Final Project

Artist Statement

I always like to try different ways to make my animation. Before I make the animation, I usually generally concern with the problem how to make it more interesting, more possibility. Also, I am really interesting in the suspense theme or thrillers, so when I think about a story, I can’t help create those kinds of animation. Therefore, compared to the action, I prefer to render the atmosphere and am more concerned about the changes of the camera.

However, in this project #2, as we should make a very short one, I decided to make a funny one. I came out a lot of ideas, but they are all not complete. Finally, I decide to use my favorite things which are television and comic books to fit the Jacques Derrida's concept. I use the panel to refer to as "framing". I want to make the comic form very obvious, so I remember the Japanese girl comic books that I read when I was a child. I want a clear distinction between the real world and the world of comics. I hope when audiences watch this short animation, they will feel happy, and it will recall their childhood memories. 

Mid Point_Final Project

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Final Project Mid

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Video Test

Reflection of Winter Days by Yori Norstein

When I first watch this animation, I would not believe this was created by a Russian if I hadn’t known it. I am so surprised that he is a Russian but he is so familiar with the Japanese poetry. He is a great model that we should do a lot research about what we do and we should know what we do. I thought he is a monk before I read the interview, especially it has the bell sound of the temple, so I was thinking what relation between monk and Basho is. However, after I read the interview I think his deign is great. Basho threw himself into a different life, so he was a poet and at the same time a monk. He talked about a new living complex in a documentary. He thought that is a dead place for poets. You can’t create things if you live a life of ease. I really like his character design, they are kind like paper cut puppets, and the color is very elegant.

I agree that we can never think the work we have done is finished. We always feel it don’t show our concept (intonation) perfectly.

In his interview, I think he believes that the poets are not just the people who wrote poetry, also the people who feel things and create things. I like he said, “Never allow oneself to remain the same - like a river, always renewing itself”. We can’t live in the world without changing. The world is changing every day, if we don't change to fit it, we will be rejected by the world. Basho would grasp the world with his poetry, and the world would become substantial in order to convey something invisible to the eye. So do the animators. I remembered Nick Park. He is very low key person. He doesn’t like to talk and be social. He is not good at express himself in words, so he uses his animation to talk.

After I read the interview, I just know that the two characters (Basho and Chikusai) in his animation lived in different periods, so they could never show in the same moment. I feel more interesting before I didn’t read it. Before, I like his style and the atmosphere he created in the animation.

I think he really knew what he should do. He is very smart. He knew that he is not Japanese. He could never create a Japanese style just like it should be. He could never totally express a Japanese literature accurately, so he tried to make things more subtle.

Reflection of Jacques Derrida

Kant believed frame is accessory, such as the frame of painting，the columns of the building. Derrida thought that the frame defines the opposition of inside and outside part. Frame will guide the viewer's attention to the center content of the work, which use to differ from the world outside the frame. It is the frame to construct the central meaning of the work. Frame is everywhere. It is not just art having the frame. It is also in our life. All things are working around frame.

There are a lot of opinions that I am really interested in, like he thought there is no singular origin. Life is a cellular process, so I started to think what thing is the first birth in the world. I am really curious about it. I heard a question before, “Are the eggs come first or the chicken comes first”?

Also, the label example makes me really resonated. People will not help to see the label when they are looking at the painting works. Then they will automatically give the content of the label to the works, and they will have the feeling: “yeah, that is right”. However, if the label cannot be found, people will be worried. They feel that they can’t really understand the work. Such preconceptions often make us really far away from the real understanding of a piece of work.

I think deconstruction is not only a form of art, but also to break the shackles and the limitation of artistic creation. The artist should be open-minded. Art should not have bound but have creativity and flexibility. We should do a variety of interesting attempt through divergent thinking.

Reflection of time & again

I really like the style that he used to create the animation. It is amazing. It is like an animated comic book. I am so excited that I saw this animation and gave me inspiration that animation can have many forms and we can make more interesting if we keep trying. This is about a man’s daily life. It would be very boring if the director just used the normal way to animate. Every time I thought it was over it continued. 

There are many excellent ways I think it’s really worth to learn. The whole style is like a comic book, the story is happening from one square to the next square. I like when the next square works, the last square will turn dark. This is easy for audiences to follow the story. And although the style is 2 Dimensional, he used the 3 Dimensional to change the scene. Also, about the background, he used the wrinkled paper texture and it keeps changing. I imagine it is like we flip the pages. Another interesting part is he used the comic dialog bubbles to replace the voice. Although the style is interesting, but I feel sad with the story and the classic piano music. He used the real painting on the notebook to show the character's imagination, it is also very interesting and innovative. It reminds me my little drawing in my notebook.

Skhizein

http://vimeo.com/36824575

Project 1

Reflection of Street of Crocodiles

This short film combines live action and stop-motion animation. The beginning of the film laid the whole tone of the film. A man spat in an old projector, and then this moldy machine stared to run, which put us into an underground world of dust. The entire work is full of mechanical sensitivity, and dark, dirty and wet.

I liked the part of the doll. On the glass are reflections of the man and the dolls, plus the appearances of the dolls, which create a great horror atmosphere. They have no eyes, so I wonder why. It feels like a dream. In the shadow of glass, the dolls moved up, saluted and gave him haircut. I began to think that something terrible would happen, but it did not. It's like a dark fairy tale.

New Progress of Project#1

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Hole

Mid-point of My Project #1

             

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Reflection of Homer 3D

The Simpson is recognized as a highly successful animated series. I really like it. It always makes ​​me feel very happy and relaxed.

The character design is really excellent I think. It created one kind of original and distinctive yellow people. Also, the character's personalities are very clear, everyone has everyone's features.

It always tries new things, and always able to cater to the trend of the times, like this Homer 3D. It combines the two-dimensional, three-dimensional and live action. We are used to watching the two-dimensional version. It is very fresh that the Homer Simpson becomes 3D.

And in this Homer 3D, it embodies a lot of usages of the three-dimensional technology. It is like to show us the interface of producing by using three-dimensional technology.

I liked texture of the pool, which is like jelly. It wasn't rendered as a very real effect. I think it is because the world is virtual. And these three completely different animation ways mix together, but don’t make people feel awkward.

Comment on Creature Comforts by Nick Park

I think very few people do not like the stop motion animation. It is sometimes a bit like using 3D technology, but has its unique charm. When I was looking at this animation, I can’t help think of the director himself. Nick park, almost all people who have some knowledge of animation will know him. He is a very low-key and quiet person. I think because of his personality, he uses animation to express his inner world. He likes to observe the animals and creates stories about animals, and his other two masterpieces, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the sheep are well-known. So does Creature Comforts. Nick is different from Norman. Nick is more focused on the fun of the story and the characters, but this is also related to the limitations of stop motion animation. So in Creature Comforts, the range of movement is not big around animals, but even so we still feel very interesting. First, he gives the animals the personality of human. They have their own thoughts and can express, and some movements are like people, but they retain their own respective characteristics as animals as well. I initially thought it was done animation first and then dub the characters. However, I was wrong. After interviewing the ordinary people in the street, then made the animal characters, and put their words with these animals. Nick is really talent; the sound and the animation are perfect together. He also did well at many details, such as the animals were hesitant when thinking. This is where we need to learn. Details can make the story richer, and more vivid. The animation's interviewer from children to the old, it is about the animals’ opinions on the zoo on the one hand. On the other hand, the society is like a zoo, we are trapped in the zoo as animals. This animation is very interesting and meaningful. We laugh at it and start thinking at the same time.

Comment on Object Conversation by Paul Glabicki

Be honest to say I didn't understand this animation very clearly. It is very abstract, but I watched over and over again to try to understand the director's ideas. I think this animation is a very great attempt, whether in the past or now. He composed his pictures of various geometric shapes combined with the true shape of the objects and the real pictures and made the collage effect, also there are texts inserted. This form of animation even now is very rare. When I was looking at this video, I was amazed at his imagination and his talent and could make such a theme full of changes and abstract. He putted so much material together but feels concordant. I like him cutting black in frequently, which makes audiences think what happened. Also, pictures are related to the words of the woman and man in the background.

Comment on Dots by Norman McLaren

After watching this animation, I was attracted to see several of his other animations, and did a bit of investigation. Norman McLaren is a master, and I feel very ashamed that I've only seen one of his short animations before. He had a great influence on Canadian animation and even the world. He received numerous awards in his life, which every animator dream of. And he made more than 60 animations, which also makes me feel very surprised and amazed at his imagination and action. Norman McLaren became interested in cinematic techniques while studying at the Glasgow School of Art between 1932 and 1937 and spent his spare time making films and playing the organ. He thought "Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn". Many of his works were to study the motion and rhythm as the purpose, and did a large variety of experiments about materials and sounds, even using purely abstract graphics, color, coupled with the music to create visual effect. Dots is one kind of the works without character and plot. The whole picture is made by blue, black and red, seemingly simple, but with an unusual approach. Dots was made by drawing by hand directly on frames of film and sound track. This is why it is interesting. Norman was not like the others who animate on paper, he continued to try new technology in animation, so we can always learn from him.

My Project #1: Concept

By Researching Zeuxis, Plato, the Continuity Style and Castiglione, How I Feel About Mimesis.

In my opinion,

Animation has always been a kind of imitation of behavior. We cannot show the true nature of the world, but we are using an artistic way to express life. We can often see animated animals, which are like people living there. They cannot speak in the real life, but animators give them life to imitate human movement. Resonance is very important in the art. Impressing people is an essential element of a good work. We will laugh and cry when we are watching movies, because movies evoke our memories, or we have a feeling of being in the scenarios.

In Zeuxis's story, his and his competitor’s works deceived the public, they imitate perfectly. Animation in general has two types, one kind is very realistic, and one is created with the exaggerated shapes. But no matter what kind, need to make sense and be reasonable. I think, Zeuxis is certainly very great, but the animation as an art form of expression if it is intended to be close to the thing itself is boring. Like in the case of Plato, the bed as an idea created by god, craftsmen made beds based on the idea, they can be varied, but in the hands of animators it will be changed in imitation of the carpenter's which should be like the real in our life even though they look a little different. Castiglione was excellent that he imitated Chinese painting but added the Western painting. Western painting always focuses on the relationship between light and dark and actual situation and perspective, but the traditional Chinese paint didn't care about those. Therefore, his works reflect the reality and include the fun of traditional Chinese ink painting.

Continuity style is a style of editing that the directors try to make the film reality as much as possible. They use advanced technology to restore this world or to create realistic things. Many Hollywood blockbusters are using this way. By the visual effects with sounds and the camera switch, audiences watch it as real and enjoy the visual experience better which films bring.