Cencoroll

Cencoroll is an incredible Japanese short film that came out recently!

It's about alien blobs capable of transforming into whatever object they like, attatching themselves to humans and then BATTLING!


Amazing animation and a really cool concept!

Attraction

So a friend of mine showed me this just now and I HAD to share it, I'm in love with this incredible idea.

'Attraction' is a marketing campaign spanning across Japan, London and France using an interactive, animated movie to spread awareness about the dangers of smoking.
The animation is GORGEOUS and viewers are encouraged to participate in the story and help out the characters in the animation, which is seemless and fits in perfectly.

Now, unfortunately, you can only watch it in French or Japanese, but there IS an option for English subtitles.

The link is;
http://www.attraction-lemanga.fr/site/index.php

Stop Motion Animation and Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen is one of the great stop motion animators of the last century, using stop motion animation (although, they often referred to it in those days as 'special effects') in films such as Mighty Joe Young (1949), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Harryhausen with Medusa's head, a character he animated in the 1981 movie, Clash of the Titans.

One of his most famous, and widely regarded as his best work, stop motion animations is this scene from Jason and the Argonauts;

To coincide, the second and first years were put into groups to plan and create our own short stop motion animation. My group (Scheree, Jasen and I) created this story, aptly named 'Monsterzzzap', where a monster attempts to eat a jelly fish and is consequently electricuted;

I was was the Director, and also drew the post-it panels for the monster from the bite of the jellyfish onward.

Pokémon Trainer

SO I think Tom and I are the only ones that actually did it, but all the first years had a discussion about drawing ourselves as Pokémon trainers.

HERE IS MINE. Unedited and coloured, for now.

Brad Bird and his tributes to 'Frank and Ollie'

In two of the films Brad Bird directed he paid tribute to two of Disney's 'Nine Old Men', Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

The first was in 'The Iron Giant';

And the second in 'The Incredibles;

Frank and Ollie play an important part in the history of animation, not only are they legendary Disney animators contributing to movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Jungle Book etc., but they're also the creators of the '12 Principles of Animation' with their book 'The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation', which has been referred to as 'the Bible of the industry'.

The principles, though originally written for traditional 2D animation, are still used and applied today in all aspects of animating, including 3D.

In their animated appearance in 'The Incredibles', both characters refer to The Incredibles defeat of the robot as 'old school'. I see this as having a kind of second meaning on top of the obvious, and referring their involvement in 'old school' animation.

Frank Thomas animated the INCREDIBLY famous spaghetti scene in Disney's 'Lady and the Tramp' (below)

While Frank animated that particular scene (as well as the character 'Jock') Ollie Johnston was responsible for the animation of Lady throughout the entire movie.

How appropriate for Valentine's Day :)

Video: The External World

A 3D animation my friend tweeted me that I thought was pretty funny and original. I particularly like 'The Frisbee of Misguided Love'.
Beware, though! It's 17 minutes long and very NSFW.
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, and made its US debut this year at Sundance.

'The External World' by David O'Reilly

Animation History: 'Lady and the Tramp'

The conception of Lady and the Tramp began when Walt Disney visited one of his story men, Joe Grant, and was charmed by Grant's springer spaniel.
Joe Grant saw this as an opportunity and brought sketches of his dog, Lady, to Disney and was asked to create a storyboard. Disney was displeased with the storyboard and the idea was shelved.
In 1943 Disney read a story in 'Cosmopolitan', called 'Happy Dan, The Skeptical Dog' by Ward Greene, and bought the rights to it.
By 1953 a story had finally started to take form, using elements from Joe Grants storyboard and Ward Greene's story. By this time Joe Grant had stopped working for Disney, and recieved no credit when the film was released in 1955. Disney had claimed he got his inspiration for the story when he gifted a puppy to his wife in a hat box.

My first presentable piece from class!

AND IT'S DIGITAL. I'm growing!

I don't know what it is. A demon ...thing, I guess. I made it up on the spot :0

An update on my influences: Evangelion and Gurren Lagann

I decided my previous post about Evangelion might have been a little to spoilerific (it was also mega violent) for people who hadn't already seen the series (WHY HAVEN'T YOU SEEN IT YET!?), so I'm giving the series it's own little post here with a little new info and another series that I'm hugely influenced by.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

By legendary Japanese animation studio GAINAX (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Nadia: The Secret of the Blue Water) Evangelion is often heralded as one of the (if not THE) best anime series' of all time.

A staple for any one interested in anime. ANYONE. I can recommend Evangelion to no end. It's a timeless masterpiece and changed has way the Japanese made mecha anime since. Many have to tried to duplicate it, some even created series in direct opposition of it, and none have come close.
It has fluid, amazing fight scenes, an incredible in-depth story and explores the emotions and psyches of characters like no other series I've ever watched, with some incredible relationships built between the characters.

The clip I've included is from a more lighthearted episode where two of the main characters and pilots of robots called EVA's have to learn an in sync dance routine in order to defeat an alien (or Angels, as they're called in the series) threatening Earth.

The series originally ran in the mid-90's, and they're now slowly releasing the 'Rebuild' movies, which are even more beautifully animated film versions of the series. The second film, Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can't (Not) Advance comes out (legally) some time this month and I'm mega excited! I swear it is near impossible to find anywhere online.

I'm currently watching the original series through for the 5th time.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Unfortunately my favourite clip isn't available on Youtube because the series is fairly new so here's the opening credits.
Disclaimer: Gurren Lagann is my FAVOURITE ANIMATED SERIES OF ALL TIME (dun da-duuuuunnn!).

Also created and animated by Studio GAINAX  and ANOTHER of their giant mecha anime, a genre they excel at, Gurren Lagann adopts a very different style to your more generic Shounen series thatusually come to mind when you mention the word 'anime'.
Different looking character and art styles, different animation styles (with episode 3 even using a different animation director than the rest of the series. He did an abysmal job and was fired because of it! Do not judge the series based on episode 3! I BEG OF YOU!) and a completely different plot format, Gurren Lagann is highly original and extremely outrageous!
As much as I hate using this word, Gurren Lagann summed up is "epic", and it was around the release of this series that that word started being used so much, possibly because of THIS series! This is what the animators set out to achieve, and by gum they achieved the hell out of it! It goes above and beyond and does things and reaches extremes you've never seen or imagined before.

WATCH BOTH OF THESE. I cannot recommend them enough! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Inspiration and Influences; my first Animation blog post!

Just a taste of some of the cartoons that I'm unfluenced by currently. There are numerous others, but these 3 series are what I'm watching/enjoying currently. I also included a bit about my favourite animator/director.

Adventure Time

Concieved by the GENIUS Pendleton Ward, Adventure Time was originally made only as a 7 minute short for Nickelodeon.
Due to extreme popularity the concept was then picked up as a series for Cartoon Network and is now into it's 3rd season.

Generally top notch animation for a cartoon series, fantastic, obscure humor and interesting, likeable characters.

Invader ZiM

Invader Zim was created by comic artist Jhonen Vasquez (just a warning, his blog is a tad NSFW) who influences me immensely.

Unfortunately Invader Zim was cancelled only 3 seasons in, but has since gained a huge underground following.

Vasquez has also directed a couple music videos, as well as written and illustrated a number of comics, including Johnny The Homicidial Maniac, Squee! and Fillerbunny.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

I only started watching Flapjack recently, but was instantly hooked by how Thurop Van Orman (Powerpuff Girls, Camp Lazlo, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) has managed to make it SO ugly and SO cute at the same time.

Another animation incorporating that obscure humor I love so much, Flapjack is probably best comparable to early seasons of Spongebob Squarepants (another big influence of mine!).

Pendleton Ward (above, Adventure Time) has also contributed as a writer for some episodes.

It won an Emmy in 2009 for 'Oustanding Individual Achievement in Animation'.

Animator/Director, Mamoru Hosoda

(Apologies for posting an AMV. It was the best clip I could find from the movie)

Mamoru Hosoda is probably my favourite animator.

The two clips I've included are from One Piece Movie 6: The Island of Baron Omatsuri and his most recent Summer Wars.

Both amazing and beautifully animated movies, I recommend both of them (and don't be put off by the One Piece movie, it requires little to no previous knowledge of the series).

Hosoda is known for using reoccuring themes and styles of animation in his movies, all of which I really adore and am heavily influenced by.