Geefwee Boedone's Let's Pollute was the winner of this years animation showcase at the Big Muddy film festival. It was a satirical piece on Americas history of over-consumption and pollution; right from the advent of the machine age to modern corporate mis-cues. The wit is undeniable and the animation is comical--all is hard to not laugh at.
The animation style in Let's Pollute was very simple line drawings. The characters movements flowed well, but I did wonder how the background was done. The characters were seemingly separated from their surroundings. It seemed like it was pictures all from different pieces of paper, which were then put into a sort of collage. It was colorful and fun; a lot of work I'm sure.
Finally, for my project a fellow student and I are re-making a scene from the film The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998). The scene is going to be the one which they fight the Nialists in the bowling ally parking lot. I think we are set to do a stop motion with lego's, but I want to create a really good background. If anybody has any good mini-set suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sand animation...

Last week we viewed an animation which was done entirely with ink on layered board, very cool indeed. I also enjoyed the silhouette Prince Achmed from the week before. These things got me thinking of the power of light to project images and create beautiful landscapes. Then I remembered some videos I ran across about a year ago, sand paintings.
They were amazing, and there are a bunch of videos posted on line of them, here is just one example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo. You can find many, many more.
These videos are a ton of fun to watch, it's amazing to see how well some people can manipulate the sand to any picture they want. However, I have never seen a frame to frame stop motion with this medium. Why not? Is the sand too hard to keep in place? That seems to be the best reason I can come up with. I would really like to see a short animated piece using sand art. Does anybody else think one would be doable? A block animation seems like it would be easier, but this just seems more appealing.

Narrative Imagery

There is so much that can be done with Animation. Stories are not limited to what a camera can record, but rather to what a person can imagine. The author talks briefly about the use of metamorphosis in animation; I immediately think of Fantasia (Disney, 1940). My favorite scene was the one with the walking brooms. The meaning portrayed in that scene is unmistakable; and impossible in real life. The best aspect of metamorphosis is the ability of the creator to derive non-verbal meaning from an unreal occurrence. Personification is my favorite means to create non-verbal meaning. After all, inanimate objects take up most of the world we live in.
The author also touches on how transitions and time lapse differ from any other medium. The creator can visually take the consumer into any time frame they see fit; they can pass time in seamless manners. The authors key examples center around disappearing/reappearing characters as well as a story in which time passes by giant leaps (in which you can see everything changing). However, going back to old cartoons, I enjoyed his simple example of a page being turned by an imaginary (or cartoon) hand. I can remember this from my early days of cartoons, and most particularly on Fractured Fairy Tales, a segment of the Bullwinkle Show (1961-1964). Since the stories were old folk tales, altered slightly, they would pass the time in the story by having the "narrator" turn a page.
The author also talks about how metaphores play a powerful role in animated imagery. While this is true, it is hard for any artist to portray exactly what he or she want the viewer to gather. Only with careful planning can will an audience truly understand the aims of the creator. This is because everybody interprets things differently; some may see the comic as a satire on government intervention while others see it as a commentary on social stratification. Messages are very hard to portray in any medium, even in an art as free as animation.