Cara's PPP blog: Bradford Animation Festival: Panorama 2 notes

Consumption - Stop Motion animation, in which the model design was amazing, the stylisation of the character helped the atmosphere that was depicted reach the viewer more emotionally. The narrative however is lacking, it needed a spark, something to keep the audience interested, as their was too much silence, the use of sound effects worked well however it needed a backing track to tie all the elements together.
Etoile - An animation that uses a mixture of stop motion, CG and digital 2D techniques. A narrator was dubbed over the animation as the visuals unveil the story. The CG models of the characters worked really well with the stop motion background that was filled with props, however the hair on the models didn't work with the characters. The hair looked like plastic compared to the style that the characters were formatted in.
Heir to the Evangelical Revival - Used traditional animation techniques that involved drawing the image in charcoal and then erasing the image to draw on top of the previous frame. I found the use of the animation to be quite inspiring as the transition between images was smooth and emotive. However I didn't like the music that was included with the animation, it felt too ambient and distorted that I couldn't really focus on the visuals. I feel that this was the atmosphere and the emotions that the animator wanted to rise within the audience as this worked with the imagery that was shown.
Hotzanak For your own safety - Traditional animation that used mono-print like stylisation with additional watercoloured fills to the imagery. The use of the sound track made the atmosphere feel consuming and alienating with all the whispers and loud noises that filled the room. This made me think of schizophrenia with the multiple voices that plagued the animation throughout its duration. The animation incorporated jagged movements which enhanced the atmosphere that the sound had created.
Interview - CG animation that most likely had been made using the software Maya or 3DMax. The style of the animation was very smooth and worked with the comedy narration that the characters were situated with. The use of the white walled room, made the audience focus on the main characters which made the humour work well compared to a room that was clustered with detail. I quite liked the ending of the animation, where the person who went for an interview had actually agreed to become the new adam of the world that they had created beneath them.
Sea Front - Stop Motion animation that uses clay, modrock and other worn fabrics to create the environment and characters, The appearance of the hair on the model made it seem like real hair, through the interaction with the light and the strand like quality to it. I quite liked the portrayal of the sea which was created using blue shades of wool and thread that worked successfully with the rest of the compositions. The animation was smooth and made the atmosphere quite dismal through the use of the body language and facial expressions of the main character. The story was unfolded with the use of the dubbed narration which the dialogue was formatted like a poem.
Slumberless - Stop Motion that held a Tim Burton esk style to the characters much like the models from the animated feature 'Corpse Bride' with the blue skin and wide eyes. The animation had a mixture of after effects and CG that was a bit bizarre at first however as the narrative progress, started to get used to the mixture of animations. I did however feel that the CG character needed a shadow to blend into the stop motion environment a bit more, as it felt like the CG character was placed there.
The Obvious Child - A digital and traditional 2D animation that used vintage themes to the portrayal of the visuals, using vignettes, film grain and pinhole views of the frames. I found that I liked the style of the animation but I didn't like the narrative as much, it felt like the animation was dragged out and I liked the idea of the daughter trying to get her parents back to heaven however some of the narrative was not needed. It felt like it wanted shock value more than any other emotion from the audience, even through I liked the idea of the heaven being this big deity which would eat up the souls.
When The Tree Grows - Stop motion animation that depended on the visuals and the sound track to depict its narrative. I found the puppets to be gorgeous and very inspiring through the different portrayal of a character compared to the previous animations that had used stop motion with in their work. I really liked the design of the characters outfit and the inclusion of what appears to be real hair for the models hair. I was inspired by the background and environment design with the use of cotton wool for the clouds that would move. The only criticism that I have with the animation is that the lines on the models face could have been edited out with the use of photoshop, however that is extremely time consuming especially with the amount of screen time that the model is in the animation for.