Ross Hogg - Scribble Dub - direct animation

                                                         https://vimeo.com/108118089

I have chosen to blog about this piece of animation as it is more on the art side of the animation spectrum as opposed to animation being solely about entertainment and narrative.
This piece of animation was an experimental piece by Ross Hogg and has received critical acclaim from many film festivals. Along with the animation comes a soundtrack that is in synchronous with the footage, I find that the fact this animation that is abstract and not something that all fans of animation would enjoy- but still admired by film and art lovers exciting, as it gives me hope in the fact that if you pursue a certain process or style and produce something that is of value - it will receive the praise that it deserves, as long as audiences have access to it.

John Goto - Research

John Goto is an artist who uses photo collage as his chosen media. I have chosen to write about his work due to the cutout nature of his work - linking this in with the rest of the research that I have been looking at, as well as the cut and stick nature of his work in this particular project 'high summer' there is also a satirical/dark atmosphere that features in his work which appeals to me. In this particular image there appears to be an imminent unveiling of a statue, which appears to be in the shape of a phalic symbol, I think this could be a reference to the inherently patriarchal society that is apparent in the UK, especially with what appear to be important men being interviewed around the statue.

Kyle Mowat - Resarch

As I have an interest in graphic design and illustration I found this persons, work to be of interest to me.
Although it does not follow the same vein of the rest of the work and processes I have been looking into, it sparks ideas for me to jot down and carry elements of work I have seen into my own practise. for example Mowat makes use of contrasting flat, almost complementary colours to show depth and form in this animated GIF. In future animations I aim to make better use of colour so that my animations are more eye catching/ 'pop' up out of the screen.

David Firth - Interview

I really like how David Firth creates his animations 'play by play', kind of just observing his own creative thoughts and letting them come into fruition naturally to form a piece of animation. He allows the most dark aspects of his psyche come through in his work and does not really question why he has chosen to write a certain narrative or why the animation looks the way that it does, he mentions in this interview that he gains a lot of inspiration from his dreams and has many notebooks that he jots down ideas in after he has woken up or when he has any spare time.
This constant jotting down of ideas really opens the doors to creativity as  the 'valve' of creativity is in full flow almost all of the time.
What looking at the process of David Firth tells me about animation is that it is a much more productive use of time for an animator to get down as many ideas as possible so that when it comes to producing something for a client - the ideas are already present even when you may only have a suggestion of what they would like to see, I think this comes from the way the brain can make a connection between something that is seemingly irrelevant.

Cyriak Interview

Cyriak, is an animator that uses a cut out animation style with use of photographs of and video. He keeps his process relatively simple by using only after affects to produce his animations. He started out by making short GIF animations using images mainly of animals. I have found this interview to very informative and insightful in that this is somebody else's work that uses processes that a relevant to my own personal practice.
This cut out style is something that I am willing to pursue in future projects.

Bendito Machine 'Everything You Need' - Animated Short

In this animation there is a strong environmental message relative to over consumption and the pollution  that follows as a result. You could also say that there is a political message to pick up on in this short, with two opposing groups with one exploiting and attacking the other which inevitably ends with the offensive group being destroyed due to violence being self-perpetuted. There is also a strong hint at karma in this animation with the opposing group being destroyed a result of their own actions.

I am wanting to seek out more animations that have a deep underlying message to them, to see how they have put that message across through storytelling and visual references. There is a certain amount of subtlety that you have to account for when producing a story with a message, I feel the audience has to realise what the message is for themselves for the most part for it to really have any affect on their feelings/opinions of a certain topic.

atomic hubbub - satirical animation

I chose this animation to research as not only do I like the process that the animator has chosen to use but also the tone of the animation is satirical, and satire is something that I am interested in pushing through my work - or rather I would like to aim for a political/social message to come through in my work. 

The animation appears to make use of some kind of print method over the top of certain frames, if I take this process and simplify it by using mono-printing on frames it would make the process faster as opposed to screen printing things over the top of frames, it would also provide the animation with a very 'make do' look to it, which seems to be common in satirical material such as zines - which also have a very personal feel about them which is something I want to put into my work, I would like it to be unique to me.

Response - Video and Animation Combination

Here is a combination of animation and video footage taken using my handheld digital tape recorder.
To achieve the effects featured in the clip I imported both files into after affects and key framed in effects related to blending modes. This gave me some control over how the animation would mix into the footage but did not however enable me to pin point where the animation would bleed into the footage.
This is a response to earlier research that I have been looking into.