Bradford Animation Festival (Friday)

Farnham Retrospective

This screening showed a collection of students work from the Farnham University of Creative arts in the last 40 years in memory of Bob Godfrey, it included a range of different styles with in the animation, such as the use of media, tone, atmosphere, the use of advertising, set to match a music track, etc.

It was interesting to see the differing work, and it gave me inspiration through how the animations shown affected the audience. For example, an animation about a mythical creature which appeared as a cat and absorb parts of humans as they came for water from the well, that was its domain, - this made the audience tense and shocked through the use of the stop motion and the sense of realism with in the model - to an animation about a cowboy filled with a simple graphic style and amusing humour - this made the audience laugh and want more shorts of the cowboy.

UCA animation 

Bradford Animation Festival - Dave McKean

Dave McKean creates his work through the use of illustrative means which absorbs a very experimental graphic style seen through the photography manipulation.
I found McKean's talk very inspiring as I felt that his work connected with me through how intriguing and detailed his work contains.
In his talk, I found that one of his first publications was a comic called 'Hell Blazer', this comic is portrayed in a monotone/blue wash which makes the atmosphere dismal and bleak, but with the use of line for the characters, it brings a grunge and tense feel to the art.

Hell Blazer - one of the first comics

I recently brought the first volume of Sandman Overture comic and the composition of each page was thought out beautifully and in interesting portrayals which made me inspired to think more differently, "outside the box" when depicting my own work. For example, in the comic there is a double spread of a mouth showing its teeth, and the teeth were the comic panels. The art is gorgeous through out and I love the theme and atmosphere of the comic already.

Sandman Overture

McKean made an interesting point on the Punch and Judy plays that he and Neil Gaiman have created a graphic novel from. The story tells of a man who is asked to look after a young woman's baby while she goes out, the man cant get the baby to stop crying and murders the child. The woman comes back and sees what happened, calling the police and in turn he murders the policeman. He is then taken to be executed and manages to convince the executioner to hang himself. After which the devil appears and the man murders the devil, and this is when the story ends. I find this shocking that this story is still told to children with puppets.  

Mr Punch

McKean also held an exhibition of his work called "The Rut" at the Pump house Gallery in London. In the middle of this mass of work is a packing case, spewing out paper with elongated and stretched text which can only be read by looking through a mask with deer antlers. I adore this concept of the text only making sense through the view point of the mask,  you become the character.  

 

The Savage is a book written by David Almond, illustrated by McKean. McKean explained in Q&A that he creates work and gets inspiration by the text in the script, there is one phrase or word that sparks a visual image of how he can portray the character and book.

"If a character is portrayed like a block of stone, maybe it should be ... make it from clay" - Dave McKean

The illustration on the book cover holds distorted, angular and kinetic movement through the use of line, smudge and blur. With the use of the blue and green hues, it gives a surreal approach. 

The Savage

Another example of one of the illustrated books McKean has done -
The Wolves in the Walls

Extra notes

• McKean also creates his own films, such as Mirror Mask, N[eon] - uses super 8 footage, a gorgeous old fashioned grain to the film, and Luna.  
• McKean gains inspiration from people, transport, i.e. travelling on the train and drawing people, Music. There is something in everything.
• Inspiration from Artists - Francis bacon, Winsor McCay. 
• Stories which appeal to McKean are ones which are about real people, real situations that are surrounded in a swamp of a surrealistic edge of dreams and memories, "locus of reality"

Bradford Animation Festival (Thursday)

Student 2

• The Odd Sound Out - A cute short that follows sounds which are given forms and characteristics that match the person that they follow. However one sound cant find it's place in the world. This animation uses a digital 2-D pose pose process that makes the characters appeal to a younger audience, matched with the vivid and pastel mixture of hues.
  
  
  
  
  

• Rabbit & Deer -This animation uses a mixture of stop motion and 2-D processes which appeals to a young audience though the simple and adorable illustrations matched with a well put together storyline.
  I felt that this was one of my favourite animations that I have seen at BAF as it is clever through its incorporation and changes to different animation processes/styles.
  
  
  

• The Shirley Temple - This short uses 2-D pose to pose animation which holds a monotone approach with highlights of red. I found this intriguing though the portrayal of the plot through the boys and mothers view. The ending could be interpreted in different ways however I felt that the boy killed his own mother and became distant/cold through the connection with the astronaut.
  
  
  
  
  

• The Magnificent Lion Boy - Created using 2-D computer and drawing on paper techniques. This animation is stunning. The amount of time and dedication spent on this short can be seen and is definitely worth the effort. I loved the way that the animation moved with the erasing of the chalk, charcoal and pastels as to make the next frame, it gave it that edge, an uniqueness that worked.
  
  
  
  
  
• Sockskewerstreet 8 - A wonderfully weird animation that uses a 2-D animation process. I didnt follow the story well but I did like how surreal the design was, and how she had to collect these socks to remember what she had forgotten.
  
  
  
  
  
• Miss Todd - Uses a cut-out animation technique that incorporates textures, cloth and 3-D enviroments/props. I liked the presentation, composition and the whole aesthetics to the short, however I didnt think it needed to incorporate the whole musical to go with the plot. It felt, to me, that the animation was trying to direct it solely to a young audience, which does go with the plot of the story however, it made me feel that it was tedious and that I would have enjoyed the short more and give more interest to the plot as well, rather than just admiring the aesthetics of the composition. It is definitely worth a watch as it inspired me with the blend of different animation techniques.
  
  
  
  
  
• Memoria - A dark animation that shows the regrets of a man who ultimately ends up leaving life. It uses a computer generated and 2-D process.

Professional 3

• Hollow Land - A stop motion short that is surreal and tells of the hardships of finding an utopia, only to be tricked and forced to live under a set of regulations. The plot has its dark and happy moments and attracts the viewers attention well with the vivid colours and happy ending.
  
  
  
  
  
• Resistant Soul - A beautifully presented, drawn on paper, animation that is full of detail and another surrealist approach to the plot. This short really inspired me through the illustrations used and the expressions shown.
  
  
  

• Carne - Another aesthetically pleasing animation that uses media, paint, to portray an emotional and dark perspective of the colombian countryside. I was so inspired through this video through the art and how you could see the time and effort that went into the video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Obida - I loved this short. The style of the 2-D animation had a gorgeous grainy and sketchy look which gave the composition a uniqueness that took my attention and made me love the characters portrayed in the short. The character design worked well alongside the plot of the story,  and the idea of the creature which she drew and came to life was so inpiring and made me think of ideas that I could incorporate into my own work.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Marilyn Myller - A very clever and amusing stop animation that uses a simple yet aesthetically pleasing models and backgrounds. I loved the monotone approach to the short which made it more appealing to the audience.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mr Hublot - An adorable and beautifully portrayed CG animation that attracts both an old and young audience through the concept and character design, and the plot used in the animation.
  
  
  
  
  
• My Three Grandmas - Based on the directors grandmas, presented using 2-D animation. I liked the blend of textures alongside the cartoony characters and the individual stories of the characters. Each grandma had their own key point, for example one was short, another really tall, the other had eyes like a cat.
  
  
  

Animate Projects Random Acts

This screening showed 15 animations that were given the same theme of cryptozoology (the hidden, unsolved or untrue monsters) funded by channel 4.
I particularly enjoyed the shorts "The Golem", "Apocalyptic rhyme" and "Re-Tolled".

• The Golem - A beautifully portrayed animation which merges film, stop motion and traditional pose to pose processes. 
• Apocalyptic rhyme - this short uses movement of typography which merge and form different shapes and words that create a tense and dark atmosphere. 
• Re-Tolled - this short contains a gorgeous surreal twist to the models used. The work reminds me of the artist Stephen Rockwell, through the victorian and dream like state of the models. 

Bradford Animation Festival (Wednesday) Student 1

Student 1

• The kiosk - a charming and funny short about a woman who wants to leave the same small town in which she sells items to the same people everyday in her kiosk. One day she leaves after some one steals some of her products and now she sells ice cream at the sea. The animation is portrayed in a 2-D painted style that works well with the theme of the short. The animation becomes tactile through the use of paint layered over the text on the Kiosk.
  
  

  

  The Kiosk

  
  
• The Bungled Child (La Ravaudeuse) - A despairing animation which held such dark properties and ended in a daunting way. I did however like the design of the twins and the style of the animation through how tactile the puppets were. Use of puppetry and stop motion.
  
  

  

  The Bungled Child

  
  
• The Carousel Family - A very weird and abrupt animation. To be honest all I saw was a pretty animation as there was so much going on everywhere to the point it was hard to focus on the plot, and how everyone had extremely smiley faces, and were part horse...
  Uses CG animation and could have used programs such as Maya.
  
  

  

  The Carousel Family

  
  
• Ab Ovo - An interesting portrayal of pregnancy, in which the clay character would rotate and the audience would be able to see into her womb as we see her back, seeing the baby grow. The ending confused me slightly as my first initial thought was that she dropped her baby as soon as she held it as it seemed to disappear before the animation ended. Uses stop motion.
  
  

  

  Ab Ovo

  
  
• The Dewberry Empire - I loved the style of animation, something similar to what I would want to be able to produce, as it absorbs a style of Studio Ghibli, through the attention to detail but the animator makes it into their own. I would love to see more of his work.
  
  

  

  The Dewbury Empire

  
  
• Plug & Play - A weird and strangely amusing animation which uses pose to pose process. This animation was funny through the dialogue and we began to see that the short was a portrayal of love.
  

  

  Plug & Play

  
  
• First Light - another well made animation, which held a lovely style, an amazing plot and concept. I felt that the piece portrayed the thoughts of freedom from her enclosed and suffocating day to day routine.
  
  

  

  First Light

  
  
• But Milk is Important - this stop motion was breathtaking through the gorgeous designs of the models which inspired me. The plot was amazing with the use of a 'dust bunny' monster which I felt portrayed the characters fear of talking to other people.
  
  

  

  But Milk is Important



• When One Stops - A very powerful short which I didn't understand at first until I thought more about it. It portrayed the grief that a person goes through when someone suffers a loss. The character doesn't want to accept reality, so they stay in one place, clinging onto dark thoughts and becoming engulfed by the emotional stress of loss. As the character stays in the same place as the world continues to turn and move on, he grabs a tree and refused to let it move, and a man grabs his arm, and a look is exchanged, he needed to move on. The use of only animating the lineart in a monotone approach made the atmosphere that much more tense.
  
  

  

  When One Stops

  
  

Bradford Animation Festival, (Wednesday) Professional 1

Wow, I can't believe how amazing the animations shown and the talks were. It was so interesting to see professionals and students work, seeing their own style of narrative and use of animation to portray this just made me so inspired and excited to create my own.

I started the BAFest day with watching the Professionals 1 showcase, and some were surprisingly dark in narrative and atmosphere:

• Boles - an aesthetically pleasing animation that incorporates the use of puppets. The plot had a good twist and worked well with the use of puppetry, it also made me think of how many ways the ending could have be interpreted as. In my opinion, Teresa ends up being a figment of his imagination and becomes one of the best pieces of text that he has written.
  
  
  

  

  Boles

  
  
• The River's Lazy Flow - A weird short, but I liked the use of texture in the background, and it was amusing when the girls 'magic power' was being able to kill fish. Uses a 2-D animation approach, this could have been made using pose to pose and the program Flash.
  
  

  

  The rivers lazy flow

  
  
• In the Air is Christopher Grey - A quite funny short which follows a boy, Christopher, wanting to proclaim his love to Stacy, he decides to impress her by making a big jump on his bike. Everything goes horribly wrong, the snake, in which he wanted to jump over and he ended up landing on, killed its owner with his young love going back with her ex. (And to quote Christopher's friend "At least you made a jump over a 5ft snake..." ). Uses a 2-D approach which could have been created through the use of the program Flash.
  
  
  

  

  In the air is Christopher Grey

• Canis - A haunting and dismal outlook on a world which seems abandoned, with a man, his son and a dog, trying to survive the constant attack of stray dogs. I felt that the baby at the end of the short signified hope for the boy and that he has been given a purpose, to protect his son. Uses stop motion puppetry set in a monotone approach.
  
  

  

  Canis

  
  
• Butterflies - A beautiful, yet creepy stylised stop motion, which follows a young artist selling her drawings on the streets to passersby. A business man recognises her talent and gives her a job at his business of handmade cards. But soon, after drawing the same repetitive thing, she begins to lose her self, her dream and inspirations of the artist she wants to be. I love how her dreams are symbolised through the use of her butterfly drawings, which are in turn depicted in a creepy manner through the use of the bat like wings, the shape of the body and the yellow and red eyes of the butterflies.
  
  

  

  Butterflies

  
  
• Palmipedarium - beautifully simple illustrated 2-d/3-d animation which follows a young boy who hunts ducks with his father. One day he finds a peculiar duck which cannot fly, the boy tries to help him by adding feathers and painting his beak orange and gives the duck the courage to move forward, and the duck runs into the distance. I believe this short can be interpreted to be just a figment of his imagination but i feel it resembles the boys feelings, his wings have been clipped and he just wants to leave the same daily routine, he wants the freedom of change.

Palmipedarium

Collaboration with fine art student - Roxanne Shanks

For Roxy's work, she needed to create a small composition which incorporated jagged movements, overlay, sound and would be projected over other work for the audience to interact with.

I felt that the best way to make her imagery move would be to use the program Premiere as it would allow me to use blending modes between the different sections of the timeline and cut/lengthen the duration of each image.

Using Adobe Premiere to create the short animation

The sound for the video needed to make the audience, think, be bewildered at what this sound is, make the viewers tense as the imagery flickers and blends into another. Her work held a tactile and distress appeal which worked well with her theme of Transformations, trying to portray memories through the marks of the media.

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli is a well known animation studio who produce breathtakingly beautiful work, such as Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. (The studios head director, Hayao Miyazaki created the name and began to create amazing animation films).

One of the first Studio Ghibli films was Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which was originally a manga by the head director, Hayao Miyazaki. In my opinion, this film sets a quality for other animations through how beautiful the frames flow and takes into consideration of the movement of the clothes, hair, the arcs of the limbs.

The story of the animation absorbs not only the main objective but background context of the world it is set in which relates to our reality, such as in the film My Neighbour Totoro, it is interpreted to show how the characters cope with death, with Totoro actually being a shinigami (a grim reaper) that only children who are close to death are able to see. For example, when the sisters are in the Cat Bus, the destination reads 'Grave Road' and part of the song which they sing is translated to "those guests who ride are cheerful ghosts". It is also suggested that when Mei, the younger sister is lost, she is actually dead, so when the older sister Satsuki, runs to try and find Totoro, and asks for his help, she can finally see the spirit/god being, suggesting that Satsuki is now close to death.

Many viewers believe that Miyazaki related the story to a murder which happened in 1963 in Sayama, when a young girl was kidnapped for ransom and then murdered. Unfortunately her older sister discovered the body and she was so traumatised that she believed she saw a Tanuki (a creature that looks like a raccoon) and a cat monster; a film made in respect towards the incident. (source: http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro)

I believe that My Neighbour Totoro is not about the death of the sisters, but about two sisters that are worried for their mother as she is currently in the hospital, and also slowly coming to terms with what would happen if they were to lose their mother, about moving on.

My Neighbour Totoro

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Kiki's Delivery Service

Howl's Moving Castle

Spirited Away

My favourite film from Studio Ghibli is Spirited Away through the fantasy aspect of the animation, and how it absorbs the traditional cultural aspects of Japan, which is seen through the clothing, Yokai (Japanese mythical creatures), and the beautiful illustrative style of the scenery and character designs.
The plot works hand in hand with the style of the animation through the fantasy twist to it, and also considers a contextual background which relates to our reality. I believe that some animations cant seem to balance the plot and the animation in which to make a functioning short that stays with the audience and in my opinion, Studio Ghibli films have mastered this.

Miyazaki is retiring but not before he creates one last film called The Wind Rises.

Square Enix - Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy

The beautiful, magical games company, Square Enix, create amazing games such as the Final Fantasy series, The World Ends With You, and my favourite Kingdom Hearts.
Over the years the graphics of the cutscenes have just continued to improve to the point of the graphics from Final Fantasy 15, where the hair and facial expressions are becoming more realistic but still hold that beautiful illustrative style, which makes me so excited for it to be released. Square Enix also showed off their graphics in the Final Fantasy Advent Children film in 2005, which inspired me so much with the beautiful quality of the animation, and made me strive to continue to get both my illustrative and animation skills to the best that I can achieve.

Final Fantasy 15

Kingdom Hearts

The Kingdom Hearts game series are one of my all time favourite games through the character design, the plot and how aesthetically pleasing the graphics are. The illustrators for Kingdom Hearts, Shino Amano (Mangaka) and Tetsuya Nomura (character designer and game director for Square Enix) both obtain a different style of compositions, through Amano's more cute structures and Nomura's more detailed work.
Square Enix is one of my dream goals as a place of work. I'm still undecided with what path to take, Animation or Game concept art, but Square Enix is definitely one of the places I would want to work for/with.

Yema Yema

Mercedes Crespo, also known as Yema Yema on twitter, is an illustrator who excels in character design and shirt design. The use of colour within the illustrations are striking and suit well with the structure of the character. My favourite illustration is the Poop Deck Cursed Pirate, as the design of the 'zombie' cursed pirate is aesthetically pleasing through the use of blue and purple hues, and the awesome flying mini characters emitting from the design. What I love the most about the illustrations are the fact that they could be easily used as a repeat pattern which I feel would work well with prints and clothing prints, ( I would definitely buy one).

Poop Deck Cursed Pirate

Chimp Tee Design

Grow your practice

Website - Twitter