Final Specimens:

I have decided to use my blog post #9 on recycled gags in classic cartoons & blog post #13 on machinima as my final specimens.

Neither has been updated more than minor grammatical errors.

Blog Post #13: Machinima

Reading the last chapter of the text for this week (titled “the rest of the story” or something similar) made me think about how far animation has come in the 20 or so years since the book was published. Normally, 20 years isnt that long in historical terms, but with the advent of computers and everything else that’s happened recently, there are some surprising jumps. Back on topic, however, is all the new ways people are using technology to do things that were never feasible at this level before, like making animated films.  One such technique, that is relatively new, is called Machinima.

I offer this video: (warning! this is not safe for work, thanks to cursing!)

First, I’ll explain the technique. The film makers set up a multi-player video game (in this case, Halo for Xbox) and use their in-game characters to act out the action. They use one player as the “camera,” who is unseen and in this case doesn’t have any lines. (That explains the cross-hairs in the center the whole time). They then edit and add a sound track and effects in post-production. This innovative way of making an film is at most a decade old, now that technology has progressed where we can have multiple characters interacting in an environment such as the ones in these games.

This particular short (the first episode of what became a multi-year series) is also interesting story-wise, as they break the fourth wall by having the two red soldiers debate why they are in the situation they’re in, and the blue soldiers discussing the futility of their surveillance. The creators use a similar theme to that of Toy Story, in that the characters don’t realize they’re not “real” as it were. A well made film, on all accounts, no doubt.

This new film making form does pose questions, however. The characters are all “acted” by players, moving them at the appropriate times, and the “animation” is actually performed real-time by the game systems processor. But seeing as that is essentially a stripped down version of motion-tracking used in most animated films nowadays (Avatar, anyone?) it seems moot now. Regardless, viewing these sorts of films shows the ways that people are innovating to make art, and how far the genre has come since Gertie the Dinosaur.

Here are a few more Machinima films I enjoyed, to close out the post:

(This one is also not work-safe)

This one has quite a few inside jokes, but still is pretty funny!

And one last one:

My comments for this week are here and here.

Blog Post #12: Star Wars Clone cartoons: Expanding a Franchise

This week, I’m going to focus on how animation is being used by many people to expand the reach of their franchises in a relatively inexpensive way. A really good example is Star Wars, with its three different animated versions of the Clone Wars. Each version enabled them to expand their franchises to new groups of fans in new ways, ultimately adding more success to the franchise as a whole and expanding profits well beyond the money made by the live action films with all the additional merchandising.

First, the 2003 series Clone Wars:

Above is a single episode of the cartoon, which at 3:24 is pretty short. All of the first “season” episodes of this show had similar lengths, shown between other shows’ episodes on the Cartoon Network. Most are fairly self-contained, like the one I have posted, in that there is little dialog, no huge character development, and no major plot aside from whatever battle is taking place. Starting with season 2, they moved to 12 minute episodes, that allowed for more character development, and larger story arcs that, at the end of season 3, led straight into movie #3:  Revenge of the Sith. These short cartoons were made to intrigue children, and create excitement for the 3rd movie, as all were aired and set between film #2 & #3.

Next up is the 2008 feature-length CGI film The Clone Wars. This film takes a new direction in story-telling and animation. They focus much more on characters and on tying all the films and universes together. This film was spun off into a TV series the following year, that is still on the air. Unfortunately, Cartoon Network has yanked all the youtube clips, but you can catch the trailer here, on their website:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/starwars/index.html

This new series is to run for 5 seasons (they’re on #3 now, I believe) and has greatly expanded the Star Wars canon. There are now 3 distinct periods (within the story lines) to draw from for toys and merchandising: the original film trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and the clone wars period. If you step into any toy store, you’ll see that they have used this to the best possible effect. Each wave of action figures, for example, consists approximately of an even mix of toys from each section. There are t-shirts, party favors, comic books, and everything else you could think of from each of the three points in the overall Star Wars story. (and I hear they’re going to do a live-action TV show in the next few years that will be more serious and be set after the events of Return of the Jedi.

I guess I sort of went off on a tangent there, but my point is this: The people behind Star Wars have effectively leveraged their franchise into a multi-year cartoon at minimal expense (compared to shooting the live-action films) and this has enabled them to stretch out merchandising and set up a whole new generation of kids as life-long Star Wars fans. That’s an impressive use of animation over several formats (cartoon shorts, CGI films and then a CGI multi-season tv show) that shows how animation can be used to expand franchises to help their continued success long after the original media (those 6 live action films) are outside of the public consciousness.

My comments are here and here.

Blog Post #11: Learning by Doing

This week, I’m going to focus on how much more I appreciate animation now that I have tried my hand at it. This class is made to be a fun class, but the one part of it that I was dreading was the animation project, as I have NO artistic ability at all. But in doing this project, I learned a great deal about the processes of animation which gave me a new and larger understanding of cartoons in general. And I likely wouldn’t have been able to create something like this had I not spent a semester learning about animation pioneers and their techniques.

From doing all the readings, I realized that the one thing that makes a piece of animation entertaining is a good story. Most of the studios we’ve read about have entire departments for developing stories, or at least a dedicated person on the team. I’m just one person, so I decided on some short cuts. In an earlier blog I saw a film that had taken a scene in a movie and animated it with Lego people, so I decided I’d start with that. Because I’m a dork, I already have some Star Wars Lego sets around the house, so at first I was going to do a Lego animated version of the “These aren’t the droids your looking for” from Star Wars: A New Hope.

After timing out the scene, however, and remembering how much of a problem early animators had lining their cartoons up with sounds (believably) I realized that might be too much to try for on my first time. Especially because Lego figures have a limited range of motion: the “hand wave” of the Jedi Mind Trick would be virtually impossible to pull off.

So I set my mind elsewhere, and went to the local Toys R Us to see what else might be interesting. When I was there, I picked up these:

What intrigued me was that each set had 3 models that could be made in it, and I immediately thought of my earlier blog about stealing, err, borrowing ideas & the old Disney movie Sword in the Stone.  Specifically, the scene where the wizard and witch out-do each other with magical transformations. So I wrote out my script, and story boarded it in my mind (another technique picked up from the readings). One truck would harass the other, it would transform into the loader, which would flip the first truck. That first truck would then transform into a race car and drive away. After a few hours of filming, I ended up with this, less than perfect piece of work:

Doing all the stop motion did teach me a lot about the process, and made me realize how tough it really is to get things right. From the readings, I remembered the discussions of speed (especially the Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner cartoons!), so I tried to vary the speeds of the trucks. I also tried different levels of sophistication. The yellow truck’s transformation is off-screen, but the green one is on screen. If I were to do it again, I would have done them both on screen, as the green one turned out really nice. I was expecting it to look jerky and fake looking. But that did teach me about how animation works, and how your eyes accept what they are seeing. I also had to cut out two frames that have my hand in them (watch carefully!) and I was afraid I’d loose the coherency of the motion, but that turned out ok as well.

And lastly, I decided to add music and sound effects after I enjoyed making the film, to give it more value. Again, taking a lesson from the early pioneers of animation we read about, I chose a song in the public domain (The Entertainer by Scott Joplin). I also used official Star Wars sound effects for the little star wars bit at the end, but I figured that was ok because of how many Star Wars themed BrickFilms there are on youtube, and because George Lucas seems to have a sense of humor about these things. But even in adding the sound and music (which my room mate helped me with) I learned a great deal about production and how a finished film comes together.

This project, while I initially was skeptical, really was an important piece of learning how animation works, to better understand the techniques and history behind the innovators we’re learning about. I have really learned to appreciate the early pioneers so much more.

My comments are here and here for this week.

Special blog: My Animation Project!

Blog Post #10: Brickfilms part two!

In case you missed it here is my first blog post about brickfilms, in which amateurs film Lego bricks with stop motion.  It seems that Lego found this trend, and decided to use it to their advantage! Lego took a brilliant fan idea and pushed it to the limit with better technology, writing, and gags, to turn fan art into advertising without coming off as cheesy or copycatting.

The format works best with known properties, so we’ll start with Star Wars:

These people know what they’re doing (and not in a technological sense). They are completely aware of the sheer silliness of this venture.  Taking a property like Star Wars in Lego form, with its barely articulatable characters, and making it funny and enjoyable is awesome. The humor comes from the Star Wars cannon, and the silliness of a child’s mind (R2-D2s umbrella for example! A droid needs one?). Like the creators of Shawn of the Dead, they know their genre has moved past any hope of being taken seriously and go for the absurd. But in staying true to the Star Wars world, they use familiar settings and exactly the same sounds. Within the Lego world, whenever anything takes a hit or needs to come apart, the item splits into its Lego components to suit the story’s purpose.  Highlights to watch for: the snowman stormtrooper @ 1:39, Indiana Jones looking through junk at the Jawa sandcrawler (with a Racor in the background!?! and Ewoks?) @ 2:20, and the bathrooms marked “women” “men” and “droid” @ 3:35. The final scene is also worth rewinding more than once.

This one is called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick:

These cartoons show that the creators are fans of older cartoons, too. The slapstick style and quick pacing reminds me of many Tex Avery cartoons and Hanna Barbara’s work as well. And the map overlay with silly place names @ 1: 14 is a fairly standard gag. Pure absurdism reigns all over the place, check what Indy throws from the truck @ 2:26. Also check the reflections in the mirror @ 3:38. They know how silly this is, and that’s what makes it great.

So they took an interesting idea people used their toys for, fostered it with their fanbase, and then made these shorts to encourage them (and sales!). I think this is a brilliant use of animation for entertainment while trying to boost sales. Bravo, Lego. =)

My comments for this week are here and here (The second is still awaiting moderation at this point).

Blog Post #9: Recycled Gags & Stories

When doing this week’s reading I came across a bunch of places where the creators of cartoons re-used similar ideas and even the same exact gags to expand the amount of cartoons they could squeeze out of an idea. Initially I was skeptical, but re-using some gags and stories was a way for these creators to get the most out of their ideas and expand on really good ones when they worked well. Even if sometimes they were kind of stealing… So, here are three pairs I’ll be comparing:

Pair one:

Woody Woodpecker in “The Barber of Seville”

Bugs Bunny in “Rabbit of Seville”

I have to admit, when I first compared these two, I only saw two minute cuts of the actual barber parts that line up quite closely. After re-watching both whole shorts, I realize that the Woody Woodpecker version is not as good, but also has a whole lot of filler in the first half. The entire sequence with the Indian deserved to be cut, for example. But overall, they have a funny idea, and some really good gags in the second half. The Warner short, with Elmer and Bugs however, is clearly the better piece. Its as if they decided to steal the idea but then improved it so much that it feels like the more proper version. Still, there are some blatantly stolen gags here, like sharpening the razor on the tie, or pumping the chairs up to the ceiling, but overall the Warner version works much better.

Pair Two:

Elmer Fudd in “Elmer’s Candid Camera”

Elmer Fudd in “A Wild Hare”

These two, as noted in this week’s chapter, have the same general plot (except one is about hunting and the other about photography), but they also share many of the same gags.  At one point in both, we have the similar gag of bugs coming from behind and asking Elmer what he’s doing, as well as the fake death scene at the end of both cartoons. Many of the smaller gags and one-liners are similar, too. What surprises me about this pair is that they were made only a year apart and so blatantly follow the same formula. On the other hand, the characters are much further along both in design and personality, so it makes sense to re-make the story with the “proper” characters.

Pair Three:

“Duck Amuck”

“Rabbit Rampage”

These two, also mentioned in this week’s reading, follow the same general idea but have unique gags. With this pair, the Bugs cartoon is more of a “sequel” of sorts rather than a remake. It doesn’t feel like an outright rip-off like the first pair, or a remake like the second one. The gags are fun and interesting, and aside from a few general premises, they’re pretty different.

Overall, these three remakes really add to the cartoon cannon. When reading about these cartoons in the chapter, I was thinking to myself “how could they get away with this!?!” but when thinking about historical perspective, these shorts were only shown in theaters, for a few weeks at a time. A year or two later, people likely wouldn’t remember one gag, or perhaps even a story. And even if people had some deja-vu, it would probly reinforce the characters personalities in their minds. That’s not like today when everything is played 100 times a year on cable cartoon channels, or on youtube.  Overall, I think the viewing audience was enriched seeing some of these great story ideas more than once. Especially the last pair that breaks the 4th wall…

My comments for this week are here and here.

Blog Post #8: Minimalist Animation

After watching Ted Parmalee’s version of the Tell-Tale Heart in class last time, I found myself becoming interested in minimalist animation. What I found was a whole bunch of interesting ideas using animation techniques that, like the Tell-Tale Heart, might be considered outside the scope of traditional animation. But each of these examples is entertaining in their own right, and adds something to the genre.

First, two reviews created for an online magazine by Ben Croshaw. The series is called Zero Punctuation.  These two aren’t the most recent, but because much of his material is sort-of “inside baseball” if you’re not familiar with the video game industry, I picked two with fairly common subjects so just about anyone can appreciate the humor. In the first he’s making fun of reviewing Wii Sports 2 and the second is a game from Nintendo’s Mario franchise. NOTE: these are not work safe and the humor is quite blue at times. (Also I can’t figure out how to embed them in this blog, so you’ve got links instead).

Wii Sports Resort

Super Mario Galaxy

In his work, Croshaw uses about one “frame” per second with brief spurts of actual animation. Frequently these spurts are simple animations, 3 or 4 frames in a loop to simulate movement, for example. But he uses his crude computer generated pictures to create visuals that move quickly along with his rapid-fire commentary, creating a hilarious (if vulgar) entertaining and informative shorts.

This piece of animation is minimalist in both its art style and the animated elements, at a mere 2,000 frames consisting solely of line drawings. Even without dialog, the creator has made a short film that conveys his message: everything is not how it appears.

Next, is a South Park-style piece of animation done for a geology class. The concept is interesting, in that the creator used a form that was already pretty minimalist (South Park style) and made it more so, so that he could create something that would engage his students in an entertaining way. Notice that the “animation” for the two main characters consists of only a few drawn mouths, repeated over an over, and the human faces are simply chopped at the mouth and moved up and down (this is somewhat similar to the show’s style, but they do it using many more frames so its not a blur). The speed of the mouths doesn’t even change with the speed of the words spoken! But this teacher has found a way to get a message across to his students in an entertaining, funny way, with a minimum of technological expertise.

Depending on your subject matter (and budget!), using minimalism to get your pictures into an animated form might be a great way to get your project made, and perhaps be quite successful!

My comments for this week are here and here.

Mid-Term Blog Specimens

I am choosing my blog post #5 on the film 9 and my blog post #6 on brickfilms.com. Neither have been edited since their original posting, with the exception of putting the title 9 in italics..

Blog Post #7: Miss Potter

This post is the second in my two week series about how far mixing animation and live-action has come. This week: Miss Potter.

Miss Potter is more or less the complete opposite of last week’s film, the new Alice in Wonderland.  Animation is used sparingly, but it greatly enhances the story and enables the film makers much more artistic license while giving the audience a wholly different view of the lead character, Beatrix Potter.

The trailer has about the same percentage of animation in it as the entire film does, and there is only one scene that is more animated than live-action (shown briefly at about 1:20 in the trailer). Most of the animated bits are shots of Potter’s sketchbook or paintings that show the painted animals coming to life, frequently “causing trouble” for their creator. The bits are typically not longer than 30 seconds, though they do frequently happen while live-action is happening on screen, so they’re not just stuck in between sections of live action, they are a part of the scene.

In the trailer, the narrator says that Potter “saw the world differently,” and that concept is where the animation here really shines. If Potter simply talked to her (still) paintings, the audience would see her as crazy, or at least a little silly. The way they worked in the animation, however, leads us to believe in the world that Potter sees. The one more-animated-than-not scene (again, at 1:20 in the trailer) is of Potter as a young girl, watching her parents leave for some ball. Showing the carriage as a pumpkin with rabbits pulling it instead of horses shows us that this is the way she views the world. While this film could likely have been done without any animation, the animated bits greatly enhance the storytelling. Mixing live-action and animation has gone well beyond the gimmicky films of yesteryear (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, anyone?) and has been well adapted as simply another tool in the film maker’s toolbox.

(note: I’m not saying Roger Rabbit isn’t good, only that its premise is based wholly on the gimmick of animated characters interacting with the “real world”)

My comments this week are here and here.