Who are You?

Why did I choose to study on this programme?

I feel like within the first minute of my interview that there was a common understanding of what I wanted to do with the course, what I wanted to learn and what I wanted to do after. There was never any sense of 'no, you can't do this because…' or 'that would be impossible…' or 'that sounds too impractical…' or 'you need to think like this…' . Instead what I got was the sense of 'So, what are you interested in?' and 'How can we make this happen…'. It seemed like they weren't interested in us thinking a certain way, instead they were more interested in us being passionate about what we're doing.

What do you want to learn during your time on the programme?

I feel I have the basic understanding of how to create an animation. For example I feel I know how to create a flip book or even a simple hand drawn animation where I use tracing paper. But the world of animation is massive so I know I have barely scratched the surface with what animation can do. In particular, I would love to learn how to create 3D CGI animation. In the past I have created animations but only with the resources I had access to which greatly limited creativity.

What skills do you think are your strengths?

I feel like I am able to work for long periods of time without getting distracted. Often I can easily spend four hours staring at a computer adding small details such as colouring to a character or caricature's hair. Then I look up and not realise how much time has passed. That's not to say this is entirely a strength because there has been many a time where I have spent too much time on something small that I have gotten behind on everything else. This style of working where I can focus on small details for hours on end is a strength, but only when I'm not approaching a deadline. 

For example, when I was doing my Final Major Project for Art Foundation I was going to make an animation about two characters who perform a tango dance routine together. But I had spent so much time on the walking cycle (where the characters walk into a building where the dance is going to take place) that I had left myself a limited amount of time to animate my dance sequence, the most important part of the animation.

What things that you want to improve?

One of the main problems I have had with animation in the past is that of effective time management. I have learnt that most animations are not created in a day. They in fact need a huge amount of time dedicated to them. This lack of time I have had in the past, particularly during my year of Art Foundation led to me having to wrap up my animation in a rush because I did not effectively plan out how I was going to use my time from the very start.

Another issue I have had with animation is that of staying on track. When I came up with an idea for an animation I would be keen about it at first, but maybe due to a lack of spending time on initial ideas I would find my interest would begin to fade and I would begin to take the animation in a different direction, often entirely off track from my storyboard.

What ways you will evaluate your progress?

In order to elevate my progress throughout the course I will try to keep organised. I will make sure I keep on top of my blogging, e.g. do it for every session, and basically everything I do on the course. I believe by doing this I will be able to make sure I understand exactly why I am doing on the course or with a brief because if I don't understand something, there is no way I will be able to then write about it.

Disney's Feast Trailer

Today I watched a trailer for the upcoming Disney Animated Studios animated short Feast. Although very little of the narrative is made clear in the trailer. Literally a man finds a stray dog, starts feeding the dog, the dog eats a lot, finds a plant, then runs with the plant. But I was still intrigued.

Admittedly it doesn't look like the most original thing in the world, in fact fairly bog standard for Disney. We've seen this kind of thing many times before from them with animals, especially dogs that form relationships with humans then go off on an adventure, for example Oliver and Company, 101 Dalmatians etc.

But I don't have a problem with this. It looks incredibly formulaic and we've seen cute dog characters as main protagonists a thousand times before. But its a formula that works for Disney and to be honest, who does cute animal characters better than Disney?

Moving on, what gripped me about this animation is its style. The puppy character is incredibly simple looking and could probably be drawn by anyone within two minutes. But he's also rendered in 3D to give the film a very nice combination of 2D and 3D animation. The characters are basically flat compared to characters out of Wreck it Ralph for example that have textures and no obvious shadow lines.

The style of this animation reminds me of one of Disney's other shorts, the critically acclaimed 'Paper Man'. This used a similar style in that appeared to be traditionally 2D animation but it was rendered in 3D to give it a smoother look. Paperman was great so I am really looking forward to Feast. Even if it doesn't look particularly original.

Simpsons Guy Review

I approached this crossover episode with much trepidation. I was prepared to hate it; the whole idea to me stank of desperation. One thing I could not get over was why? Why was this episode being made? I’m a fan of both shows, a much, much, much bigger fan of The Simpsons (in its heyday) and I know plenty of other fans of both these shows, never did I feel like there was any wanting this to ever happen.

Then there was the promo, my enthusiasm continued to differ. I wont dwell, but are we supposed to believe Homer Simpson a dim witted but basically well meaning man who loves his friends and family would ever become friends with the likes of Peter Griffin, who’s basically a waste of a man who does dim witted destructive things basically for the sake of being dim witted and destructive.

All my fears about this episode pretty much came true, and it was 45 minutes of television that was just wrong in every sense of the word… but, it gets away with it because it is also 45 minutes of television that is funny, at times laugh out loud funny. The Simpsons Guy would not have worked 10 years ago, and it would not have worked had been made for an episode of The Simpsons. Back in the golden era The Simpsons could easily label Family Guy as a rip off and get away with it. That doesn't cut it now because to me The Simpsons has not been fresh for a very long time and frequently falls back on tired over-used gags.

The episode would also not have worked if made for The Simpsons because the funniest moments of the episode, one moment involving Grandpa and Hans Moleman (two characters I believe remain fairly untouched by the post golden era decline) are simply way too dark for an episode of The Simpsons. The other funniest moment is the soon to be infamous car wash scene, a scene so funny because of how wrong and out of character (for Homer) this scene is.

It doesn't all work the rape joke in particular, unless the writers of Family Guy just wanted to remind us we’re watching their show, but they can easily do that without being dark for the sake of being dark e.g. Grandpa’s hit and run incident. The Family Guy humor worked when bound to the Family Guy characters. To hand it to the Family Guy writers, they were pretty damn good at making the Simpsons characters funny, when it didn't work was when they tried to insert Family Guy humor into Simpsons characters. We knew when it happened, and that’s when we cringe; Lisa’s snide Meg comment, anyone?

Basically, Simpsons fans, you can analyze how faithfully the Family Guy writers treat our beloved Simpsons characters, but you do yourself no favors but instead subject yourselves to 45 minutes of cringing. To enjoy this episode you need to step back and see it for what it is an episode of Family Guy, go digging, you’re never going to find an emotional core, just more gags. And you know what, for me that’s fine, once you realize that and stop worrying about how true to these characters are going be written and just see it for what it is, I think you’ll enjoy it. Besides how faithful have the Simpsons writers been to these characters in the last decade anyway, no harm can be done, everything will be back to normal next week.