User:Shinysheep/Tools of the Trade

Animation is the craft that I’m going to work with. Animation is actually ‘the illusion of life’; bringing things to life through motion. In Latin it literally means ‘bringing to life’. Through animation we can bring life to actually everything. Animation needs a couple of factors; storytelling, (moving) storyboarding, animating through traditional methods (2D) or more modern methods (3D, CGI) and post production (light, montage,..) What I mostly focus on is on the design and animation part. I love to form the characters that aren’t there yet and figure out how they move and try new things out. What I struggle with during my work is that I’m actually too perfectionistic to make animations. Sometimes I can lose myself into too much detail and then I’m spending hours of work to something you won’t even notice from a further distance. And, although I really love my craft, I get easily distracted. I’m finding it hard to work on 1 thing day after day. I desire new incentives. It is also funny that, although I really love to make my work, I also get easily distracted. The things I love about animation are that in 2D animation, you really can see someone’s ‘signature’. You can see different styles and I love the variation. I think it would be cool if there was some sort of ‘style scanner’. That you can scan different animation styles based on the appearance of people. Or maybe a kind of animator’s toolbox that all animators can use to create different styles. Or something like a pocket knife for animators. A tool for different styles.

I had to narrow down this scenario and I chose to do something with 'bringing to life'. An important perspective of animation

I collected some interesting projects which have a connection with the ‘bringing to life’ of things.

https://vimeo.com/17456055

I think this is a good example of how an animator brought child’s descriptions to life. She recorded children who were answering the question ‘What’s your favorite animal?’ She took those recordings and made an animation with it.

The Italian artist Rino Stefano Tagliafierro brings old paintings to life by adding subtle motions to them. I think he made the paintings move through After Effects. We call his new depth 2.5D. I saw some of them and I think this is my favorite. The original was Ivan Shishkin's Forest Edge:

http://www.rinostefanotagliafierro.com/

I think the work of Alexander Calder is also a form of bringing something to life. He makes puppets made from iron wire. He made moving puppets too and performed with them in an own made ‘circus’. He made a movie with this. It reminds me a little of Royal Deluxe, but then a smaller version. I think these are small animatronics in prototype version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jwnu8Izy0

This project was created by Royal Deluxe. I watched this on Youtube and these are shows with gigantic animatronics. I like the fact that these actually move like real people/animals. The movements look very much alike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc0PoWfPzmI

Another example of an animatronic is the Strandbeest, made by Theo Janssen. It is a construction made of piping, wood and sails. It can be driven by the wind and it moves on its ‘paws’. He makes creatures which are able to move on the wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azy-c6QXUCw

I have also seen some interesting animations over live action images. These are normal filmed images but with an animation made over it. And I think this really adds a new layer to normal life. It brings a story and it brings lifeless things to life. For example: