YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - PASSION PICTURES

ARTIST RESEARCH

Passion Pictures

My first example of Passion Pictures work is an animation called 'Round', the first time I watched this I didn't know what was going on, but by paying more attention to the information given and what happens in the animation, I understood it completely. This animation is created to promote and advertise Ray Ban glasses.The concept of the animation is that you aren't a true badass unless you wear Ray Ban glasses, the animation tells this by showing a businessman walking out of his work and being given a pair of glasses he put them on and instantly spawns in a motorcycle,leather jacket and greased back hair. It seems very stereotyping but using a comedic value to it, essentially saying that you will become a badass when you wear our glasses. I think this a great way to pitch or show your idea within a animation, instead f being factual and simple they are mocking themselves to attract attention and publicity.

The art style is monochromatic which is the use of one colour, but with the many shades and tones of black it works tremendously, especially with this animation and how the main character is hand drawn and placed into the animation, the background itself is also 2D, but it has the style of 2.5D due to the individual background elements that use layers to show parts in front and behind other parts, essentially making it look slightly 3D with 2D elements.

The second example of Passion Pictures work is an animation called 'Havana' and is also a commercial that is created for Ray Ban. Their are many differences yet many similarities within both animations. This example is about man who drives around causing havoc but everyone loves and adores him because he is wearing Ray Ban glasses. I'm not too sure about the concept of the animation, I personally think it doesn't show much about the glasses but I'm interested in the art style and the breakdown of the production and how each individual element is created. Throughout the entire animation the house style is consistent, using the same colours and layout. The production of how the animation was made is very similar to a animation I created, using 2D objects and placing them behind each other, essentially creating a feeling of depth in the background and with the use of fore and midground to have certain elements that are more important to be the main attraction. I think the artwork is created traditionally and then placed digitally to add the colour, also the animation consists of stop motion elements such as the fore and midground. Compared to others, their isn't much use of lighting and mood because of the frames being created traditionally but they add shadows throughout the animation by using darker tone of colour.

The last example of Passion Pictures work is very different to the previous examples, the technique and style is totally different, which is why i chose to use that as an example, to compare and show the diversity of their animations. This example was a commercial created for Nike to promote and advertise their new brand of footwear, the Hypervenom. The animation itself consists of the boot to suddenly change into this serpent type monster, creating suspense at the same time with the pace f the animation, slowing down and then suddenly changing while the background music builds up suspense with he pauses and the music getting louder. This production method is very alien to me, I won't know how that would be created but I would guess and say that CGI was added to the recording of the boot, which is why it so so realistic. The pace and mood defiantly hep to create suspense and exaggerate the name of the boot by incorporating elements of a serpent to emphases and show why it is known as the 'Hypervenom'.

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - PARTIZAN LAB

ARTIST RESEARCH

Partizan Lab

Out of all the practitioners I am researching I am most excited to evaluate and look at work that is created by Partizan Lab because of their wide range of work they publish and the difference between the animators, the first example is an animation created by Alvise Avati, created for Heinz Baked Beans, this animation was created for commercial purposes and the concept of the animation is to show that baked beans are high in fiber and to exaggerate the saying of beans making you fart. Obviously the animation exaggerates that and goes completely overboard, the exact reason I love this animation. Deconstructing the production methods I'd say each individual 3D model was created separately, including the astronauts and the monster, then being placed onto a CGI background where the music, lighting and atmosphere are created and added into the animation.

The art style of this animation is very realistic, the attention to detail is exquisite, and it's the mood and lighting that adds the subtle hints of realism to the 3D character and atmosphere and that is the main reason why I love this animation, it works well with the genre and style, a sci-fi themed animation that has a humorous plot.

 

The second example that I chose from Partizan is an animation made for Coca-Cola, created by the same company as the previous animation, Alvise Avati. The animation is about the battle of which soda is better, Pepsi or Coca-Cola? In this situation Coca-Cola wins, the concept of this animation is great I love the idea and how they manipulated it to match the overall theme. The plot being a can of Coke, imitating a knight, is battling an army of Pepsi to reached the imprisoned bottle of Coke, which is being seen as the princess. The production method of this animation seems very technical and difficult, especially with he camera angles used and the sudden movements in the characters, not the mention the detail withing the 3D models and the background. The element that makes the animation very intense would be the lighting effect and pace that works tremendously with the music. I really like this animation, I think they have achieved their goal and purpose of the animation and essentially mock Pepsi in a humorous manor yet at the same time advertise their own brand.

The last example from Partizan is an animation that was created for Louis Vuitton celebrating Chinese New Year, this animation was created by Mustashrik. After watching this animation my initial thought was how does this relate to Louis Vuitton or Chinese New Year, I personally couldn't see the resemblance but the animation itself was superb. I think with a little more research I could find out how this animation represents or resembles the theme. I am really interested with the production of the animation, I think this would have been created with stop motion animation, each element is created individually and then placed together with software such as After Effects. The main character, the horse seems to be created fram by frame with ink, just like the previous animation, this techniques shows each frame very quickly creating an illusion of a moving object whereas it is only still images. I think after the horse animation was created it was placed into After Effects where the hand painted background was added along with the lighting and sounds. 

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - FONS SCHIEDON

ARTIST RESEARCH

Fons Schiedon

The first animation that i looked at created by Fons Schiodon is called 'Poor Us' an animated history of poverty, this has a lot of information throughout the animation, whether its the visuals or the narration. This is the most informative animation i have looked at and it still gained my attention all throughout the video, this is probably the most important feature of this animation, to get the point across but also engage the audience with the visuals. The artwork is great, consisting of no linework the colours have to be bold when applying layers so the elements aren't confusing and blend together. The animation reminds me of a journey, starting at one point and when finishing, which would be equivalent to the end of the animation, you are aware and influence by the stories and real events that are portrayed throughout.

The second example of Fons Schiedon's work is an animation that was created as a music video for SBTRKT. The animation itself doesn't seem relatable to the song whatsoever so I struggled when I was thinking what the music video was influenced by or what was the concept and idea of it. The quality of it is excellent, the art style is very peculiar and i'm also intrigued to find out not only the process of how each element for the animation was made but how the character was first originally designed.

But throughout the music video I was much more intrigued in the animation compared to the song, especially with the mood and lighting throughout the video and how it will suddenly change the atmosphere with the use of colour lighting, shadows and fog effect. The pace of the video tends to change depending on the song, making the song and video intertwine and interact is a great way to allow the video to help communicate with the song.

The last example of Fons Schiedon's work is called #Imagine Whatever, an animation created for the 2015 Playgrounds Festival. Compared to the Fons Schiedon work that I have previously looked at, this animation is very unusual, after researching it i found that it involved him and 9 other animations to create this animation, I realised straight away due to the style of this video and looking at the house style of the previous one and how they a re very different to each other. The animation itself is about this one character, I'm having trouble describing the concept or story of the animation.

What i liked is the voice over and how the animated character has more persona and personality compared to the art style witch is very messy, simplistic and consists of straight lines. Breaking down the production of this animation I think that artwork is drawn digitally and animated with stop motion, using individually drawn frames to create the illusion of a moving object, I think the background and colours were added to the animation after it was complete.

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - TOKYO PLASTIC

ARTIST RESEARCH

Tokyo Plastic

The first animation example created by Tokyo Plastic is called 'Little Fella' is about a dog that does random silly stuff, out of all the individual animations that are created for this character I chose the one where he gets struck by lighting and becomes a demon. I really like how there's a serious of the same animation all with a individual concept or them throughout, after finding this example I saw numerous animations of little fella that would also be an excellent example to annotate. I am interested to find out why Tokyo Plastic came up with each theme or story for each animation for little fella, for example if each one had a specific purpose but I think its a strong and very clever way to advertise a product, or promote an animation by creating a series just like a previous animation created for Fox radio station.

I love the style, it seems very over the top and exaggerates a lot about certain elements of detail; for example the character has an extremely large head, eyes and ears compared to the tiny legs and body. The use of 3D sculpting in the animation is excellent, the detail within the model is great as well as the texture. The use of lighting and atmosphere is superb when the creature is struck by lighting and starts to create suspense by morphing into this demon looking creature.

The second example created by Tokyo Plastic was created for Zune, I love this animation, although the concept seems pretty hard to understand and there isn't any information about the reason for the animation or what is is advertising/promoting but the animation consists of a creature that only has a mouth, after wondering if meets another creature that has plenty of eyes but no mouth, therefore it shares an eye allowing that space remaining to be used as a mouth. Essentially the whole animation is about sharing. I think the art style is great and the characters are quite cute, the mood and pace allows the atmosphere to stand out more but help collaborate with the animation by using lighting techniques and creating shadows, the noises and background sounds are high pitched sounds that help give he impression of the characters being cute, friendly and non aggressive.

As the website shows the original sketches of the creatures I would of presumed already that the character was created digitally in software such as Cinema 4D or Maya, the elements and characteristics of each creatures seem pretty basic to create, not many parts in the design of the character but that is why the atmosphere and mood within the animation is just as important.

The final example of Tokyo Plastic's work is an animation that as created as a commercial for Nike, the animation was made to raise awareness and promote Nike's latest footwear. What i find the most fascinating pat of this project that Tokyo Plastic took part in was that the animation wasn't the final goal, they went above and beyond with this brief and instead of just creating a commercial they used their animation and illustrations to create real models of the characters which then appeared in the stores. The animation itself is great, its comedic, it attracts your attention and doesn't bore you with information, they have cleverly involved the best and main aspects of their new running shoes throughout each stage of the animation, while the commercial itself is hilarious.

I think the production of this animation would be quite difficult compared to some o the previous i have researched; the 3D character and elements could possibly have been created in programs like Cinema 4D, Maya, 3Ds Max and then finalised within After Effects, as well as that the sounds and background music would have to be in sync with the animation in order for it to work successfully. The texturing on the charsets are exquisite, I think their goal was to make the character look and have elements that are as close to the original footwear as possible, the lighting throughout the animation shows the reflective parts and illuminates the textures throughout the commercial.

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - PEPPER MELON

ARTIST RESEARCH

Pepper Melon

The first example of Pepper Melons work is called 'Skiing Fred' unlike the previos animations i have looked at, this one has a purpose and is used to advertise a iOS game created by Dedalord Games called Extravaganza. I really enjoyed watching this animation because of the humour and the aesthetics. I am very interested to find out how this is created alongside the breakdown and process of each element. The animation itself is about a boy that is hiking in the snowy mountains then is suddenly approached by death and his only option is to stupidly jump down the mountain. 

The style of this animation is very cartoon like, although the environment and background look realistic but not too much that it distracts and doesn't blend with the characters, their seems to be multiple styles of artwork throughout, with he environment, the characters and the hand of god which looks like a still image placed into an animation along with 3D elements. 

The second animation created by Pepper Melon is called 'Drug Free America' was created to help promote and advertise a partnership for a drug free America, this animation was created as a commercial for TV. The reason I chose the animation is because of the sudden changes in mood, pace and atmosphere. The animation creates suspense by showing a wolf staring and taunting at two little defenseless sheep, cutting back and forth between the wolf and sheep, you expect the wolf to act when one of the sheep instantly eats the other. "Showing that everything is not what is seems and that your foes are closer than you think."




I think this 3D animation has been created with either Cinema 4D or Houdini, with the elements being created separately like the characters, then background and then placed together with the sound and lighting. I also enjoy the humour in the animation, even though the concept ad story is quite a serious matter the animation is well made and is visually stimulating.

The last animation created by Pepper Melon is called 'Retro Classifica' it is about promoting a new station or radio that is based on the songs from the 80's, Pepper Melon have created a sequence of theses illustrations, all the same theme ands style but each have a difference 80's song that the characters dance to. I chose the animation that was based on dirty dancing.

The whole style of the animations are astronauts from the near distant future find old retro 80's music players and records that are rusty and withered, then they play the chosen song and dance to it, I think this is an excellent way to represent the new music station, the 3D aspects and elements are detailed and the animating is great, the movement of the characters are executed very well.

 

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - SIAMAN CHOW

ARTIST RESEARCH

Siaman Chow

Very different to other artists and production companies, Siaman Chow creates GIFs, very short animated images that last usually a few seconds. The first example is showing someone drinking whiskey. Originally this seems quite basic but the more I think bout this short animation the more I think maybe there's more to this? It shows a hand drinking a shot of whiskey then having it refilled, what attracted my attention was the hand was very similar to Disney's Mickey Mouse hand. Maybe it is mocking Disney or maybe it is a coincidence.

Overall I like this short animated image, making it repeat by having the last frame follow the first frame is a great element and also it is very clear, the linework is thick and bold, although the background is quite dark, it still doesn't blend with the linework but it emphasizes and illuminates the hand which is white, I believe this was the main intention.

The second example of Siaman Chow is this animation, I chose this because of the theme and process. The GIF is a face which then ages dramatically into a skeleton, showing the process between each stage that I have captured. Breaking this down and trying to recognise or at least guess the production method I think this example has been created with stop motion animation, drawing out each stage traditionally then scanned in digitally and creates an illusion of a moving animation when really its multiple images being shown one after another very quickly.

I really like this short animation mainly because I find it rather amusing, also the artwork is drawn really well with a great amount of detail. The mood of this is quite sinister, a face decaying into a skeleton? You are unaware what will happen when you see the thumbnail of the face and that is a another element of this example i like.

With this artist, Siaman Chow I have found his work to be quite complicated to talk about, mainly because of how basic and short the animated image is, but I enjoy learning how they are made. The last example of Siaman Chows work is this very comedic weight lifting animation, unlike the others this is quite comedic with the sexual humour.

Again I think the process would be the same as the previous, stop motion animation that is created with individual images.

YR 1 ASSESSMENT WEEK 2, TASK 1 DIGITAL SKILLS - DAVID O'REILLY

ARTIST RESEARCH

David O'Reilly

I like this animation, the whole reason of this is to make you think, WTF?! Even with the title being ‘?????’ you don’t exact what will happen during it. I love the way it has been created, dark mysterious characters and atmosphere then suddenly random elements start to appear that contrast with the entire animation, including objects that have a lot of depth and detail compared to the main characters and the background of the animation, the brightness of the colours and the lighting contrasts with dull and gloomy atmosphere, the lighter elements attract the focus as it is placed in the centre of the screen. I believe this animation would have been created with Cinema 4D and have each elements created individually, the animation is slow paced which then starts to accelerate towards the middle of the animation when it’s most interesting.

The style is very unusual, there're elements of realistic and not, such as the cats head, compared to the figure and shape of the 2 characters along with the background, I do think that the style and concept was to create a creepy animation that has a lot of sudden changes throughout that constantly distort the story each time.

The second animation created by David O’Reilly is called ‘Octocat Adventures’, I chose this one because of the art style and how unique it is compared to the other researched animations. The art style for this animation seems to be inspired by children’s drawings, the animation itself isn’t very technical, it looks simple but the quality is fantastic, the humour and also the feeling of ‘what the hell is happening!’ Just like the previous animation that I researched by David O’Reilly there is never a sense of knowing what will happen next, which is why I think them very interesting. 

The style and concept of this animation is unusual, although there is a faint story to the animation, it doesn't make such sense, the concept is for the 'octocat' to try and find his parents within this bizarre and strange world, the techniques seem very basic as the artwork is simple and messy. I think the background images would have been created separately as well as the skin for the character, I thinks one parts of the animation could require After Effects to help animate the characters and elements. Then the sound and voices would be placed with the complete animation. 

The last animation created by David O'Reilly that i looked at is called 'WOFL2106' and it has a brief storyline about a wold cub that finds it's mother dead. This animation defiantly has the most meaning throughout, the speed and timing of the animation slows down dramatically and at certain parts it speeds up. The style of the artwork is quite simplistic, there isn’t much detail within the animation, the colours and shapes show the environment and make it the majority of the artwork. The house style is fluent throughout the animation, with the colours used, the linework the style. The creation of the animation is hard for me to try and think of the process of how it was made, similar to the ‘Octocat’ the animation is very 2D with some 3D elements.

I think the artwork would have been created separately and placed into the animation, the background is 3D while the foreground and midground usually consist of 2D elements, this is my favorite David O'Reilly animation that I have researched.