Apparently I'm talking/'teaching' animation and student life for a day or something at my old schools...

Ever since I moved to university my old teacher from Harrogate College has wanted me to revisit my old classroom and sort of 'show off' the work I've been doing; Apparently this is going to happen, in the next 2 week in fact. She said it would be nice to show the current students studying fine art what it's like going to study at university and what sort of areas you can go into, considering a year ago I was fine art and now I'm an animation student. I don't think many students want to go into university and think they can make it as a creative purely by getting a job and having talent when in fact I strongly believe university life is beneficial to a carer in the creative arts - purely because having your work noticed and show cased is far more effective then waiting for someone to offer you a job maybe out of the blue. That sort of show casing and notification is basically what university is, at least for animation students... (in my opinion)

THINGS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO FORGOT TO BRING  

• Sketchbook and concept work (Because concept work including script writing and sketchbooks is important yo)
• Test animations and experimental work
• Final animations 
• Bloopers (including sound recordings bloopers)

I know most of the students at Harrogate college, at least the second years... So i shouldn't be too nervous on the day. 

The other day I was in town with an old friend of mine, who happens to be the son of my old art teacher from highschool. She's also friends with my mother, who works at the same school so I was aware she was eager to get me in to 'teach' the students about the sort of stuff I do and create. I was offered a free lift home so I took it, and ended up agreeing to come into my old highschool to spend a day with the current year 9 students on animation. She also wanted me to talk about why it's important to keep a sketchbook with you all the time because I'm always drawing... 

I'm looking forward to doing both talks/teachings but I'm super nervous about it all! 

Comic Project// Lovely Faces - Character Development

First concept

Starting around December time I've been drafting up character ideas for a comic I've wanted to develop for awhile now... 

Not going into too much detail, this character is a young girl who lives on the streets in a futuristic setting. 

She doesn't have a name but a few of my friends and I have nicknamed her 'Roller Skates Girl'.

Originally I sketched her out at a child about 14-15 years old, but I hadn't really settled on the age of this character so I began drawing her in different ages, all roughly fitting to a 'young woman'. 

A friend of mine who I'd sort of loosely explained what I wanted the story of the comic to be, said he thought 'Roller Skates Girl' would be a more interesting character if she was younger, which was something I wasn't sure about doing... But settled quite quickly on the idea of her being just a kid.

 SO I started drawing up concept pieces on this character interacting with another main character, He's in his early 20s but I'm still tossing the idea around in my head for this 'Roller Skates Girl' to develop and grow along side this other main character; Developing from a child into a young woman as the story unfolds... Even thought I'll admit I DON'T HAVE A STORY YET.

But I really want to base this comic on the life of 'the homeless'. A few of my friends in real life have lived homeless for a couple of nights or even a few weeks, seeing them like that and seeing people living homeless in Leeds I'd like to focus on that side of society that is often over looked by most...       I also thought it would be interesting to set the story in a sort of si-fi futuristic city, like in Astro boy or even films like Guardians Of The Galaxy, but, less alien-y.

I'm not really putting this project ahead of uni work, but really just keeping the idea 'fresh' in my head from working on it from time to time.

BAF/// Balloon

Baloon is an animated music video Directed by Oshima Tomoko. This animation was part of the 'Girls On The Run' Screening at Bradford Animation Festival. It really stood out for me, unlike the other animations featured where symbolism is important to the whole storytelling element this music video rather documents the life of a young woman and her time. We're introduced to a girl who is implied to be very sociable, she meets a boy who we assume she begins dating and she begins to have fun, however as time goes on she begins to take pills, look more and more sickly and even begins to appear with self harm marks and bruises across her legs.  In the end she turns her back on socializing as shown by her burning her password card for social media and runs away. She turns her back on her boyfriend, which is implied by her attempting to ring her and her not answering the phone and in fact dropping it completely. I feel like this animation is representing the distancing between a young girl and her social life with others, wanting to run away and to escape in a sense from everyone. Of course this is a music video but I don't know the lyrics and can only assume they are similar to my understanding of the animation itself. 

The animation style is rather naive and simplistic, clear it is the artists own 'unique' style or maybe rather a style that has been adopted to give across a sense of naivety to the animation. Perhaps this naive art style has been adopted to the music video to identity with the main character being so naive herself. 

BAF/// Agitated Screams Of Maggots

This animation was screened as part of the 'girls on the run' event at Bradfort Animation Festival...

THIS ANIMATION IS EXTREMELY INTENSE AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TURNING YOUR VOLUME DOWN AND PREPARING BOTH YOUR BODY AND MIND BEFORE VIEWING. 

Alright then, well now the warnings out of the way this animation is directed by Keita Kurosaka and produced in 2016. This animation features extreme gore and sexual themes both directed towards and involving a young girl. The audio for the film is what sounds to me like Japanese heavy metal, from the very start the music is very intense and loud.. which only foreshadows what sort of route the animation is going to take. A strange sex obsessed little pest is discovered by a young girl, who cuts the pest in half... then the two half begin humping and the young girl steps on them both. Only for the two halfs to reform as one. Later on, when the young girl is having dinner with her mother the pest appears in the mothers bowl forces himself inside her mouth and then irrupts from between her mothers legs. The now man sized pest looms over the young girl and begins to assault her, she runs into a face that begins to forcefully kiss her, which is then revealed as protruding from the pests pelvis and is in fact his penis. He laughs and smiles as his penis wraps around the young girl and continues to forcefully kiss her as she is entangled.. but the young girl bits it off and the man begins to scream in pain. The man is then put into a machine that the young girl uses to rip him in half, revealing a womans face made of his flesh inside; the young girl watches and glares as the back of the womans face is the man's and she crushes them both.... 

The visual animation is incredibly intense and shocking, It's clear to say this is about sexual abuse against children but I'll be honest I do not understand most of this. But non the less, I found it a very interesting watch. The animation looks to be to be animated by hand.

Here is a centered version http://fantoche.ch/en/film/agitated-screams-maggots 

BAF/// YA-NE-SEN a Go Go

One of the animations screened in the 'girls on the run' event at Bradford Animation Festival... 

The animation is more of a music video then anything, where a woman dances in the streets of old Toyko. Directed/Animated/Danced by Shishi Yamazaki and produced in 2012 and animated with watercolours and coloured pencils I can only assume this is rotoscoped (where footage is referenced/traced over). 

You can watch the video here: http://fantoche.ch/en/film/ya-ne-sen-go-go

I enjoyed this animation alot, being a huge fan of 'hand drawn' animation I love how in some parts of the animation the texture of pencil is so visible and how the paint is blotchy in some areas. The animation is rather simplistic and hardly features any bold outlines rather blocks of colour to identify objects. Shishi Yamazaki is documenting herself in this animation both with the animation itself and the playful attitude she is shown in when eating and dancing around the streets of old Tokyo.

The show case was screening 'animation by women' or pieces to show how women are represented within animation... Perhaps Yamazaki is showing her carefree nature towards what she eats and how she acts in public, rather then being concerned about her weight and how others perceive her. 

Bradford Animation Festival

Animation Students

I attended the Bradford animation festival (BAF) from the 17th to the 20th of November. Heading off on the train from Leeds to Bradford with my fellow animation students, to the media museum; was quite existed to go not only because of the animation festival  but because I used to visit the museum religiously when I was younger.

His lordship PeterLord

I really enjoyed my time at the festival!  Mark Shapiro the head of the marketing team behind Laika introduced a screen of their new movie 'The Boxtrolls' and hosted a panel of behind the scenes of the movies development and production. I also attended a panel hosted by Peter Lord, one of the men who opened Aardman animation studios and the creator of morph. He made it clear he disliked the new lego movie or CGI in general. He also made it clear to us as animation students that we should focus on one part of animation father then the full development of an animated feature. I also attended other talks like a gaming one about a video game 'watchdogs' and a historical one on women within animation. I also sat down to a talk about 'strange hill high' which was a show on CBBC that uses puppets and CGI, I really liked the concept behind the art direction of the show but the man giving the talk was far too excited when it came to talking about puppets... 

We walked around Bradford a few times, the first time we had a drink in a pub and a strange very drunk man came over talking about visiting the Queen and dancing with her... the second time we played it safe and went to Nandos for chicken. Bradford was fun. 

Hyde Park Picture House - The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

Hyde Park Picture house was opened in 1914, a cinema best known for screening 'art films' and world cinema films. I've visited before as part of leeds film week where they screened a few 'anime' movies like redline. But this time I visited with a small group of my friends to see 'The Tale Of Princess Kaguya' and that involved walking in the middle of Hyde Park at night which, lets be honest isn't the 'safest' place to go walking in Leeds. However with 10mintues to go we finally found the picture house. Settling down in a long line of animation students and one fine artist and film rolled... and within an hour the whole lot of us were reduced to tears. As the screen faded, the whole picture house was in silence... before one of my friends whimpered out a heart broken '' noooooooooo! ''

The tale of princess kaguya by studio ghibli, directed by Isao Takahata is a wonderful folk tale piece of artwork. Drawn entirely by hand and running a year late on production it was well worth the wait. Based on the Japanese folk tale 'the tales of the bamboo cutter' the studio didn't hesitate to rip out our hearts after first allowing us to fall in love with this innocent girl character of Kaguya. The story follows a middle age couple who stumble across a 'princess' they believe is a spirit out in the bamboo woods, the small family begin life naïve to the fact she is a spirit. By the end of the movie her adopted mother and father are clinging to her, apologising and pleading for her to stay.. only for her to go and forgot all memories of her time with them forever. And then the film ends.

A truly heart breaking movie that I adore, I love the fact it's all drawn by hand not only that but the 'storybook' feel the animation gives to the folk tale story. It only made the whole experience better that we saw the film in a wonderful building like the picture house... even if it meant walking all the way home in the freezing cold with the flu. WELL worth it!

Thought Bubble2014

I really should of blogged about this ages ago...



Queuing with the lads 

I've attended Leeds comic convention 'Thought Bubble' every year since I started getting interested in comic books. So last year, it was much easier to get to the convention considering I could walk there in 20mintues... If I didn't first have to pick up my friends around the city and lead them there. And then we queued... and queued... and then we got our wrist bands! ...And QUEUED AGAIN.

Wasn't too bad. Stood in a line for a good 2 hours with two cool southerner and my sleepy boyfriend. So I had a lot of fun messing around and stood in the cold.

The convention had changed a lot compared to the past few years, so much more space and a whole other section for comic book artists and signings. I forced myself not to snap up a copy of every comic book I saw there, but I've learnt from previous conventions.. that I don't have unlimited space.. and I also need to pay rent. But that didn't stop my boyfriend buying nearly everything in sight...Which is great because, ya'know, 'what's mine is yours' and all that... right?

I also attended a panel, I've never lined up to see someone famous talk at a small crowd before.. but this was so worth it. One of my idols, the lady herself  Natasha allegri!!! Along with her production team that works on Bee and Puppycat. I really enjoyed the panel, not only because we saw a previous of the animation of the latest episode but their such lovely people! Not intimidating but just talented lovely people! Well... when it came to saying attempting to say hello to the goddess. I casually walked past her signing table, to sneak a peek at what she was drawing, she looked up and smiled; however I was too shy to smile or even wave back, so I grinned and hid behind my scarf and fled. Smooth. I regretted being so shy around my idol...

But thankfully my boyfriend had dumped into one of artists on the bee and puppycat panel, the art director. And managed to get a little doodle from her addressed to the both of us!

best thing ever.

 

 

I can't wait to attend thought bubble again THIS year! :D

What's wrong with 'HOME'?

I rarely go to see movies in the cinema, but recently I've been making an effort to 'support' movies...

I saw 'HOME' on mothers day, at the time it was newly released and I hadn't heard much about the movie besides the trailer... which, I'll be honest looked very silly and a little irritating plot wise. So I sat down in the cinema expecting a slap-stick sort of film.

HOWEVER, instantly we're introduced to this alien character which sole relatable aspect is that he finds it hard to make friends... he and the other aliens I feel are designed in such an obvious cartoony manner to 'make up' for the lack of reliability between the character and the audience and the characters to each other. Their visual character design also plays as comical relief but I have to admit I do like how the aliens colours change when their emotions do, for example when the aliens lie they turn yellow. Considering these alien characters are childish in parts being able to visual see their emotions with not only their expression but their whole appearance makes up heavily for the lack of 'emotion' in the aliens speech.

The second main character is a young daughter, who is looking for her missing mother named Tip. This character has been idolised by critics instantly because she is a black young female leading character and hits the nail right on the head for 'feminist representation'. However this characters only 'additional' reasoning for action besides finding her mother is a cat named pig, who is also comic relief in times of 'boredom'. Tip is far more relatable to the alien she befriends on her journey to find her mother, because she's a child. But that's just it, she's a child... paired with another childish character despite the fact Tip is very independent only makes for badly paced storytelling. 

Half way into the movie I felt like the movie began to improve, as the aliens enemies appear it gives a sense of danger and urgency not only this but both leading characters are forced to develop. It took an hour to badly introduce the universe, childish characters and their goals but within the last 30minutes was honestly like watching a different movie. But over all I was disappointed, purely because characters were still being introduced at the end of the movie and plot points randomly thrown in a few minutes before they were relevant. And that is why I found it hard to really enjoy with this movie... sorry, DreamWorks.

Thunderbirds ReBoot 2015

I'm currently sat at home, watching this reboot of the old series. I'm not sure if this is a stand alone movie just to reboot the franchise to encorage toy sales to children or is the start of a new series for the thunderbirds.

The orginal series was animated by something called 'Supermarionation' which is not to be confused with the supermario game series by Nintendo (the artical informed me). This animation technique involved marionettes that were surspented and puppertied by animations using wire frames. The facial movements, such as mouth movement were controlled with magnetic that reacted to electric inpulses. Scale miniture figures were also used to shoot dramatic action scenes involving vercules. This 2015 short film is animated  with CGI-Animation (and part live action). I'm sat here next to my grandad who seems to be involved in the story, however he commented saying he was put off by the 'dead eyes' of the characters which I can only assume have been designed in this sort of 'doll' way to resemble their orginial puppet designs.

...So it's finished now and even if I was barely able to consintrate on it because my mother wanted to show me a video of a transgender woman beating up two men who were threating her because of 'cross dressing' I managed to make up my minds on this new reboot style. I was over all impressed with it, despite the fact most will instantly hate the reboot because puppets aren't involved, the storyline was quite good and entertaining; nothing like what I predicted would be a show dumbed down for young children only to sell toys.  I remember Thunderbirds being on when I was very young, back then I remember being afraid of the puppets because of how creepy they were but them being puppets entertained me better then any storyline. I was impressed by the enviroment around the story, the animated underwater scenes and outerspace pertically. But over all, this isn't something I'd rush out to buy a DVD of ,but in no way do I feel this is a heartless reboot that is only recking the orginial thunderbirds. It's clear the studio working on this project but alot of care into this project, but I think most can't let go of the orginial 'face' of thunderbirds which was 'Supermarionation'.

Also apparently this isn't just one movie, but one of three episodes that make up the first season of the new reboot series '' Thunderbirds are GO!''