genre and more of an aesthetic choice, like how in life action, color correction and lighting effects are often different depending on the genre and filmmaker. Different genres in animated films also very often look different. I wish animated films would get more recognition during events like the Academy Awards, which is not to say they haven't before (Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture), but it very rarely happens. I think if animated films were considered for other categor

I've never been a huge fan of animation, but taking this class has made me realize how narrow-minded I was. My understanding and appreciation for animation has gone through the roof. When this class started I had a very undeveloped understanding of animation. Before this class I would have never thought of CGI as animation, even though it so clearly is now. My definition of animation has broadened and became more confusing for me to understand.  Animation is in almost every movie and it's starting to blow my mind.  In addition, I saw animation as a "kid" medium.  I never thought an animated movie would move me as deeply as a movie like Waltz with Bashir  did.  Also I found out I might actually like anime movies. I always thought anime movies were "weird" since they have such a strange stigma behind them. After watch the two anime movies in class, I can honestly say that they aren't as bad as many people make them out to be. I didn't think I would

It's common for Spidey movies to make reference to the comics, from major plot lines pulled from the source material or the tiniest of background details that only the true comic readers will notice. But Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did something quite different: it referenced the previous Spider-Man movies . And not just like paying tribute or using homages or whatever, but directly referring to terrible moments in the franchise's history and using it to make the audience laugh and sort of be reminded they're watching a movie. So if this was your first Spider-Man movie, a lot would go over your head. But that's not really new, Deadpool and Deadpool already did that. But what was new was that during the post credit scene, the film was making reference to a meme . A meme that is very current, too. A meme that most of the audience over 35 wouldn't even understand. But of course the theatre was filled with many people under 35 who were laughing their butts off.

Another interesting thing my friend was talking about lately is the “Feels Like Summer” music video by Childish Gambino. Really the music video is by artist Justin Richburg. I wanted to research more into the artist himself. I read an article about Richburg and it said that Gambino found him through his instagram. He would post some of his work which included drawings of some famous celebrities. Childish Gambino’s team reached out to him and asked if he could do the music video. Just goes to show you how powerful social media can be for artists.

My friend recently told me he saw a video called “Shrek Retold” which is a version of the Dreamworks movie “Shrek” but animated 200 different ways from 200 different artists. This reminded me of the animated short film we watched on one of the first days of this class. The film was animated by different artists all over the world. This is a little bit more of a meme than that film but it is still very interesting to watch! Shrek Retold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM70TROZQsI

After a semester of learning about animation aesthetics and delving into how 3D animation has dominated mainstream animation, I'm still left with this burning curiosity about how the heck artists create 3D images. I ran across this video just scrolling through Facebook one day and found it very interesting. I don't know if this how a lot of artists draw their characters but even so: I don't know if this link will work for you:  https://www.facebook.com/Jrockradio/videos/1836480999772427/ It's basically a video of someone drawing in 3D a character's hair with a tablet. From what I can tell from the comments section (the most factual information source known to humans) it looks to be a newish form of technology? It got me thinking, and we touched on this in class a bit as well, as the technology grows and as new technology develops the more styles and techniques we will see artists employing. I'm excited to see what comes out in the future but I also want to

Yesterday, the Academy Awards announced the shortlist for 9 categories, including visual effects. Of all of the categories, it seemed like this one was the most controversial based on twitter response. Considering this year had a lot of visually stunning films, it's not surprising some good ones got snubbed. It seemed like a lot of people were angry  Aquaman  was not in consideration but 3 Marvel films were. Personally, I'm sad to see Annihilation  left off, I thought that had some of the coolest vfx this whole year. That scene in the lighthouse is just amazing. What were some vfx that stood out to you this year?

Over the course of this semester, we not only learned about different types of animation, but also the making of different films that we may have not previously realized used animation and how certain companies came to be. I came into this class with an interest in animation, but I am leaving with a passion for it. I realized just how much I love stop motion pictures. Specifically films like Coraline and ParaNorman. Also, watching how Pixar came to be was inspiring. It took me back to when I was a little kid, watching Toy Story, Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., etc. Animation takes you to a completely different reality for a short period of time, allowing you to escape from the world. I'm curious to hear about what everyone else took from this class and how animation impacts you.

For our last class we watched Song of the Sea and had a brief discussion on if the film is feminist or not. From that, one of the other students asked if the girls in the class feel that it's true that men need to stop writing female characters because they're not relatable. My answer to this is fucking of course. As someone who literally always watches movies, most of the women that I see are nothing like me and or any woman that I associate myself with. And that can be very difficult sometimes. This is true for student films as well, which is sad. I can't tell you how many films I've seen men in park make about some manic pixie dream girl who's just looking for her "destiny." They're all the same. And this is a man's ideal girl. It's as silly as any John Green novel. It would be much easier to relate to female characters if they were written by women. One great example is Bridesmaids, one of my favorite movies of all time. One of the reason

For me, watching song of the sea really showed me how much of a true art form animation is.  When I think about what traditional "art" expectations are, I think of painting for example.  I think that animation can really take this traditional expectation of art however and bring it to new heights.  Watching song of the sea really just seemed to me as if I was in a moving painting and it truly was a magical experience.  I think that this really is a large part of the magic of animation and how unique of a medium it really is.  Advancing technology also elevates this as technology will no longer get in the way of inspiring artists and animators to make their visions into reality such as this film. Below is an article that I found that hits on animation being seen as an art form. https://www.parkwestgallery.com/animation-art-20th-century/

Watching Song of the Sea on Tuesday really seemed to spark an interesting conversation. We were mainly talking about the Bechdel test and films having strong female characters, but that got me thinking of something else. The animation of female characters in films is typically unvaried. This isn't with every animation studio, but many animate women with a narrow nose, big eyes, and small chin. Whereas animated men actually look different from one another. Pixar and Disney Studios in general does this A LOT, rarely varying women's appearances. This is an interesting thing to consider when animating characters, because it seems like something that wouldn't be huge problem--considering that real women have different face shapes. But, men do as well and there's much more variety in the animation of mens' faces.

Firstly, I thought this would be a nice note to end the class on. A good video to reflect on the place of special effects in movies today XD. My actual question, though... why aren't there more 3D CG Superhero movies? It seems like it's the one area that would really benefit from a highly stylized look where the proportions can be crazily exaggerated. And there's so much fun stuff you can do with art style.  I'm really happy Into the Spider-Verse is starting to play around with this. I hope there's more in the future! It just seems to obvious to me that CG could be a really good way to bring to life that slick, plastic-y look that so many comic books already have without compromising the creativity of either medium. Are there more examples that I'm just not thinking of? 

Turning a cartoon animated show into a live action movie could be quite unique. However, all these adaptions fail to recognize the original audience. Focusing more on attracting a new audience. This is fine if they truly want to start a story over, but why leave an entire fanbase out to dry. This isn't cool and its a failure by companies who just want to cash in on an old idea turned new.

The distribution rights to Wolfwalkers, the next film by Irish animation studio and makers of Secret of Kells and Song of The Sea Cartoon Saloon, was just bought by Apple's new streaming service. This makes me very disappointing because A: I was very much looking forward to this film getting a theatrical release, and Carton Saloon getting the praise they deserve with another Oscar worthy film. B: Since Apple is a giant mega corporation, them getting the distribution rights to Wolfwalkers means they will probably shift the original vision for the film in order to reach a wider audience. C: I'm not sure how many people will even get Apple's new service so this film which I've been excited for for almost 2 years might go unseen. On the bright side though, these films take an extremely large sum of money to get made in the first place, so if selling the distribution rights means this film gets to be made at all is a worthy trade in my book. Cartoon Saloon is a fantastic s

Animation to me has transformed from not only being a format of storytelling, but an art style that can demonstrate the creativity of a creators mind. Drawing images and having them appear to move with lifelike and sometimes not so lifelike motions is something that I've grown to respect out of this class. Watching films that evolved the ideas of animation, changing it from not just being a gag in a live action film, but to becoming a film in itself. The styles, the mediums, and the ability to tell tales that would only be seen in books or comics are what make animation so unique. Nowadays, animation has become a hybrid with live action, and I think this is amazing. We can make movies with characters that never would have been believable in the past. Thats just simply a spectacle for everyone.

Wall-E takes place in what some people see as the inevitable future. Earth gets trashed and we have to leave to colonize a different planet or a spaceship. You all know the story, its Pixar and we've seen it. But in terms of story, why is it one of the best animated movies of all time? I'd say because it is something that people could see happening. Maybe not the whole robots falling in love thing, but having to evacuate our planet because we have trashed it. People see America as overweight pieces of poop, but now citizens are so overweight that they need to travel around in floating chairs? Ridiculous to think of, but if we are talking about extreme outcomes, that's right there and it's scary.  Overall, Wall-E is amazing and one of my favorite animated films, but it's not because of the animation style. The story is just as important, and it is Pixar's strongest in my opinion.

I’M SO MAD, I’M SICK OF ALL THESE LIVE ACTION REMAKES THAT SUCK. I just found out there’s a Kim Possible live action remake and it looks so bad. The visual effects look like a 5-year-old did them and it’s clearly made for a younger audience. I’m not really sure why they wouldn’t market this for people more my age because I feel like they would get a better outcome for this film if it was for an older audience. While I know the point of a remake is to introduce this story to a new audience it still should provide nostalgia for the crowd that has seen the OG version. This show was made when I was a child so the people that know the old Kim Possible would look forward to seeing a remake of a film if its good. Key word, GOOD. I don’t have an issue with remaking a film if there’s a way it’s executed to where it looks like it could be just as good as the original, if not, better. I think the reason a lot of people (including myself) don’t like remakes is because you can completely c

The animations industry briefly experimented with realistic 3D CGI in the mid 2000s, the most well known examples of this are The Polar Express  (2003) and Beowulf (2007). It's a weird sub-genre, both movies were solidly average but the style of animation has died out for features. I'm okay with that. Realistic CGI lands theses films pretty heavily within the uncanny valley, especially for the older of the two movies. The movements of the characters are weightless and awkward, and there is absolutely no emotion behind their eyes. The whole experiment sort of reminds me of the equally as short-lived series of rotoscoped animated movies in the late 70s like the original Lord of the Rings (1978). The Realistic CGI does allow for some amazing set pieces and lighting, but falls short in the movement department. In western cinema, this method of animation only seems to be prevalent in video game cinematic trailers or cutscenes. Is it only because the amount of polish necessary for

I enjoyed this class! I learned some things about animation and the world of animated films that I never thought were crucial. All the films we watched really had something to say about animation. I may never be an animator, but I'm certainly glad I know more about the worlds they create! Hope you guys had as much fun as I did!

We've disguised before in class that animation doesn't have to be for kids, that mature adult stories can be told and this is celebrated, as it should be. But this has gotten me thinking about a problem that has been growing online. See as we all know parents, despite the growth of animated series and movies coming out for more mature audiences, still see animation as a safe medium intended for children. We saw this similarly for super hero films where parents tried to take their kids to see Deadpool despite the rating... and the trailers? I digress, parents can be ignorant, but even the more diligent parents are getting tricked and mislead by disturbing online videos. Animated videos (and also live action) with disturbing visuals hiding behind the likeness of Mickey Mouse, Elsa, Spiderman and other highly searched for children's characters on youtube. As the video explains youtube's algorithm and the autoplay button can eventually lead children from watching a harmle

To accurately review the remake of a previous film, I would love to be able to discard any feelings and emotions that exist for the previous one. However, that review would not be accurate at all as the new film’s relation to the old one is one of the most important aspects of any remake. So, in reviewing Illumination Entertainment’s rendition of the 1957 Dr. Seuss book, and the 1966 made for TV movie, and the 2000 Ron Howard film, it would be ill advised to not first discuss how it relates to those versions.              The first thing that stands out with this Grinch character is that he does not at all seem like the “mean one,” he has been in the past. And it’s not just him, the entire world the film takes place in has been morphed and transformed to fit Illumination Entertainment’s aesthetic: one that is more aptly defined as “adorable” rather than mean. That’s not to say that the animation isn’t well done, it is fantastic. They have somehow found a way to introduce an incredib

Yeah, we've all seen The Dark Knight. Whatever. That s#!t's in the past.  Christian Bale? Never heard of him. Will Arnett is the future and I will put all of my love and support behind him. First of all, Batman as a comedy is such a great idea. He is easily one of the most serious/dark superheroes. The whole movie basically makes fun of that and uses it to its advantage. Second, its LEGO. LEGO's inherently can not be taken seriously. They are the pinnacle of childhood and will be seen that way by most people. If you think a lot of people think animation is for kids, imagine the amount that think LEGO animation is for just kids. I disagree with them, because I, a 19 year-old man/boy, was laughing the whole way through. The LEGO Batman Movie is easily in my top 5 movies of all time. Have you seen The LEGO Batman movie?? If not, do it.

I just saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and I have to say that this is without a doubt the best animated film I've seen all year. The animation in this movie is entirely its own style of comic book like designs, combined with 2D cartoons, and anime. I completely embraces the wacky style and world it has created and I have never seen an animated movie that has looked like this. At least, not to this degree. The characters will often have their thoughts displayed in a text box above their head as if they are actually in a comic book, and to top it all off, the character's backstories are literally explained by opening one of their comic book issues and reading through it while the character narrates their origin. The film has taken the look, feeling, and tone of a comic book, and has completely embraced it into crafting one of the most beautifully animated films I have ever seen.

     In our last class when we were discussing what the future of animation will be like in 20+ years, someone mentioned that VR will be all over in the future. That got me thinking, and I actually disagree with that statement.      While I can admit VR is very cool (I own a Playstation VR and love it) I do think that it won't be the replacement for the way we view entertainment in the future. Virtual Reality takes extremely long to create, and as of now it is extremely expensive to own. I do think it will be more popular when the time comes and they make it less expensive and easier to access, but I don't think it will take the place of theatre or stuff like that. I feel as if it will be more of a fad, because there are a lot of negative aspects of VR as of now, such as a major one of getting headaches from the screens. Also, the entertainment produced for the VR will be tough to make as well. Will it be animated, or will they choose live action to create this virtual world.

Okay so like a week or so ago adult swim released this new short animated show called The Shivering Truth and it was THE craziest thing I have ever seen. I don't even know how to describe this show, it takes like the most uncomfortable parts of claymation and the most bizarre plots to make the story. Every episode stands alone and kind of follows one character in a very round-a-bouts story that connects in the strangest ways. I can be pretty picky about the weird stuff I'm into, but this show was great, but definitely not for everyone. Bugs crawl out of people, bodies morph into other things, and the stories bend in the weirdest ways. It's strange. 10/10 recommend.

Okay, Cú does not get enough credit for being amazing in this film. This giant shepherd dog is really just a sweetheart. Throughout the film he saves the heroes multiple times, like blocking Macha from coming into the attic and turning Ben into stone. It’s clear that Cú has undying loyalty for his caretakers as he literally swims over dangerous waters for Ben and Saoirse. He also pushes Ben out of his comfort zone a little bit by force, like dragging him into the dangerous waters to save Saoirse. Not only does he have undying loyalty, but I think Cú makes people better humans. Ben is mean to basically everyone, especially his sister. But Cú brings out this pureness in people and Ben eventually ends up becoming much nicer. Also, Cú's  eyes are hidden by his fur basically all of the film, which makes sense because after all, he is a shepherd dog, but it just makes him even cuter. How could you not love Cú? Anyway, I really loved Song of the Sea. The animation was so beauti