The Evolution of Animation

Time to make up for lost times!

CGI has been one of the most polarizing forms of animation. And one that has been treated unfairly. Particularly on the internet. Now I don’t think that anyone reading this blog will be one of the people that lives in the land of digital surfing, but for me I can tell you that A LOT of people, particularly people older than me, constantly trash CGI. And the main reason why is because they are getting older and can’t deal with the fact that things change and advance over time! So freakin’ what! But another reason why is because of the lack of effort. Let me explain, with the traditional hand-drawn animation, animators and cartoonists had to painstakingly draw every movement with just a pencil and paper. They had little chances for error. It was a HUGE effort of hundreds to thousands of people to animate a half-an-hour movie or even a single season of a cartoon! It was crazy! But it also showed the dedication for people to put out their work. Well with CGI, not only is it cheaper to make, but also it does make the job easier to animate since you are using a program on a computer and can have more errors to allow. Of course both forms of animation still do have the same weight of stress with the animators, like finishing a project in a limited amount of time and the constant change in the style of animation. Not to mention that CGI has the risk of being deleted FOREVER with either being accidentally deleted or technical issues (viruses, system failures, and other bad tech lingo)! Yeah paper ages, but no one would be stupid enough to “accidentally” light it on fire!

Now this should not be a big deal since it is evolution! It’s natural for advancements in the field of animation to proceed in working with this new technology to make their jobs easier. It is not a regression, is PROgression! And for anyone who can’t seem to get this through their thick skulls...

 

Plus there are still 2D animated shows on TV and anime...so there's that.

Dang Rope

I have not made any posts about video games at all because... I have been playing video games. And to think I went to all that effort in class to convince Leeper that I don't have a problem. Oh, well. I probably do have a problem, but I'm not ashamed of it.

The two games that have consumed my time basically since the school year began are Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Super Dangan Ronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. I'm currently working on a replay of the first game so that I can complete all of the students' report cards.

I've explained the premise of Dangan Ronpa on the blogs before, so I won't go into it in detail again. It is not an action-based game by any means. It is more story-driven with lots of unique characters to interact with. The real action happens during a class trial, but between class trials, you get to leisurely walk around the school and hang out with your classmates. You can up the difficulty level so that class trials are more exciting, but I always play it on gentle because I suck at video games and I do just play them for the story, really...

Anyway, Dangan Ronpa is very interesting in that it almost REQUIRES you to replay the game. That is, if you're aiming to fill up everybody's report cards like I am. Some report cards require you to give people presents, which can only be purchased with Mono-coins. Mono-coins are a limited resource in the game, but you get about 70 or so of them with every class trial you complete. Still, this is sometimes not enough to get of the required presents since some of the presents can be quite rare, and you have to spend a HUGE amount of Mono-coins in order to acquire them.

Also, time becomes a very limited resource in the game. With how often students die, you have to be careful about who you chose to spend time with. For example, I could not get to Leon's report card before he died (spoilers, oops).

And some characters are unavailable at certain times. Byakuya, whose report card I desperately wanted to complete, is unavailable for interaction for the entirety of Chapter 2, as he spends his entire time in the library and will snap at you if you interrupt his reading. So, I had to play through all of Chapter 2 and some of Chapter 3 for the second time just to complete his report card.

I hope me talking about how I've had to replay the game doesn't sound like complaining because it's not. At all. I love this game, and it does have incredible replay value. There is an interesting twist at the end of the game, which I will not spoil, but knowing the twist doesn't make the game less exciting the second time around. In fact, it makes it really fun because you get to see all of the hints they drop, all the foreshadowing that leads up to that twist. The foreshadowing is done in such a way that it leaves players confused during the first playthrough because it would be boring if everyone just figured the twist out right away. But it's fun to see these vague hints and think, "Oh, that's what he's referring to."

Also, the characters are phenomenal. I think everyone can find at least one character to whom they can relate in this game. I've found myself falling in love with characters I used to hate and growing skeptical of those I used to think were decent.

And the second one is even better than the first, and I can't wait to replay that one because the characters and the ending twist are both way better but I'll shut up now because this is long.

But yes, Dangan Ronpa is a great game series, I would recommend it, and I can't wait until the third one is released in English. Until that happens, I'll just replay each of the other two games 30,000 times.

Little Dog Turpie

A dark, yet fun fairtytale animation we watched in class was Little Dog Turpie. The dog only wanted to protect his owners from the kidnappers who lived in the woods, but every time he barked to alarm them, the husband would cut off a part. Eventually, the dog is just a bunch of separated parts, and when the family really needs the dog's protection, the wife gets kidnapped because the dog remains unable to protect them. From lack of any better options, the husband puts the dog back together, and it saves the woman from the kidnappers. Once the wife is back to safety, she tears apart her husband and her and the dog and her husbands limbs live happily ever after.

I really liked how they took a story that could be extremely disturbing and dark, and kept it dark but made it more light-hearted and took a comical approach to it. Some of the scenes could have easily been made unsafe for kids to watch, but they chose to keep it a little bit friendly, without putting the quality of the story on the line.

The Mainstream Flock

Thinking about the video game conversation we've been having the past few class periods opened my eyes to some of the ways that I'm a part of the mainstream flock. (To define mainstream as I'm using it in this blog - well known, big money games, a large percent of which have a "tradition" or "formula" that is expected by it's audience, e.x. Pokemon, CoD, Legend of Zelda, Mario games, etc.)
Not that playing or enjoying mainstream games is inherently bad, or inherently anything at all. But wouldn't it be awesome if the general community of gamers expanded their horizons when it came to games and worked to discover smaller name games that play to their interests? Unfortunately, doing this  can also require an expanded wallet. :/ 

I find myself sticking with the big-name herd often, being content with my Mario side-scrollers, cart racing games, and party games rather than figuring out what entertains me about those and trying something new. Mario, Pokemon, and Legend of Zelda are comfortable to me - I know what to expect when I see those names and I don't have to think much, or get used to a new art or storytelling style. 

Ok, wasn't really comfortable with THAT...

But what would happen if I burst my Nintendo bubble and got into more indie games? Sure I'd have to think some more, but I'd probably also learn a lot more as well, and experience another artist's life and work.

I find myself in the same predicament with animated movies. I'm quick to see a Disney / Disney Pixar film because I know what to look forward to. Dreamworks has made some fantastic movies, but I'm always quick to compare them to that well known powerhouse. Why did I make sure to see Big Hero 6 the weekend it came out, but I still haven't gotten around to see Book of Life, which is just as if not more gorgeous and intriguing?
The answer is beyond me and it's definitely something I aim to change.

The short film "Duel" by Pavel Koutsky demonstrates how we lose our creative intake as we go into public schools and are taught what society wants us to learn. This film really stood out to me, because it points out what most kids who are strong creative thinkers are thinking throughout their grade school years. We can really learn that schools should incorporate and keep the classes that incorporate a student to express their creativity, such as film, journalism, choir, band, etc.

I love how near the end of the film, the students really become themselves, breaking free from the norm and finding their true forms of self expression. It is a film that shows you what you should strive for, and not to be molded into what society wants you to be.

127 Hours

127 HOURS is a film from Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning director of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. 127 HOURS is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clemence Poesy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident. Will they be the last two people he ever had the chance to meet? A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

ok, so i would like to see who all actually reads the blogs and is willing to comment so here is a brief list of some movies coming out in the future and i would like for you guys to comment on ONE movie you are excited for.

Hunger Games: Mocking Jay part 1
Penguins of Madagascar
The Hobbit: the battle of the five armies
Annie
Night at the Museum 3
The Woman in Black: Angel of Death
Taken 3
The Spongebob Move: sponge out of water
Fifty Shades of Gray
Cinderella
Paranormal Activity: the ghost dimension
Insurgent
Paul Blart: mall Cop 2
Beyond the Brick: a lego brickumentary
Avengers: age of ultron
Pitch Perfect 2
Insidious: chapter 3
Jurassic World
Ted 2
Terminator Genisys
Minions
Poltergeist
The Fantastic Four
Goosebumps
Peanuts
Friday the 13th

FYI...they are in order of when they come out.

BIG HERO 6

Disney did it again, but they did it even better!

I went and saw Big Hero 6 this past Friday and it was so amazing. Everyone should go see it and experience its awesomeness.

It was probably one of the best Disney movies I've seen because of the comedy, beautiful storyline, and adorable characters. I of course liked it more because it wasn't about finding true love and all that junk that gets tiring. This story was about actual love and courage and friendship. I almost cried like 3 times and it takes a lot for me to cry at a movie. The story was also fast paced but no part was unexplained. It was easy to understand but also had an adult feel to it. The comedy had both adult humor and kid humor which made the movie even better. They didn't over do the funny parts and they didn't under use the comedy. The characters are what made the movie though. Baymax, the big fluffy cute thing, was the perfect side character that warmed my heart and killed my soul. Hero, the main kid, was very relatable in a way and him and Baymax played off each other perfectly.  The other characters didn't take over the storyline or over power the main characters. Everything just complimented each other.

Of course Disney did their typical hero storyline, but it was still enjoyable in every way.

(also they give you a little surprise at the end so wait for the end credits)

Everyone should go see it, especially if they have a sibling. If not, go see it anyway!

Let's take a walk

One of the games that Blake mentioned in his presentation on Friday was a little gem called Dear Esther: a delightful if not slightly unsettling story and environment that is simply triggered by the player taking different routes to the end point of the story, which is told to you (if memory serves me well) in the form of letters the main character writes to Esther that he narrates to you.

Dear Esther is one of many in a genre that is sometimes referred to as a walking simulator. These types of games are often exploratory in nature; you have to go looking for the story. Some don't even give you a story, you simply go through a changing environment and figure out what kind of story exists there or just bask in the beauty of it. Some of my favorites include Dear Esther, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable and (a more recent addition to the list), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

I want to talk about the last item on the list for a bit. In The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (I'll shorten the title to The Vanishing for the rest of this little ramble) focuses around supernatural detective Paul Prospero coming to Red Creek Valley to solve a variety of murders and strange cases that surround one little boy: Ethan Carter.

Through out The Vanishing you're exploring the valley, and may I say it is one of the most gorgeous landscapes I have ever seen presented in a video game. Most of what you can see you can explore, and you are encouraged to explore as much as possible to find tid-bits of the story. The hyper realistic environment lends itself to another aspect of the game: it's an incredibly eerie game that tends to keep you on edge. (I really want to talk about hyper realism in horror and thriller games, but that's for tomorrow's blog.)

You don't meet many other characters and often when you do you're solving their murder. The wide open world with the limited interaction makes you feel so alone (another element that is common in walking simulators, but not always played to be as creepy.) The score is beautiful and well worth listening for. It pushes whatever feeling the environment and scene calls for; loneliness, a sense of foreboding, and even straight up fear.

I've gone on too long, but seriously get The Vanishing when cyber Monday or the big Christmas Steam sales roll around. If you want to get a look at how some of the mechanics of the game (which I don't have the time to go over) watch the demo on the Steam page, One of the developers goes through a bit of the intro to explain some of the more supernatural elements to the main character.

Mr. Hughes and His Words of Wisdom

I would like to thank Blake Hughes for coming and talking in our class last week. I am in awe of how much this man knows about the field I love, and I am ashamed of the fact that I didn't know many of the titles that he was listing. I am so excited to see his work be completed this year and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.  Project Oriana

Before I finish this post I would like to say one last thing. I originally thought that I never had the attributes to do well in Animation. My family were not artists and none of them could see why I did what I did, or why I was so passionate about art. Then I see people like Blake, Katy, and Alex and I think that there is no way I could ever do that. Then it occurs to me, just as Leeper said, three years ago those people were in the same seat that I am sitting in right now. So, as long as the time is applied, I feel like I might actually do well for once.

Now, although that was personal, I would like to expand on that. I have no idea where any of you are in your experience, but in the off chance that you are like me; I would like to say this to you. You are where you are for a reason, nothing is done without a purpose. God willing, you will do exactly what you want and you will be great at it, if not, your dreams aren't dead. Even if you don't shake the earth with the next major feature film; you can still have a great life doing what you love, so don't lose hope.

So, thank you again Blake, but for everyone else who feels like me. Great things are coming your way.

Once More Into The Abyss...

Once again, I am posting about video games. Seeing as though this medium will be my life's work; I feel obligated to talk about it a little bit more than most will. Now, I know I have said this before, but I was raised on Twisted Metal. I don't know if any of you know what that is, but this should give you a rough idea...

I also played Grand Theft Auto, Burnout, Call of Duty, and Darkwatch a lot with my father growing up. It was how we connected since neither of us liked sports. So, instead of the Superbowl we had James Bond marathons and destroyed each other with automatic weapons. Having had that experience as a child; I can fully said that video games have had no negative affect on me personally, I am a fully functioning human being with no intentions for mass genocide. In fact, those experiences just became a pursuit for the field. 

Now, I can not speak for the general public, but I think that video games are more of  a stress reliever than anything else. In fact, some mental patients are using Destiny, Bungie's latest installment, as therapy for their symptoms. (Man Receives Legendary Destiny Loot in Recovery) I actually did a science experiment in high school to see the affects of video games on average people. Between my friends, family, and neighbors; ages varying between 16- 50, male and female, and multiple video games on multiple difficulty settings; they overall result was positive. Their heart rate and blood pressure went down, they had better test results, and they felt better after the experiment (this was not tested but stated in interviews). So, I really don't think that video games are to blame for what happens in this world. After all, there were wars, genocides, and fighting long before the television was even invented. 

Success = Money?

Hello all, now normally I tend to not instigate, but I feel as if I should in this instance. Now, for many of you video games are recreation. However, I would just like to bring up the topic of competition. Now, the way I see it is the way I was always told as a child, "if you are good enough at something, why not get paid for it?" This points brings up one of my favorite teams in history. You will not find them on ESPN or Sports Center, as I don't follow athletic events, but you will find them on live streams. People of intro to DMA say hello to OpticGaming.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z01J6RMzkko (Mind some language)

Now, these people are not physically athletic, they are socially awkward, and they do not have doctorates. However, they make a ton of money at something they are good at. These people have amazing reflexes and great coordination so they pick up gaming very easily. So, even though video games may "corrupt" others; these people are making serious profit off of them.

So, are they successful? These men make more money in one day of video game competitions than many do in a year at a full time job. They aren't even that old and they could retire right now. They have millions of youtube subscribers and people who adore them, and ALL they do is play video games. That is it.

So, they live comfortably doing something they love, what is wrong with that? In this sense I find them to be very successful. Video game is an art and these are its DaVincis'.

Trailer Park Boys.

I have been watching an Netflix Original Series Trailer Park Boys over the past week or 2. I realize that some people believe that since it is an Netflix Original Series then it probably wouldn't be any good. But I strongly disagree because the show is actually pretty funny because how dumb the characters in the  show are, and because the main characters are always doing anything that they want to, no matter what. The last reason why I love this show is because of the drama that is in it.

Video Games

So, I haven't really posted anything on video games yet, so here's my long overdue post on them.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, I play video games casually and with no real intent but to just do something for about 2 hours. I don't really care about the stories in them, or the graphics, I just want entertainment out of them. That's just me. I played a lot of PlayStation when I was younger, and I had a Gameboy Advance Color and a DS. I played Pokémon, a number of games based off of movies and TV Shows (Scooby Doo, The Incredibles, Madagascar, etc). I had a lot of those types of games. I really enjoyed Pokémon, and one of my other favorites was Spyro. I did have a big problem with Spyro, no matter how much I like playing as the little purple dragon, the console would never let me save my game, and I got really tired of starting from the beginning.

Another particular favorite of 10-12 year old me was ATV Offroad Fury 2 - that game was just really fun to me. You ride around on a personalized ATV with personalized riding gear and just explore the different worlds, ride in races, or, my personal favorite, play tag with a beach ball. You could play in first person view, and all you could see was the handlebars and the road ahead of you. I always played in this view, and another fun feature was that the game worlds had boundaries, and when you hit one, it would send your player and bike flying into oblivion. That was always fun. It also had a really fun soundtrack.

 

The joy of this view

 

 

Now I don't really play much, sometimes I play Mario Kart, or Super Smash Bros. Most of the time it's Just Dance on my Wii, or I play Tetris online. Yepp, I play Tetris. So, video games, not my thing, mostly just a time killer for me.

Remember the Titans..

Remember the Titans is one of my all time favorite movies. I say this, because the whole team had an opportunity to come together as a complete team, and despite their racial differences were able to put all that aside to play together.  This is easily one of my favorite sports movies.