Idea Backstories

In today's lesson we were looking at how every film/TV show isn't original, and in fact is inspired by many other films, novels, TV shows, games, articles, and events. To help me think of an idea for a short animation, I will look at some of my favourite films and TV shows and hopefully get ideas from them.

An example of the many things a film/novel can be inspired by: 

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk wrote the novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film. The first thing the author was inspired by, was the own events that took place in his life. The idea for the novel all started in the mid 1990's, when Chuck came back from a camping trip with a black eye, he didn't quite fit into his work environment, and his co-workers started to question what happened. The truth was that he had got into a fight on the trip, and from then on, he found himself in many more fights. When people from his work asked what happened he said "Look at my face c'mon people" and he also stated in an interview "If you look terrible enough, no one will want to know the truth about you."

He started writing the book, as he enjoyed the fights, he enjoyed the way he felt exhausted and weak at the end of the day, and how he slept so well after a fight, that he wanted to share the feeling with the world. The film was then released in 1999.

His second inspiration for the novel, was that his doctor once told him that "Insomnia is not suffering."

His favourite author is Amy Hempel who according to amazon, writes stories that 'deal with the strategies of emotional survival and offers sharp, brittle, and intelligent looks at staying alive, at how to manage a life truly one's own, and how to resist becoming a victim.' 

He also liked and got inspired by Novels such as Trainspotting, Story of My Life, Whores of Gloria, and Slaughterhouse-Five.

In an interview he stated "My research really is screwing around and being with people and doing things I love to do."

To summarize it, Fight Club was a Novel inspired by modern consumer culture, the writers environment, the people he hung around, the fights he got into and how much he enjoyed them, the other Novels he read, and his doctors remarks about insomnia.



Here are a few randomfilms/TV series with artistic styles I admire:
-Fight Club
-Requiem for a Dream
-City of God
-Breaking Bad
-BBC's Sherlock
-The Triplets of Belleville
-Trainspotting
-Slumdog Millionaire




Things they all have in common:

 Environment: most of them are set in an environment that is not properly taken care of (ghetto, run down houses, on the streets etc…)


People: most of the characters are working class, or even homeless, and have grown up in a rough environment and are not pleased with their lives.

Common themes: Most of them deal with things such as drugs, alcohol, fights, death, murder, crime, survival, illness and mental illness, or are psychological.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Drama, Thriller, (All of them are Dramas)


I want my ideas to be set or connect to similar environment to these films, or be based around characters struggling with these themes, and be exploring crime (theft, for example)



Pitch number 1:

Setting: A grubby street corner (dead end)

Genre: Drama

The old homeless man: The old man has been living on the streets since 18, when he failed his studies, couldn't find work and was kicked out of his council house for not obeying the rules. At the age of 16 he was kicked out of his family's home for turning to drugs due to his lack of motivation at college, and his failed relationships. He never managed to get off the streets, but has been off drugs and alcohol for nearly 10 years. His daily routine is to busk on the side of the street to pay for him and his dogs daily consumption.
He used to be desperate for money, but has given up, and is just thankful for the company of his dog, although when faced with money, he gets a moment of hope.

The neighbour: He is 21 years old and has recently been kicked out of his home, and is currently addicted to drugs and alcohol, he is extremely desperate for money, and when faced with the opportunity to get some, will do all sorts of things to get it.

Storyline:

An old homeless man is awakened by his dog who has come across strange brief case across their alleyway. The old man quietly walks over to the bag, trying not to wake up his neighbour (a younger homeless man sleeping several metres away from him). To his surprise he opens the brief case to find a large stash of cash inside. He attempts to keep his excitement in as he walks away from the case to peak round the corner, making sure no ones around or in search of the money. Whilst he is doing so, his neighbour wakes up to see the briefcase wide open. The neighbour jumps to his feet, and the old man turns round, foreseeing his intentions. They stare at each other, and then back at the case. They both suddenly make a run for it (the old man is a lot closer, although a lot slower). The neighbour gets there first and grabs the case, he attempt to run of but the old man trips him up with his walking stick. They both grab the bag fighting over it, but in the end the neighbour wins, and gets away with it.

The fight results in the old man being shoved to the ground in defeat, but eventually he attempts to forget the situation, as him and the dog have work to do. The old man picks up his -just about working- guitar, and him and the dog leave their home in search for a busking location. On the way, they come across a police car, two policemen, a police dog and see their neighbour being pushed into the car, and the money has been taken of him. They walk past the car with smug expressions on their faces (the police dog growls at the old man's dog).

The old man finds a suitable location to busk, sits down, places his hat on the ground for a money collector,  and begins playing his guitar (relieved it wasn't him in that car). The dog then sits down next to him and places some money (earlier taken from the brief case) into the hat, from his mouth. The old man smiles, and pats the dog.



The idea of the companionship between the dog and the old man came from the film 'The Triplets of Belleville' as it follows the main character who is the old lady, and her companion who is also a dog.

I would love to have the animation in a style similar to 'The Triplets of Belleville' as when I watched this film I was blown away with the animation style, the environments, and the colour grading.




Pitch number 2:

Setting: In a rich and wealthy house

Genre: Crime, Drama and Comedy

The burglar: A young man who lives on the streets is desperate for money, which results in him using theft to make his living, -although he is a harmless man, who wouldn't turn to any other crime, and certainty not kidnapping. The character will be dressed in your typical black and white stripped burglar outfit, and is shown to be an eccentric and paranoid character, who easily overreacts in stressful situations.

Storyline:
A young man is desperate for money, so decides to start stealing from peoples homes. One night he sneaks into some ones house, and begins taking their expensive possessions, when he is joined by another presence in the room. He jumps  at the sight of a little baby crawling towards him. He freaks out, drops his sack and hides behind the curtains (in case the baby is followed by its parents). He hears no one coming, so comes to his senses and grabs the sack to leave. The baby is no where to be seen. Just has he leaves the doors, he hears the parents calling for the child and walking down the stairs. He runs out of the house and jumps in his get away car, and begins to drive away. He then looks in hid rear mirror, to see the baby climbing out of the sack, he freaks at the incident, and the charge for kidnapping the child, so begins to turn the car around, but hears police sirens.

Character Designs

Here are some character designs I drew from 5 different shapes:

Animation Trends

The top rated show on Cartoon Network: 
According to IMDB, and many other sites I have come across, 'Adventure Time with Finn and Jake' is the most popular TV series on Cartoon Network, with a rating of 8.7 on IMDB and from 24,961 ratings and reviews.

Also Ed, Edd, and Eddy, The Amazing World of Gumball, and The Regular Show are other popular TV shows aimed at a young audience. What is noticeable in these shows is that the main protagonist is alway quite thick, so the audience learn from their mistakes.

The three most successful animated feature length film at the box office released in 2013: 

1) Frozen, with a gross of $396,581,728
2) Despicable Me 2, with a gross of $368,061,265
3) Monsters University, with a gross of  $268,492,764

2012
1)Brave
2)Madagascar 3
3) Dr Suess Lorax

2011
1)Kung Fu Panda 2
2)The Smurfs
3)Cars 2

The trends found in these films is that a lot of them are either sequels, or franchise, which shows that a lot of people go to see the sequel to a film they know was good, and enjoyed. A lot of them appeal to a family audience, and there for more tickets are sold, and the genre for many of them is Adventure and Comedy. Almost all of them have Hollywood stars in them, for example, Steve Carrel, and Russel Brand star in the Despicable me sequel, and others include actors such as Michael Caine (Cars), John Goodman (Monsters University, and Jack Black (Kung Fu Panda 2).They also are 3D, and can be screened in 3D, and are computer generated.

The most watched animation on YouTube:

The Gummy Bear song with over 409 million views, and Tootin' Bathtub Baby Cousins, are two of the most watched animated YouTube clips, which most likely appeal to a younger audience, who probably watch it over and over again, where as the most watched animated short film on Vimeo  is Muto, which only has a few million view in comparison to the popular youtube videos. The different between the most popular animated clip on youtube and Vimeo is that the Vimeo clips are more artistic and experimental, and the animation is more impressive, where as the YouTube clips animation is not so impressive, but the clips are humorous to a lot of people.

According to a few sites I came across, an animation called 'Fallen Kingdom' which is a Minecraft parody of Coldplay's song 'Viva la vida' was the most popular animation in 2013, with over 70 million views, although this year, with over 146 million view is a cover of a musical scene from Disney's feature length film Frozen, which was released in 2013.

From inspecting the genre, animation style, content and target audiences from each animation, I notice both similarities and differences. The similarities are that almost all of them are aimed at a young audience, and are bright, enthusiastic and positive. There is a range of both 2D and 3D animation, although the majority of the popular animations are 3D. The genres are similar, which are Adventure and Comedy for almost all off them, and the characters are all over exaggerated and have surreal features (excluding Frozen, which for an animation isn't that exaggerated in comparison). Lastly almost all of them appeal to both the female and male audience. The only one that doesn't apply to most of these similarities is the Mindcraft, as it is more popular with males, and aimed at a slightly older audience who play on the game.

Sources:
http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-film-animation-channels
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=animation.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305826/?ref_=nv_sr_3

Animation Products

FILM: Belleville Rendez-vous

Year of release: 2003

Which companies produced it: It was an international co-production animation made by 5 production companies with the help of 14 other companies. The companies were all based in the United Kingdom, France Belgium, and Canada. The film screened at the 2003 Cannes film festival, and won two awards for 'The Best Animated Feature', and 'The Best Original Song'.

The five production companies:
Les Armateurs
Production Champion 
Vivi Film
France 3 Cinema
RG Prince Films

Who directed it: Sylvain Chome (also directed The Illusionist)

Animation style: 2D (was praised by the audience and critiques for uniqueness) 

Target audience: Adults, (rating 12A)

Purpose: To entertain, and bring a new style to animation

My opinions on the film: Loved the originality of the over exaggerated characters, as although animation is all about exaggerating the characters, this film takes it to a whole new artistic level, for example, the bodyguards and the Mafia leader being literally stuck together. I also admired the colour grading, which adds to the vintage style of the film, and also the dirtiness of the environment.

SHORT: Knick Knack

Year of release: 1989

Which company produced it: Pixar

Based in: California, USA
Made14  other short films:
Andre and Wally B.
Luxo JR.
Reds Dream
Tin Toy
Geri's Game
For the Birds
Boundin'
One man band
Lifted
Presto
Partly Cloudy
Day and Night
La Luna
The Blue Umbrella

Who directed it: John Lasseter (also directed Luxo JR, Tin Toy, Reds Dream, Toy Story, Cars, Bugs Life and many others)

Animation style: 3D

Target audience: Children, 3+ (rated U)

Purpose: To entertain (still often played before Pixar feature screenings)

My opinions on the clip: When I first saw it in the cinema, being screened before a Pixar film, I found it very entertaining, humorous and sweet. The animation is well done, the three dimensional artwork is in brilliant and the colours are bright and cheerful.

TV SERIES: Gravity Falls

Year of release: 2012-

Which company produced it:

Disney Television Animation

-Airs on the Disney Channel

Also produced series such as:

-Phineas and Ferb

-Kim Possible

- Mickey Mouse

Based in: Burbank, California, USA

Who directed it: 
Created by: Alex Hirsch (also involved in Pineas and Ferb)
Directors: 
John Aoshima
Aaron Springer
Joe Pitt

Animation style: 2D

Target audience: Teen audience

Purpose: To entertain

My opinions on the TV Show:

From the few episodes I've watched, it stood out to me from the usual animated TV series, as the stories were wacky and unique, and I thought the location was brilliant yet spooky, and each episode had an original and crazy twist. The artwork has a very simplistic style, which works for its audience, and also means its not to busy. The colour grading is great, as its overly colourful (like Phineas and Ferb for example), and adds to the spooky atmosphere of the woods, and strays away from your usual animations aimed at a young audience. 

WEB SERIES: Bravest Warriors

Year of release: 2012-

Which company produced it: Frederator Studios
- Aires on Cartoon Hangover (youtube)
- Also produced My Fairly Oddparents, and Adventure Time
Based in: the USA

Who directed it: 

Creator: Pendleton Ward (also created the popular and successful Adventure Time)
Directors:
Breehn Burns
Jason Johnson

Animation style: 2D

Target audience: Teen audience

Purpose: To entertain

My opinions on the episode: From watching episode 1 from the first series, I found it entertaining, silly and humorous. Like Gravity falls, the artwork is very simplistic, which works even better, as due to the colours being so bright, there's no need for the image to be any busier. Unlike Gravity Falls, the lines are a lot lighter and less thick, which works well as there is a distinct difference from each object/person in the frame due to the diversity and exaggeration of the colours.

MUSIC: Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

Year of release: 2005

Which company produced it: Gorillaz 
- A British Virtual band
-Alternative Rock 
Based in: the UK
Also Produced:
- Dare
- Lil' Dub Chefin 

Who directed it: 
The creators of Gorillaz: Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett
Brian Joseph Burton (stage name - Danger Mouse)

Animation style: 2D

Target audience: Late Teens + (17 - 21)

Purpose: To entertain, and promote and suit their music

My opinions on the clip: I love the originality and craziness of the characters, and how they look as though they may not even be human (the green skin, black eyes etc...). The animation is fairly slow, although this suites the lyrics and message of the song. I love the dark colour grading, as it gives the music video a zombie and dead feel. My only criticism would be that at some points, the mouth doesn't sync with the lyrics.  

ADVERT: Lloyd's TSB - For the Journey

Year of release: 2007

Which company produced it: Lloyd's TSB

- A British retail bank

-Based in Birmingham, UK

Also produced adverts such as:

-The Train for the Summer

- For the Journey part 2

-House in the Sky

-Starting a New Business

Who directed it: Mark Brown

Animation style: 3D

Target audience: Any one who is old enough to join Lloyd's bank (16+)

Purpose: To advertise their bank (each animated advert is done in the same style, with similar characters, so when ever some one sees the characters, they associate them with Lloyd's bank).

My opinions on the clip: Love the unique three dimensional style, and the trademark all of the characters have, being their features (the extra long nose, eye brows and tiny eyes). The colours are bright and cheerful, which suits the advertisement, as people want to think of Lloyd's Bank as a bright and cheerful place. 

Pixar

The History of Pixar:

The successful animation studio currently known as 'Pixar', first began in 1979 by a millionaire named Alexander Schare, who at the time was the president of the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). He was searching for someone to help him make an animation from a sound recording he had in mind. Schare and a man named George Lucas, who had his own production company 'Lucasfilm', recruited a man named Ed Catmull who was a computer science, to head the Lucasfilm's computer division. The film was called 'Tubby the Tuba' and never got made, but they got settled in a studio in West coast in the same year to start the division of Lucasfilm Ltd.

In 1984, the division made their first short film 'The Adventures of Andre and Wally B' which then was premiered at 'SIGGRAPH'. As the division became more known, Steve Jobs in 1986 brought the computer graphics devision from George Lucas, and renamed the company 'Pixar. 

They then finished making their short three dimensional film called 'Luxo Jr' shortly after. This then won an oscar for The Best Animated Short Film, which was the first time a 3D film had won. 

The company then went onto creating more short films such as Red's Dream in 1987 which brought new aspects to the mood and atmosphere of animation (the rain effect and lighting pose), Tin Toy made in 1988 which received an Academy Award, and finally Knick Knack in 1989 which was the first film in the company to be made in stereoscopic 3D and won 2 CLIO awards. All three films were screened and premiered at SIGGRAPH. 

Then the company agreed to make their first full length feature film collaborating with Disney in 1991. This was when the extremely successful three dimensional animation was released 4 years later, in 1995 called Toy Story. Toy story was not only the companies first animated feature film, but the worlds, and was the highest grossing film in 1995.

They then went on to producing films such as: A Bugs Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters Inc in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003, The Incredibles in 2008, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007,WALL-E in 2008, UP in 2009, Toy Story 3 in 2010, Cars 2 in 2011, Brave in 2012, and their most up to date Monsters University released in 2013. It has now become a routine for Pixar to release one film per year, as their team has increased and they now have enough people and money to get a movie made in the space of a year.


The company is currently based in Emeryvill Califorina, and has won 26 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes and 3 Grammy Awards, and many more.

RenderMan

The company is not only known for its brilliant and successful animations, but the software it uses to create these computer generated animations. Pixar is known for its CGI animated features made with PhotoRealistic RenderMan and other products such as Pixar image computers and Marionette.

According to Wikipedia, RenderMan is a software used by Pixar and an API (application programming interface) for network distributed rendering of complex and ray-traced 3D views. According to Joe Letteri a VFX supervisor at WETA Digital, "RenderMan is the ultimate creative tool. It's the easiest and most flexible way to create a picture from an idea."

Some of the features of RenderMan include: Hybrid rendering, which allows people to easily control CG camera work, and two of the most important features are monition blur and depth of field. It offers advanced features such as a versatile re-rendering system, physically plausible shading, deep textures, and many more.

Another feature RenderMan has, which is described as on the RenderMan's website 'the secret of RenderMan's success' is the outstanding performance. It is described to a be fast, efficient, and configurable program. It offers an  exceptional amount of memory and storage, which can save a large amount of textured maps, geometry and shaders. It can render with REYES, send the geometry to REYES, can split the geometry, dice and shade the geometry, and finally voilal the final picture. Lastly, due to it being built around REYES its really good at rendering displacements.

More about Pixar

Through out the years, and from the beginning Pixar has produced all of their films in  the three dimensional style. This was extremely impressive, as at the time, 3D animation was just being introduced. This brought a whole new level to their characters, brought them to life and made the films more life-like and realistic.

The Genre Pixar tends to stick to are adventure and comedy, and these are a common pattern in their films. These suit their light hearted style, as Pixar tends to have some comedic characters (Mr Potato Head, Mike Waszowski etc...) which could add to the comedic element, and also bright colours which suites their target audience. Almost all of their films are rated 'Universal', or 'Parental Guidance', and their target audience was originally to a younger audience, although they have also attracted a much older generation. This is due to the original and entertaining plots, which both young people and older people can enjoy, and recently an older audience have been going to see Pixar films due to sequels of the films they watched years ago when they were young, for example, Toy Story 3.

Recently they have been earning an enormous box office profit from the sequels they're been producing, for example, the new Monsters University film, which is a sequel to the Monsters Inc film made in 2001, made 80 million US dollars. This was the biggest opening for an animation since Toy Story 3. They've also made a re-make of cars, which made a gross of 200 million US dollars.

They're currently makeing a sequel to the popular 'Finding Nemo' film, made 11 years ago in 2013, which is called 'Finding Dory' and will be released in 2015.


Sources:
http://renderman.pixar.com/view/renderman-products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RenderMan
http://pixar.wikia.com/Pixar_Animation_Studios
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/30/toy-story-3-pixar-animation
http://renderman.pixar.com/view/renderman-features
http://www.pixar.com

Animation Process

1. Idea, Brief. Treatment, Script, Production Planning:
You need to first come up with an idea yourself, or be given a commission, then write a treatment, a script and come up with a rough budget and finally you pitch your concept to someone. Once the pitch is sold, you can finalize the budget script and get together your crew.  (Pre-production)

2. Concept Design:
Concept Design is the first stage of designing your animation, you will be going preliminary work so you can illustrate the narrative and possible visual treatments of the project (experimenting with style and characterisation). (Pre-production)

3.Storyboarding:
The Storyboard artist and the Director try and visualise the script and tell the story when producing the storyboard.

The storyboard illustrates:
-Narrative
-Composes the shots
- Demonstrates action
-Indicates camera movements
-Maintains continuity

If the Director, Producer or Clients make changes to the script or can see any improvements needed, the storyboard artist will need to update the storyboard. (The better the storyboard, the smoother the production runs.)
The storyboard can then be adapted into an animatic, which can become a working reel which will later help you layout and piece together your animation.

4.Production Design and Visual Development:
Either the Art Director or the Production Designer (sometimes both) will process the final designs for the characters and environments, and develop the style of the production. (Most of the design will be drawn at this stage)

According to Skillset.org: 

For 2D animation:
Model sheets, turnarounds of characters and key backgrounds are produced.

For Stop Frame animation: 
Characters and sets are designed; 

For CG:
Designs for characters, environments and special effects are produced.

5.Recording the Dialogue:
In this stage, the Director and Producer cast the voices for the characters and the director is always there for the recording sessions, to direct the actors. The script is voiced over the picture in the session. Although the producers also like to work with the actors to assemble the dialogue.

6.Building the Models, Rigging:
Modellers will then look at the drawings and begin building the CG models of the characters and their environments. Riggers will then create a moving skeleton/structure before the models can be animated, which allow parts and joints to move for the animators.
7. Layout and Animatics:
Layouts are used to stage every scene and camera set up in the production, they are made based on the storybook and previous design material. This design material can include things such as  camera movements, visual information about the character action and backgrounds.

8.Animation:
When the layout is finally approved, the animation process starts. The Director and Animator will assign scenes to individual animators who will then go on to produce the images which creates the illusion of movement. The number of animators depends on the size of the project. Once the layouts are done, they will be shot or turned into a layout reel or  into a storyboard reel.

9.Final Backgrounds and Colouring:
In 2D animation, the final colour backgrounds can be produced from the layouts onwards, and reflect production designs. Paper animation is sometimes scanned and tidied up on the computer before colouring with the software.
In Stop Frame the frame is made before the animation process.
In CG the environments are built by the modellers before the animation process as well, but lighting and set dressing is done later on in the production. Also the colouring on characters in CG and the environment models are enhanced by the effects and lighting.

10.Lighting and Compositing:
Lighting dictates the final colour and atmosphere of each shot for the CG process. In all parts of animation compositing is needed and and elements such as animation, effects, and backgrounds are combined into the finished image.
.
11.Post Production:
During post production, sound effects will be added, music recorded and the sound track will be finalised. The Edit Master can then combine the picture with the soundtrack and can then output it onto broadcast standard or film.

Animation Comparison and Write Up

South Park animation process:
They have a storyboard and design department, which is the beginning of the production chain, where they start designing and writing the ideas, jokes and characters etc.
First they get a script, then they have to turn each action that the characters do into camera shots (bring the words to life). They get an hour per page, which isn't long as most places get weeks.  Also they have to design all of the characters, and when doing so they use Cartman as a comparison, and draw a turn around of their new characters (a side view and a behind view).
When the storyboards done, they send it to the editorial department, and get turned into animatics by the lead editor Keef Bartkus. 

Unlike traditional animation, they do it by drawing out each character on the computer, and then making it move digitally, like puppets. If however, the character needs to do something more complicated, like punching some one, they'll have to draw out the character again in their new pose.
Once they're done with the character background props, they send the characters to a lip sync department, where they sync the audio with the characters mouths. Then they begin the animation, where they use the same process for each character, and move features such as the arms, legs, head, body, and have different expressions such as eyes to choose from.

For each show approximately they spend 120 hours a week to get it ready.

Pepper Pig animation process:
Pepper Pig, created by Amy Blazdell and produced by Phil Davies, is made using a programme called CelAction 2D, which is a highly professional piece of software that can produce top quality two dimensional animations, but is also easy for animators to get used to, and takes a week to learn how to use. It is an easy software to use, and the screen can be adjusted to different working methods.

The Pepper Pig studio is based in London, and they have 30 members who all help to produce the film. It takes approximately a week to make one episode. They have 4 teams of 4 animators, and the first series costed 1.4 million pounds to make, which is cheap compared to model, stop motion or computer animation. This is why they chose to produce the series in 2D.

Dot animation process:
Nokia commissioned the makers of the Dot advert to do something to celebrate and advertise their new piece of Technology. The technology allows people to use the phone to capture images of microscopic footage, like cells, which can be used for things such as diagnosing malaria. They took the challenge on, to make the worlds smallest film, using the cell scope technology. They were worried at first, as cells were far to small to animate, so decided to do something different, and made a plastic 9mm tall girl named Dot. They have 50 different replacements for Dot, and 3 standings for each pose. They made Dot by using a 3D printer, and then painted her under a microscope. They produced the set on a flat table, and positioned the phone and the cell scope technology directly above it, moving it for each frame. They filmed it by changing the Dot with a different pose each frame, and each Dot was attached to a wire, which meant they could move her around.Once the animation is done, in post-production they use a back plate to digitally remove the wire.

It takes one man a whole day to make 4 seconds of the animation.