Alfie Minchin MA Animation

Animation Progression, Experimentation and Reserch

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Audience Feedback on Wizards and Writers Block:

After the completion of my film Wizards and Writers Block, I wanted to get feedback from various audience members. I wanted to know if I had been successful in my storytelling, character writing, animation, and in creating an appealing film.

I showed my finished film to several people, this included people who knew what the film was about beforehand and people who did not. The audience feedback was mostly positive, however, there was some criticism regarding the pacing of the film along with some of my line readings.

Review 1:

This is a review from my sister Matilda (23 years old). She knew what my narrative was about and the personalities of my characters before watching the film.

Review 2:

A review from a friend of my sister (23 years old). She did not know anything about the content of my film before viewing it. This person was a film student so would be a part of my target audience for Wizards and Writers Block.

Review 3:

This is a film review from my Uncle, David (52 years old). David has a career in film making for marketing and is a skilled screen printer so definitely fits into the target audience for Wizards and Writers Block. This person also did not know anything about the content of my film before viewing it.

This was the most in depth feedback I received for my film and therefore the review that I found the most useful. I am very happy that my film was so well received for the most part in terms of my characters, narrative and comedy.

This is a review from someone who works in the creative industry, and who therefore is part of my films main target audience.

The break out star from my film, in the opinion of this reviewer is Mayx the cat. I am really happy that the character of Mayx has been received so well, both in terms of his cat-like mannerisms and personality, and his comedic moments within the film. It is great that the personality of this character has been communicated so clearly in the short runtime of my film.

David also comments on the marketability and appeal of my film which was really helpful as Wizards and Writers Block was written to have a marketable appeal. It is great that my narrative and humour were communicated clearly enough to be enjoyable to someone who is experiencing my film for the first time with no prior knowledge of its narrative, this implies to me that I have been successful in creating an appealing and marketable film and characters.

David also commented on the subtle differences in design and animation between the scenes that take place in Maurice's book and the scenes that take place in the real world of my film. I am really happy that these subtle differences in animation and art style were noticed in this reviewers first viewing of my film, as this detail is important in differentiating the 'real' and fictional settings within my film.

Harvard Referencing:

Matilda Minchin (10th August, 2022).

Iona Clark (20th August, 2022).

David Heaton (31st August, 2022).

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New Learning During Film Production

Writing Dialogue for Characters: Although I have written for fictional animated shorts before, I have never really had the opportunity to write character dialogue. I did not research how to do this formally, but I did take inspiration from character-driven comedy shows that I enjoy, such as Matt Greoning’s ‘The Simpsons’ and Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s ‘Peep Show’. It helped that I had already developed the personalities of my main characters before the writing process began. Because of this initial character development, I found it intuitive to write comedic scenes and interactions between my two characters and to really go in-depth with their characterizations through the dialogue I wrote for them.

Voice Acting for Animation: I provided all the voice acting for Wizards and Writers Block. The learning for this came mainly from trial and error. I repeated lines of dialogue multiple times until I came up with a voice that I believed suited my character's personality. The voice acting for my characters in my finished film is alright, although I wish I could have given more range in my performances and annunciated some lines of dialogue more clearly. With my skill level, this was the best vocal performance I was able to do for my film.

Run Cycles: The opening scene of my film required two run cycles for my Wizard and Beast characters. Run Cycles were something I was already familiar with before going into this project, although I was unskilled at animating them. I did visual research before animating the run cycles for my Wizard and Beast characters. I also had to really experiment with the movements before my run cycles looked convincing.

Animating animal characters: I had to do some visual research when animating my two animal characters, The Beast and Mayx the cat. I have animated animals in previous films, but I wanted the movements of my animal characters in Wizards and Writers Block to be especially well done. I used my own cat as a visual reference when animating Mayx. I was able to capture some of my cat's mannerisms in the performance of Mayx quite well, although the animation for this character is far from perfect in the final film.

Animating a Moving Shot: One of the first sequences in my film was quite advanced in terms of movement, it required me to animate trees moving from the foreground of the shot to the background as my Wizard and Beast characters ran through them. This shot required a lot of work to get right and ended up taking a lot longer than I intended for it to. The end result looks alright, but it could still be significantly improved.

Sound Design: I had to find several songs for my film during the editing process. My initial plan was to work with an artist for the music in my film, but due to time restraints and because I needed a range of music for my finished film I decided to find non-copyrighted music on the website Pixabay. The process of finding and editing the music down to fit the scenes in my film was not too difficult and once again I found that doing the work myself was the best way to learn and improve this skill.

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Creative Decision Making

Coming up with an idea:

Before the Major Development Project module had even started, I had to come up with a range of ideas for my final film. This was something that I had been thinking about even before coming to study at Hertfordshire University.

During Semester 2 we had to decide on what our final film would be about so we could start the film's pre-production. I remember really struggling to come up with an idea at this point for two reasons. Since the film could be about anything It was very difficult to decide on one specific idea. I had also made things more difficult for myself by developing and designing the main characters for my film before coming up with a narrative (these characters being Maurice and Mayx). This limited me in what stories I could tell. This limitation may have been helpful in narrowing down my narrative, but this was still quite a difficult feat.

After a few weeks of struggling for inspiration, I managed to come up with two ideas that I was happy with. The first idea I developed would have seen Maurice and Mayx as paranormal investigators. This would have been a self-contained horror/comedy film focusing on them solving a small-scale paranormal phenomenon by helping a misunderstood poltergeist.

Idea 1:

This film would start off with Maurice and Mayx driving down a rural road at night. They would be trying to figure out why there had been a high number of cars crashing off a bridge on this road between 3 and 4am. Maurice would be sceptical of any paranormal phenomenon whereas Mayx would be expecting this.

As it turns out a poltergeist would be the cause of the car crashes. The two would narrowly avoid crashing off the bridge themselves because of the poltergeist forcefully turning Maurice’s steering wheel in a frightening action scene. After this Maurice and Mayx would discover the reason for the Poltergeists destress. They would see that a family of hedgehogs are crossing the road directly in front of them, which they would’ve run over if not for the poltergeist turning Maurice’s wheel.

As it turns out, the poltergeist is protecting the hedgehogs from being run over. Maurice and Mayx solve this issue by building a crossing for the hedgehogs and putting up a sign.

Idea 2:

The second idea I came up with was Wizards and Writers Block. This was the idea that I decided to go with in the end as I had a lot of first-hand experience with writers/ creative block, especially in coming up with an idea for my Major Development Project.

I came up with the basic narrative for this idea, but at this stage the narrative was not good. It featured a lot of irrelevant tangents and plot points that I really was not happy with. My tutor also had a lot of criticisms about the originality of some aspects of the story.

Developing and Refining my Narrative:

The idea I decided to develop further was of course Wizards and Writers Block. My personal experience with writer’s block meant that I was able to go into a lot of depth with this topic, and despite its issues the first draft of my story was quite creative and interesting.

I was able to develop and refine my narrative quite quickly once I got started. I was able to set up events in the narrative that had satisfying pay offs and really show off my main characters personalities in the dialogue.

I had already developed the personalities for my two primary characters Maurice and Mayx before writing and developing my story. This really aided me in the writing process as the personality and motivation of my main character Maurice was the main driving force of my films narrative.

My tutor was against a specific aspect of my initial idea. Wizards and Writers Block would have several scenes that take place within the fictional world of a story my films protagonist Maurice is writing. The idea for these scenes would be that the protagonist in Maurice’s book is stuck in a life-or-death situation until Maurice can get over his writer’s block and make progress in his writing. Initially the situation in Maurice’s book would involve a Wizard character losing a battle with another wizard atop a large tower. My tutor expressed to me that this idea was unoriginal as it was very similar to a scene in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. During my idea development I changed this to the wizard being chased by a ferocious fantasy creature of my own creation. This change ended up altering more aspects of my narrative and giving my film a more satisfying conclusion. The change also meant that Maurice’s novel was more original implying that he is a talented author which is the characterisation I wanted for him.

After being apprehensive about my initial idea, I was very happy with my developed narrative. From this stage, I moved on to the animatic.

Character Design:

My two main characters Maurice and Mayx are characters I have been drawing even before studying at Hertfordshire. I decided to use these characters even before coming up with the concept of my film just because I liked their personalities and designs.

I did some visual research when designing the Wizard and Beast. The Wizard's design went through a few trials to get right. Initially, his design was a lot more cartoony, but I made him less exaggerated and gave him more realistic proportions to suit the tone of his scenes better. The Beasts design that I moved forward with was actually the first design I drew for this character. I really liked the initial sketch I drew for the Beast so did not feel the need to develop his design further, although his design changed from looking ferocious to quite cute in my finished film.

Voice Acting:

I made the executive decision at the beginning of my film production to provide the voices for all of my characters. This decision was partly influenced by the convenience of not having to find, hire, create contracts and effectively direct actors.

I tried to give each character a distinct voice that suits their personality. I was quite happy with my voice acting, but in hindsight, they could be improved. Some of my pronunciations are not clear and despite my best efforts, the characters sound too similar.

Animatic:

I produced quite a rough animatic for my Major Development Project. This was not too much of an issue as it worked for my own reference during the animation stages.

During peer review, it was brought to my attention that a few aspects of my film could be improved/ edited. Initially, I had a scene where my main character Maurice is shown procrastinating by playing a very simplistic game. I was a fan of this scene and initially fought for its inclusion in the finished film. After redoing this aspect of the narrative, the film did flow better so I made this change.

There were a few other aspects of the initial animatic that I changed on peer review. After making these changes I was able to move forward with background design and animation.

Background Design:

I ran into several issues in creating the backgrounds for my film. Initially, I wanted to draw and paint all my backgrounds on paper, but I ran into issues when matching colours from shot to shot, and creating moving backgrounds for action scenes. I managed to do digital painting for these backgrounds which emulated the hand-painted aesthetic I wanted quite well.

One background caused me a lot of issues as there were a lot of moving elements in it (trees moving from the foreground to the background). Because of these issues, I started to fall behind in my film's production and there are several backgrounds in my finished film that I am not too happy with. I decided to animate this background on toon boom rather than doing a lot of digital paintings to emulate the movement as this would have taken too long. The end result does not work too well with the other backgrounds in my film, but due to time restraints, I was unable to work on this background further and had to make the decision to move forward with character animation.

Character Animation:

Wizards and Writers Block uses frame-by-frame digital animation. I animated my film in Toon Boom Harmony, as this is the animation software that I have the most experience in using. Frame-by-frame is a notoriously time-consuming method of animation. I decided to animate using this technique rather than using rigged 2D puppets as I personally prefer the look of frame-by-frame animation. I was also able to show more exaggerated expressions and poses by using frame-by-frame animation.

I changed up the character animation and designs subtly between the two different settings in my film (the scenes that take place in Maurice's book and the real-world setting of the film). The characters within the world of Maurice's book have thin outlines and I have used 'boiling' animation when the characters are still. The characters from the 'real-world' setting of my film have thicker outlines and no boiling animation when they are not moving. These subtle aesthetic changes help differentiate the two settings in my film from one another.

I made the decision to animate the most difficult scene of my animation first to get it out of the way. The scene in my film that displayed the most advanced character animation was the opening scene.

The opening scene for my animation is an action sequence that lasted approximately 40 seconds. Despite the brevity of this scene the animation took me around two-three weeks to complete. It took me a lot of trial and error to get the movements right but I was very happy with the end results.

The animation for this project was very time-consuming. Even in my film's more mundane scenes I really wanted to give my characters very expressive animations to show off their personalities on screen. I also did not take too many shortcuts when animating. This decision resulted in me running low on time to complete my film nearing the end of the semester, but the quality of the character animation is worth it in my opinion.

Additional Animation:

I decided to do some small bits of additional animation on Photoshop and in Premier Pro. I used Premier Pro to animate some moving background elements, such as the panning shot at the beginning of my film. I used photoshop to animate sequences such as Maurice's door closing that needed to have a hand-painted aesthetic even when in motion.

Post Production and Editing:

I used Premier Pro to add my character animation to my backgrounds, edit the scenes together and apply the needed sound design.

Editing Visuals:

At this stage of the film's production, I had to import all of my animation and background elements into Premier Pro and edit my footage together in the correct order.

I ran into several issues at this stage. For whatever reason, I experienced a lot of issues with my computer during the editing process so this took a lot longer than planned. Once I had all my footage in the correct order I moved on to editing the sound.

Sound Design:

To start with, I needed several short pieces of music to set the tone for certain scenes in my film. I found non-copyright music on the website Pixabay and edited the songs I chose alongside my visuals so the music fit the animation. The scene this works best in is the Montage scene in my film as the visuals and cuts match up perfectly with the character movements.

I found sounds for the diegetic sounds in my film and the animal noises on YouTube, most of these were edited in terms of pitch and duration to fit the animation in my film. I also recorded some of the diegetic sounds in my film such as the scrunched up paper.

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Wizards and Writers Block: Analysing my Finished Film

Narrative

Wizards and Writers Block is a short character driven film about Maurice, an aspiring fantasy novelist who finds himself unable to write due to a lack of inspiration, otherwise known as writers’ block. Meanwhile Maurice’s cat, Mayx attempts to sleep on his laptop further hindering Maurice’s writing efforts.

Maurice’s inability to write is echoed in the fictional story he is writing (The Wandering Wizard). Like Maurice, the protagonist in his book, referred to as ‘the wizard’ is also unable to escape their predicament until Maurice can get past his writer’s block and continue to write the narrative.

In Maurice’s book, the Wizard has been chased up a tree by a ferocious beast. The beast is now patrolling the tree so the Wizard cannot escape.

After struggling to write for days, Maurice’s problems get worst when he discovers Mayx sleeping on his laptop and unintentionally deleting what he has already written. Maurice attempts to get Mayx off his keyboard but Mayx viciously refuses. From Mayx’s perspective, Maurice hasn’t even been using his laptop, therefore he doesn’t see why he cannot sleep on it.

Thinking on his feet, Maurice comes up with a clever solution to get Mayx off his laptop. He throws a scrunched-up piece of paper to distract Mayx. Being a cat, Mayx leaps off Maurice’s laptop to play with the paper and Maurice hurriedly undoes the damage that Mayx has caused.

This sequence of events inspires Maurice’s writing efforts, and he uses a similar solution to solve the conflict within his book. Similarly, to how Maurice threw a piece of paper to distract Mayx, the Wizard throws a Pinecone to distract the beast. This works and the Wizard escapes from the tree, thus resolving Maurice’s writer's block and allowing him to continue writing his story.

Self Analysis

This is my finished film for my Major Development Project. I am mostly happy with how the film has turned out, but I do still have some issues with the finished product.

What could be improved:

Voice Acting -

I made the decision to voice both characters in my film. I made this decision because it was more convenient for me to voice all my characters than to find and hire voice actors.

Although the voices of my characters are not terrible, they could be improved a lot. I would prefer if Maurice's voice was deeper and gruffer so it may have worked better if I could have found an older male voice actor for this character. Some of Mayx's line deliveries are unclear. These lines could have been redone, but this issue were only brought to my attention during peer review after the film had already been animated.

Pacing and Editing -

Some of the pacing in my film could be improved. Most of my character interactions happen too quickly in my opinion. Throughout most of the film there are no moments of silence between two characters talking. The characters also talk very quickly and I have not left time for the audience to process what is happening in the film from one scene to the next.

Backgrounds and Perspectives -

Some of the backgrounds in my film could be improved. A lot of my perspectives are unrealistic. Additionally, the colours in my backgrounds are inconsistent in some scenes (this issue is mainly present in the Wizard segments of my film)

Aspects I am happy with:

Character Animation -

I am really happy with the character animation in Wizards and Writers Block. The personalities of my characters are communicated clearly through their performances and expressions in the film.

The animation is quite dynamic and my characters look appealing. I have used a lot of animation techniques such as smear frames, squash and stretch and secondary animation in my characters movements. This really adds to the appeal of the animation in the finished film, although the animation could still be pushed further at points.

Storytelling -

The story of Wizards and Writers Block has been communicated effectively. Most of the people who have seen my animation really enjoyed my narrative.

The set-ups in my film work well, such as Mayx playing with a piece of paper near the beginning of the film setting up the solution for the conflict at the end of the film, which then sets up Maurice's resolution to his own narrative.

The parallels between the characters Maurice and Mayx and the characters in Maurice's book (The Wizard and The Beast) were also clear in the film.

Characters -

I am happy with how my characters come across in my finished film, particularly Mayx and Maurice. Maurice's journey is relatable and both Maurice and Mayx are entertaining and likable characters.

The dynamics of my two main characters is entertaining and the two have a good back and forth. The desires of my main characters also drive the events in my films narrative effectively.

Comedy -

Most of the comedy in my film comes from the interactions between Maurice and Mayx. I have also included some slapstick comedy in the film. The comedy works in my film and therefore was well received by audiences in the peer reviews.

The dynamic between Maurice and Mayx and their developed personalities in the film allowed me to come up with lines of dialogue and interactions that were amusing without distracting from my films narrative, and while staying consistent with their characterisations.

The comedy in Wizards and Writers Block really adds to the overall appeal of the film and contributes to the films marketability.

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Project Management 5

Creating my Promotional Video and Presentation:

Because of the issues I had experienced while editing my film, I ended up starting these two tasks very closer to my extended deadline.

The promotional video took me around 6 hours to write and refine and the presentation took me around 8 hours to write. The filming and editing process for my promotional video also only took a few hours and I managed to complete both these tasks in two full days.

Although these tasks did not take me too long to complete, I am happy with how they have turned out, especially the promotional video which communicates my own practice and the content of my film quite concisely in the two minuet runtime.

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Project Management 4

Editing:

I ran into a few issues during the editing process of my film. The software I was using to edit, Premier Pro kept crashing and freezing my computer. I wasn't sure if this was a software or hardware issue but it put me very behind during the final stages of post-production.

At this stage, I had completed all of the animation for my final film and most of the sound. I ran into issues with my editing software during the final stages of the editing process. I planned for the editing to only take 2 days, but it ended up taking about five days because of these issues putting me further behind in my film production.

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Animations for Mayx:

Visual References:

I am happy with my animations for Mayx. I used my own cat for visual inspiration when producing the animation for this character in order to give cat like mannerisms and movements to this characters performance. This visual research has paid off as Mayx's movements and mannerisms are quite catlike in my film. In a piece of peer review I received for my finished film by David Heaton (2022), the catlike movements of Mayx were complimented.

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Animations for Wizard and Beast:

These are some of the finished animations for the Wizard and Beast characters. I am happy with most of these animation segments, especially the run cycles.

The Wizards movements were especially fun to animate. I was able to derive quite a lot of comedic moments in the animation for this character such as having him pick the pinecone using his feet and the animation of him falling out of the tree.

The beast is able to look both intimidating, and quite cute depending on the scene. I am happy with how this character looks in motion, although his design has unintentionally changed subtly from the beginning to the end of the film, with his appearance becoming more cute as the film goes on.

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Montage Scene

Animations for Scene:

Song Used: Vintage Comedy by PianoAmor

PianoAmor (2022). July 25, 2022. [Piano].

I am happy with how this scene has turned out. The music by PianoAmor that I discovered on Pixabay fits the tone of the scene well. During the editing process, I wanted to line the scene transitions to chords in the music. I also timed Maurice's blinking animation and the animation of Maurice falling asleep to the music. I edited Vintage Comedy by PianoAmor down from 1:36 to 21 seconds for the scene.

I have only used three locations/ actions in this montage, these being Maurice laying awake in bed, Maurice sitting at his desk and Maurice brushing his teeth. This lack of variation was intentional as I wanted to give the impression that Maurice is doing little other than attempting but failing to work over several days.

To Improve:

There are a few improvements I would like to make to this scene once I have more time to do so.

I would've liked the pile of screwed-up paper on Maurice's desk to get larger as the scene progressed in to imply that Maurice had been thinking up and scrapping ideas. I also forgot to draw a pillow for the scene Maurice is laying in bed.

These scenes should not be difficult to change, however, due to some issues I am experiencing with my computer and editing software I am currently unable to make these improvements.

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More Backgrounds for Mauric's House Interior

Maurice's Laptop Screen

Tea Stained Paper for End Credits

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Sound Design and The Editing Process

Songs Used:

Chikumbumtima by 33nano 33nano (2022) February 07, 2022 [Violin and vocals]

Chasing Victory (Main) by DaddysMusic DaddysMusic (2021) October 15, 2021 [Violin]

Vintage Comedy by PianoAmor PianoAmor (2022). July 25, 2022. [Piano].

Clown's Panic by SergeQuadrado SergeQuadrado (2019). April 21st, 2019 [Electronic and xylophone]

I found all the music that I used in my film on the website Pixabay. This is a website for non-copyright music. Before downloading each piece of music I made sure that the artist had given permission for the song to be used in the way that I intended to use it. I also credited all of the musicians I used in my films end credits.

Sounds Used:

FreeToUseSounds (2017). ROYALTY FREE TYPEWRITER SOUND EFFECTS! ORIGINAL 1960 SMITH & CORONA TYPEWRITER SOUNDS. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHZqZ1yoRPo&ab

SoundProductions (2019). KeyBoard Typing Sound Effect | KeyBoard Clicking Sound Effect. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUxw6eCRXQQ&ab

AlanaASMR (2019). ASMR - Cat Purring, Grooming, Licking, & Eating LOOPED // No Talking. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e494e6o39s&ab

ArakuSoundz (2020). 3 Hour | Haunted Forest Sounds | Scary ambient ASMR sounds. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGNB_9MABSA&ab_

-- The rest of the sounds used in my film, such as scrunching paper are sounds that I created and recorded myself.

Font Used

www.dafont.com. (n.d.). JMH Typewriter Font | dafont.com. [online] Available at: https://www.dafont.com/jmh-typewriter.font.

Due to experiencing some issues with my editing software the editing process ended up taking me a lot longer than planned. I was able to edit the scenes and sounds together quite well with only some issues remaining in the finished film.

I experienced a few issues with pacing in my scenes due to overly fast line deliveries or animation. At this stage of production I was unfortunately unable to alter these scenes.

Sound Design:

I am really happy with the sound design in my film for the most part. I found a lot of free to use sounds on YouTube such as the keyboard typing and the some cat/' animal sounds.

Harvard Referencing:

Pixabay (2018). Pixabay. [online] Pixabay.com. Available at: https://pixabay.com/.

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Forefront Post 10 - The Cuphead Show 2022 and Cuphead DLC June 30, 2022 - Modern animation with a 1930s aesthetic

The Cuphead Show is a children's television program based on the popular independent game Cuphead. Cuphead is a 2D side shooter game created by Chad and Jared Moldenhauer that was released on September 29th, 2017.

The art and animation style of Cuphead was heavily inspired by the hosepipe aesthetic of 1930s cartoons. Keeping authentic to 1930s animation, the characters and moving elements in Cuphead were all animated on paper. This dedication to the 1930s cartoon aesthetic meant the game really stood out from its competition which likely contributed to its success.

The only element of Cuphead's animation that was added digitally was the colour. Rather than being painted on animation cells the colour in Cuphead was applied in Photoshop after each frame of animation had been scanned onto a computer. I used the same method of applying colour to my animation frames when I created my student film 'You Only Live Thrice²'. Like the animation in Cuphead, this film was also traditionally animated on paper.

My Student Film from 2017:

Unlike the game it is based on, The Cuphead Show is animated digitally, so it does not stick to the 1930s art and animation aesthetic as rigidly. However, It does still take heavy inspiration from 1930s-era animation. This aesthetic means that Cuphead visually stands out from most other modern animated shows.

As this video by 'Video Game Animation Study' explains, The Cuphead Show uses the animation program 'Toonboom' and advanced rigged puppetry animation, whereas the animation in Cuphead the game was achieved traditionally on paper.

Why I believe the Cuphead show is at the forefront of the animation industry:

I believe that The Cuphead Show is at the forefront of the animation industry because, although it does not stick as closely to the traditional methods of animation as the Game it is based on, it still depicts a very appealing take on 1930s-era animation.

There is no modern technology in the show, and the settings and characters' designs are inspired by 1930s animation.

This being said, a lot of the humor, character personalities, and narratives do not seem to stick as closely to the 1930s aesthetic.

DLC (Downloadable content) for the Cuphead game was made available on June 30, 2022. Like the rest of The Cuphead Game, this DLC has been animated using traditional methods and sticks very closely to Cupheads 1930s aesthetic.

The Cuphead Show still stands out because of its 1930s-inspired settings, characters, and designs, even with its more modern elements.

The success of the original game and the recently implemented DLC does show that there is still a huge audience for the 1930s style of animation. I hope to see more games and shows implementing this aesthetic, or other bygone art styles in the future.

How this relates to my own practice:

The success of Cuphead, the game, and the show may result in more animation studios implementing older animation aesthetics into modern shows. As someone who personally loves authentic hand-drawn animation and the 2D art styles of older shows, I would be excited to see more shows coming out that take inspiration from older animated media.

Hand-drawn traditional animation is something I have some experience in, so if there is interest in this visual aesthetic and therefore a market for it I would be interested in creating animation inspired by cartoons of the past.

Harvard Referencing:

Wikipedia. (2020). Cuphead. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuphead.

VideoGameAnimationStudy www.youtube.com. (Aug 21, 2022). Cuphead: Paper vs Puppet. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVPGQOHNibc&ab_channel=VideoGameAnimationStudy

The Cuphead Show:

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, The Cuphead Show (2022-present) Netflix, America

Cuphead:

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Cuphead (2017) America

My Student Film:

Woeful Euphoria (Jul 5, 2022). You Only Live Thrice^2. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/NHuh1vn92wM

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Forefront Post 9 - The House (January 14, 2022) - The beautiful imperfections of Stop Motion Animation

In an era where most animated films being produced are CGI it is refreshing to see a film that embraces the wonderful imperfections of stop motion animation.

The House is a stop motion anthology that was written by Enda Walsh and directed by Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindorthon Von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza. It tells three half-hour-long narratives that all take place in the same House, but across different worlds (The first story is about people in an old-fashioned setting, the second about anthropomorphic rats living in an era that resembled modern times and the third about anthropomorphic cats living in a post-apocalyptic and flooded world).

The house was released on the streaming service Netflix on January 14, 2022. It was originally supposed to be a miniseries, with each anthology story being released as a separate episode.

Like 'The Bob's Burgers Movie' the house has a PG 12 rating although the tone and subject matter are quite different. This is a film targeted towards adult audiences as a lot of the themes are darker and it deals with issues of death, depression, and substance abuse.

I found it interesting that the only aspect of the film that ties the three narratives together is the house, despite the stories taking place in entirely different settings/ worlds. This really adds to the surreal and strange themes present in the anthology. In the first story ‘And heard within, a lie is spun’ we see the house being built and in the final story ‘Listen again and seek the sun’ the house is modified by the residence into a makeshift boat. This makes the overall narrative feel coherent despite the very different settings and characters.

What puts ‘The House’ at the forefront of the Animation Industry:

What stands out about this film, and what puts it at the forefront of the animation industry for me are its beautiful and peculiar stop motion aesthetics. The more surreal elements of the film work well in the stop motion media. The animation in the House also contributes to the dark and creepy tone throughout much of the film. The stop motion also makes the film more memorable and the imagery more interesting than if the film were a cleaner and more streamline CGI production.

Most of the visuals in the film were created physically, without the use of greenscreen or digital effects. I am a fan of this handcrafted approach to animation. I hope to see more films from the team behind The House in the future due to its intriguing plotlines and beautiful hand-crafted animation.

How this relates to my own practice:

Although I am not a Stop Motion animator, I do really appreciate hand crafted animation. Stop Motion is a media of animation that I do have some minimal experience in, and I really love working with stop motion.

I hope that, with the success of films like The House that there is more appreciation for Stop Motion animation and other more hands on and less digital animation techniques. Producing more hand-crafted films is something I would like to do in my career as an animator, and there will be more chance of this happening if there is more interest and demand for films with this aesthetic by audiences.

Harvard Referencing:

Wikipedia. (2022). The House (2022 film). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_(2022_film).

IMDb. (2022). The House. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11703050/.

Netflix (Dec 16, 2021). The House | Official Trailer | Netflix. [YouTube] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqbZlAEUb5w&ab_channel=Netflix

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Scene 5

I am really happy with the slapstick comedy in this scene. I came up with the decision to have the Wizard falling from the tree, rather than just climbing down during the animation process. Having the Wizard fall on his face, and his robe falling down to reveal his nude bottom is very amusing and really adds to the appeal of this scene and my film as a whole.

The pacing of this scene works really well. The events play out clearly, and the comedic timing is quite effective. I reused a small piece of animation from the Wizard running to save myself some time at the end of this sequence, but this animation works fine here.

The Beast has catlike mannerisms when he jumps on the pinecone in this tree. This is supposed to mirror the animation of Mayx jumping on the piece of paper that Maurice throws, so I wanted to make it obvious that the Beast was acting like Mayx the cat.

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Forefront Post 8 - Affairs of the Art (2021) - An award-winning short film entirely animated on paper that stands out from digital and CGI animation

Narrative:

Affairs of the Art was directed by Joanna Quinn and written by Les Mills. It is a beautifully animated short story about Beryl's (the film's protagonist) obsession with art. The film is narrated by Beryl as she talks about her life, her successful sister, her family members, her regrets, and her desire to be an established artist.

The aspect of Affairs Of The Art that really stands out is its animation and art style. Unlike most modern 2D animations Affairs Of The Art has been animated and coloured entirely on paper.

The film really embraces its hand-drawn aesthetic. Each frame of animation looks like a rough sketch.

Although the characters are designed to look quite cartoony and exaggerated the anatomy on display in Affairs Of The Art is very accurate. This sketchbook aesthetic works really well with the film's subject matter. At points in the film, we see Beryl sketching. Her art style is quite similar to the visual aesthetics present in the rest of the film.

The unique art style on display in Affairs Of The Art is why I believe this film to be at the forefront of the animation industry. Affairs Of The Art fully commits to its visual style which has really made the film stand out in my opinion. It was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Oscars and has won a plethora of awards for the best-animated film.

The art style in Affairs Of The Art really contributes to the film's subject matter and the way the narrative has been presented. It is almost as if the protagonist Beryl has illustrated the film as well as provided the narrative for it.

Why this film stood out to me:

The story of Beryl, the main protagonist in Affairs Of The Art really stood out to me because it has similar themes to the film I am creating 'Wizards and Writers Block.' The wants and passions of the main character in Affairs Of The Art have clearly been inspired by the film's creator. Like my film, Affairs Of Art is a film by creative people that is about the struggles and aspirations of a creative person (Beryl) that is target audience is creative people.

These videos talk about the processes of making Affairs Of The Art.

Affairs of the Art. Behind the scenes - From Script to Screen in 5 minutes!

Behind the scenes on Affairs of the Art. From Script to Screen in 5 minutes!Joanna Quinn talks us through the journey of a scene from Scrip

How This Relates to My Own Practice:

I personally really love the handcrafted aesthetic of Affairs Of The Art. The very traditional and unrefined style means the film stands out from its contemporaries which may use more modern and digitalized animation techniques and aesthetics.

I have created some traditionally animated films in my own practice, but unlike Affairs Of The Art I have never fully embraced this aesthetic style. This is something I would really like to do in the future, either by myself or as part of a small creative team.

Harvard Referencing:

BerylProductions (Aug 13, 2022). Affairs of the Art Trailer. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB97CnH-cjE&ab_channel=BerylProductions

NFB (Jan 11, 2022). Affairs of the Art | Creative Process with Joanna Quinn and Les Mills. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW9H5Wu2ujg&ab_channel=NFB

BerylProductions (Jan 21, 2022). Affairs of the Art. Behind the scenes - From Script to Screen in 5 minutes! [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZFuURSuFg&ab_channel=BerylProductions

Wikipedia. (2022). Affairs of the Art. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affairs_of_the_Art

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Forefront Post 7 - The Bad Guys 2022 - CGI animation inspired by a 2D aesthetic

The Bad Guys (2022) is a film from DreamWorks Animation Studios based on a book series by Aaron Blabey. The Bad Guys was directed by Pierre Perifel and had a cinematic release in April of 2022. Two aspects of The Bad Guys that I found especially interesting was its art style and exaggerated cartoony animation.

Despite The Bad Guys being a CGI animated film much of the framing, quick snappy movements, and exaggerated character expressions are reminiscent of 2D animation.

The 2D-inspired art style in The Bad Guys is a trend I have been seeing in CGI animation more and more in recent years. Films such as Sony's Spiderman Enter The Spiderverse, Pixar's Luca and Turning Red have also displayed 2D-inspired visuals and animation techniques. An example of this is Smear Frames seen in Luca, an animation technique that is much more commonly associated with 2D animation.

Smear Frame in Luca:

2D Inspired Visuals in The Bad Guys:

Since Sony Animation released Spiderman Enter The Spiderverse in 2018 there has been a huge push towards more exaggerated and stylized CGI animation. This trend of 2D-inspired CGI animation is definitely at the forefront of the animation industry today, as demonstrated by many of the top animation studios implementing exaggerated cartoony visuals in recent years.

The 2D-inspired visuals present in The Bad Guys 2022 is discussed further in the 2022 ‘The Bad Guys’: DreamWorks Embraces the Latest 2D Trend for Its CG Heist Comedy by Desowitz, B

How this relates to my own practice:

Although I am not a CGI animator, I believe that the very stylized and experimental direction of CGI animation in recent years may have an effect on the industry that I am going into (This being the 2D animation industry.)

The 2D-inspired art styles in many of the biggest CGI animations lately seem to imply that there is still a large market for 2D animation in the film industry. This logic does not necessarily follow, but as an animator who prefers more cartoony-inspired visuals to realism, I find this recent trend in CGI animation especially interesting. If I decide to make the transition into CGI animation myself I would likely lean more toward the highly stylized art and animation style as seen in 'The Bad Guys' than more realistic CGI animation.

Harvard Referencing:

Bad Guys Trailer:

Universal Pictures (Dec 14, 2021). THE BAD GUYS | Official Trailer 1. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Xt0yXaDPU&ab_channel=UniversalPictures

Universal Pictures (Jun 21, 2022). The Bad Guys | Wolf Does Something Special for Snake’s Birthday | Extended Preview. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH36MaFjcBA&ab_channel=UniversalPictures

Luca Trailer:

One Media (Feb 25, 2021). LUCA Official Trailer (2021) Disney Pixar Movie HD. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hgHY9k-44U&ab_channel=ONEMedia

News Article:

Desowitz, B. and Desowitz, B. (2022). ‘The Bad Guys’: DreamWorks Embraces the Latest 2D Trend for Its CG Heist Comedy. [online] IndieWire. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/04/the-bad-guys-dreamworks-animation-1234718584

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Project Management 3:

Here are some Smear frames from the animation:

At this point, I am very behind schedule in my film's production. I got behind near the beginning of production due to an illness and my chosen method of frame-by-frame animation is taking a very long time to complete. I knew the animation would take me a long time, but I really do not want to rush aspects of my film and end up with something I am not happy with, so I am continuing to work to a high standard even though I am falling very behind.

In total, I have dedicated many weeks to the animation of this film, but I am happy with how it looks. I am planning to give myself a few days to edit my film together and add the additional sound effects/ music.