Animation

Animators and VFX artists: The Differences And Similarities That Should Be Celebrated

2 Comments / Animation, Opinion /

There has been some talk over recent years as to whether visual effects artists are really animators by another name. They certainly share a lot of common skills and traits, but there remains a gulf between the two professions.

For starters, visual effects has traditionally been concerned with adding bits and pieces to traditional, live-action films, whereas animation has always been about creating everything from scratch. These classifications were fine until a few years ago, when the likes of Robert Zemeckis’ The Arctic Express began to really blur the lines at which VFX ended and animation began.

Fast forward to this year, and you had Richard winnning an Academy Award for best visual effects. There is nothing really notable here until you realise that Richie actually trained as an animtor in Dublin!

There are still many differences that, at least in my opinion, mean that although there will continue to be a convergance of professions in the areas of technology, looks and skills, there will remain a few fundamental differences.

Animators and VFX artists should realise that they can work together in harmony, complementing each other. It would be a shame to see the two camps descend into petty rivalry, especially around awards season, when the issue is most likely to crop up.

Apologies for the short post. The topic merits more discussion, which by all means can be done in the comments below.

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Animation and the 2011 Academy Awards

Animation /

It is a wee bit early, I know, and apparently that is something not lost on Steve Hullett over at the Animation Guild Blog either, as he notes how Dreamworks is already sending out the consideration mailers for How to Train Your Dragon.

The interesting thing is that DW is putting the film up in both the animation and best feature category, which is certainly an interesting development. It has been shown again and again that animation is not treated as seriously in Hollywood as it should be (hint: animation is a lot more profitable) but in recent times, in spite of the Academy’s addition of a ‘Best Animated Feature’ category, there have been some inroads made by the artform into more prestigious categories.

It all kicked off with Wall-E and it’s supposed deservedness of inclusion in the best feature category. That didn’t materialise (put it down to Wall-E being a robot), but surprisingly, that was not the end of the story. More than one eyebrow was raised last year when UP managed to bag one of the coveted best feature nomination slots. In the end it lost out to The Hurt Locker.

So it is perhaps not much of a surprise to hear that DW is waving the flag for Dragon. Personally, I think it is the best animated film released this year (thus far and from a Hollywood studio). Many will argue the case for Toy Story 3, but that is a sequel, if the first, two, superior films didn’t pass muster, I can’t see it doing so either.

I don’t think this means that we will see an animated films in the running for best feature every year. It is certainly safe to say that the best film released would not necessarily get the nod. Persepolis is a shining example of an animated film that is more than worthy of a best picture Oscar only for it to get the shaft.

Of course, it would be fantastic if we saw a few more animated features specifically aimed at adults rather than children. Walt Disney certainly felt (albeit with much anxiety) that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was good enough for adults.

If there was a serious market for adult animation, then there are plenty of reasons why we should see an animated film in the running for best feature. For now, let’s hope that How to Train Your Dragon makes a good show of it while it can.

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Negative Disney Publicity Circa. 1989

Animation, Disney, TV /

There’s a fantastic post over on Cartoon Brew today that details the pitch material sent out by Disney in 1989 or thereabouts to various TV stations around the country who they hoped would air their afternoon block of shows in syndication.

The pages posted are great to read some 20 years after the fact. The present perhaps the worst aspect of some marketing departments: pointing out all the bad aspects of your competitors in the hope that no-one don’t notice your own.

The papers are full of non-comparisons and desriptions so vague, they barely even make sense. Here’s a sample quote:

Warner Brothers has the dubious task of competing with Disney’s superior aniamtion.

Boasting that your shows are better is nothing new, in fact it goes all the way back to the beginnings of entertainment, when you had to convince the public that your show was better than that of the guy next door. The difference here is that there is hardly, nay, anything in the material posted that says exactly, why, Disney’s shows are better.

OK, maybe they do get better ratings because they’re on in the afternoons, but they are also new shows, not re-runs of classics. Perhaps they’re more expensive to broadcast. That’s my best guess. “Disney crushes Alvin”, that’s comparing apples to oranges. You can’t expect to get parity among the results between individual shows and entire blocks.

Frankly, the entire thing has a whiff of dishonesty about it, as if Disney has something to hide about its shows. Content speaks for itself and if your shows really are as good as you say they are, then you should point out how much better they are than all these other, great, shows. Of course, this would prove to be the case with Tiny Toons, wich Disney calls “a pale comparison to the Disney Afternoon”. Hindsight is always 20/20, and the quality of Tiny Toons was all that Warner Bros. needed to prove that they were actually ahead of the game.

It would be really intersting to see the pitch booklets from the subsequent years. Did they contain similar language or was Disney left stuck for words? Either way, we know how things turned out in the end of the afternoon cartoon battles of the 1990s.

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Bill Plympton’s Adventures in Cinema

Animation, Film /

Billy Plympton (perhaps the greatest indie animator ever) is currently posting about the trials and tribulations he is undertaking in order to get his first animated feature into theatres.

I highly, nay, absolutely, recommend you read the current triplet of posts, just to see what he’s up against. The film has been booked for the IFC Center in October, to put his posts in persepctive.

Bill’s a fantastic guy who deserves all the success his hard work will bring him.

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

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Fantasia coming to DVD and Blu-Ray Later This Year

Animation, Disney, Film /

Image via dvdizzy.com

Finally, a decent release for one of the greatest animated films to ever come out of the Disney Studio. Every animation fan should own a copy, especially when it comes in both DVD and Blu-Ray versions.

It can be pre-ordered over on Amazon.com with a release date of November this year.

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In Admiration of David O'Reilly

1 Comment / Animation /

This isn’t an “Anomaly Approved” post, at least not yet. While Mr O’Reilly is certainly worthy of one, I don’t have the time to write it now. However, I feel that I should point out that David is currently putting the finishing touches on his latest film, The External World, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival later this year.

Just in case you didn’t know, David O’Reilly is an independent animator based in Berlin who has received significant praise for his previous work which includes Please Say Something and Octocat. His visual style is quite unique and suits his style of fimmaking very well. I highly recommend you check out his Vimeo channel and spend a few minutes checking out his work.

Without going into too much detail, I am waiting in anticipation of his latest masterpiece. David constantly manages to surprise and delight and I’m sure this time will be no exception.

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Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Animation

Animation /

It’s already been established that I like the Scott Pilgrim comic series and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock this last week, you will have probably noticed that there is a film of the same name currently playing in cinemas. Never mind that it isn’t number 1, the best is yet to come.

Tying in with the film is of course, the obligatory video game but what really set the film apart from others base on comics is the fantastic short film broadcast on [adult swim] right before the film’s opening weekend. It is of course embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BitByGeWGxU]

What did you think? It’s pretty darn good isn’t it? I particularly like how the design plays very close attention to the comics. Too often we have seen an animated “adaptation” that looks like something completely different from the original material, in a bad way, shows like Teen Titans are proof that it can be pulled off successfully.

The film doesn’t stray from the comic script. This does work in it’s favour but perhaps only because it is a short film. Having seen this, I can understand why the Edgar Wright used the comics as a guide for creating a slightly more original film.

As I think I mentioned in the previous post, I would personally have preferred to see Scott Pilgrim in animated form. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the film (I did) but I just feel that animation is a far better form of expressing comics than live-action.

Titmouse Animation should be heartily congratulated on putting together this fun little film that offers a glimpse into what an animated Scott Pilgrim would look like. It’s great looking, funny, spares no expense (thankfully) and keeps all the comics details intact. We are unlikely to see something like this in the future but what we’ve got right now is just perfect.

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Toy Story 3's Record-Breaking Box Office Haul

Animation, Film, Pixar /

It hit the news over the weekend that Toy Story 3 is now the highest-grossing film of all time, with $920 million overall in the bank. While it is commendable that it has achieved this level of success, all is not what it appears to be.

There is a fairly comprehensive article over on Forbes.com that establishes how TS3, as successful as it is, has not quite broken the ultimate record for an animated film. That belongs to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which, when adjusted for inflation, raked in over $800 million at the US box office alone!

Of course there are a number of factors at play besides inflation. For one, ticket prices for 3-D movies have resulted in higher gross figures from smaller audiences. The latest Shrek film was blatantly pulling off this trick by having a higher gross than its predecessor with only half the audience.

Besides that, studios these days make more money from the likes of DVDs, broadcast rights, merchandise, etc. than back in the 30s, when a film had to make all its profit at the box office if its financiers stood any chance of keeping their shirt.

The best part of all this hubbub, is that the focus will once again be on animated films and their usual success. This can only be good for the artform as a whole and will hopefully encourage others to take a risk on an animated feature.

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The Longevity of The Secret of Kells

3 Comments / Animation, Film, Ireland /

It’s no secret among those who know me that I am a huge fan of The Secret of Kells, and not just because it’s Irish! I’ve already made my thoughts known in my review, which I wrote for Asifa-East’s Exposure Sheet way back in July 2009. What I’m posting about today is that the film is still making the rounds in US cinemas, in fact it is returning to New York’s IFC Center on August 14th, over a year after it premiered there.

What makes this incredible, year-long run even more extraordinary has been the unprecedented marketing campign, that is to say, the lack of one. The film was released in Europe in spring of 2009 and received the usual advertisement. However, such a campaign would have been prohibitively expensive in the US. The market is too big and crowded by the ususal suspects in California.

There was some talk about bringing the film to the States and things really got going when distributor GKids (the fine folks behind the New York international Children’s Film festival) entered the film for Academy Award consideration. The news that it was shortlisted for nomination gave the film a huge boost, suddenly people wanted to find out how a film they’d never heard of before was conisdered for an Oscar.

Thanks to its qualifying run in Burbank and of course, the Academy Awards themselves, the film was assured national showings of some sort. What has sepereated Kells from other independent films has been the potency of people’s word of moouth. OK, sure you have superfans like myself telling everyone to go see it, but in addition to that, I am pretty sure that every single animator/illustrator in the country has gone to see it and told all their friends to go see it to.

This type of promotion has been the key to the film success statewide. Well, that and the fact that it really is an amazing film. People listen to their friends and family more than anyone on TV or in the newspaper and The Secret of Kells is proof of that.

The film was released on DVD last year in Ireland (and sales received a very welcome boost with the Oscar nomination) and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD in the US later this year and will undoubtedly make its way into a high percentage of those who saw it at the cinema.

The Secret of Kells is proof that you do not need to spend massive amounts of money to have a successful film. Sure the money doesn’t flow through the box office as quickly as it does for a blockbuster, but it does flow for longer, far longer and the fact that The Secret of Kells is still being talked about 2 years after it was completed is proof that it is better to be a slow burner than a bright flash.

 

 

 

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Preliminary Thoughts On Disney’s Tangled

3 Comments / Animation, CGI, Disney, Film /

Poster from the Internet Movie Poster Awards Gallery

By now you should be aware of Disney’s upcoming film based currently titled Tangled. Those of us who have been following the film for a while know that it was originally supposed to be called Rapunzel and featured the heroine much more prominently than the hero.

Why the change, well Disney felt it had too many upcoming films with female leads and that it would basically be painting itself into a corner it couldn’t afford.

Perhaps this is true, but perhaps boys just aren’t attracted to “girly” films rather than films with females as the protagonists. There is a difference between the two. Plenty of Disney films in times past have featured female leads: Pochahontas, The Little Mermaid, The Aristocats (animals count!), Lady & the Tramp and of course, Snow White. As far as I know, plenty of boys liked those (even if they would never admit it publicly).

Disney’s argument is that boys don’t contribute enough to the gross of such films. Poppycock I say! They do, just not in ways that Disney expects them to, in other words, in giggling groups at the cinema on a Friday night. So what if they don’t contribute at the box office, that isn’t where most films make their money anyway. But that’s the subject of a post for another day.

A balance is of course necessary between male and female leads, which is why Pixar will is finally getting around to correcting their off-kilter slate of films. However, I think it is foolish to dramatically change a film when it is well through the stages of production. That’s a waste of resources and amounts to changing the destination when you’re halfway there. It would make more sense to change your next destination and plan accordingly.

The film will do well regardless, I just wish studios would be a bit braver and not pander to demographics and their supposed tastes in the chase for a quick buck. Better to make a good film that will stand the test of time than to one that will date quickly with people regardless of gender.

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What Does the Google/Verizon Deal Mean for Animators?

Animation, IT, Opinion /

There’s been a lot of hoopla on the internet over the last couple of days in regards to the announcement that Google & Verizon have joined together with the aim of constructing a framework that would help legislators create a new set of regulations governing the internet and the content served on it.

Basically up until now, all traffic has been treated as equal no matter what. That means that a text file is given the same priority as a video stream. In years gone past, this was not a problem, mainly because there was more text files than video. However, with the advent of YouTube, Hulue and netflix et al, there is concern that things will not be quite as equal as they were.

The reason? Well, there is a perception out there that the pipe owners (Verizon, Comcast, etc.) will begin accepting payments by content providers (YouTube, Hollywood studios, your local TV station) in return for allowing their content to flow faster through the pipes. The idea being that if you want higher quality entertainment, you will have to pay for it (because  the content providers will only pass the costs onto you).

When you think about it, that is not much different to now. If I want to see Mad Men or whatever the latest hit is, I have to pay for cable. The problem with the idea is that it favours certain players over others. Witness Comcast’s purchase of half of NBC-Universal. Can you take a guess who would get top priority on the Comcast network if bandwidth space became an issue?

That’s not particularly fair. It may hurt the larger players, but it will absolutely crucify individuals. Imagine if you’re an animator/filmmaker, and on your website you have a page with your demo reel on it. How well do you think the video will play unless you cough up a fee to the ISP to ensure that you’re viewers see it at full quality? Are you gonna pay a fee like that? I doubt it. I wouldn’t, and the truth is, I probably wouldn’t sit around to wait for your video to load if you didn’t either. Who loses out? Everyone.

The internet is proof positive that when there is minimal regulation in an area, business thrive. YouTube would not have even got off the drawing board if the founders had to pay a surcharge on the delivery of their videos. Time and time again, we have seen that consumers have realized that the only commodity that the internet costs them is time. Money doesn’t even factor into it ever since AOL went to a flat monthly fee.

Besides, they way things work now is pretty OK. If I want my videos to load faster, I’ll cough up an extra $10 a month to Verizon to bump up the speed cap on my DSL line.

The biggest problem is perhaps the assertion that the “mobile internet” is separate from the fixed one. This is complete nonsense. Granted, there is only a limited amount of the wavelength spectrum available, but that does not mean that mobile users should have to settle for a different standard. Heck, if you wait much longer, Wi-Fi should be near ubiquitous in cities across the country. Why should I pay a data plan to the mobile carrier when I can find an free hotspot?

Again, this only hurts the small folks, i.e. you and me. If it will become hard enough to watch video on the regular internet, how hard do you think it’ll become on the mobile one, which by the way, is just the regular one on a smaller screen?

Animators and studios (big and small alike) need an open internet now more then ever. Why should either the ISPs or Google dictate how they can and cannot run their businesses? Charge them for the connection, charge them for the extra, scarce services that they decide they need, but don’t run rampant over the top of them in the scramble for profits. In the end, everyone gets hurt.

[sigh] You’d expect that a free-market economy like this would operate a little differently wouldn’t you?

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