2D and 3D Animation

My Favourite Style of Animation

When it comes to animation I enjoy and appreciate many kinds old and new, however my all time favourite if I had to choose would have to be "Rubber Hose Animation". This style was the first to become standerdised in the Western field. The defining feature giving the name, and the very thing that made me love this style, refers to the almost rubber hose limbs with curves and no articulation. Some aren't too fond of many hosepipe animations, predominently due to the cultural views at the time having an influence on the content produced e.g elements being clearly racially charged. Some also aren't too fond for a lighter reason, simply being that they find the movements inhuman and creepy. 

Some Examples (my personal favourites):

* "Swing You Sinners!"- Fleischer Brothers Swing You Sinners!

* "Betty Boop Snow White" (specifically Cab Calloway's- "St James Infirmary Blues")                                             st James Infirmary Blues

* "The Cookie Carnival"- Silly Symphony Cookie Carnival

* "Hell's Bells"- Silly Symphony Hell's Bells

* "Cuphead"- Studio MDHR (a video game created in 2017 that was inspired by and adopted the same style)

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Bouncing Balls

Some example videos of various balls and how they bounce, studied to create a more realistic animation of such.

* Regular ball: Regular ball

* Bowling ball: Bowling ball

* Ping pong ball: Ping pong

* Balloon: Balloon

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Worst Animation

Aquarium of the Dead, personally I would rate this a zero, so I will. The film came out in 2021, meaning the standard of animation should be alot higher than it is. The acting is also dreadful but thats besides the point.

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Animation techniques in clips:

1st clip: King Dice Intro

Firstly I noticed the great use of exaggeration in King Dice's dancing, especially within the spin made to look almost like a tornado (implying speed). There's also slight examples of anticipation within the telephone that get chosen to participate ( him crouching before raising his arms and his arms being in a position as though he's pulling his self up to jump down the steps, also implying weight). The main thing about this scene I think that really makes it is the appeal they have given to King Dice, giving him the same charm and class in his appearance and personality as Cab Calloway (seeing as his dance moves were inspired by his appearance on Minnie the Moocher ).

2nd clip: The Sandwich

Right away I believe there's slight exaggeration in the part where BMO and Finns finger guns touch together, the shaking implies struggle to overpower one another. There's also exaggeration in the way Jake's arms move when he's dancing, paired with a secondary action of him making content expressions emphasising he's really happy to create the best sandwich ever. There's anticipation immediately after when he takes a second to breathe in and then release it with an exaggerated cloud of air. There's secondary action in the bird on the window with it's frantic expression from the surprise of being grabbed by Jake. Anticipation also occurs in Jake leaning forward before he spoons to the ground over the sandwiches completion. 

(Theres probably alot more within that clip but I'll cut off at that part as I don't want it to be too long.)

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Best 3D animation:

Fantastic Mr.Fox, although not my favourite film it is my favourite example of 3D animation. The thing I love about it is how not only is it stop motion but it's claymation; it definitely doesn't look like it's made from clay and there's something unique and captivating about it.

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2 animated films, one pre 2000 one post 2000:

Pre 2000: "Porco Rosso"- 1992

Based in 1930s Italy, porco rosso is the tale of a pig pilot who bravely scoures the sky amongst the many sky pirates who fly there and terrorise ships. His reasoning behind being a pig was a result of the first World War where somewhere during he was turned. His bravery leads to battling the pirate crew as a favour to a mechanic and a friend. As a fan of ghibli movies since being a child it was surprising to me that I had never seen Porco Rosso and so obviously I had to when I came across it on netflix. When watching this film, it felt a little different in style (story wise) to its sibling ghibli movies but that didn't make it any less of a great watch. I loved the at times exaggerated movements like in fight scenes and even simply just the concept itself sounded fun. A pig flies a plane and fights pirates that are in the sky ? Incredible. 

Post 2000: "9" -2009

Set in an apocalyptic world caused by a war between machine and human, the world is left without human life, however a ragdoll awakens which could alter all of that. I'd heard of this film for a while and after years of wanting to watch it I finally came across it randomly on my uncle's shelf. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be quite as dark as it was even despite knowing it was a Tim Burton film, however I still loved it by the end. The CGI approach wasn't really my cup of tea as I wished they'd stuck to their original plan of having it be stop motion as I think it would've looked alot better for the elements of scrap metal, junk and ragdolls. I especially loved the character designs for each of the nine dolls, my favourite being 6 because of his head that he uses to paint and I personally believe he was underrated.

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Half term task:

For our half term task we were told to borrow a book from the uni library and read it over the two week period. I took out Richard William's "The Animator's Survival Kit". I chose this book predominantly due to the fact we had briefly used it here and there in class and I found it really helpful for figuring out how the body moves as he breaks down every key pose for common movements.

Here he breaks down the key frames involved in a walk cycle and a running cycle down to the individual foot from start to finish. 

This page breaks down how to depict someone using a heavy mallet, including expressions, how to imply weight and form from the bring up to the slam down.

I liked this brief breakdown of a punch as it also introduces the element of exaggeration and even tells you how long to hold the contact frames for.

I also enjoyed looking through this book for the wide variety within it, showing how different each same cycle would be dependent on the kind of character you choose to depict. It was a helpful touch to write in little notes rather than large clustered paragraphs, as I had a much easier time taking in information.

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Cool game I found this weekend:

I know it isn't assigned to write about this but I wanted to mention it nevertheless, whilst I was working on stuff I took a break to look at some horror games to try and inspire me and I ended up watching someone play the trailer for a game entitled "Martha is Dead". The game is through the eyes of a girl called Guilia who after finding he twin sister dead, takes her identity. I love story driven games and so I was very engrossed in this one and I loved the storytelling cutscenes played out with puppets. The graphics are also just incredible on a whole.

Martha is Dead

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