#Ardman Animation

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Chicken Run

Ironic that I'm reviewing this on like the same day the sequel comes out huh? Unfortunately, that one isn't being released by Dreamworks, so its not on my list but maybe I'll give it a watch on its own at some point. Anyway onto the actual movie itself!

I liked it! I remember seeing it as a kid in school and being terrified by the vibes and just how dark it was. As an adult though, I appreciate it a lot more. Ardman''s style isn't really my cup of tea (get it, bc british) but I still recognize the hard work that goes into any stop motion production. While the character designs in this are uhhhhhh kinda fugly, they way they're animated is enough to get me to look past it.

The plot and characters also help a lot! Ginger is our lead here, and she's great; stubborn and determined to help her fellow chickens escape and she doesn't put up from any bull from Rocky, the american cock (i mean he is) who crash lands on their farm and promises to "teach" them how to fly so they can escape from the crazy ass Mrs. Tweedy. Rocky is a lot of fun, very sassy as per the usual for Dreamworks protags and he goes through a decent arc in which he comes to genuinely care for Ginger and the other chickens.

Mrs. Tweedy is delightfully insane in a wicked girlboss sort of way, probably one of Dreamworks most underrated villains. She's just this looming, threatening presence hanging over all of the chickens' heads throughout the entire film, she's great. The other characters are also really fun (i love the old rooster who overtly hates Americans, man same here (I say, as an american)) I think my favorite is Babs. Her flighty, out there, just completely detatched from reality remarks had me cracking up throughout the film.

The music is pretty good, very fitting for the "army escape" vibes the film is trying to get across overall and the set pieces are genuinely impressive given the scale they were likely built at. There's a lot of really nice little details scattered throughout that make this movie's world just feel alive, ya know?

The plot itself is pretty simple, as stated above, with a few cliches like the liar revealed and said liar returning to redeem himself in the 11th hour, but I honestly don't mind them too much. I think, as a whole, Chicken Run is a fun little movie that is very well made, though I doubt I'd say its one of my favorites Dreamworks has ever made. Even so, it's pretty good. I recommend it.

Also, it made me really hungry for Chicken Pot Pies so uhhhh yeah.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Verdict: Enjoy a Delicious Mrs. Tweedy's Chicken Pie, you filthy fucking Yank

Previous Review (Road to El Dorado)

Next Review (Shrek)

[bebyebeeh]

they get together weekly to watch movies and annotate books because they're besties!!!

(also who do you guys think has each calico critter?)

[connorsnothereeither]

You don’t understand how much I desperately need fanart of Rune but as the most Wallace and Gromit looking, Ardman-Animation-Style mother fucker imaginable

This man can’t get away with going “ooh louveleh” and not expect me to imagine him doing this when he gets excited

[rstilgoefilmfestivals2023]

Creating my own film festival idea:

When creating a film festival of your own it is important to consider the four P’s, these are, programme, place, price and promotion. With these this in mind I came up with the idea of The Brighton film festival of animation.

This would be a film and experience festival held in Brighton at venues such as the Duke of York cinema, Duke’s at Komedia, The Brighton toy and Model Museum and The Brighton dome. It would be held in late spring so that it's not too cold but also not too busy with tourists in Brighton. The festival would have showings of short and full-length animated films made by any who want to enter their films in and some more well-known animation such as Ardman’s stop motion and dreamworks CGI. There would also be exhibitions of the processes of the creation of these films and of the progression of animation technology throughout history. There could even be small masterclasses where for an alternate ticket price you could learn how to do a simple animation of some sort from a professional animator.

Given that children like animation there would be family tickets available to make it easier for people to bring their kids along and have a nice day out within Brighton whilst learning about and viewing animated films.

The festival could also be sponsored by local businesses and provide support for them in the process. Whilst this may be difficult to execute due to times and money, I think it would be fun to see happen. 

[josephfebin]

Forefront 8: Robin Robin (2021) How magic can be done frame by frame !

I notice this film from the Oscar nomination list. And I found this was from the house of makers of ‘Shaun the sheep’ and ‘chicken run’ movies, the ardman studios. They're famous for the wonderful stop motion animations. After going through the interviews of directors and some behind the scenes videos I found while making of this video they tried to introduce or implement new technology to redefine or expand the boundaries of this special craft. The relation with the technology fuelled up stop motion into a new realm. Previously that was not obtained for anyone else, by this film they achieved a great extent. It is directed by two young directors Michael Please and Dan Ojari. Feasting with the authentic quality in handcrafted animation guaranteed visual treat is this film by Ardman studio. ‘Robin Robin’ achieved freshness of new textures and visual effects by this handcrafting techniques. The way they achieve this qualities it's mainly by capturing most of the effects or all of the effects by stop motion other than depending on CGI.

the production duration was two years, and they made the quality for the film up to the best level by this comparatively hi higher production duration. By the words of both directors, I got inspired how much effort we need to give for the pre-production stage because for an animation especially for a stop motion animation the retakes takes much effort ask it's too complicated to reshoot all the action. Considering all these facts they spend more time on pre-production stage. In my practise, working behind story, animatics, storyboard and finalising everything and then moving on to next stage was in inspired by this. A year of rigorous preparation and pre-production pave the way for the generation of wonderfully planned and executed film. While working on the initial stages play keep producing off animatics storyboard they planned creation of colour script for the entire film that resembles the mood and situations in the field film they created thumbnails of colour themes before going into production list tells or this explains me how colouring off each scene affects the mood of the character or what exactly conveying through frames.

Bibliography

www.netflix.com. (2021). Watch Robin Robin | Netflix Official Site. [online] Available at: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81058433?s=i&trkid=258593161&vlang=en&clip=81340190 [Accessed 25 Aug. 2023].

www.youtube.com. (2022a). How Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman | WIRED. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZvQzkFcKEM.

www.youtube.com. (2022b). Robin Robin | Official Trailer. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHvKG4PmFQ [Accessed 25 Aug. 2023].

www.youtube.com. (2022c). Transforming Gillian Anderson Into The Purrfect Villain | Robin Robin | Netflix. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGiMiiiIe-Y&t=105s [Accessed 25 Aug. 2023].

[aretrothing]

What's your favourite wallace and gromit film?

hmmmmm...i haven't watched Wallace and gromit for years (though i'm from close to where the animation was made).

i remember that the one with the sort of sentient trousers scared the crap out of me when i was small, and thinking about it Wallace and Gromit brings back a lot of childhood TV fear. I think it creeped me out a lot as a little kid.

speaking of ardman tho i loved Shaun the Sheep at about the same age so it's not like i didn't like anything they did

[simplyrobotix]

Chrismahanukwanzakah 1.3

Santa's clumsy grandson, Arthur gets put on a mission with St. Nick's father to give out a present they misplaced to a young girl in less than 2 hours. Today we're talking about 2011's Arthur Christmas!

* Correction* I did not watch this on Amazon Prime but through Freeform using my cable provider login info. 

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tk-WZSqIGQ

-----

#Simplyrobotixpod

Twitter / Instagram @Simplyrobotix

Simplyrobotix.com

[whydotheycallmedarren]

Fucking stop motion tho

Fucking

Stop

Motion

Tho

[the-strawbebbie-theif]

undefined

This part of Wallace and Gromit is very fucked up lmao

[lilybugmusings]

Animation is for Everyone

Not just for toddlers

Not just for kids

Not just for teens

Not just for adults 

EVERYONE 

Its an ART FORM

Also Let people enjoy things

Have a good day My bunnies

[its-a-gemfact]

I actually really like the ardman-like animation that Pixar have been doing lately. The luca and turning red character models are actually awesome. I'm sick of seeing hyper-realistic animated characters but also they have anime proportions and just, massive fucking eyes.

[smallandinnocent]

Anyone remember Morph?

I had old vhs videos of him as a child and watched him over and over again 

[toadcircus]

apol

[thepeoplesmovies]

Shaun The Sheep Sends Wool To Outer Space In Fun Short

Shaun The Sheep Sends Wool To Outer Space In Fun Short

Shaun the Sheep sends wool to outer space with world-famous Aardman Animations in a unique short film to showcase the super natural benefits of wool. When Shaun’s new friend LU-LA lands on earth after a chilly journey through space, Shaun and the flock help her warm-up using their very own wool!

Check out the short now…

To support the campaign, The Woolmark Companyhas developed an educational…

[robbiejohnsonyr3ax3021]

AX2001 - University - Practice Research Project - Final Post and Harvard Referencing

This will be my final blog post about my practice research project, as the project is now complete and both my house and poster have been completed. This final post will include everything I have used throughout this project, from websites to videos and some image sources too. These references will be done via Harvard referencing to the best of my ability/ knowledge.

Belgrade Theatre Coventry

Belgrade Theatre Coventry (2021) WEBEDUCATION: Creating a set model box. Available at: https://www.belgrade.co.uk/stories/weducation-creating-a-set-model-box/ (Accessed: 24 November 2021).

 Adam Savage’s Tested: “Designing the Sets of Ardman Animation’s Early Man!”

Adam Savages Tested (2018) Designing the Sets of Aardman Animation’s Early Man! 13 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBdOPgsfdGA (Accessed 17 November 2021).

 Sydney Opera House: Behind the Scenes Episode 4: Set Design Model Box | Emil and the Detectives

Sydney Opera House (2020) Behind the Scenes Episode 4: Set Design Model Box | Emil and the Detectives. 10 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC7IDv5PQeg (Accessed: 18 November 2021).

 Humpty Dumpty’s Circus

Stop motion animation (ND) Available at: http://dataphys.org/list/stop-motion-animation/ (Accessed: 12 November 2021).

Mom Hid My game images

Kemco Games (2016) Mom Hid My Game. Available at: https://www.kemco-games.com/global/games/mom/index.html#mom1 (Accessed 4 November 2021).

 Animateclay.com

Stop Motion Magic (2021) Stop Motion News. Available at: https://www.animateclay.com/index.php/world-news (Accessed 18 November 2021).

 Cicada Princess

steve Ferrera (2017) Cicada Princess – Full video. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7golY39Mps0 (Accessed 15 November 2021).

 Stop Motion Animation Set Building – Cicada Princess

steve ferrera (2018) Stop Motion Animation Set Building – Cicada Princess. 12 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpV6iEYnuxU (Accessed 16 November 2021).

 Warmth Project Set reflection

Robbie Johnson (2019) Warmth (2019 winter project). 19 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRO0_OxVTdw (Accessed 14 November 2021).

 Doctor Lev set design time lapse

TOM & HANI Animation (2019) Making Doctor Lev – Building a stop motion set. 3 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofOoqIZaYk8 (Accessed 12 November 2021).

 Building construction of a house prop time lapse

­Carr Builds (2017) Building Construction – Stop Motion Set. 3 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNiuSUuIQlk (Accessed 21 November 2021).

 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) clip

fims411 (2017) Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) clip. 25 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmEUiHk_Uu8 (Accessed 4 December 2021).

 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by CBS featuring the Hall set

CBS (2011) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 6 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87fsP5B05k (Accessed 4 December 2021).

 Isle of Dogs Trailer

SearchlightPictures (2017) ISLE OF DOGS | OFFICIAL TRAILER | FOX Searchlight. 21 September. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt__kig8PVU (Accessed 30 November 2021).

 How Wes Anderson Makes His Animated Movies

Insider (2018) How Wes Anderson Makes His Animated Movies | Movies Insider. 23 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzibT_SjeoM (Accessed 28 December 2021).

 Theatre image link

Wikipedia (2021) Theatre (Structure). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_(structure) (Accessed 23 November 2021).

[leadershihyun]

Hi Lena! This is a 'spare' Tumblr account that I tend to use for 'here's a link to something that will show you better' purposes, but like I said I wanted to offer you the insights I have that come to mind for this project

a good thing to try and establish early is the frame rate - I would go with cinema-standard 24 frames per second - and where you prefer the frames to fall. Animating "on ones" (one unique image every frame) produces a very Disney-style 'true to life', where as animating "on twos"/"on threes"/"on fours" has that slightly more 'choppy' style that evokes a more nostalgic visual of things like the early Ardman work, in the way that newer films like Isle of Dogs does. This definitely isn't a template that has to be constantly stuck to throughout the video, but it's an important aspect of what you'll want to achieve with the animation; this video is a great look at how that choice contributes to the 'feel' of stop-motion animation.

I think the best thing to then do is to work out what your "I want the character to X" frames are and where you want to put them in relation to the song. Even if you only had four "beats" and didn't have particular places you wanted to place them in relation to the some, if you knew that you wanted them about evenly spaced from each other in the video then placing those "beats" with blank frames in between is both possible when you know what frame rate you're working and with gives you a less overwhelming starting place. A really great free tool to use for this is Storyboarder, which you have to opt in to the email list of the studio who makes it in order to download, which has a "shot generator" of pre-made 3D figures to help create or use instead of full drawings for this rough outline.

(two heads up about Storyboarder are 1) that it asks you to create a file before using the program in order to impliment their autosave functionality, but many security programs automatically block apps trying to tamper with your files; with mine, a window came up after the error asking if I wanted to allow the app to alter my files, which I selected and then restarted the program, and 2) the first time you open it you get a bunch of these pop-ups at the bottom right corner of the screen over an area you need to use and it's not super clear how to get rid of them - just click on them to clear them)

a next stage is to get your 'animation sketch' to the 'level' of an animatic - most of the animatic I have a point of reference for are fanart for a podcast of a family playing DnD, which is the kind of thing where you're either like oh yeah of course or it sounds wildly niche haha, but the two that are at top of mind for animatics that 'feel more animation-y' are this one and this one. Tumblr isn't letting me add images to post right now so I can't show more directly,