alternativeapprches-blog

[alternativeapprches-blog]

Synopsis

I thought researching into all these different types of animations was really good practice. It allowed me to realise that animation is not just for commercial gain and the planning process can be as random as drawing 1 second of animation for a year, or capturing the mood of a event, or recording it all in one sitting with very little editing.

This aspect of research allowed me to widen my arsenal of animation and got me interested in attempting things that aren't just for commercial gain.  

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Susan Young - Carnival

Susan Young is an animator and artist based in London. While studying graphic design at Liverpool Polytechnic Young was introduced to the idea that animation could be an extension of drawing into time and space, a vehicle for the expression of personal thoughts and emotions, and a medium for political commentary. Inspired by this, Young made Thin Blue Lines, a film that describes the Liverpool 8 uprising of 1981 from a semi-documentary, observational perspective.

I have known about Young’s work since my first year being introduced to her work by Sandra Salter. I have chosen to write about her because of her Carnival animation and they was the plays around with movement an colour.

I feel like very little planning would have went into this animation and she played a lot with the excitement and atmosphere of carnival. Obviously Young would have had to research into the antics that take place during carnival and would have to capture that in her work.

The colours used are really striking and eye catching and the flow of the animation is really interesting, however the thing that puts me off this animation is the music. I find the music really grating and almost painful to listen too which is a shame because it takes a lot away from how interesting the actual animation is.

I feel like Young has animated this with the sole intention of capturing the mood and atmosphere of the thing rather than trying to tell a story, and that is something that is lacking in that of commercial animation.  

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Serene Teh - Parkour Motion Reel

Another aspect of animation that requires extensive planning is this 48 second short by Serene Teh. It follows a man around a city doing parkour, but what is interesting about it is that it is all live. I feel the planning for this animation would have taken longer than the actual animation itself. 

I think that part of Teh’s planning would have gone into some location scouting, and also a lot of research into parkour movements just to see how a person would move around a city such as this.

The animation takes on a flip book like style and the artist animates it by turning certain aspects of illustration to move the figure around the page, but rather than doing this in an almost stop motion kind of way Teh records her movements with very little editing. Obviously the music was added in later but it adds a real mood to the animation rather than it just being a figure moving about a “city”.

Teh has done this type animation before by showing scenes from the movie ‘Alien’ and I just think her art style and choice of animation style is very quirky and interesting. It is something I would like to potentially attempt during my free time. 

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BLU - MUTO

Blu is an Italian street artist that currently lives in Bologna, Italy. He started painting in a capital of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna Region and has been involved in the street art scene since 1999.

His works can be seen through the world and his style is easily recognizable. They are known to be “epic scale murals.” Blu prefers to paint his works around the urban and industrial landscape.

Like most street artists, Blu began painting graffiti with spray paint. He quickly gained recognition and fame by painting a graffiti series in the suburbs of Bologna. Over the next few years into the early 2000s, Blu’s graffiti style transformed thanks to his growing use of house paint.

He began to experiment with paint rollers and telescopic sticks. Not only was his graffiti art much larger, but his art conveyed a much more dramatic appearance. He quickly began to create huge human figures that were often sarcastic in appearance and resembled comic and video game art.

The idea behind this style of animation is really interesting to me because of the planning that must have gone into it to make it. BLU must have had to take a lot of different aspects into account before attempting this project such as, weather, location, and what exactly he would be drawing on location.

I would assume a lot of editing would have gone into this piece as it almost looks like stop motion, so he must have had to get his photographs together before adding sound to it. The audio for this animation is really interesting and is timed really well with the animation itself.

Location planned clearly played a big part in the creating of this animation, BLU would have had to figure out exactly where his scenes would play out and take into consideration the sizing of his work in comparison to the building it would be painted on.

What I really like about this piece that although we can see his working playing out via video, the illustrations themselves are probably long gone.

I think out of all the pieces I have looked at so far this one stands out the most mainly because of the different approach to planning the artist would have had to make in this instance. 

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Karolina Sobecka - Sniff

Karolina Sobecka is an interdisciplinary artist and designer. Her recent projects focus on climate engineering as a way of investigating the values that drive technological innovation, and shape the philosophy that inscribes humans in nature.

Karolina’s work has been shown internationally, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum, MOMA Film, National Art Museum of China, ZKM, Zero1, ISEA, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Marfa Dialogues and Science Gallery. She has received multiple awards and commissions including from the Creative Capital, New Museum, Rhizome, NYFA, Eyebeam, Queens Museum, Princess Grace Foundation, and Vida Art and Artificial Life Awards.

Sniff is an interactive projection in a storefront window. As the viewer walks by the projection a dog follows him, dynamically responds to his gestures and changes his behaviour based on the state of engagement with the viewer.

Software development for Sniff was led James George.

Sniff production was supported by a Finishing Funds grant from the Experimental Television Centre. The Experimental Television Centre’s Finishing Funds program is supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts.

The project was an exploration of how much we attune to each other when we interact, how much we are formed in the interaction, embodying both minds.

There is not much to this animation illustrative wise however it is an interesting concept that gets the public involved. I am not sure exactly how this type of animation works, I would assume it uses a form of motion tracking the follows and scans the person interacting with the animation. 

Although this is a different type of animation and it isn’t approached in a commercial way I still think a lot of planning would have had to go into this, Sobecka would have had to take into account the dogs reactions depending on how much it was interacted with, how it followed the public, and how it reacted depending on the publics reaction.

Again I think this is an interesting concept but I feel like to doesn’t have the freedom that 365 had and I think the looses its quality somehow.

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Brothers Mcleod - 365

The Brothers McLeod are Illustrator-animator Greg and screenwriter Myles. They are known for their animations created for TV, short film, games and the web. They have developed, written and directed series for BBC including Pedro and Frankensheep, Sticks, Bitesize History of Maths and Quiff and Boot. They created and produced the Webby Award winning Art Sparks for Tate Kids. They have also written scripts for a range of other production companies: Jungle Junction, Octonauts, Noddy in Toyland, Gaspard and Lisa, Harry and Toto, Frankenstein’s Cat, The Hive as well as for Wii/PlayStation games SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis, iCarly, Tak and the Guardians of Gross. They have directed TV commercial campaigns for Skittles, Stena Line and Guinness amongst others. In early 2009, they were nominated for a BAFTA Film Award in the Short Animation category for their film Codswallop. In late 2009, they were nominated for two BAFTA Children's Awards for their work with the Tate. In 2011, they won a BAFTA for their work with BBC Learning.

The main aspect of their work I am going to be concentrating on is 365 created by illustrator-animator Greg. 365 is based from Greg’s life 365 days of the year, he created 1 second of animation based on aspects of his life be it reading something, something that happens in his life, or something on tv etc.

I really like the art style of 365 I like how you can see the illustration lines moving as the animation goes on, and the colours really work with the black lines. Although the colours are quite pale in comparison to other types of digital animation it really stands out, however I do think for how short each scene is they sort of blend in to each other and it is hard to make out what is happening. 

Although it is hard to make out each seen I feel like that was Greg’s intention, I feel like he wanted it to be as quick as it is because people would go back and rewatch to make out what was happening.

What I really like about this animation is the fact that no planning went into it, unlike that of a commercial animation Greg has to rely solely on aspects of his every day life and world events.

This is a really interesting way of approaching animation and it is interesting to see how you can make 6+ minuets of animation just by animating 1 second of your life for a whole year.  

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What is Alternative Animation?

Alternative Animation is a concept that allows you to approach the way we animate, it is a more free and expressive way of animating rather than it being commercialised. Alternative Animation to be is creating something for you as a piece of art rather than something to be pitched and picked a part.

For this part of the module I will be researching and commenting on different types of alternative animations I have found, I will be commenting on the process and background of the pieces and wether or not I find them to be successful and interesting.

Some of the art/artists I have found include:

Brothers Mcleod - 365

Karolina Sobecka

OneDotZero

BLU - Muto

Serene Teh

Susan Young - Carnival