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Week 14 Response

I really loved the piece about Harriet Tubman. My favorite part was how the trees were illustrated to look like the word freedom. Very clever. I also really liked Sugar Free Facts and Decaf Wish. I liked that it involved photography/stop frame animation entirely, and inspires me to think about future animation projects. It was a quirky, fun piece. Joseph Pierce’s techniques are really interesting too. His over exaggerated rotoscoping allows us to understand the point of view of who is looking at certain characters, and allows the point of view to shift quickly. It also shows the dark side of humans in a really interesting way.

Week 13 Response

I watched a few of the Andrew Khosrovani pieces and found them really lovely and effective. Mind’s Eye was remarkable in how it helped us to understand, and focus as much as the snowboarder interviewed. I also really appreciated the animation for the Citadel music festival. It helped me to realize, yet again, that I don’t need to be an amazing illustrator to be an animator. Shapes and objects can move, as well as the image itself. That, combined with music, can be really powerful. His aesthetic and choice of color was really beautiful too. I also appreciated the Santa piece, and seeing how an audio piece can be animated. The hand drawings appeared simple and didn’t animate much on their own, but everything else animating around them created an effective piece.

Week 12 Response

I really liked Saul Bass’s opening of North by Northwest. The cross dissolve into the building, with the motion graphics continuing in the same spot as before (and gratifyingly balanced within the building) was really great. I also really liked the piece about Grete Hermann. It has a great mix of motion graphics (which are totally appropriate to the story) and collage work. The color scheme was really effective too.

Week 11 Response

I really liked all of this week’s animations, particularly the motion graphics ones, as I’m interested in pursuing that further. However, the project that really stuck out to me was Dakota. I loved the simplicity of flashing words in time with the music, and sticking mainly with words and numbers. The black font (and typography) on the white background looked so stylish and cool. I was intrigued to watch the whole thing, and loved the musicality of the edit. I’m left wondering - who wrote the text? Is it Jack Kerouac and/or beat poetry? (Which would make sense with the style of jazz which accompanied the piece). I love integrating music wholly into a piece, and this was a great example of how to make music another character of a story.

Voicemail

Week 10 Response

I really appreciated the homage to 1990’s video games with Coin, although it’s pretty intimidating how quickly it moved and how flawlessly and detailed the animation was. That being said, it looked as if a lot of the background was repeated patterns. On the flip side, it was nice to watch Stranger Comes to Town, and see that not all animation needs to be flawlessly illustrated - an interesting idea and sense of cohesion can be enough.

Week 9 Response

I really liked Quimby and appreciated that the vast majority of the piece animation was made up of simple shapes and lines, most likely drawn using a shape tool. The detail of animating inside picture frames was also great, as was the soundtrack by Andrew Bird. Owl Me Tender was amazing in its scope of incorporating so many animation styles and techniques. I really liked the collage eyes in the illustrated owl at 41 seconds. That’s a really cool technique I’m wondering if I can incorporate. Finally, Sunday at Rocco’s was just a heartbreaking story told with lovely animation and narration. I love the idea of animating Storycorps stories in an accessible way to bring everyday stories to a broader audience.

Week 8 Response

I really liked some of the techniques in I Met the Walrus, particularly animating and illustrating around a photo or still image. There was also an interesting rhythm in the editing of that piece; some of it was quick and literal to match John Lennon’s speech pattern and words, with it slowing down at an appropriate time, and returning to the interviewer when necessary. I also liked the idea of animating over archived audio. Belly was great, and I really like Julie Pott’s style. I particularly liked using video of the ocean as part of the background, and then using illustrated animation around that. I also liked the background sometimes being a faded still image, with animation drawn over the top. Those are both techniques I hope to utilize in my own final project.

Proposal for Final Animation Project

Practice will be a short animation that shares what might run through my mind during my daily meditation practice. Most of my meditation practices are around 20 minutes, but I am aiming for a short piece between one to three minutes. Practice will utilize a combination of moving image, rotoscoping, animating still images as a background, collage, and sound. The open-endedness and associative nature of this piece will allow it to evolve into a more detailed and longer piece in the future.

Week 7 Response

Wow! What a smorgasbord of great animations this week! I appreciated seeing how animation is used in advertising and how it can bring about paid work outside of the commercial film industry. I really liked watching a lot of the animations on Mix Tape, particularly the one which animates using string and twine, as well as Metalheadzz, which animates using loads of different media. Careless Twitter was also great. It was great satire and an interesting (and funny) concept. Because there are so many tiny animations being used, the possibility to reuse some of those animations for later could also work effectively. I also appreciated that the creator researched and provided information about each animation. When I investigated Kenneth’s website further, I was intrigued to see his very specific, and effective, aesthetics and techniques.

Week 6 Response

I was incredibly impressed and excited by Muto by Blu. The concept of animating via street/outdoor wall painting is very cool and hugely ambitious. I appreciated how he incorporated the space and area into the story. I also liked that the traces of the previous paintings were still apparent. The use of music and sound tied it all together effectively, and seeing individuals walk by was a nice reminder that the animation and process was viewable by the public.

Stop frame animation project - “Juggling Buddha”

Week 5 Response

I really enjoyed watching Harry Smith’s “Early Abstractions” as it helped me to realize just how abstract animation can be. It also showed how animation can utilize still photos, illustrations, and other images from found documents, and that these can be animated in a variety of ways. I particularly enjoyed the stop frame section of the woman dancing, and the accompanying rug. The editing was also closely linked to the music and its rhythm, which was very effective.

Rotoscope attempt #2 - tracing on an iPad.

Rotoscope attempt #1 - tracing using mouse trackpad.

Week 2 Animation Response

I found both Slurb and Apocalypse Management really effective. By incorporating sound and music design, character loops, and a slowly panning background, the creators have created really interesting worlds. The effective use of recording the physical human movement and then rotoscoping it was very powerful in Apocalypse Management. I also appreciated Slurb’s use of moving image footage as part of the background. The blurring of music and sound also created an interesting and haunting effect in both cases.

My first flipbook animation. Can you name the tune?

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