While doing further research into shadow puppetry and silhouettes I came across a 30 minute short film, "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello." The Oscar and BAFTA nominated film focuses on a mans journey to restore his beloved wife back to life but must choose between bringing her back or seeing the government of his home destroyed.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film as its breathtaking digital effects really breath life into the steam-punk world that Jasper lives in and further acknowledges how this art form can be used for a range of all audiences.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Research - the Development Of The Silhouette Art Form.
Silhouettes, or shadow puppetry, is one of the oldest forms of art which was said to have been created some 2,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty era of Asia.
"A favorite concubine of Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty died of illness; the emperor missed her so much that he lost his desire to reign. One day, a minister happened to see children playing with dolls where the shadows on the floor were vivid. Inspired by this scene, the smart minister hit upon an idea. He made a cotton puppet of the concubine and painted it. As night fell, he invited the emperor to watch a rear-illuminated puppet show behind a curtain. The emperor was delighted and took to it from then on. This story recorded in the official history book is believed to be the origin of shadow puppetry."
Since the discovery of shadow puppets it has become its own art form and developed in a variety of different ways to adapt to different audiences, the most common audience being children (average 2 - 6 years of age) however It has been used in the past for adult audiences in parts of varied comedy shows.
So how have the use of shadow puppets evolved over time and in what ways does this art form attract different audiences?
Since its original form, shadow puppets have been included in a variety of shows and been used as a good form of unique entertainment for a range of audiences, for the younger audiences one of the most memorable uses of shadow puppetry was included in "Bear In The Big Blue House" of which a small section of the show would be a character (Shadow) telling a story through the use of silhouettes, as shown below.
It was through this use of silhouettes that children could learn valuable lessons in a fun way and be taught new skills, in the video's case, potty training. This video is a good example of how shadow puppetry has evolved as the character Shadow is a digital silhouette whereas the actual story that is told uses cut out, more traditional silhouettes.
This form has also been used to tell well known stories to children in a more exciting media to them other than being read to them, the clip shown below is from the show "Little Fables" and tells the story of the Lion and the Mouse. Unlike Bear In "The Big Blue House" however, Little Fables uses pure digital technology to create its characters as silhouettes.
It is now more often than not that digital art is used to create these effects rather than traditional methods of doing so, however the same, if not more comical effect can be created using the human form alone. The next clip shows how one man, Raymond Crowe, can create an array of characters using nothing more than his hands, this video is also a good example of reaching with different audiences as the crowd he is performing for are adults. This is also suggested by forming a shadow of Louis Armstrong performing "What a wonderful World". (Younger audiences would most likely not understand the nostalgic value of this iconic singer.
"A favorite concubine of Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty died of illness; the emperor missed her so much that he lost his desire to reign. One day, a minister happened to see children playing with dolls where the shadows on the floor were vivid. Inspired by this scene, the smart minister hit upon an idea. He made a cotton puppet of the concubine and painted it. As night fell, he invited the emperor to watch a rear-illuminated puppet show behind a curtain. The emperor was delighted and took to it from then on. This story recorded in the official history book is believed to be the origin of shadow puppetry."
Since the discovery of shadow puppets it has become its own art form and developed in a variety of different ways to adapt to different audiences, the most common audience being children (average 2 - 6 years of age) however It has been used in the past for adult audiences in parts of varied comedy shows.
So how have the use of shadow puppets evolved over time and in what ways does this art form attract different audiences?
Since its original form, shadow puppets have been included in a variety of shows and been used as a good form of unique entertainment for a range of audiences, for the younger audiences one of the most memorable uses of shadow puppetry was included in "Bear In The Big Blue House" of which a small section of the show would be a character (Shadow) telling a story through the use of silhouettes, as shown below.
It was through this use of silhouettes that children could learn valuable lessons in a fun way and be taught new skills, in the video's case, potty training. This video is a good example of how shadow puppetry has evolved as the character Shadow is a digital silhouette whereas the actual story that is told uses cut out, more traditional silhouettes.
This form has also been used to tell well known stories to children in a more exciting media to them other than being read to them, the clip shown below is from the show "Little Fables" and tells the story of the Lion and the Mouse. Unlike Bear In "The Big Blue House" however, Little Fables uses pure digital technology to create its characters as silhouettes.
It is now more often than not that digital art is used to create these effects rather than traditional methods of doing so, however the same, if not more comical effect can be created using the human form alone. The next clip shows how one man, Raymond Crowe, can create an array of characters using nothing more than his hands, this video is also a good example of reaching with different audiences as the crowd he is performing for are adults. This is also suggested by forming a shadow of Louis Armstrong performing "What a wonderful World". (Younger audiences would most likely not understand the nostalgic value of this iconic singer.
Monday, January 30, 2012
The 2nd Film
Along with the first main film we got given a second one to do for another poem. We chose the poem, "Isolated". I drew the storyboard for the film and contributed to the editing. Finn did camera work and edited also. The following is my storyboard.
I believe we have worked well and I am pleased with the outcome. I am confident that we will receive positive feedback for our crit.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Maya Progress
Recently I've been making alot of progress with Maya for our fundamentals of animation classes, previously I had a standard shape of my character and no environment or colour to go with it, however after practicing with UV mapping, deformers and other techniques I have been able to complete my characters overall environment and design. I am still worried about animating it as I havnt grasped all of the fundamentals fully to feel comfortable yet but Im happy with the progress I have made.
Below are my image sources that helped me decide what my environment would look like aswell as my characters colour scheme.
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| Background Inspiration 1 |
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| Background Inspiration 2 |
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| My Character's Plush Toy Colour Scheme |
When Cyriak Came To Visit
Last week we were told that one of my favourite animators was going to be coming into uni to talk a bit about himself after class, something which I couldnt pass up.
Cyriak's work has always been influential and inspiring to me as he has such a unique style of animating, something that has not really been touched upon or explored in much detail. Below are two examples of his work and the sort of styles each undertake. Note how although the content of the animations differ in style greatly the actual themes are similar and connote quite a morbid comical tone.
That evening I went home and took it upon myself to thank Cyriak for the talk and how much it had helped me in thinking about being an Indie animator or working with a big company. I was surprised when he replied,
Cyriak's work has always been influential and inspiring to me as he has such a unique style of animating, something that has not really been touched upon or explored in much detail. Below are two examples of his work and the sort of styles each undertake. Note how although the content of the animations differ in style greatly the actual themes are similar and connote quite a morbid comical tone.
I first became aware of Cyriaks work in primary school when I watched "BeastEnders" a play on the already hideous television soap, "Eastenders". The unique if not grotesque style that the characters took on amazed and intrigued me and I have followed his work ever since. During his talk I managed to film him telling us a bit more about him and how he got to where he is today.
That evening I went home and took it upon myself to thank Cyriak for the talk and how much it had helped me in thinking about being an Indie animator or working with a big company. I was surprised when he replied,
"Cheers Jess, I don't see many people in my line of work so its good to get out and waffle about myself now and then. Best of luck with whatever path you choose - I'm not even sure if I chose mine or not, my career seems to be something that happened by accident while I was messing around. It did take several years after I graduated for anything to happen so if you aren't as lazy as I am you'll probably make faster progress but don't worry too much if it takes ages - I think life is generally long enough to fit in a few crap jobs before you end up where you wanted.
take it easy
Cyriak"
I really took alot from the reply I got back from Cyriak as it gave me hope and not to worry about how long it will take for me to reach my goal whatever carreer I decide to choose. The experience of meeting him and having him discuss his life with us was nothing short of a privillage and I would love for our group to have other oppertunities such as this one.
My Imput On Filming.
During our time filming I was responsible for making a storyboard for the rest of the group to follow. This was simple enough when we had the idea of what it was exactly that we wanted to see in the film itself. The storyboard also included the types of shots we wanted to include while producing it.
As far as artistic contributions to the production were concerned I had fullfilled my role in the team although I was going to help with editing as were the other members of my group as an editor had not been decided. However, this changed when a lack of work from another member of the group spurred me to make an emergency set of characters to make up for the ones that were not given to us. The objective was to draw them in silhouette form to create the "Okami opening feel." The images below show the characters I had to create in place of the other team member who's responsibility it originally was.
As a group we are chipping in together to help edit and animate whats left of what needs to be done. Besides having to take on another group members work because of being unreliable I think we have done well to get so far in such short time and Im proud of the teams accomplishments.
However when our plans changed to animate the film rather than actually shoot on cameras I then was given a set of backgrounds to recreate to be put into the animation, these backgrounds could be in whatever style we wanted and splitting the background work (3 backgrounds P.P) meant we would create a unique style in each shot. Mine are shown below.
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| Battle Scene |
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| Hell (Battle Stance) |
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| Hell (Neutral Full Body) |
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| Hell (Handshake) |
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| Odin (Fight Stance) |
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| Odin (Neutral Full Body) |
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| Odin (Handshake) |
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| Traveller (Neutral Full Body) |
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Filming Inspiration
When we had decided on the story of our film as a group we had to try sort out how we would go about making it (film, animation ect ect).
Although this first started off as filming with props and the lot we soon changed our minds and opted for animation in a silhouette form which is when I thought the opening of one of my favourite games would come in handy, Okami.
I thought this style for the animation would prove effective as it made the way of telling our story simpler but more rustic and old as if a story was being told and mental imagery (as is the goal for our film.)
Although this first started off as filming with props and the lot we soon changed our minds and opted for animation in a silhouette form which is when I thought the opening of one of my favourite games would come in handy, Okami.
I thought this style for the animation would prove effective as it made the way of telling our story simpler but more rustic and old as if a story was being told and mental imagery (as is the goal for our film.)
Concept Progress
As part of working in a team we have been given a series of backgrounds to design for our animation. We have chosen 3 per person and will use our own styles to create a unique effect with our own personal touch added to the final outcome.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Filming In Our Group.
During the course of our module we were given different poems from a local writers group to interpret in our own way through making a short 2 minute film.
Our groups plan was to follow the story of a traveller who meets Norse god, Odin, who tells him about a story of a great battle passed. We started the project perhaps too ambitious and planned to film at Kirkstall Abbey and was going to include a full array of people for specific rolls in the film. As well as using animals too. Our contacts for the project however proved unreliable.
This meant we had to simplify our idea and decided to use animation to tell the story. Although this has proved more simple and the work load was enough to get through with relative ease, the group was not co ordinated and lacked proper communication.
In my personal opinion I believe the saying that working with friends on filming projects leads to trouble is not true. Not in all cases. And I think that myself and my group would have benefitted more from working with people who they could communicate with more easily as well as sharing more common interests.
Our groups plan was to follow the story of a traveller who meets Norse god, Odin, who tells him about a story of a great battle passed. We started the project perhaps too ambitious and planned to film at Kirkstall Abbey and was going to include a full array of people for specific rolls in the film. As well as using animals too. Our contacts for the project however proved unreliable.
This meant we had to simplify our idea and decided to use animation to tell the story. Although this has proved more simple and the work load was enough to get through with relative ease, the group was not co ordinated and lacked proper communication.
In my personal opinion I believe the saying that working with friends on filming projects leads to trouble is not true. Not in all cases. And I think that myself and my group would have benefitted more from working with people who they could communicate with more easily as well as sharing more common interests.
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