Jetpack Jones
Games Assets
Film Reviews
Friday, 19 May 2017
World Animation | Film Review | Waltz with Bashir
"This extraordinary animated documentary by Israeli film-maker Ari Folman - a kind of fictionalised docu-autobiography - suggests that Israelis have indeed forgotten, in a kind of huge, willed amnesia" (Bradshaw, 2008) Not only that but Waltz with Bashir , focuses on the journey of a ex-fighter who has amnesia and PTSD and he is trying to find clues as to why he has the same nightmare over and over. The nightmare that he constantly has is that he can hear screaming, he can see people in despair but doesn't know why. The real reason that Ari is feeling like this is because 300 Christian militia was responsible for Mutilating about 3000 refugees from Beirut.
As the story progresses we start to see the story from many different people's perspectives. With each story the overall film becomes more grittier and real to the audience. Although as an audience it feels hard to 100% connect with the animation the characters, "they are still, "cut-outs" in which one limb might move while the rest remains static. The effect should be flat, but the low-tech style somehow conveys an emotional depth that catches you by surprise. The characters appear in two dimensions, yet are intensely human." (Bradshaw, 2008)
Combined together this animation makes for uneasy viewing. It is still amazing in it's own right and does provoke, although the film does catch it's audience unaware and really hits home the message when we are presented with the real life deaths of refugees at the end of them film. That made the film real, and in everyones minds; that bit more tragic.
Bibliography
Fig 1. Bradshaw, P (2008) Waltz with Bashir At https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/21/waltz-with-bashir-folman Accessed 18/05/2017
Image Sources
Fig 1. Waltz with Bashir [Film Still] At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/waltz-with-bashir-2009 Accessed 18/05/2017
Fig 2. Water Walk [Film Still] At: http://www.filmwalrus.com/2014/03/film-atlas-israel-waltz-with-bashir.html Accessed 18/05/2017
Bibliography
Fig 1. Bradshaw, P (2008) Waltz with Bashir At https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/21/waltz-with-bashir-folman Accessed 18/05/2017
Image Sources
Fig 1. Waltz with Bashir [Film Still] At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/waltz-with-bashir-2009 Accessed 18/05/2017
Fig 2. Water Walk [Film Still] At: http://www.filmwalrus.com/2014/03/film-atlas-israel-waltz-with-bashir.html Accessed 18/05/2017
World Animation | Film Review | Ethel and Ernest
Raymond Brigg's Ethel and Ernest (2016) is a heartwarming true story that follows the lives of his parents. Right from the point of meeting each other to there end of their life's.
Raymond Brigg's is best known for his animation and story 'The Snowman' (1978). Not only did it become a well-loved classic, it was nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Animated Short Film. It would seem that Raymond Briggs loves christmas and things to do with it. This can be told by the fact that Raymond has released two other animations/stories both based upon Father Christmas. One is called 'Father Christmas' (1973) and then a follow-up called 'Father Christmas goes on Holiday' (1975)
As time moved on less and less was heard of Raymond until he released the charming Ethel and Ernest. The story of Ethel and Ernest takes us back to the late 1920's where Ethel and Ernest meet for the first time. Ethel before Ernest was a maid for a lady and believed that she would end-up in a middle class world and had the demeanour to go with it. Whereas Ernest stole her heart by arriving each day with some new milk for the lady and Ethel. After some visuals of each other, Ernest plucks up the courage and asks Ethel out, this goes well and leads to the marriage of the two. The two then have Raymond and bring him up in a quant little house in the London Suburbs.
The film touches upon several dark topics as we watch Ethel and Ernest live through the troubles of WWII. This includes seeing death, poverty and destruction everywhere. Not only that but they also have to allow Raymond to be evacuated to a safer place. Ethel and Ernest try to remain in good spirits throughout the story.
To be able to make true story seem like a well animated documentary, Raymond Briggs has certainly achieved a timeless piece that addresses more issues than his prior work.
Image Sources
Fig 1. Ethel, Ernest and Raymond [Film Still] At: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-28/meet-the-cast-of-ethel-and-ernest Accessed 18/05/2017
Fig 2. Raymond being Evacuated [Film Still] At: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3907080/Christmas-s-TV-hit-Snowman-author-RAYMOND-BRIGGS-moving-tale-parents-marriage.html Accessed 18/05/2017
Sculpting Lessons 2-3 | Buzz Lightyear
Unfortunately I did not take pictures of my progress at the end of the first week of sculpting. Although despite this I have got the other two. I would like to expand further on this clay bust and hopefully add Buzz's chest.
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End of Week 2
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Maya Tutorial | Skinning | Building a Skeleton
Here is the skeleton in which I made to go inside Jetpack Jones, the only problem is i forgot to take a picture of the skeleton before I started to bind the skin.
Maya Tutorial | Pipeline 1 Uv Layout
Before starting to UV the body and head I had to go through and clean-up a few areas in the mesh. The main places were the throat, lips and eyes. Fortunately after trying many attempts to get a successful UV i managed to get the above images.
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
World Animation | Film Review | Sita Sings the Blues
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| Fig 1. Sita Sings the Blues Film Cover |
In order for a company of animators to create a 3d or even 2d animation it would take a large amount of time and perseverance to complete a film. Nina Paley manages to create a delightful and culturally fit film. By "Pairing aggressive visuals with art-history chops and anything-goes ideology, she’s made something universal and completely unique." (Fears, 2011)
The film in question is Sita Sings the Blues. It seems to be that people are divided upon their views on this film, as some feels it doesn't represent the Hindu religion properly, Unfortunately Paley suffered a lot of backlash for this animation because of these reasons and more. As Paley made Sita Sings the Blues on her own, she was the boss of all creative choices. This lead to her having a few different animations styles used throughout the film "Paley's penchant for mixing styles - slick computer animation, chicken-scratch comic-strip drawings, and rapid-fire photo collages - only underlines the myriad of methods for spinning the same yarn, though the musical vignettes court repetitiveness," (Fears ,2011) The mis-matching of music, as the animation was based upon a Hindu epic was unforgivable for some people.
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| Fig 2. Rama and Sita |
Despite taking a brave approach which didn't pay off so well, there was a personal story of Nina interwoven into the story of Ramayana. Now this probably was the reason for the backfire as Nina is from America."Sita Sings the Blues' is based on an adaptation of the Ramayana, a Hindu epic, and some Hindus find the film offensive. Hinduism has a strong scriptural tradition of commentary and debate; there is often virulent disagreement," (Haas, 2011)
It can be argued that Nina received large amounts of backlash for associating her story of being betrayed by a man with the story of Ramayana. But despite all of the controversy around the creation of Sita Sings the Blues, if you stand back and watch it from an artist's perspective you can at least see this more of a piece of visual art, that is both widely risky but also daring and stunning. It can be seen as more of a visual marvel as it was one person who generated everything behind this film. It clearly took a lot of determination from Nina to remain resilient and still release the animation despite suffering large copyright implications. This of course meaning Nina does not make money from the film other than receiving donations from loyal fans to her work.
Bibliography
Fear, D. (2011) Sita Sings the Blues At: https://www.timeout.com/london/film/sita-sings-the-blues?icid=np--feature Accessed on: 15/05/2017
Haas, S. (2011) 'Sita Sings the Blues' Brings out the Bullies At: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saumya-arya-haas/sita-sings-the-blues-brin_b_907914.html Accessed on:15/05/2017
Image Sources
Fig 1. Sita Sings the Blues [Film Cover] At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172203/ Accessed 15/05/2017
Fig 2. Rama and Sita [Film Screenshot] At: http://dharma-records.buddhasasana.net/video/sita-sings-the-blues Accessed on: 15/05/2017
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
World Animation | Film Review | Spirited Away
Studio Ghibli has managed to produce a large array of timeless classics that have always stood out in our minds. Their special style of creating detailed animations with complex characters and themes to go with the complexity, has been some of the main reasons why Studio Ghibli is so beloved inside of Japan and the rest of the world. In term's of popularity in the western world Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) was the biggest success out of any of the film's created by this company.
It can be agreed that some of the success that followed Spirited Away was down to the mixture of both Eastern and Western influences, The western influences helped make western audiences be able to approach Spirited Away in a way that they could relate to unlike some other animes that might be otherwise confusing to a western viewer. "it's undoubtedly in a class and genre of its own: its alien, exotic qualities, all the more intense for a non-Japanese audience, are part of how extraordinarily pleasurable it is to watch" (Bradshaw, 2003)
"the fact that Miyazaki and his team hand-draw the images before they're digitally coloured and animated gives them an artistry that has been woefully lacking from so many recent American features." (Peters, 2015) Studio Ghibli itself proves over and over that there conventions for animating gives us beautiful and elegant animations. The elegance comes from the amount of effort and patience poured into each animation by Studio Ghibli's team.
Spirited Away doesn't just look incredible on screen, but also addresses a variety of different moral lessons that would align with the Japanese culture more than anything. The Moral lessons that stand out in Spirited Away is certainly that working hard and staying dedicated pays off, family come first and should always be cared for, others should be cared for too and that respect should be given to everyone especially those older than you. Chihiro is at first ignorant to all of the vital moral lessons and is impolite to everyone (Including her parents). She is also extremely stubborn at the start of the film. As the film progresses Chihiro learns to overcome any fears and becomes determined to rescue her parents from staying as pigs. Ultimately maturing and proving that love and respect are the foundations of growing up.
Not only does Spirited Away home in on moral messages but it also teaches one main moral message that resonates throughout Spirited Away. That moral message is that being greedy badly affects everyone. Throughout this film there is several clear metaphors of greed "Chihiro's parents fall eagerly upon the counter jammed with food and stuff their mouths...they eat so much they double or triple in size." (Ebert, 2012) This is the scene where Chihiro's parents become pigs after eating much like one. Greed in Spirited Away, when using the parent pigs as an example is clearly contagious. Anyone who partakes gets swallowed into darkness. Other examples throw themselves at us, one clear one that exists is No Face. No Face is a character in Spirited Away who absorbs the energy of his environment, be it bad or good. He becomes embodied by greed and hands out gold to everyone as the bathhouse where it contains several greedy people including Yubaba, The Evil Witch. Yubaba is responsible for stealing her employee's names so that they are bound to work in the bathhouse forever.
Overall, the tone and visuals of Spirited Away certainly marks a point in everyone's memory. It is a well-rounded masterpiece that acts as a eastern/western style hybrid animation. It can certainly be treasured with all ages and cultures.
Bibliography
Fig 1. Bradshaw, P. (2003) Spirited Away At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/sep/12/spirited-away-review Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 2. Peters, P (2014) Spirited Away Review Athttp://www.empireonline.com/movies/spirited-away/review/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 3. Ebert, R. (2012) Spirited Away At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002 Accessed 14/05/2017
Image Sources
Fig 1. Spirited Away [Poster] At: http://www.filmandtvnow.com/blu-ray-review-spirited-away-its-an-adventure/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 2. Spirited Away Film Review [Film Screenshot] At: http://omohide.com/1732/spirited-away-review/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 3. Spirited Away [Film Screenshot] At: http://mefavoriteposts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/spiritrd-away.html Accessed 14/05/2017
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| Fig 1. Spirited Away Film Poster |
It can be agreed that some of the success that followed Spirited Away was down to the mixture of both Eastern and Western influences, The western influences helped make western audiences be able to approach Spirited Away in a way that they could relate to unlike some other animes that might be otherwise confusing to a western viewer. "it's undoubtedly in a class and genre of its own: its alien, exotic qualities, all the more intense for a non-Japanese audience, are part of how extraordinarily pleasurable it is to watch" (Bradshaw, 2003)
"the fact that Miyazaki and his team hand-draw the images before they're digitally coloured and animated gives them an artistry that has been woefully lacking from so many recent American features." (Peters, 2015) Studio Ghibli itself proves over and over that there conventions for animating gives us beautiful and elegant animations. The elegance comes from the amount of effort and patience poured into each animation by Studio Ghibli's team.
Spirited Away doesn't just look incredible on screen, but also addresses a variety of different moral lessons that would align with the Japanese culture more than anything. The Moral lessons that stand out in Spirited Away is certainly that working hard and staying dedicated pays off, family come first and should always be cared for, others should be cared for too and that respect should be given to everyone especially those older than you. Chihiro is at first ignorant to all of the vital moral lessons and is impolite to everyone (Including her parents). She is also extremely stubborn at the start of the film. As the film progresses Chihiro learns to overcome any fears and becomes determined to rescue her parents from staying as pigs. Ultimately maturing and proving that love and respect are the foundations of growing up.
 |
| Fig 2. Chihiro Disappointingly looking at her Parents |
Not only does Spirited Away home in on moral messages but it also teaches one main moral message that resonates throughout Spirited Away. That moral message is that being greedy badly affects everyone. Throughout this film there is several clear metaphors of greed "Chihiro's parents fall eagerly upon the counter jammed with food and stuff their mouths...they eat so much they double or triple in size." (Ebert, 2012) This is the scene where Chihiro's parents become pigs after eating much like one. Greed in Spirited Away, when using the parent pigs as an example is clearly contagious. Anyone who partakes gets swallowed into darkness. Other examples throw themselves at us, one clear one that exists is No Face. No Face is a character in Spirited Away who absorbs the energy of his environment, be it bad or good. He becomes embodied by greed and hands out gold to everyone as the bathhouse where it contains several greedy people including Yubaba, The Evil Witch. Yubaba is responsible for stealing her employee's names so that they are bound to work in the bathhouse forever.
 |
| Fig 3. No Face (Greed Version) Offering gold |
Overall, the tone and visuals of Spirited Away certainly marks a point in everyone's memory. It is a well-rounded masterpiece that acts as a eastern/western style hybrid animation. It can certainly be treasured with all ages and cultures.
Bibliography
Fig 1. Bradshaw, P. (2003) Spirited Away At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/sep/12/spirited-away-review Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 2. Peters, P (2014) Spirited Away Review Athttp://www.empireonline.com/movies/spirited-away/review/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 3. Ebert, R. (2012) Spirited Away At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002 Accessed 14/05/2017
Image Sources
Fig 1. Spirited Away [Poster] At: http://www.filmandtvnow.com/blu-ray-review-spirited-away-its-an-adventure/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 2. Spirited Away Film Review [Film Screenshot] At: http://omohide.com/1732/spirited-away-review/ Accessed 14/05/2017
Fig 3. Spirited Away [Film Screenshot] At: http://mefavoriteposts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/spiritrd-away.html Accessed 14/05/2017
Thursday, 11 May 2017
Adaption B - Reflective Statement
I feel today's crit was certainly eye-opening. This largely is because I have had a realisation that putting off work is only damaging my grade and my stress levels. Of course in return the stress levels are making my work turn out to be worse quality. Today I also learnt that I am capable of making 3D models and applying myself to get work done, I just need to learn to get into the work earlier.
Although despite this I feel the final model I presented and the UVing process helped me learn more technical features I can use in maya.
After today's crit I aim to speed up my drawing and it's quality. I also know that I shouldn't let myself get behind on any opportunity to enhance my skills in both 3D and 2D.
Although despite this I feel the final model I presented and the UVing process helped me learn more technical features I can use in maya.
After today's crit I aim to speed up my drawing and it's quality. I also know that I shouldn't let myself get behind on any opportunity to enhance my skills in both 3D and 2D.
Monday, 8 May 2017
Adaption B | Trump Kart Progress
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Kart Body Modelling
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