Premise: Distilling my Animation - Telling my story in other ways

Rethinking of underlying value of Animation (notes):

What is the value of the animation?
- Stop children becoming monsters.

What is the value to the audience?
- The injustice of having a child's innocence taken from them by careless parents.

how am I showing that value?
- hild watches and learns the behaviour of its parents. Child becomes a monster through reflecting on self.

Is this animation about my fear of raising my son in the right way and failing to do so?

Fear: Child becoming a menace to society.

Child will learn things from me which will eventually turn him into a bad person. 

Monsters create monsters, behaviour is a process of learned behaviour, it is performative. 

Ways of telling this story:

1) from a childs perspective
2) as a metaphor
3) outside the relationship
4) internally from the parents perspective

Parent over exaggerates fears, a metaphor for anxiety, precarious situation, destruction of the relationship.

Short Ideas

1) The conductor conducts the orchestra, young instrument wanders off and wants to join punk band instruments, there is a conflict between the conductor and young instrument, internal working reveals the struggle to conform the young instrument is pushing it away. the conductor needs to let it go, lets it go. (conductor is an instrument which would never be in a punk band, the young instrument is a tambourine who wants to be a drum?) 

2) Moulding child in own image, child tempted by fun but dangerous events, struggle with angry/scared parents, exaggeration of drama until parent can't stop the events. child leaves, returns a better person having experienced dangers. 

3) Child curious about another child which is different in some way, a parent tried to keep them apart, child is determined and finds way to defy parent, unexpected outcomes turn out to be for the better. 

what is the child. A colour?, what if the child is visually auditable?  

Non-human characters, inciting incident leads to the climax of confronting the parent-driven anxiety of losing the child they created, a revelation of parent that they can't control child and must let go for the childs sake, the child then returns a better person to the parent. 

Toolkit 2: Pipeline 1 - UV Layout - Base Head

Premise: Animation - Storyboard - Opening Scene

To help gain an idea into the idea for my premise I've drawn up the opening scene for the animation. 

Below are some basic drawings of the protagonist followed by the storyboard.

Life Drawing 28.01.19

Toolkit 2: Animation - Infographic - 10 Designs (in progress)

Premise: Environment - Doodles

These thumbnails seem a little generic, I the environment to be more dreamlike. 

Toolkit 2: Animation - Infographic Ideas

1) Friends

- Too Broad

2) The IT Crowd

-  3 people, oppressed working in an office block basement, man-children, weird habits, socially awkward. 

Sound: Tech sounds, 8-bit techno.

3) Evil Dead

- Horror, trapped in a house, fish in a barrel, possession, secrets in the basement, distrust for friends, environment collapses with descent into madness.

Sound: Horror, maddening, spooky, twisted, 

4) Austin Powers

- 70's Quirky English Spy, sexual innuendos,

Sound: something 70's, original Batman kind of sound. 

5) Planet Earth

- Knowledge, documentary, worldwide.

Sound: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Richard Strass

Favourite Ideas:

Evil Dead and Planet Earth

Toolkit 2: MudBox - Fruit bowl - Lesson 3

Toolkit 2: Pipeline 1 - JPJ Modelling Complete

Premise: Animation - What am I trying to say?

One of my ideas for premise was to turn an idea I had over the summer for a short film into an animated short. The idea was that an explorer was documenting an isolated location which unbeknownst to the explorer the location would actually be the location of a monsters hunting ground/territory/lair. Inevitably the short would turn into a desperate game of cat and mouse.

Another one of my ideas was to create an animation which highlighted a real-world problem but visually paletted it in a way with was easier to view.

It was suggested to me that the idea for the 'cat and mouse' short could work if it was suspended more from the perspective of a child because a monster would make more sense when opposed with the innocent and young grasp of reality.

Combining these two ideas lead me to think about a real-world problem from the perspective of a child. The idea of domestic violence is something that is a tough subject to talk about and is not widely witnessed due to the nature of it.

I have always been more interested in darker subjects in film, and have always wanted to create something darker, sinister and more horrific for an audience. Not in a way which is controversial but in the sense of the kind of horrors dreamt up from H.P Lovecraft. The ideas that horror derives from internal fear, suspense and the notion of something watching from behind the door or from a darkened corner of the room.

The idea of a nightmare is the idea of real fear or upset turmoil of the mind, my idea arrived at a place where the protagonist was a bipedal childs toy symbolic of a child made from cloth, and knitwear. The environment is of the child's home but warped in a way which displays the destruction of its two parent figures (monsters) the environment is a representation of the situation they are in, and the emotion brimming in the household.

The monsters are born of the nightmare and to fit in line with my idea of what kind of animation I want to do, they are required to be truly horrific. I am aware that suspense is the key to this because the mind will always dream up the most unspeakable horror in place of one that is visualised on screen.

I guess what I really want to say is: Children get caught up in domestic violence and it will leave them changed for the rest of their lives. We don't often hear about it and partially the reason is that children don't know any better and think it is normal so don't have a voice to speak out. What they see their parents do with heavily influence their adult behaviour. Domestic Violence is an abhorrent act which people should not have to go through and I feel it is important to highlight it.

How am I going to say it?: In a world which reflects visually the damage, a child receives when exposed to domestic violence, to me it could logically only be inside a nightmare, filled with the terrors they experience, and earthly possessions like toys as their only source of companionship. I firstly want to show the subject by creating a bond of nurture from the audience to the protagonist,   I want to show the monsters displaying neglect, violence and hatred towards each other and indirectly towards the protagonist. I want to show the protagonist in a place of utter loneliness and unlove. I also want to have a child narrate in place of the protagonist about how they are feeling to really pull emotionally about how the abuse has become so commonplace it is voiced in a way which the abuse is seen through the mind of innocence and is a talked about in a way which totally rationalises it for a child but the audience will be able to decipher a deeper meaning.

        

 

Toolkit 2: Pipeline 1 - Body Modelling - Boots & Legs

Toolkit 2: Pipeline 1 - Body modelling - Legs & Pelvis

Premise: Initial Character Exploration

Using Facebook I found out from a range of 5 - 9 year old children exactly what they thought a scary monster looked like. I intended for the raw data to feed directly into the creation of two of my monster characters for the animation as it is my intention for it to be visually accurate of a representation of children's nightmares.

In the survey, it was found that 18 independent children aged 5-9 thought that the largest contributing factor to a scary monster arguably from a nightmare was that it required large, pointy teeth.

6 independent children thought that a scary monster should have long, sharp claws.

6 independent children thought that a monster should be large, relative to the protagonist.

6 independent children thought a monster should have glowing red eyes, (the data shouldn't provide a specific answer to how many eyes a monster had as the data ranged from no eyes to 50)

5 independent children thought a monster should be hairy/furry.

4 independent children thought a monster should have green skin.

2 said it should be slimy, other incomplete data suggested traits like horns, long arms and legs, the colour black, antennas, wings, disfigurement and distortion of body parts, wonky teeth, a range legs from 2 - 4, scales, tails, spikes and long, snake-like tongues.

below are some preliminary drawings of monsters influenced by this data.

(except the skeleton)

Perspectives: Proposal mind Mapping

21st Century Western Animation and Capitalism

Disney - has an upper hand compared to independent companies for example.

the lone ranger remake with jonny depp - capitalism in the old westerns? are they in now?

also the - so many something, films, something, using it

parody

Bee Movie (2007)

Antz as a critique of large slavery under capitalism

endless remakes with little difference

the emoji movie

kung fu panda

wolf of wall street

inside out - reducing storyline + more exploration of characters - stretching out very little plot

Art House/ Non-Profit animation

sequals of popular animations

communist animation, DC animated universe (DCAU), Wreck it Ralph, Incredibles, family guy, toy story, the simpsons, zootopia, monsters Inc, WALL-E

Clint Eastwood

Nostalgia built, reconnecting with old fans to get more money

stranger things, black mirror, bandersnatch, 80's nostalgia

the use of animation/film to blind the working class from their exploitation

marx + althesser

post-capitalism

consumer
(product)

commodity culture

I shop therefore I am - Barbara Kruger artist (slogan)

References Dercarter

I think therefore I am

Life Drawing 21.01.19

Film Program: Mary & Max (2009)

Figure 1: Mary & Max (2009) - Film Poster 

 Mary & Max (2009) is a dramady claymation about two characters one that lives in Australia named Mary, a young, slightly overweight girl and the other in New York a middle-aged aspergic man named Max. Adam Elliot, the Director has used claymation in a stylistic fashion to make the subjects on screen more visually palatable. Mary is a small, poor and lonely child with an alcoholic mother who neglects her. Mary is bullied for having a birthmark on her forehead which is remarked as the colour of 'poo'. Max is also very lonely and struggles to make sense of social interactions in a place where social interaction happens on a daily basis, New York City. The two characters become penpals and form an emotional lifeboat with each other where their happiness in life comes from the connection to the other. 

Stylistically there is a definitive split in the two environments of Austalia and New York, Mary occupies a world of sepia tones and childlike cobbled together scenery, it reflects the characters child-likeness and innocence, Max occupies a world which is drained of all colour, it is arguable that the world is black and white because we see the world as a reflection of how Max views the world. New York in Mary and Max is a cold and empty place regardless of being populated by many characters and business. "It’s a film that both believes in the power of human connection and friendship" (Todd, 2015) Todd remarks, it is visually uncontested when we see Max receive a pom-pom from Mary, it's like a beacon telling us that we aren't simply seeing a black and white film, we are in fact seeing a black and white world, the red pom-pom is from outside this environment and is symbolic of the two characters friendship, their similarities and their differences. 

   

Figure 2: Mary & Max - Max at his TypeWriter 

Figure 3: Mary & Max (2009) - Mary on her bed

Throughout the Animation the narrator steps in constantly to provide information for the audience in a deep and salty tone which creates a more cartoonistic and lighter version of what's on screen, is it argued that "The narrative structure of the film is less satisfactory, skipping from year to year with abandon and ultimately unable to complete the emotional arc of the relationship with anything but cartoonish simplicity." (Goodridge, 2008) however the narrative is something that is complementing the emotional relationship between the two characters, which is the sweet spot of the Claymation, it would seem that "Her emotional journey culminates in a scene that is so loaded, so transfixing, so masterfully made, it is impossible to look away" (Buckmaster, 2014) I think it is plausible that an audience couldn't feel so strongly towards a climax as they do if the characters didn't have such an emotional connection which is established in the audience. 

The Childlike simplicity of the animation gives the film an easiness in watching and dealing with trepid subject matter, the characters feel connectable, and the film never treats its characters like they are difference from the audience, it does well to create a film based completely in the perspective of the characters and it makes it completely relatable.  

Bibliography:

Buckmaster, L. (2014). Mary and Max: rewatching classic Australian films. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/may/30/mary-and-max-rewatching-classic-australian-films [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Goodridge, M. (2008). Mary And Max. [online] Screen. Available at: https://www.screendaily.com/animation/mary-and-max/4042619.article [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Todd, A. (2015). Love Yourself First: Mental Illness In MARY AND MAX. [online] Birth.Movies.Death. Available at: https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/06/19/love-yourself-first-mental-illness-in-mary-and-max [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Premise: Initial Character and environment Influence Maps

The idea around my animated short is to highlight a real-world issue of domestic violence and illustrate it from the perspective of a child-like character. I want to shape the visual style around children's toys to make the environment and characters more in line with a child's nightmare. The child will be very small in comparison to the other two characters and dwarfed entirely by the imposing environment in which they all dwell.

The basic plan for the animation is at the bottom of the post.

  Child-like Character influence map:

The environment will be a version of a home were at least four rooms consist, a hallway which links a front door, a kitchen, the monsters lair (parents bedroom) and the child characters bedroom. The environment needs to be made of fibrous materials in order to keep with a theme of children's toys, and to complement the characters design. The environment is oppressive and imposing to the main character and is difficult to travel through due to a harsh difference in size. The environment is clearly that of the monsters and it reflects the empty, uncaring and aggressive nature of its occupents.

Environment and texture influence map:

The monsters themselves are nightmare creations capable of extreme neglect and aggression towards the main character, they are the interpretations of how he sees his parents and how they react towards each other around him. The child has a huge fear of the monsters but has become climatised to the violence they convey.

The animation isn't about showing violence however it is about the mood and environment it leaves behind and how that can impact a child. 

Monsters Influence map:

Basic Plan:

wakes up.

looks around for monsters but can't find them.

Leaves the safety of his room to find food

makes its way to the kitchen finds food in a cupboard after a while of searching

can hear monsters fighting, hides in shelving to avoid getting caught up in it.

child waits in shelving for fighting to pass, eats a cracker

fighting finishes and leaves smaller monster unconscious on the kitchen floor.

child creeps past body and into hallway,

when passing monsters lair child hears growling, monster chases child back to bedroom and into safe place under bed.

the monster cannot reach far enough into the safe place to get the child and eventually gives up.

child falls asleep.

Wakes up in safe place, its night time, monsters are in their lair sleeping, child makes it to the door but it is too big to open, then tries the windows but it is locked.

Turns around and sees a telephone in the monsters lair at the back of the room.

Monster makes a noise and scares child back into bedroom, looks around at dismal situation, takes a moment of contemplation

monsters start fighting again, runs back to safe place under bed, after a while smaller monster is knocked unconcious, sounds of dragging coax child out from under bed,

looking down hall child can see monsters legs getting dragged away from monsters lair,

child takes a desperate opportunity to get the telephone.

enters monsters lair, dark and dangerous, gets to phone by climbing on bed, takes it and runs back to room, sits on floor and begins to dial.

monster creeps into the room, child doesn't realise until its too late.

Toolkit 2: Head Modelling - Jet Pack Jones Complete

Life Drawing 14.01.19

Toolkit 2: Term 1 - Check in Submission

Animation:

Moom Poses - Action, Dramatic.

Moon poses - Weight Lifting.

Chaplin Animation

Chaplin Dope Sheet

Drawing:

Life Drawing.

Character Bible

Character Design Lessons

Lighting and Rendering 2.

Perspectives: AI Defense

Bibliography:

Boden, M. (1996). The philosophy of artificial life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Polson, N. and Scott, J. (2018). AIQ. London: Transworld, p.76.

Tegmark, M. (2017). Life 3.0. [London]: Penguin Books, p.101.

Toolkit 2: Animation - Chaplin Dope Sheet

Toolkit 2: Lighting & Rendering 2 List

Physical Sky

Mesh Lights

Ambient Occlusion

Photometric Lights

Depth of Field 

Fog & Atmosphere

Displacement

Sub-Surface Scattering

AOV's

Stand-Ins

Motion Blur

Caustics

Toolkit 2: Lighting & Rendering 2 - Motion Blur

Toolkit 2: Lighting & Rendering 2 - Stand-ins