week 1

tokio31
Oct 25, 2015
3 min read

Today I have been introduced to the narrative and sequence course principles and the brief, which aims to create a narrative through animation and character making. I have also been advised on the the clear documentation of my process through the blog (this is important that I maintain full yet simple evidence of my work not only through my final piece, but through my blog design.)

I have progressed in my data documentation throughout the first year of study. I have produced too little and too much information and none of it was useful for the readers and for myself. I will now try not to bombard people with tonnes of text or images but find a middle path.

Inspiration

'Neighbours' (1952) by Norman McLaren

This is, in my a opinion stunning example of power of animation where characters move unnaturally to human forms. It also has s strong, buildable narrative,sequence and story.

I like how far the abilities of animation were taken to modify the bounders of human body (2.34 - 2.53) Taking into consideration the year it was published (1952) it was something unique to audience.
Symbolism plays a big role in this animation. Specifically, flower in this video is not only a plant but a symbol of beauty, discort, dream., (also open for personal interpetation).
Not only it has a beggining and an end, it has a moral concerning greed of humanity
Finally, I like how innanimate objects have been give a human properties in this video (7.35- 7.39) The fence acts independetly and even decides on its own actions. This is something I need to think about when making my furure animation character (see week 2).

Kiwi

This is an example of successful character based animation. In this case the narrative

co-operates closely with the Kiwi (main character). By saying 'co-operates', I mean that character features are revealed more and more as the movie continues. In this case it is a story about purposeful bird without wings chasing its dream.

Strong character
Narrative interacts with the character
Creates emotional bond with the viewer. This is the main aspect of this clip, which I would like to fullfill in week 2 onwards.

Lord Shiva fights a fly

I like this piece of animation because, unlike previous example of Kiwi (where narrative builds its way up,) here we observe a straight forward idea that stays the same throught the end. In this case it is continuous fight between Shiva and impudent fly. In my opinion, it is really hard to keep the balance of being repetitive and being boring, but it it works well here.

Duo character interweaving. The fly cannot exist without Shiva and Shiva cannot exist without a fly.
Repetitive narrative and sequence
Simple and humorous.

Simon's Cat

Simon's cat is an example of popular animation series and what I find interesting about it, is that despite it being cartoonish, it speaks to a range of audience starting with kids ending with adults too. Furthermore, the narrative and details within this particular animation is quite rich despite the fact that it usually last for only a 1-2 minutes. Finally, the typography used in animation has been thought through carefully and works very well.