Early Sound in Animation - Benshi

The Grey Automobile - Inspired by the Japanese benshi.

I must say that it's just amazing, the way the "Voice actors" gives the silent film a feeling with live music makes it feel special, it's not just a movie, it´s art and I would love to attend one of these movies with benshi sound. It feels fun to watch and somehow like watching a theatre.

Max Fleischer - Rotoscoping

Max Fleischer - The Tantalizing Fly 1919 

I never tried Rotoscoping in my animation but I love it, the animation looks alive and I think it will give me a better understanding of timing and how to make the animation right, I really look forward to creating an Rotoscoping animation. Max Fleischer inspires me with his Rotoscoping animation and how he mixes it with stop motion animation.

Betty Boop

Betty Boop's character inspiration - Clara Bow

 Betty Boop - The Old Man Of the Mountain

 

Betty Boop is a character who was aimed at an adult audience, It's hard to not like her, she is a sweet cool girl who behaves in a very feminine way, her voice and behaviour are entertaining and the animation is great, it's a very clever way to go around Hays Code in 30s and a great animation from Max Fleischer who inspired whole world

Walt Disney - Silly symphony

Walt Disney - The Skeleton Dance 1929

The Skeleton Dance 1929 was the first Silly Symphony cartoon, Walt Disney did a really good job with sound thinking in these cartoons, it's hard to imagine how much work they did to make the sound and animation fit in an interesting way, I usually hate when there is music or singing in animation or films but did enjoy watching Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony series.

Walt Disney - Plane Crazy.

Walt Disney Plane Crazy 1928 Sound Cartoon

Plane Crazy was Walt Disney´s first Mickey Mouse Cartoon production, I love old cartoons, they were fun to watch and different than today’s cartoons, I didn´t care about the story when I watched it because it was just fun to watch and it just flow with an amazing animation, it´s interesting and good to see that the main character is not perfect in this cartoon.

Disney Propaganda Cartoon - Der Furher's Face

Der Furher's Face 1944, Disney

Walt Disney created a number of anti-German and anti-Japanese films during World War II. I enjoyed watching these movies because they are funny and I love Disney animation films but I dislike that animation used for a propaganda purpose, animation for me is a fantasy world without any poetic  or propaganda case and if they uses for that purpose then it will lose the soul of entertaining.

Early Sound - Edison's Phonograph

Edison phonograph demonstration

Thomas Edison discovered the secret of sound recording and built his first Phonograph in 1877. I believe that the phonograph is an amazing discover, it´s a simple complex idea to record and playback sound, music is a big part in my life and I never thought about that when lessening to Music or watching Movies so 1000 thanks to Edison who make it possible.

Early History - Ladislaw Starewicz.

Picture of Wladyslaw Starewicz in his studio.

 

Wladyslaw Starewicz - Frogland 1922

Wladyslaw Starewicz - The Devil's Ball

Ladislaw Starewicz was born 1882 in Russia; he is one of the greatest animators of all times. I love Ladislaw Starewiczs stop motion animation, he thought outside the box and created. amazing and entertaining animations, It´s hard to find the same style of stop motion as his, the stories are entertaining to watch and he puts a lot of work on the details in his animation

Acting in 2D animation

Storyboard

Pixel animation and 2D Animation

My choice for this animation was to use pixel animation mixed with drawn animation, I found out that it was much easier to use Photoshop for the drawings of the animation; I used layers to draw them with a technique to make the previous layer less visible and then drew on a new layer with the next frame. This was easier than having to draw them on a paper as I did not have the right tools for the drawn animation. Also I learned that it was much more effective as well as faster to do the drawings by using the shortcut in the programs and also by using the graphic tables.

My first stop motion animation

Storyboard

 The Stop motion clip

I was inspired by Max Fleischer animations, I wanted my animation to contain the diversity of effect so I chose a different type of stop motion object and possession with an advert clip of Coca Cola. However it was difficult to mix it all at the same speed, nonetheless I learnt to mix all object animation at the same speed through trial and error.

My 2D Animation

Sketches and Simplifying the character

One week's 2D animation work

I am pleased with my 2D Animation, but I would like to experiment more and take my animation further. I found the experience generally enjoyable, but also frustrating when the end-result was not what I expected. In terms of technical difficulties, I experienced problems measuring time accurately for each keyframe. I explored different methods to understand how to time-align each keyframe including performing each motion to accurately measure time. An important lesson from this process was to test a group of keyframes to identify any mistakes in the resulting motion, which saved me valuable time.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn 2011

The Adventures of Tintin

After I had heard all the rumours about there might be too much motion captured technology, - uncanny valley - was being used in this movie, I was not sure whether I really wanted to watch it at the end. However I eventually ended up in the cinema and it was a fantastic experience. I was amazed by all the animation, effects, motion technology and the story itself. It is definitely highly recommended to everyone who still hesitates to watch it.