Tom Mansbridge, NUA 0500042

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Updated Showreel

For my updated showreel I chose the track Cotton Club by Madi Terzo from the Free Music resource https://filter.one/. I chose it because it has the kind of laid-back, almost slapstic feel I was looking for.

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Collaboration w/c 17th May

I refined my sequence, including a link with the sequence that follows mine:

I was advised to add more weight to the movements, particularly on the impact of the balls, which I had added by the time I did a run with sound design

From there I was advised to make it clearer what the connection between the Spirit and the box was, so I added “rays” to make it clear magic was involved

In rendering sequences I found that they had too much noise

I discovered that by turning up the diffuse and specular up to 5 I was able to get an image with a greatly reduced level of noise, however I realised that to render the sequence at such a setting on my laptop would stretch the rendering time out by several days, which neither I nor the team could afford me to take. So I reduced noise using After Effects

As a result my final sequence, while containing some noise, was substantially improved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzCslm1Eu2c

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Collaboration w/c 10th May

I had a brainwave with the rig and decided to create my rig by deleting most of the geo from the Charlie rig, and bespoking the legs and feet to resemble duck legs.

From there I was able to progress fairly quickly, building a set simplified from my earlier idea and adhering to the approved colour scheme

It was advised that words be better integrated into the scene, so I turned them into picture frames which switch around at the relevant moment

At the end of the week we met to discuss the opening and closing of the film. For the opening I proposed an introduction to the Spirit like this

But it was decided to go with a treasure map with black ink drawings representing each scene, to which I contributed the following

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Collaboration w/c 3rd May

As the editor was unwell this week I offered to edit the Group Animatic for the week

I continued to try and develop a rig but with limited success:

At the end of the week we had a meeting to discuss transitions etc. It was agreed that the sequencing would change so that the “support” sequence with the animator at her desk would come last, as could showcase all of the previous sequences on the pin board. 

In the process of this meeting we suggested an alternative opening  where the words are intercut with clips from the first sequence, I had an attempt at putting it together

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Research Report w/c 3rd May

Discussed work with assessor so far. Main feedback was:

- Use “US/USA” rather than “American” - Recognise the implicit biases which are present in media in the period it is produced - More clearly define the term “culture”

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Collaboration w/c 26th April (Reading Week)

It was decided to forgo a meeting this week as it was determined that it would be more efficient for people to keep working on and developing their own sequences. Unfortunately it did not prove to be a very productive week for me, as I was stuck in my attempts to create a rigged character. I struggle significantly with Blender, so decided to switch to modelling with Maya, using this video, among others, for guidance.

I then made some progress, but got stuck on getting the right skeletal shape for a rig

I’m aiming for the character to have a simplistic appeal like the duck from Pocoyo

But with long(ish) legs like Duckula so that they work with the kind of movements demoed with the Charlie Rig

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Research Report Proposal- Books

In terms of books specifically about Jetsons and Futurama, the majority of texts out there are Comic Books

Interestingly, a recent Jestons comic has reinvented it with a “dark”, or at least more serious take

The main book about The Jetsons is an affectionate/gentle book which seems to be aimed at the nostalgic gift market:

Futurama on the other hand has inspired an (unofficial) book of philosophical observations

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Collaboration w/c 19th April

Added an acrobatic trick to the end of my sequence to make it more distinctive:

Feedback was that this was an improvement, but could still be more dynamic. It was suggested the character could ride a unicycle back and forth through “work” and “play” areas; although I thought this might be a bit ambitious for my current skill level, I applied the idea of backwards and forwards motion to the sequence. I blocked out a sequence, without paying attention to the animation for the objects, to give others an idea and show some of the potential camera motions. I also added a Work desk (for work) and an Arcade model (for play).

I am considering having the character inhabit a set based on Two-Face’s lair in Batman Forever, where the room is half “good”/half “evil”, in this case being half-work/half-play.

However I have been advised that this may not be feasible when factoring in animation time, and that I am planning to create and rig a character. I presented two rig concepts to the group; one simple humanoid character similar in style to Mr Game & Watch from the Smash Bros video games

And a duck character, which I wanted to have a very simple appeal

I thought a duck character would work well as it could catch the object in its beak, but was conscious that this would be the first anthropomorphised animal character in the sequence, however the group agreed they would prefer this character.

The combined animatic was created by the editor this week; it was agreed to go with the sequencing developed by another member of the team, as they had put a considerable amount of thought into the transitions, but the free music track from my edit last week is to be used going forward. 

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CG Workshop w/c 19th April

Workshop this week was to explore Render Layers

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Collaboration w/c 12th April

At our meeting this week we decided on a number of personality characteristics for our Spirit of Animation:- The ideal student - A team Player - Cheerful - Helpful - Curious - Optimistic - Clumsy

I presented my animatic for my Balance idea

Feedback was that the idea was good, but it has a long way to go

We were also challenged to each put together an Animatic featuring everyone’s sequence. My edit was as follows:

My narrative idea here is that the Spirit goes through several sequences until it develops the knowledge/skillset to create the hand drawn animated sequence at the end.

For this edit I found a track called Flawless by Soundroll from the free Music website https://uppbeat.io/

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Research Proposal: How unique is it?

Investigating if there has been any work comparing The Jetsons and Futurama, surprisingly there has been very little

This blog post compares the two but in a fairly light hearted pop cultural context, though the author does make points about why he thinks Futurama will be closer to the real future.

https://animationanomaly.com/2010/12/03/a-comparison-between-the-jetsons-and-futurama/

This Washingtion Post article seems to promise a lot with its title “The Jetsons vs. Futurama: Which one will be our innovation future?”, but it’s essentially an article about technology which uses Futurama and The Jetsons as window dressing, though it’s notable for defining Jetsons in “positive” terms and Futurama as “cynical”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2013/08/16/the-jetsons-vs-futurama-which-one-will-be-our-innovation-future/

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Collaboration w/c 5th April (Easter Week 3)

At the meeting on Thursday, another member of the team presented an idea they had been playing with around the idea of “Support” as a Principal; as I believe their idea to be a more effective communication of this concept, I am happy to instead focus on my idea of “Balance”

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Collaboration w/c 29th March (Easter Week 2)

Team met again on Thursday; I presented them with some of the research I had undertaken on my concepts since the last meeting:

Goofy in Clock Cleaners (1947), example of someone “blind walking”, only held up by support;

Harold Llloyd in Safety Last (1923), widely believed to have influenced the above

Management

Van Partible, creator of and showrunner for Johnny Bravo was let go from the show after the first season when Turner Broadcasting was taken over by Warner Bros, who told him he “lacked the managerial skills needed to handle a multi-million dollar production.” While working a subsequent job at the Marriott. he orientation program at the Marriott had a course in managerial training. Parible notes that there he “discovered the holes in my thinking and learned a multitude of skills that I still use today. The course was a huge confidence builder, because it illuminated the fact that my being fired had more to do with my inexperience than it had to do with my talent”. With this increased confidence, he spoke again to Cartoon Network, and was returned to his managerial role for the final season of Johnny Bravo.

Balance

Article about balancing plates “like a professional”- https://blog.sfceurope.com/the-best-ways-to-carry-serving-plates-like-a-pro

Another member of the team presented the below:

As an example of a sequence which is stylistically very diverse, yet ultimately comes together as a cohesive sequence. Tutor JD agreed, noting this as a video he actually shows to students on a fairly regular basis

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Collaboration w/c 22nd March (Easter Week 1)

I presented my concept for a “Spirit of Animation”; an anthropomorphic Pencil loosely moddled on Microsoft’s “Clippy” mascot and other characters with similarly exaggerated but minimal facial features

My final design was as follows:

I was quite happy with the design but ultimately we went with another contributor’s character who I agree is very appealing

I also presented an extended Storyboard for my Support sequence

One of my teammates provided an example of a simplistic and rounded style of animation which many of us agreed we would like to pursue for our sequence

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Research Proposal w/c 15th March

Having decided to go with Idea 2 I had a look at a broadly similar Research Paper for reference: “Do you know what really grinds my gears!” - The loss of satirical content and aesthetic style in popularized alternative animation by Max Bode This is an article about the supposed decline of Adult Animated programmes, in particular The Simpsons and Family Guy

-        Starts off with “fake editorial”

-        Explains style of editorial

-        Explains history of satire

-        Outside effects on popular culture

-        Explains cultural history and history of pop culture

-        Includes history of Adult Swim, Simpsons, Family Guy

 Cons

-        A lot of assumptions

-        Some strange source choices (e.g. using Huffington post to explain Huffington Post, TV Tropes)

-        A bit too ambitious for the format

-        Doesn’t analyse specific scenes or give examples (e.g. Bart better behaved)

 Pros

-        Very original

-        Lays out history of shows quite well

-        Raises some interesting points

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Collaboration w/c 15th March

At the start of the week we presented our initial bouncing ball/13th Principal sequence

I was fairly happy with how this turned out, although I think there may be some confusing staging with the viewer’s focus split between motion on the left and right hand of the screen. We also got a chance to edit all of our sequences together into a single video

Although mine is very basic, it was good to get an opportunity to practice my editing. On Tuesday we were put into our group for our collaboration project and I volunteered to be one of the two producers for the project. We reconvened after the seminar and agreed to meet again on Friday to discuss our ideas for the 13th Principal.

I presented ideas at the end of the meeting around Management, Balance and Reference/Analysis but ultimately went with an idea around Balance. In the sequence a simple anthropomorphic character will walk across a group of other characters supporting them with a “bridge” with their hands in the air.

As a group we agreed to go with the below Colour Pallets:

And that the sequence will be linked by a “Spirit of Animation” (similar to that used in NUA posters) to which all members of the group are to provide a design which will be voted on at the next meeting

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Research Proposal w/c 8th March

Considering one of two options for my Research Report both extended essays

Idea #1

 How will Britain’s new relationship with the EU affect the distribution of European Animated films?

 When the British public hears the term “European Animated film” they might think of something more “artistic”, “refined” and perhaps “cerebral” than the average American production.

But a large number of such productions are low-mid budget features aimed at competing with mainstream American films on similar terms. These have a reputation for being “cheap”, and are often released as “programmers” in the UK during half-term breaks and school holidays, prior to getting DVD releases, Streaming etc.

Andrew Osmand’s review of Robinson Crusoe in Sight & Sound perhaps surmised the general attitude to these films ““It’s very much aimed at children, with none of the surprise adult appeal of Disney’s Zootropolis – is the new offering from Belgium’s nWave studio. While nWave may never get name recognition, parents with young children have likely seen some of its cartoon wares, such as the lame Fly Me to the Moon (2008) and the better The House of Magic (2013)… However, Robinson Crusoe is still an infinitely finer kids’ cartoon than the recent, wretched Norm of the North.”

The market for this was perhaps not huge; a 2015 report by the European Audiovisual Observatory noted that European Films only got 20% of the market for animated films in Europe.

On the flip-side of this are UK-produced animated films which aim for the same market. The report notes that as of that time UK animation with 53.5 million admissions abroad UK Animation had the best overseas admissions of any animations produced in Europe between 2010 and 2014

Although the Brexit deal should theoretically mean that distributing European animated films in the UK and vice versa should not become exponentially more complicated, there are complications;

·        ICAEW notes that between 2007–13, UK businesses received over €20m in EU funding to support the release of European films in the UK, and that almost €45m was spent to make UK films available to European cinema audiences. (https://www.icaew.com/archive/technical/media-and-leisure/entertainment-sport-and-media/film/implications-of-brexit-on-the-uk-film-industry)

·        Screen Rant suggests that knock on effects on the strength/weakness of the Pound as currency could deter distributors from buying European films due to the increased cost (https://screenrant.com/brexit-uk-film-tv-industry-impact/)

 Pros

·        Relevant, contemporary subject

·        Offers considerable opportunity for primary research (e.g. interviews of distributors)

Cons

·        Pandemic means that distribution is being affected in ways that are not necessarily related to but difficult to isolate from the impact of Brexit. In response to the pandemic film distribution and the operation of cinemas is changing in ways that may be temporary or permanent. As such it is possible the report may become dated as soon as it is published

·        Secondary research may rely on sources which are heavily influenced by confirmation biases.

Idea #2

 What do different portrayals of the “future” in animation (e.g. The Jetsons in the early 60s vs Futurama in the early 00s) tell us about the culture that produced them?

The Jetsons was an animated sitcom which initially dealt with a “traditional” White American family unit (plus their robot maid and dog) in the year 2062 airing in Prime Time for a single season in 1962-1963 season. After that it had a long run on Saturday morning television and other outlets primarily as children’s programming, before being revived for new seasons and a movie (which dealt with then contemporary environmental concerns) in the mid-late 80s.

Futurama premiered in 1999, and deals with a non-traditional family unit (Humans of different races, characters from alien races invented for the series and a robot with only one familial connection between all of them) in the year 3000. It aired in Prime-Time from 1999-2003, before being revived for a series of Direct to Video movies and new TV shows.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who created The Jetsons, although they had taken a significant risk by establishing a studio to produce TV animation were very much part of the American Animation Industry Establishment by 1962, having won seven Academy Awards while producing Tom & Jerry cartoons for MGM in the 40s and 50s. Matt Greoning, creator of Futurama, in contrast, was initially established as an underground cartoonist, before being plucked from relative obscurity to produce interstitials for The Tracy Ullman Show which span off into The Simpsons. By 1999 The Simpsons was one of the most popular and acclaimed TV shows of all time, and had made untold millions in merchandising, but was still seen as somewhat “subversive”.

 Early reviews of Futurama noted the lineage between the show and The Jetsons; e.g. Ray Richmond in Variety.

 1962 in America:

·        President JFK set the goal of landing on the Moon by the end of the 60s and John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth in February of 1962

·        Cuban Missile Crisis when USSR plans to deploy Missiles in Cuba brings the world to the brink of world war, the US blockades Cuba and the USSR agrees to dismantle Soviet Silos Begins On October 15th ends on November 20th

·        Wall Street Experiences the “Flash Crash of 1962”; JFK responds with tax cut, hoping to incentivize large, self-financing companies. Little effect on interest rates or public confidence

 1999 in America:

·        Excitement and concern about the new millennium

·        U.S. GDP growth was steadily accelerating. a continuation of a trend that the economy had been experiencing for the previous few years

·        The unemployment rate drops to 4%, the lowest level since January 1970.

Science fiction at the time of The Jetsons was generally optimistic and hopeful about the future, anchored by a particular aesthetic which would ultimately become retro

By the time of Futurama, images of the future in popular culture had become increasingly cynical and dystopian

Pros:

·        Lots of ground to cover

Great opportunity for secondary research

Cons:

·        Limited scope for Primary Research

·        To what end am I conducting this?