ma-2019-ziwei

[ma-2019-ziwei]

Developed Project 2: Light and Shadow (NEW)

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[REFLECTION] 11: Developed Project 2

When I re-created the animation, due to the change of the production equipment, all the original character design action files I saved were lost. So I had to remake it according to the original animation. So the character will look different from the original. Due to the loss of the lens, the plot connection is not very good, and the movement of the characters is also a bit stiff, which gave me a great lesson. Lessons about collating material resources and properly storing it, in order to be prepared for future changes.

After rethinking the problem of the first submitted work, I re-made the movement by referring to the original action. But even after the original keyframes were tested, because I didn't understand the physical principles of character running and movement, the finished animation looked a bit stiff, and the movement connection was not very natural and smooth. I can only move the position of the entire picture in Adobe Premiere to reflect the bumps of the characters in motion.

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Referral]: 5 Weathering with You

In China, the audience evaluation of Weathering with You’s seems not as good as Shinkai Makoto’s last work Your Name. I will try to analyze how the Weathering with You story is different from his previous works, and parse the meaning behind it, to find out why its work gets these reviews.

In 2016, with the hit of Your Name, Shinkai Makoto became the standard-bearer for the new generation of Japanese animation directors. Also because of the explosion of Your Name, Shinkai Makoto has more funds to enrich and refine this Weathering with You . It was selected by the Japan Film Production Association as a representative of the Best Foreign language Film Competition. Palomar reports that it is precisely because of the popularity of Your Name that investors are allowed to decide to produce this Weathering with You with the same meaning (Palomar, 2019) . Therefore, Weathering with You has to be compared with Your Name from all aspects. In the overall story setting of these two works, they both connect the character's love story with grand intentions such as saving the world. 

However, the evaluation after the movie was in stark contrast to the expectations of the audience before it was released, "Lack of surprise" has become the main argument of the audience's evaluation of Weathering with You (Palomar, 2019). 

I agree with Collins's view that the works are interconnected. Since his early works, Shinkai Makoto has been trying to connect the theme of emotion between people with the time and space in his story, creating a spiritual and material contrast. In Weathering with You, the director attempts to bring reality and non-reality together. It is not an animation that tells a realistic story. The director tells a surreal story that does not happen in the real world. However, most of the scenes in Weathering with You have realistic locations, and its stories almost happen in Tokyo. This background setting makes its reality and non-reality superimposed. But, the setting of the interlacing of time and space disappeared in Weathering with You, which made the animation obtain a complete and clear narrative line, but also made the work a conservative work that lacking novelty. 

However, 小水 think that if we only analyze animation from the perspective of story, then we neglect its political nature and thinking about social significance. The director deliberately designed the character so that it has the characteristics of the marginalized person: failure in family and work, not recognized and concerned by people around ( 小水, 2019) . But in the story, the main dilemma faced by the characters is a worldwide problem. This raises me a question: In the face of the catastrophe caused by the choices of most people in society, should we sacrifice a small number of people in society for short-term peace. I think this implies some problems in real life: the shout of the exploited in the world, the resistance of the younger generation to the social default rules. And the final choice of characters in the film is also a denial of personal heroism.

In my opinion, It is a paradox that repetition of success can never reproduce success. Therefore, with Your Name as the starting point, the conclusion that Weathering with You cannot exceed the previous work has become a absolute result. As the audience, we are more like participating in an experiment of public opinion than we are evaluating this animation. However, Shinkai Makoto's attempt to show and discuss a completely different meaning from the previous work in this animation is commendable.

Reference:

Collins, H., 2020. Weathering With You's Big Your Name Connection, Explained. [online] CBR. Available at: <https://www.cbr.com/weathering-with-you-your-name-connection-explained/> [Accessed 25 June 2020].

大聪看电影. 2019. 《天气之子》结局深度解析+彩蛋分析，组成新海诚宇宙只是时间问题. [online] Available at: <https://movie.douban.com/review/10491945/> [Accessed 24 June 2020].

丁萌. 2019. 社会的“强伦理”与“世界”的“弱伦理”. [online] Available at: <https://movie.douban.com/review/10356425/> [Accessed 23 June 2020].

Palomar. 2019. 不愿待在舒适区的新海诚，在《天气之子》中都做错了什么. [online] Available at: <https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/90646644> [Accessed 23 June 2020].

小水. 2019. 就让大雨把城市倾倒——比左更左的《天气之子》. [online] Available at: <https://movie.douban.com/review/10640410/> [Accessed 23 June 2020].

Shinkai, M., 2016. Your Name. (2016) - Imdb. [online] IMDb. Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5311514/?ref_=nm_knf_t1> [Accessed 22 June 2020].

Shinkai. M,. 2019. 映画『天気の子』公式サイト. [online] Available at: <https://www.tenkinoko.com/> [Accessed 23 June 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Referral]: 4 Sol Levante

Not long ago, my friend recommended the Sol Levante animation to me, but behind its beautiful and time-consuming production, the audience was not optimistic. I consulted the relevant materials and studied why the production cost and the level of intention are high but the benefits are very small.

In 2019, Netflix started a cooperation project with the Japanese animation company PRODUCTION I.G, which is the world's first hand-drawn 4K HDR animation (Milligan, 2020) .

4K+HDR+ hand-drawn, put these three key together, it estimated will be a nightmare for most animators. To produce 4K animation means you need to draw a much larger screen than the previous animation ( Miyagawa, 2020) . Although the picture becomes high-definition, but it also means that the fineness of each line must be improved, which will bring more workload than the previous work.

In 2020, the animation in question finally released a 4 minute short animation, many people thought it was just a trailer, but this is the final animation that Netflix and PRODUCTION I.G spent two years to develop.

The animation is named Sol Levante, which means "rising sun" or "sunrise". ‘Since this title, I hope this film can become the rising Sun in the new image era’, the director said so ( Miyagawa, 2020) . Netflix, which has invested a lot of money as a research and development partner, has also attached great importance to the film. After the release of animated films, the related reports released all affirmed its innovative significance to the animation industry.

From Netflix's own perspective, 4K animation is a forward-looking project.  Netflix began to think about how to improve the animation to 4K refinement. In order to explore a future path for the development of animation, Netflix with PRODUCTION I.G It conducted an experiment with this animation ( Nyström, 2020) . The main purpose of this experimental animation is to try and display the technology, and its appearance has contributed to the exploration of innovative technologies in the future. 

Although this work is not intended for serialization or mass production, but the audiences who appreciate it are still a minority. My personal perception is that it looks a lot like LIVE 2D animation. Although the production team said they did not use CG technology, just use software plug-in to fill the transition frame of the animation (Robinson, 2019) . But this also confirms the huge workload, they can not draw every picture, so only the original frame is drawn. Moreover, even if the clarity of the animation reaches a new level, most of the audience's display screens cannot meet this requirement, so for the audience, this animation is of little significance.

In this regard, I have the same idea as Matadeen, Sol Levante's improvements in precision and information did not seem to make animation any more interesting. How to delicately symbolize elements is the power of animation. Sol Levante just experimented with what 4K animation might look like in the future, and it is far from practical. But we still cannot be conclusive, after all, the birth of new things, always accompanied by more criticism.

Reference:

Matadeen, R., 2020. Netflix's Sol Levante Is Pretty, But It Wasn't Worth The Wait. [online] CBR. Available at: <https://www.cbr.com/netflix-sol-levante-pretty-not-worth-wait/> [Accessed 22 June 2020].

Milligan, M., 2020. Netflix & Production I.G Debut Pioneering 4K Anime Short 'Sol Levante' | Animation Magazine. [online] Animation Magazine. Available at: <https://www.animationmagazine.net/shorts/netflix-production-i-g-debut-pioneering-4k-anime-short-sol-levante/> [Accessed 21 June 2020].

Miyagawa, H. and Peña, K., 2020. Bringing 4K And HDR To Anime At Netflix With Sol Levante. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://netflixtechblog.com/bringing-4k-and-hdr-to-anime-at-netflix-with-sol-levante-fa68105067cd> [Accessed 20 June 2020].

Nyström, I., 2020. Why ‘Sol Levante’ Is Netflix’S Most Important Anime Yet - News, Sport And Opinion From Meslop.Com. [online] News, sport and opinion From MeSlop.com. Available at: <https://www.meslop.com/why-sol-levante-is-netflixs-most-important-anime-yet/538/> [Accessed 20 June 2020].

Robinson, J., 2020. Why 'Sol Levante' Is Netflix's Most Important Anime Yet - What's On Netflix. [online] What's on Netflix. Available at: <https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/why-sol-levante-is-netflixs-most-important-anime-yet/> [Accessed 21 June 2020].

Saitou, A., 2020. Sol Levante | Netflix Official Site. [online] Netflix.com. Available at: <https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81017017> [Accessed 20 June 2020].

T哥小站. 2020. 关于首部4K动画《Sol Levante》 的那些事情_画面. [online] Available at: <https://www.sohu.com/a/385817828_475067> [Accessed 21 June 2020].

我们的动画. 2020. 网飞发布史上第一部真正4K级动画《Sol Levante》，网友表示：看不起. [online] Available at: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?src=11&timestamp=1593535075&ver=2432&signature=QL1miQw-PMV95L3F3a6FEJiO7L-MSNT7rOrE-0EZOD853gym6EZ1b4MYagB6MURo*iWYfEHzjNCxvfNNVptcavLG9rY-uQY1Z8zaoikUs6dEf0sSN6GTf3VCIXsoZZ0d&new=1> [Accessed 20 June 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Referral]: 3 Adventure Time

Today we are going to talk about an animation that looks like a fairy tale but has black humor.

On September 3, 2018, Adventure Time announced the end of the series by airing the final episode to the cheers of the audience. As one of the representative works of Cartoon Network, this Cartoon was well received all over the world: it won the Emmy Awards for TV eight times and the Animation Annie Awards for three times ( 知乎, 2020) .

Adventure Time tells the adventure story of a little boy Finn and a dog Jake. The story focuses on the growth of Finn and Jack, the story not only shows their wisdom and courage to face various difficulties, but also explores some profound social issues through dialogue and emotion between characters.

This animation has a diverse world view and characters. Each character is complete and unique, and contains the advantages and disadvantages of human nature ( Kleber, 2017) . How to discuss the two sides of people and things, and how to view it correctly, is where I think this animation is very meaningful.

The style of this work looks very cute, the audience may think this is a fairy tale animation for children. Fairy tales are far away from reality, because in fairy tales, human nature is often simplified, children can only see that the good people in the story will be happy, and the bad people will eventually be sanctioned, but adults will often think of reality life through the fairy tales story. The reason of Adventure Time is so attractive to the audience is precisely because of its deep connection with reality. Everything expressed in its story is deeply rooted in the reality under the fairy tale. This sense of reality is first reflected in the growth of the characters in the animation. In the early anime story, Finn is an idealistic, adventurous, optimistic boy. Then, he fell in love with two girls at the same time and began to know how to hurt others, and he would be blinded by revenge. Finn is like every one of us. He has a kind soul, but also makes mistakes in life and repents. He is not perfect. Finn's journey is not just an adventure, but a necessary way for a person to grow up (Oliver, 2013)  . The world has never been only black and white, this lesson belongs not only to children.

It is true that the Adventure Time story has dark parts, but in the end, it is still full of warmth. This kind of warmth, is not a fairy tale. It is the growth of the bitter taste, finally found that human nature still has the instinct of light and good yearning. It conveys to the audience, in an unrealistic frame and with imagination, that everything you have experienced deserves your belief that there is something better out there.

Diverse world settings, ingenious character, classic funny methods, plus positive ideas, this successful animation brings great inspiration and is worthy of reference for animators.

Reference:

疯狂老爹. 2018. 老爹講動畫 Adventure Time 探險活寶 男主角阿寶 隱藏在笑容背後的真相 其實是個悲劇男孩？. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4It75PFBO7g> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

Kleber, J., 2017. The Progressive, Grown-Up Appeal Of Adventure Time. [online] The New Republic. Available at: <https://newrepublic.com/article/140225/progressive-grown-up-appeal-adventure-time> [Accessed 16 June 2020].

Kohn, E., 2017. ‘Adventure Time’ Is Slowly Going Off The Air, And Everyone’S Moving On. [online] IndieWire. Available at: <https://www.indiewire.com/2017/02/adventure-time-ending-cartoon-network-1201785332/> [Accessed 8 June 2020].

Oliver. S., 2013. Beneath Adventure Time’S Weirdness Lies Surprising Emotional Complexity. [online] Available at: <https://tv.avclub.com/beneath-adventure-time-s-weirdness-lies-surprising-emot-1798241190> [Accessed 16 June 2020].

Ward, P., 2018. Adventure Time (TV Series) - Imdb. [online] IMDb. Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305826/> [Accessed 17 June 2020].

知乎. 2020. 如何评价《探险活宝》？. [online] Available at: <https://www.zhihu.com/question/24629378/answer/52087287> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Referral]: 2 Ruben Brandt Collector

Director Milorad Krsti gave up his career as a lawyer and moved to Hungary with his wife to embark on a career as an artist. His hometown is a source of inspiration for his stories, such as Ruben Brandt's Collector, about espionage and psychological experiments during the Cold War ( Polygon, 2019).

The animation shows a world between reality and fantasy. Through the narrative structure of the crime film, it tells a story with both comedy and spy warfare style, and explores the character's mental anxiety and psychological dilemma (纳森, 2019) . Therapeutic psychotherapist Ruben Brandt uses art to influence people's senses to help people suffering from psychological problems get treatment. However, as a therapist, he also suffered from serious psychological problems at the same time. He often dreamed that he was being hunted down by the characters in various masterpieces, which made him troubled and could not distinguish dreams and reality. In return for Ruben's help, the four character that  Ruben helped decided to work together to solve Ruben's psychological problems. Their plan steal the paintings that troubled Reuben, making him controlling his dreams. Then, the case of serial theft of artwork that shocks the whole world began at this point.

In some details, the artwork in the scene echoes the plot of the animation, or is closely related to the actual psychological state of the protagonist. And their themes all point to the same goal, either explicitly or implicitly: human subconscious and human itself (张如是, 2019). "Perhaps the world we are in is not the real world, just a bunch of images and language?" This is also the dilemma faced by Ruben in the animation. He has doubts about the world he is in. He suspects that he has always lived in a dream. The self-question of the character has evolved into self-negation and self-attack. The scars left on his body when he wakes up, it seems that the art work in his dream is attacking him, but actually he is attacking himself. When the human heart suffers major trauma and the self is unbearable, the self-defense mechanism will be activated to temporarily forget the painful memories and feelings (张如是, 2019). This is why at the end of the story, Ruben actually has two personalities, and these two personalities are his way of avoiding pain.

Just like most works which with the theme of "dream", Ruben Brandt Collector give audience with a hard question: Did Ruben conquer his nightmares with the help of others, or was it just a dream of his own? More importantly, through this animation about dreams, the director expresses how a tortured soul broke through the inner and outer cages, seeking truth and ego, and pursuing the freedom of the soul. 

This is an outstanding and memorable work with artistic heritage. The director paid tribute to the character design of Picasso and other painters, adding a lot of personal artistic features to the film. Unlike the templated CG animations of most commercial works, European animations are always more personal, and they always have a unique artistic style ( 纳森, 2019) . European directors are good at combining imagination and figurative scenes, using exaggerated and absurd expressions to pay attention to heavy practical problems, and have strong desires for self-reflection and expression. After we are tired of watching Hollywood-style CG animation, Ruben Brandt Collector clearly wins a round for unique artistic animation in Europe.

Reference:

纳森. 2019. 百无禁忌的策展游戏. [online] Available at: <https://movie.douban.com/review/12027515/> [Accessed 11 June 2020].

Polygon. 2019. How Ruben Brandt, Collector Turns Fine Art Into An Animated Heist Movie. [online] Available at: <https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/15/18102114/ruben-brandt-collector-animated-heist-movie> [Accessed 6 June 2020].

Krstic, M., 2018. Ruben Brandt, Collector (2018) - Imdb. [online] IMDb. Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6241872/> [Accessed 15 June 2020].

张如是. 2019. 你想要我成为的样子就是我的噩梦——万字深度解析《盗梦特攻队》. [online] Available at: <https://movie.douban.com/review/10180462/> [Accessed 12 June 2020].

知乎. 2019. 如何评价电影《盗梦特工队》？. [online] Available at: <https://www.zhihu.com/question/320938344/answer/664278751> [Accessed 14 June 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Referral]: 1 Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045

Today I am going to talk about the animation Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. The anime is based on the 1989 Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell. From the publication of comics to now, it has been produced into animation, film and other versions.

In the latest work, when Kusanagi Motoko reappears in the audience as a younger, more feminine and 3D image that is more in line with the current aesthetic, it immediately causes a lot of discussion (Genecov, 2020) . Kurland mentioned in the article, some viewers said it was very different from the original character setting, and some viewers said, times are changing, the heroine image has changed is natural, the appearance is not important. In my opinion the important thing is not body, is Ghost.

As a container for the soul, as well as a medium connecting the spiritual and material worlds, the artificial body undergoing technological transformation has always been the focus of the Ghost in the Shell series. The relationship between "artificial body" and "soul" has been the core proposition of this series of works. On this proposition, the latest version of animation can be said to have both inheritance and change. The work actually discusses the issue of human evolution. There is a rational concept behind it, that is, human beings may be imperfect to perfect.

Here, I will analyze the interpretation of "the relationship between body and soul" in the works by comparing the different body images shown by the characters in the old version and the new version, so as to understand the exploration and breakthrough in this proposition of the latest version of animation

In previous works, the character is always expressionless and devoid of human feelings. The character only controls her body through her consciousness like controlling a doll, and she always has a sense of alienation from it. She has always been deeply immersed in the question of what is the "true self". Character has thought but no human perception. Memory can also be rewritten as a program. She has always been puzzled about the problem of self (影视怪蜀黍, 2017) .

In the latest work SAC_2045, the creator plays down the incongruity between Kusanagi Motoko's mind and body. Instead of thinking about the "relationship between body and soul" through the heroine's artificial body, the author of the new work falls to Posthuman, the protagonist's opponent (影君子, 2017) .  However, there is an essential difference between the female lead and Posthuman's physical performance. The difference, I think, is in the relationship between the body and the mind 

For the character , it is difficult for human consciousness to break through the limitations of the body, but for Posthuman, physical strength does not matter. The power of the mind or the strength of the conviction is the lethal weapon. At this time, the thinking on the theme in the works has returned from the distant future fantasy to the reality familiar to the audience. This animation Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 inherits the essence of the old work, and also makes new interpretation and imagination on the key word "body". At the moment when the theme was sublimated to discuss human nature, the theme of the animation returned from the future science fiction to reality, based on the reality of the audience's life. 

Reference:

Genecov, M. 2020. Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 Is An Action-Heavy Sequel To A Once-Thoughtful Anime. [online] Polygon. Available at: <https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/24/21234779/ghost-in-the-shell-sac-2045-review-netflix> [Accessed 10 June 2020].

Kamiyama, K. and Aramaki, S., 2020. Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 | Netflix Official Site. [online] Netflix.com. Available at: <https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81030224> [Accessed 12 June 2020].

Kurland, D. 2020. Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 Ending Explained | Den Of Geek. [online] Den of Geek. Available at: <https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ghost-in-the-shell-sac-2045-ending-explained/> [Accessed 12 June 2020].

影君子. 2017. 《攻壳机动队》动画为何是神作？噩梦正变为现实. [online] Available at: <http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/f/2017-04-11/doc-ifyeceza2175846.shtml> [Accessed 19 June 2020].

影视怪蜀黍. 2017. “性玩偶”杀人事件，这才是真正的《攻壳机动队》. [online] Available at: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?src=3&timestamp=1593558056&ver=1&signature=cLhs4qRXPseJ0LR1gniBoBPz69*42y0dS3xlLPU61u65dP5QGP5bCAYv4mkBPGeSdvMTG6t6xNAs52TpDk3WuordAU1U3s76-Ldh0zQ5yvz5mzid*YURtGE8pqAvqb-boVIpuCqVIfcif3-sZdc4cEhQ*ObKfS4gphOeOY5X22s=> [Accessed 11 June 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 2: Music and copyright

I use material from free music websites for background music, so I don’t have to worry about copyright issues. When choosing music, the theme I chose is cheerful humor, because the animation theme is the typical Film Nior style with black humor. It's like a cat-and-mouse game composed of riots, restlessness, and drumming.

Reference:

eddy. 2018. Free Music Archive: Eddy - Pure Adrenaline. [online] Available at: <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_Damn_Loud/Pure_Adrenaline_mastered-with-CloudBounce> [Accessed 21 March 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 2: Problem about Plug-in

When I was making the animation, taking into account the software I chose and the action of the characters, I used the Adobe After Effects plug-in made by South Korean studio Moriscopy.

This plug-in can help me bind the character bones in the AFTER EFFECTS quickly, so that the character can move more conveniently.

Reference:

Moriscopy . 2020. Turnaround Character Animation Toolkit. [online] Available at: <https://videohive.net/item/360-turnaround-character-toolkit/22379360> [Accessed 25 February 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 2: Production Process

This plugin provides a standard chart of the character's body. I used this chart in Adobe Illustrator to design all angles of my character's body. In character design, I designed female thieves with red curly hair and black tight skirts, in order to conform to the image of the classic bad woman in FILM NIOR: sexy and full of wildness. In the design of male characters, because I define it as a clumsy detective, there will be a lot of exaggerated expressions.

Then I import this chart into AFTER EFFECTS, this plugin can help me directly use the angle of the character I designed in Adobe Illustrator when I rotate or move the character.

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 1: Production Process

When making this project, I still continued the software and methods I used before, and then explained the story in more depth. I will put more attention and focus on another animation, because that work has changed a lot.

[ma-2019-ziwei]

Developed Project 2: Light and Shadow

Reference:

Five, T. Boykin, B., 2012. A Cool Cat In Town (Feat. Brenda Boykin). [online] 网易云音乐. Available at: <https://music.163.com/#/song?id=863168933> [Accessed 10 January 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

Developed Project 1: Places of the Mind

Reference:

コーコーヤ . 2009. なぞなぞワルツ. [online] Available at: <https://music.163.com/#/song?id=27514104> [Accessed 9 January 2020].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 2: Creative Upgrade

Some people think that FILM NIOR is a fine art style of film. Some people think it refers to Hollywood detectives. It often features criminals, detectives, and police bandits as the main characters. The scenes mostly occur in cramped dark spaces. The clothing is mainly trench coats and hats, and the female characters are mostly femme fatale  

Part of PAPRIKA’s film shows how the heroine shuttles between dreams. The film interweaves the real world and dreams, making it impossible to distinguish between true and false.

Based on the above style, after discussing with Alex, I determined the script and shot script of the story. And I decided to continue using my original role, a detective and a femme fatale criminal. Focusing the main line of the story on their chase battle: the detective was in the cafe lounge and was awakened by the thieves, so the two began running and chasing. After the detective finally caught up with the thief, she took out a bomb and then threw it at the detective. The two men threw the bomb to each other, just like a game on the sports field. So I deliberately designed the bomb to have a circular shape, which was connected to the sports goods that appeared in the animation. When the football(bomb) was about to explode, the detective woke up and found that everything was a dream. But he immediately saw the figure of the thief again. This scene coincided with the beginning of the cartoon, which made one wonder whether this is reality or whether he is still in a dream.

Reference:

Film Riot. 2017. FILM NOIR: How To Get The Classic Black & White Style. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw42FUyh-hA> [Accessed 20 Dec 2019].

Kon. S, 2006. Paprika. [online] Available at: <https://reelgood.com/movie/paprika-2006> [Accessed 20 Dec 2019].

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 2: Advice from Alex

In the tutorial with Alex, he gave me a lot of suggestions about how animation shows dreams and reality, and how to blur the boundary between the two, so that the audience can't distinguish them. We have compiled a complete timeline.

[ma-2019-ziwei]

[Practice 1 Media] Developed Project 1: Creative Upgrade

When choosing a theme, my first decision was Places of the Mind, because I thought it was not only interesting but also meaningful. It metaphors a dilemma of people's thinking: your own ideas, even morals, are instilled in you by others. People are like commodities on the factory assembly line, be assembled with unified parts. But none of us can define whether this thing that is loaded on us is good or bad. Just like when we are talking about national issues or gender issues, we are born with different positions, and these different positions determine our thinking.

When I discussed with Alex, I explained that when I designed the storyline, I didn’t want to make it clear who made this idea to others, and I didn’t want to use a specific person to represent us. So I used a hand to refer to people who make and control people's thoughts and opinions, and use dogs to represent people who are implanted with thoughts.

This design also brings a very interesting point, In the dog's idea, the brown thing falling on the cone makes it look like a delicious chocolate ice cream. However, when the machine broke down, the brown things that fell on the ground looked like shit, and even a fly landed on it. Here I have a metaphor that dogs actually eat shit, but they can’t eat chocolate, so is that chocolate ice cream really ice cream? But perhaps it is precisely because the dog cannot eat chocolate, so he is imagining what the chocolate ice cream tastes like. And the flies will stay on the food too. The brown thing is good or bad is defined by the audience.

And I think the most significant point of this animation is that it even is a discussion that includes the audience. The audience's perception of what this brown object is, depends on their own "cone", which is their previous life concept and experience. People may come to different conclusions. In this respect, the dog in the animation even metaphorically the person who are watching this animation. But the "cones" in people's heads is good or bad? This is like the brown object, which cannot be defined.

[ma-2019-ziwei]

Annotated Bibliography (NEW)

The submitted documents are modified for the wrong order and Harvard referencing system. My analysis is written in this blog.

Brightwell, L. & Taylor, A. 2019, Why femme stories matter: Constructing femme theory through historical femme life writing, Journal of Lesbian Studies, pp. 1-18. [Accessed 26 Mar 2020]. The article focuses on the experiences of women in the second wave of feminism, and analyzes the status of women in the lesbian and feminist communities in women's history, how these dynamics affect current perceptions of homosexuality and women's politics, and how women resist their cultural and critical marginalization. Exploring the views of these authors raises the question of whether women can be theorized in a way that preserves their unique identity without demeaning other female themes. Finally, the authors redefined the female image as a kind of pornography and gender identity, believing that women have pornography and gender identity independent of their partners, and explored the scope of female sexual behavior. In this article, the author talks about the history of the development of women's theory and provides me with a variety of perspectives to examine the feminism mentioned in my research. The article also talks about the concept of sex for women, which is a bit different from the point of view of the author in the book I studied, probably because of the analysis of the two from different perspectives.

Dove-Viebahn, A. 2019, Queer eye for the housewife: Julianne Moore, radical femme-ininity, and destabilizing the suburban family, Journal of Lesbian Studies, pp. 1-16. [Accessed 20 Mar 2020]. The author focuses his analysis on the theory of female identity, femininity in heterosexual normative Spaces, and queer/lesbian, and focuses on the role of housewives. This paper USES the concept of "radical femininity" to express doubts about femininity, a political gesture that undermines normative expectations of gender. In particular, this article examines how the actress Julianne Moore embodies the housewife through a bizarre female persona that resembles and rejects social conventions. This paper reflects the author's research feelings on the role of social rebellion and how they will affect the society. In some ways the social rebel is more in tune with the role of the housewife. This article provides another perspective for my research, showing the stereotype of gender from the analysis of the housewife's image, thus achieving a breakthrough.

Garza, M., Akleman, E., Harris, S. & House, F. 2019, Emotional silence: Are emotive expressions of 3D animated female characters designed to fit stereotypes, Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 76, pp. 102252.  [Accessed 29 Mar 2020]. The motivation of this paper comes from the inconsistency between reality and animation in the depiction of female facial expressions. The study raises questions about whether the design aesthetics of female characters takes precedence over visual expression in animated films. The author believes that it is important to analyze the potential motivation of female characters to express emotions in 3D animation. In order to assess whether female characters and their emotional expressions are stereotypes, the author conducted content analysis on the depiction of female characters in animation, taking race and gender into account, and also observed that race still plays an important role in the creation, modeling and animation of female characters. 3D animation needs to pay more attention to how female characters express their emotions. AAlthough the purpose of this article is to evaluate three-dimensional animation, the author’s point of view also applies to the subject of my research. The stereotypes of female expressions exist in many animation works and  this is worth discussing.

Ivena, I., 2018. Marriage as A Reward for Disney Princesses. K@ta Kita, 6(2), pp.149-157. [Accessed 26 Mar 2020]. The study discusses the meaning of marriage in Disney cartoons. Snow White, Cinderella and aurora are the subjects of this analysis. Through analysis, the author found that the meaning of princess marriage is to reward them. They were seen to be able to endure all the suffering for this, but it was part of the so-called patriarchal process. After marriage became the standardization of women in a patriarchal society, the so-called commitment to women. According to the concept of patriarchy. Suffering is part of their journey to perfection. In order to be perfect, they must be kind, obedient, submissive, and self-critical. The author's point of view is from the side that Disney depicts the woman's duty to have to take care of her family at home and the family. Disney may also explain that women are obliged to marry. Its goal is to find the meaning of marriage for the princess in the animation and this is worth discussing. The ideas in this article correspond to those mentioned in my research. The author usually gives the protagonist marriage a perfect ending. Men win beauty and women win marriage. It demonstrates the stereotyped gender concept contained in these animated stories. I think this is also the stalemate of thought that animation works need to avoid, and while trying to avoid this stereotype about marriage, don't fall into another stereotype.

LaMarre, T. 2009, The anime machine: a media theory of animation, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minn;Bristol;. [Accessed 27 Mar 2020]. In this monograph, the author analyzes in detail the uniqueness of animation as a communication medium, which is different from other visual art forms by combining media studies, philosophy studies and cultural studies. In Japanese animation, the author finds a kind of original mechanical power, which runs through both animation and live-action film. It is the ability to realize artificial space through technical practice. This is a subtle and imaginative book that inspires even more thought. Animation machine provides theoretical support for us to investigate the diversity of animation from the perspective of moving image. It suggests that we should start from the way of image synthesis to re-explain the reason why animation is of the same origin and different flow, to examine whether the guidance of animation works to the potential of moving images is more animated or cinematic, or to find a delicate and unique balance between the two tendencies. Not only that, this kind of synthesis also contains a variety of technical views, aesthetic views and world views. Through the animation machine, we even have the opportunity to explore these intertwined concepts and philosophical thinking, to discover and envision the positive meaning of animation to the world. Overall, the story of the jewel girl studied by the author has its own unique meaning. It links the gender asymmetry to the relationship between people and technology, matching technology to gender. It gives me the space to ask questions and the freedom to explore, and it also enriches my perspective of thinking about gender issues in my later study.

Lee, C.S. & Choi, J. 2018, Early Childhood and Media Representation: How does South Korean Animation Pororo the Little Penguin Reproduce Patriarchal Family Ideology?, Animation, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 116-130. [Accessed 30 Mar 2020]. Media plays an important role in children's socialization in learning social roles, values and ideals. The article examines parents' perceptions of young children and adult expectations in South Korea. The importance of parental modeling is revealed by assigning and locating adult and child roles in typical patriarchy Korean families and suggesting that children learn from other family members through observation and imitation. By observing the changes of the characters in the series and investigating the characters, one can gain a deeper understanding of their social significance. In addition, the study shows that the actual acceptance and interaction of the audience is crucial, and that adults' attention to the influence of television on young children has led to the development trend of educational programs. This article mentions the impact that animation may have on children, and this influence may even form their gender perception. But I think this kind of influence not only exists on children, it may even affect their parents, or cause confusion to parents. In addition, nowadays animation works not only affect children, but also affect adults' views on race and gender.

Valjakka, M. 2019, Worlding through gendering: Female agency, artistic practices and spatio-aesthetic dynamics in and for cities, City, Culture and Society, vol. 19, pp. 100283. [Accessed 29 Mar 2020]. The aim of this paper is to study the emerging practice of cosmopolitanism by shifting the focus to contemporary graffiti, street art and the various forms of female representation that take place in murals. Women are underrepresented in existing subculture and contemporary art scholarship, and while contemporary graffiti is primarily considered a masculine field, the diverse representation of street art and murals is increasingly accepted by women for participation and self-expression. Female protagonists are also contributing to the new world through aesthetic strategies and female agency forms. Contemporary graffiti, street art and murals feature more diverse forms of female representation than previously acknowledged. The active forms of female agency in various urban art practices are developing towards reconfiguration. This paper aims to encourage interdisciplinary readers to redefine the concepts and boundaries related to the urban environment through artistic practice, as well as how women reshape new aesthetics and conduct artistic creation. In this article, the author writes that women will bring different perspectives and concepts to the world, and I agree. Due to physiological problems, the amount of hormones secreted in the brains of women and men is also different, which can lead to different opinions. I think this is a good point. If people of different genders can analyze the problem from the same point of view, it will bring about changes to the world as the author said.

van Rooij, M. 2019, Carefully Constructed Yet Curiously Real: How Major American Animation Studios Generate Empathy Through a Shared Style of Character Design, Animation, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 191-206. [Accessed 26 Mar 2020]. This paper suggests that the computer-animated characters of the leading us animation studios, Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, are designed according to successful formulas, achieving optimum fidelity and abstraction, and achieving the highest level of audience empathy. This paper Stephen Prince "sense of realism," Scott McCloud "to enlarge" by simplified model and Mori, the Valley of "crazy" (the Uncanny Valley) theory and other academic works, will argue that share a character design style - is defined as a lifelike paradox of sexual union. These studios use digital devices, virtual cameras and perceptual cues to create a real three-dimensional world, and these expressive characters seem to be more acceptable to the audience, evoking empathy and expanding meaning. I think the point in the article about the empathy effect that animated characters will bring to the audience also explains why the stereotypes about gender and race in the animation work will affect the audience, which is helpful for my research.

Sales, K.L. 2019, Subversive Masculinity in Children's Animation: Hey Arnold, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Loud House, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. [Accessed 20 Mar 2020] The aim of this study was to analyze the representation of subversive masculinity. The study had few limitations. The environment in which the characters grow and interact is indicative. Many existing studies on gender in animation media focus on women. Studies of masculinity are usually limited to discussions of negative male behavior, where masculinity is classified as the focus of debate rather than the basis of research. The study ditched the female-themed argument and used an all-male analysis, with men coming up with the results. This paper studies the behavior of each character and concludes that the environment in which the character grows and interacts is indicative. In my opinion, because the article only studies one gender, the kind of triggering it may not be comprehensive enough, we need to look at it dialectically. But it also provides a meaningful idea that the character's story background may affect the character's character, which is a very useful conclusion for me as an animator.

Zhao, Z. 2019, Live Emoji: Semantic Emotional Expressiveness of 2D Live Animation. [Accessed 20 Mar 2020] This paper discusses 2D real-time animation of emotion expression. The author discusses the need to enhance the emotional communication experience animation in life as an extension of interpersonal communication. Research suggests using models to bind behaviors that trigger emotions, actions, semantics, psychometrics, and emotional expression. Based on the model, the author designs and implements a real-time animation system, and proposes an emotional command recommendation algorithm. As a new form of narration, real-time animation opens up the possibility of online communication through the control network. Emotional expression can bring more participatory experience to the audience. This article also mentioned about the empathy ability that animated characters can bring to the audience. The difference is that it is analyzed from the method of making animation, which provides me with technical guidance and analysis.