Hmmmm...

Movies such as A Christmas Carol and Beowulf both use CG to create a sense of realism for the characters. As I look at these animated films, I see a high level of detail and polish. I also see films that try too hard to imitate live action. It's truly amazing what technology can do now, being able to replicate nature on screen without using real people. My question, though, is what is the point? Why try so hard to reproduce Nature when you can go beyond it? Animated movies like Up and Kung Fu Panda are believable, but rather than try to reproduce every detail seen in reality, the filmmakers exaggerated elements. Instead of opting for photorealism, Up and Kung Fu Panda go for a more abstract hyperrealism. Both films seem realistic and are believable, but you can tell that they are deliberately separate from reality. They're meant to be animation rather than real. The biggest weakness of A Christmas Carol and Beowulf is that they almost possess the negative traits of the uncanny valley.

30 days of Night

The comic series 30 Days of Night, which is written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith, became a success after being released. The art style for the comic is interesting because there are no "realistic" renderings of figures or backgrounds. Instead, Templesmith's stylized version of reality builds up the eerie atmosphere that the story calls for. The plot of the story centers around a town in Alaska where a town literally experiences thirty days without sunlight. Once vampires close in on them from the darkness, a group of people must somehow survive the thirty days before a glimpse of daylight.

The movie adaptation of 30 Days of Night came out in 2007 and stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. I think the film did the comic enough justice, especially it captured the atmosphere perfectly. Like the comic, the vampires were something to be feared. I think this film helps reinvigorate the vampire genre because it actually makes them something to fear instead of something to love like Twilight.

A Review

The recent post on Cartoon Brew shows an independent animated film, by Paul Fierlinger, called My Dog Tulip, that will be distributed in the US. A brief synopsis of the film is a lonely old man becomes best friends with his dog, who seems an unlikely companion. They share a connection that is unspoken but felt. Although many people may not relate to having just a dog as a friend, most people can relate to the occasional feeling of loneliness.

As I looked at the trailer, which can be found on Cartoon Brew, I was intrigued about the art style used. The color and design of the backgrounds was relatively subdued, making the main characters pop forward with emphasis. The color palette is light, almost with a watercolor finish. As far as the animation goes, the style is not too naturalistic. The movement is inconsistent with reality, but works because it uses animation for the sake of exaggeration rather than using the medium as a means to duplicating Nature. Based on the trailer, the characters are so believable because their emotions seem genuine rather than artificial.

Review of Corpse Bride

I recently re-watched Corpse Bride after many years. After reviewing the film a few times, I have picked up on new things that I didn't consciously think about when it first came out. The film was directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, the latter of which produced 1993's A Nightmare Before Christmas. Honestly, I expected a lot from Corpse Bride based on the success of its predecessor. Although the film, to me, didn't leave as much of an impact on me as did A Nightmare Before Christmas, I still believe it is a good animated movie.

The animation looks polished but still retains the charm of stop-motion's slight rawness. The art style of the film is spectacular, using juxtaposing elements to emphasize the story. For example, the protagonist Victor lives in Victorian town, where the color scheme is deliberately cold, in order to convey oppression and conformity. On the other hand, once Victor enters the realm of the dead, the color scheme changes to vibrant colors, representing life and liberation.

A Return to Form...

Disney's The Princess and the Frog came out in theaters on December 10, 2009 with much anticipation. Before being released, critics were curious to see how audiences would react. If you already don't know, this film is a return to traditional hand-drawn animation for Disney after many years of CG. There has been this misconception that the artform was dead and that only CG was the future. The common reasoning behind this was that audiences were no longer interested in seeing hand-drawn animation after the success of 3-D.

After the string of successes from Pixar and others whose films happened to be in 3D, some people studying the business model came to the conclusion that only the implementation of 3D would be viable financially and that hand-drawn was a thing of the past. Thankfully, big names like John Lasseter believe that story and character are the most important thing regardless of the medium used to get those points across. Films are successful because audiences care about the characters, not the equipment used to make the movie.

Color

Red represents passion and aggression. It can also mean danger or blood. Blue represents calmness but can also represent depression. Are their truth to these sayings? Are there universal meaning represented by color alone? Some would say that if classroom walls were red, students were more prone to get into fights or be likely to talk. Classroom walls with subdued colors are thought to be conducive to educational productivity.

What contributes to this? I believe that society programs such thoughts into us but there may be some truth to much of this. For example, it is believed by some that we are afraid of the dark because our stone-age ancestors had to be wary of big predators at night.

Album Art...

Album art is something that I've started to pay more attention to after being more conscious of design. There's something intriguing about having to create a work of art around the idea of somebody else's work of art-music. The OK Computer's album cover above was done by Stanley Donwood, who created a synthesis of text and collage elements into the design. The color palette is generally cool, with a small touch of red-orange somewhere off-center. The subjects in the collage seem to be urban environments, with the obvious road making its way throughout the composition.

Listening to Radiohead's music from time to time, I think this album cover art fits perfectly with their message, especially for this album. OK Computer is not necessarily a concept album but has a common theme of alienation and paranoia in modern society. The overall design of the album's cover seems to show a world going so fast in a gloomy atmosphere. The album is not depressing but is rather enlightening about how some people feel about in today's world.

Charles Bargue

Art training shifted a lot in the early 20th century toward a more experimental approach, emphasizing the path toward abstracting reality rather than duplicating it. Instead of having classical ateliers or workshops, more art universities emerged, in which the latter became loyal to the ideals of Modernism. As I've scanned some art-related forums, I have realized that there are a good number of people who wish for a return of classical art training in the Western sense. This includes drawing from plaster casts and going through the rigorous process of learning to draw and paint realistically from Nature.

One website that advocates a return to classical artistic training is the Art Renewal Center, or ARC for short, and their website is at www.artrenewal.org. As I've browsed through the website I noticed that they seem to dismiss Modern art. Despite this, I still love certain aspects of the website, such as the great collection of paintings from academic artists of the late-19th century. I also love the prospect of classical ateliers having a resurgence in popularity. I'm all for that.

The book that I recommend, which I found on the website, is Charles Bargue Drawing Course. This text shows drawings made by Bargue himself, which are meant to be copied by art students exactly the way they are. This kind of academic training, where a student would copy from a master's drawings, was common a century ago. I think it's great practice for honing one's draftsmanship skills, as well as becoming a better observer.

Pushing the Limit

When making a design or work of art, how do you know when to stop? As I have looked at many artists' work, past and present, I realize that a lot of them do many variations of the same thing. They label the work number nine, or number ten-all different versions of the same idea. I know we have done many versions of one design in this class alone, but I never realized that great artists did the same thing. The principle is the same. Picasso ocassionally did variations of his works, which resulted in innovation.

How do you know when you've gone too far though? I think the answer to that question is that it is more of an intuitive feeling. Playing it safe can work well when producing another variation of an original, rather than continuing to work on the same canvas or other surface. There's something about detaching oneself from something they've been working on for days, and starting fresh.

Pixar?

For anybody wanting to get into Pixar Studios, you should really visit Spline Doctors. This site features great interviews from the top people working there. These interviews offer great insight into what it takes to work there. One example is an interview with Ricky Nierva, production designer for the film UP, who talks about portfolio reviews. According to Ricky, when submitting anything such as drawings, polish and good draftsmanship is great to have but ideas are the priority. One can have well-polished drawings but the ideas can be uninspired. For more of the interview, go to Spline Doctors.

Ricky makes a good point about portfolio pieces that I believe every student should keep in mind. It's important for someone to have the technical skills to execute and embellish their ideas, but the ideas always come first. Ideally a person should both have well-polished craft and inspiration so that they will not be limited.

Sculpting

As someone going into animation, and who occasionally paints from time to time, I have always wanted to break out of my comfort zone and tried my hand at making sculpts. Every time I see one, I imagine myself literally bringing something in the 3rd dimension rather in a make-believe space. When sculpting something, your creation is in the round, as opposed to the illusion of depth created by paintings.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=10

Above is a link to sculptures that I've found on ConceptArt.org. These are not necessarily meant to be fine art pieces, but rather intended for the entertainment industry. To be honest, if I were going to make a sculpture, it would most likely be within the realm of the fantastic, instead of being created for gallery spaces. I've always wondered how certain characters were brought to life in movies and games alike. For animated films, sculptures were made of the characters to give the animators a better idea of what they looked like from all angles. In films, sculpts were embellished with paint and other textures to make them real enough for the screen.

MUTO

I was shown this video by a good friend a while back and I always like to come back to it. This is an short animated film called Muto, done by Blu, and is one of those animated shorts that can be read into in different ways. It isn't necessarily meant to be a linear narrative at all but rather leaves the viewer to make his or her own interpretations of the animation's meaning.
Apart from what the short means, I simply marvel at the skill it takes to make this in the first place. Having to take a picture at every frame of these wall paintings can be tedious, not to mention the process of actually making every drawing and erasing.

Muto has opened my mind to the possibilities of where animation can go. One doesn't always have to make a stop-motion background or produce it on the computer. Instead, we can use different surfaces and mediums to keep the art of animation fresh. Everyday environments become a canvas for movement.

Kseniya Simonva

Above is a video that shows artist Kseniya Simonva using sand as a medium. Apparently, this is for a talent contest, which may very well dissuade some art enthusiasts who are purists in the sense that the artist would never be on reality television. Aside from that, I could be wrong, and accept the art for what it is and forget the circumstances that make for its creation.

Unlike a lot of ambiguous fine art pieces, this work seems to work as a narrative, more in line with animation. Simonva lets the audience observe individual images for an instance, then quickly manipulates the current image into another one. Transitions are smooth, and the skill is undeniable. The audience reaction is interesting to observe, since quite a few of them are in tears. This shows that Simonva is not merely doing this for show, but genuinely wants to tell a story. The music may seem a bit much, but it complements the act nonetheless. The biggest criticism I have is that it seems over-dramatic in some parts, and that kind of detracts away from the piece. Other than that, it was enjoyable to watch.

Halo Concept Art

http://www.bungie.net/projects/halo/asset_thumb_viewer.aspx?at=51&cc=25
http://halo.bungie.org/conceptart/

I wanted to analyze the inital drawings that inspired the Halo franchise. From what I've seen on the page, this concept work, which was down by Bungie artist Shikai Wang, is not too far from the final realization of the game. If you're familiar with the franchise,and look at the Elites, you will see that their initial designs haven't changed much as well as the Grunts' designs. Of course, you have noticeable alterations of the suits, but overall, the structure of these characters have remained the same. There are also certain alien characters that were either not included or were altered into the designs they are now in the games.

It's interesting looking at some of the potential looks for the Master Chief. You can tell they went through a lot of drafts to get his design just right. The Marines also went through several drafts from the looks of it. In all honesty, I wish they would have included some of the thrown out alien characters and vehicles, but there always comes a point where the creators must decide what to include and what not to and that's the whole point of the concept stage.

John Cage on a Bus...

I was first introduced to John Cage's 4 minutes 33 seconds last year in Mr. Edward's N100 class. To be honest, I didn't know what to think. Obviously, my first reaction was amusement, since the very idea seemed like a mockery of music. I considered it, and am still struggling to come to any conclusions of what I really think of the work. The idea is clever and presents the nature of silence as music, including any ambient noise. The concept almost runs parallel to the act of taking a found object out of context and calling it art.

The video shown above features a man performing Cage's famous composition. It would have been interesting to be on that bus the moment he announced his performance. I'm sure the people who were unfamiliar with Cage's work were expecting to hear at least "something" conventional. Although you don't see facial reactions, you can almost see the puzzled expressions as the silence continues, only to be interrupted by sirens in the distance and new passengers coming aboard.

Performance Art

This performance art piece done quite a while back. As you can see, the video shows a girl cutting her hair in a public space, while onlookers watch in bewilderment. While watching myself, I had to laugh, not at the girl cutting her hair, but at the peoples' reactions. It's interesting to guess what goes through a person's mind when something out of the ordinary happens right in front of them. Society places certain expectations on situations, and when those expectations are broken, some people don't know what to think.

I think it's great that she did this performance. It obviously goes against what is normal. Many people will not consider this art because it doesn't involve difficult craft skills or technique. There are no evident aspects of design or composition in the act. However, the purpose of art is not strictly for "beauty". Art also asks questions and forces others to do the same.