Carrot and Stick.
This hilarious animation is named Carrot and Stick, simple and straight to the point about what this animation includes, was created by Joel Trussel. The animation starts off with Stick, a literal stick who appears to be sharpening his fingers when his friend Carrot walks in. It is clear straight away from something as simple as their facial expressions that carrot appears to be the care-free and idiotic one of the pair, whereas the Stick is the more uptight, and seems to be constantly angry. The story follows the stick, who wants to stand up for Carrot after he had a chunk taken out of him via the family dog, Rosie. The film is simply comedy genius, showing a vast amount of slapstick humour and although it would appear that Stick intends to save the day, the ending is very anti-climactic and ends up with Stick being bandaged up.
I think this animation relates well to me storyline of my animation, simply because of the unexpected ending, and how un-heroic the Stick turned out to be. The animation techniques are so clever as well, simply because of the fact it is filmed in live action and then using something as simple as Photoshop or After Effects, the need for things such as detail or making sure the characters frames are all the same size are not needed! This reminds me a lot of a mock up version of Jackie Chan which used to be on fox kids, where it was named Jackie Chain ( a plug) who fights a long side his trusted friend Brush Lee (a toilet brush.)
Haribo.
"Haribo," is another animation created by Bruno Mayor. This style of animation is something I've never seen before, neither has it crossed my mind that animation could be created this way.The video depicts a strange man sitting on a bed or chair, discussing his vast addiction to caffeine, there isn't much sense to this animation, as another strange man bursts through the door, exclaiming that he must wake up, and then proceeds to blow fire out of his mouth and everything then blows up......
There are a few ways I think this animation could have been created, either digitally or physically; Digitally this would be created probably through the means of something similar, if not, cinema 4D, where the shapes and colours would be put together on a computer, with camera angles being added . Physically, this could have been made using stop motion, where the fluorescent lights have been altered and created just for this purpose, then using photography, a field that mayor seems to specialise in, the images would be put together using animation software. Stop motion would also explain the slightly blurred lines, created when the characters are speaking and moving rather fast. I like this animation mainly for its lack of sense, there isn't really much of a storyline, and the length of the video means that it has ended pretty much before the viewer has any chance to take in what has happened. This is a very clever idea when it comes to things such as animations, as views are what makes it successful, so multiple viewers clicking the animation over and over again to try and make some sort of sense of it is a great way to achieve exposure and a video almost "Viral."
Art.
This GIF, or loop cycle animation has been created by Saiman Chow. I was drawn to this piece in particular because of the style it was done in, It differs from the rest of the animations I have researched because of the fact it looks thoroughly sketchy and hand drawn.This image only lasts for a few seconds, but it is very clear to make out what happens during those few seconds. The face of a man, presumed to be Siaman himself? slowly starts to deteriorate and eventually turns into a skull, and for some reason I get a glimpse of the diamond skull associated with Damien Hirst.
It also focuses on the aspect of deterioration, an aspect which is highly relevant to my project at the moment. There is constant movement in the loop, so t is easy to pass off any irregularities as part of the animation, which is a simple but effective aspect to use. I love how the film is rather gritty, but still moves in a flowing motion and doesn't have any particular jump or skips in the sequence. Chow also manages to cross realism with fantasy, as he is able to make parts of the face vanish, instead of dropping off or crumbling away, this applies mostly to the glasses on his and ears, which i think works rather well. However, if I were to criticize the animation in anyway, the only change i would make, personally, would be to make the image have more gore like features as the face slowly vanishes into the skull, particularly from the nose and eyes.
Joey.
Here is another animation that has been created by Fluorescent Hill, Joey. The thing that caught my eye straight away about this animation begins right at the very start, where a detailed and delicate header is drawn out in a real time effect, which looks simply amazing. It also adds a sense of age and tradition to the story even though it is not yet known what it's about. I chose this piece because it is the complete opposite of "Spacious Thoughts," in many different ways. To start with, it would appear that this animation has been created in either 2D or 2.5D, a big change from full 3D that Spacious Thoughts was developed in. The main element of this animation appears to be rotoscoping (possibly traditionally or digitally done) and has a sepia tone running through it, which makes the film look classic, or vintage. There also seems to be a lens glare in the middle of the screen, which also adds a home-video kind of effect to the film as well. The storyline of this animation is rather strange as it begins with a stop motion piece of an old storybook opening into the beginning of the song. It shows a fox and a crow, in the wild, begin to fight and it results in the crow begin decapitated with smaller crows flying out of its throat. It then flashes onto a fox trying to fit into everyday society, with crows replacing humans, I find this quite odd but entertaining at the same time, the video looks as though it should be more gruesome and grotesque than it is, and gives a tingly and shivery sensation, which appears to be heightened by the creepy indie music that its playing along to.
Fluorescent Hill.
Spacious Thoughts.
Spacious Thoughts is a music video created by the animation company, Fluorescent Hill. The video follows around a small, onion like figure who floats and flies through a grungy, but colourful looking city. As he does this, he is also singing/rapping along to the song which the music video has been created for. The Creature itself is in full 3D effect, which is also the way in which it has been created, either in cinema 4D or a program like it. Whereas the city that it is flying around has also been made in 3D, but has been cast as an overlay layer, so that all of the pieces of the city are semi transparent and overlap each other well. The video then looks as though it has been edited in Flash, as the random display of colour splashes all over the city create a great effect as they follow the main character on his journey. There is also an element of pure 2D animation in this video as well, as 3D. The main character occasionally bursts into a puff of smoke, which seems to resemble pollution that spreads throughout the city, who sings the chorus of the song throughout the video. I feel as though this element makes the video seem a lot more dynamic and less serious at the same time, because of it being 3D and more cartoon like. I was drawn to this video because of the imagery and wide variety of colours, even though the majority of this video seems to be done digitally, the splatters of paint and lines look very rustic and hand drawn, which may even be the case here.
