Lecture 8

The final lecture that we had was on the approaches to history of an art form. During this lecture there was alot of information said that i didnt know about the art form, animation. For instance, the animation Andre and Wally B was the first of its kind to use motion blur, which was seen as a major technological advance in animation. Which John Lasseter was mainly responsible for. Following this many other breakthroughs were brought to light, such as body bends and self shadowing. From these breakthroughs, animation was able to become more realistic.

From the realsim aspect we started to watch the disney hit, Bambi, showing how it was created to feel realistic. From the multi panning camera from the backgorund been able to move as the scene does. Another that came up when watching this was how they had been training to be hypersexual/homosexual, taken from when thumper goes through Bambi's legs and looks up. With many ideologies held within Disney films we then looked at works from Myazaki, and how these differ.

I liked this lecture as made my knowledge of my chosen subject was made broader.

Lecture 7

One of the recent lectuers was on the topic of animation, looking at the relation between commercial and art based. To start we was shown a quote from Norman McLaren stating that; 'Animation is not the art of drawings-that-move, but rather the art of movements that-are-drawn. What happens between each from is much mroe important than what happens on each frame' i believe this to be so true, as the break down drawings decide what kind of characteristics the character has. From this we started to discuss Fantasmagorie, which was thought to be the first animation, we stated this because it was an animation that was entertaining without using a storyline. Looking at this we then went onto Snow white, but not the one you're thinking of, instead the one created by the Fleischer brothers which uses a coheirated narrative and Betty Boop as the main character.

From this Disney was mentioned, i mean how could it not be, when anyone thinks of this topic. Disney is always thought as the number 1 company, with good reason to be as well. Speaking about how dominant it has been over the years and the influences held within, for example, Japenese art. Even though Disney was the dominant company, Warner Brothers quickly became a force to be wreckened with, as they saw a gap in the market and produced animations for a different audience to Disney. The difference between these was tht the lead artist had experience in the cartoon world, where as the lead artist at Warner brothers didnt, which really shows in the stles and the characters. Overall i felt that this lecture was one of the better ones to date.

Amish

Here's my model of the amish priest character design

Tractor

Heres my week model of a tractor, not fully finished but im pleased with how its turning out, i will add more detail and re-post soon... hopefully

Lecture 6

The most recent lecture was on Violence and how it's used in the media. To begin the lecture we first looked at a film clip, this was called Happiness, this particular clip took a different approach to showing violence on screen. Instead of tense music and dull colours and lighting, it was set in a park with a guy shooting everyone, the music was quite uplifting as well. Dipicting the opposite to how it usually happens. From seeing this we went onto the topic of violent games, and how it holds influence to certain audience members, as they get too caught up in whats happeneing. Getting reality mixed up with what isn't real. As in games the only way to kill its a clear head shot, as a shot to the body doesn't create much of an impact and if playing on god mode you're unable to be killed. Having this inclunce and people who get too wrapped up in the games, could easily lead to having them create the same situation in reality, which has happened in many cases already. Like the man that was obsessed with the game 'Doom' for example.

As a result what for is said above, there is always going to various happenings of people getting too carried away and involved, creating the bad situations. With the amount of violence that is on show i feel this isnt going to change.

New robot

Here is the 2nd robot i created, influenced upon the robots from the film, Robots.

Lecture 6

This weeks lecture, or should i say last weeks, was all about the genre 'Sci-fi' and how its used. Through the leture we looked at originality and repetiton that is involved in the genre, the first clip we saw was a clip from The Simpsons, playing with intertextuality as it links to another clip that was also shown, Twilight to serve man. This shows how films and tv programmes use intertextuality as an advantage as it brings in a wider audience. Going on from this we looked at how sci-fi uses the theory hybrid to create a more interesting narrative. The films that we're briefly touched upon was Blade Runner, this film is purely sci-fi but incorporates a romance throughout. The next films were Terminator, Alien and Starwars, the films mentioned have a heavy influence of the ation genre. Making them appeal to a wider audience as viewers who favour one more than the other, will also watch these films.

Genres are just instanes of repetition and difference, this quote highlights how producers dont just make it simple and use one genre, there use 2 or more and various quotes or gestures that have occured in previous films, this helps the film become more engaging. This was the main bulk of what i got out of the lecture, depicting the repition and originality on the si-fi genre.

Lecture Number 5

This blog update is rather late, but better late then never ay? This post is about the topic 'New Media' and talking about new, we had a new lecturer as well, Bill. I didnt really manage to get a great whole deal from this lecture as it pretty vague and broad, but what i did get from it was how film have changed over time. Due the way in which they are filmed, which is down to the camera angles. During the lecture Bill showed us a clip on youtube called 'Life of US firemen' watching this i can see how things have changed, as they appear to show the same clip twice, but from two different angles. Where as in more recent films they would switch between the two and show both advantage points one between the other, which refers to the topic 'New Media'.

Another in which new media is used is in art, during the lecture we was shown a dutch artist, that in his work, deconsrtucts trees until they are no longer recognisable as a standard tree. This shows the change and how its differed from previous. Overall i came away knowing that new media means how time have changed and improved, due to the amount of technology that is available nowa days, i also found out Bill's xbox gamer tag...

Robots

Here is a render of the robot i made on Maya, evidentlly not the best, but we quickly had to chose one to model in class. This is what i chose and after rigging the model, i will begin to animate it in next week's lesson...

Lecture 4

This weeks lecture was based around the topic 'Structuralism' and there is always two sides to somethings, as well as the bit in the middle. This briefly moved on to binary oppositions and how they are used. The term binary oppositions realtes to a pair of opposits, which in the term 'stucturalism' instigates how it can be used to powerfully organize and form both human thought and culture. A few oppositions that where mentioned in the lecture was;

good vs evil
life vs. death
good vs. bad
male vs female, just to name a few.

This got me thinking of how the majority of these are included in all films, both past and present. Take Star wars for example, these filsm includes all of the above, but also allows other oppositions to be introduced to the audience. These being;

human vs. creatures
machines vs. humans
light vs. dark

Having these opposites held witin the narrative make the story become more interesting and tense for the viewing audience. The theorist  that brought this to light was Levi Strauss.

Moving on from this we got into what happens inbetween these opposites, other wise known as the anomolous zone, where the interesting things take part. Which turned to the topic od cyborbs and how they lie between human and non-human, for example terminator, a machine within a human body.

Concept Art

I was given a project to create two pieces of concept art, one being ancient (pre world war) and the other being contempary. For this i decided on New York Times Sqaure, which was created on Painter and China for the ancient one, this on the other hand was created on Photoshop.

The photo above is the finished version of my China concept, i feel this works well and highlights the culture that China holds in the overall presentation.
I'll update this post with the other once i have it saved to the right format...

Lecture Number 3

Todays joyful lecture was on the term Intertextuality and how its used in film and tv. As i already knew about the term and how its used, i found this lecture to be just repeating on what i had already learnt previously. To start we was told what the word intertextuality stands for; how things link together, or my understanding, a reference to text that is held within another text. In the lecture we looked at a clip from Pulp fiction, where John Travolta is dancing with Uma Thermon, i found this particular clip to be quite clever on Tarantino's behalf, as by including this it refered to the previous films that John Travolta has appeared in. These being Saturday Night Fever and Grease, this link comes in to how he dances within all these films. It also shows the audience how he has grown as an actor over the years as you instantly think of these films when you see the clip. We was also shown an image of a model called 'rock drill', after this was shown the discussion came about on how it links in with the film Alien and the similarities between the two. These being shown through the shapes involved and the visible rib cage on both, it makes you wonder whether Giger had seen this image before doing the designs.

Whilst in the lecture i thought of  the refernces with the two films, Avatar and Pocahontas. Avatar holds many references to Pocahontas in the way that they are trying to protect their land, a love interest from the opposing side and the sacred tree. These are just a few of the intertextualities that are held within Avatar.

Lecture Number 2

This post is abit late but it covers what was discussed in last weeks lecture. The topic for this being 'Communication', a common language and/or a mutual understanding between two people which was discussed on how we use it in everyday life. To begin with we was set a task, this being for two people to be sat face to face, with one person drawing and the other using communication to direct. We did this to see demonstrate just how we communicate with one another and what the outcome is to the actual image. This task proved the restrictions with in communication, as you can't create an exact copy without seeing the original, but what you will get is something similar.

Lecture

In our latest lecture we had a discussion on realism and how its used in art, throughout the lecture we was shown a group of artists work, with the first being a photo realistic painting. As a painting i didnt really think much to it as i like more expressive art, Frank Auerback Jackon Pollock etc, rather than seeing paint thats been applied accuratley. I find this approach to be somewhat boring, as it doesn't henhance the image in anyway or create an exciting piece. By doing this it can also put the viewer into a faulse sense of observation, making them believe it to be a real photo image. Moving on from that image we was then shown work by the artist Ron Mueck, his work differed from the previous as he played around with scale, whilst inlcuding the realism element. For example, he did a realistic sculpture of is portrait, but up scaled it to create more of a dominance. This for me, was a more interesting view than the previous, as he did add to the final outcome of what he created. Rather than keeping to the same dimensions.

As an art form itself, realism isn't the kind i would get drawn into, i would usually do the opposite and take a quick glance whilst walking by. As it just doesn't interest me. If i wanted something to look realistic i would just take a photo myself.

Here are two render images of my Pacman scene that i created in Maya, i added a directional light in the second photo to add more of a atmosphere to the scene. Looking at the final renders i think more could’ve been done, but as it was my time modelling in Maya, i feel i did quite a good job.

Here is a digital painting i did for one of my first uni projects, the software we used was Corel Painter, this differs from Photoshop as the colours blend. Like a normal painting would. As it was my first time using Corel, i feel i did a good job, but more could've been done to improve it.