The Octonauts 

The look of the turtle in this show is smooth and looks very friendly, having a small details such as freckles on the cheeks and light blue spots over him. The eyes are also simple, they are pitch black with a small white spots making the creature look cute and innocent, moreover, by look of the creature, the target seem to be younger kids because of the facial expression and the colors given onto the character.

Pokemon

Comparing this look of a turtle to the others, it has bigger, brighter eyes, with a curled tail at the back. It also has a big mouth and two small nostrils. By the look of the design, it seems to be aimed at children a little older then 'The Octonauts', as the show this is from 'Pokemon' is a show about creatures fighting each other, to back this up, the creature looks it could fight, standing up on two legs and has a rounded body. 

T.M.N.T (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

The style these turtles give is that they mean business, equipped with weapons and bandannas, these turtles aim to look dangerous compared to the other turtles. By just the look, you know each one has their own personalizes, to add, the turtles are humanized as well, standing on two legs and having similar hands to humans. By the look, I can tell this is for kids who are into ninja styled battles and humor. As I know the characters love pizza and have childish sense of behavior, moreover, once again, freckles are introduced once more and are added on the childish turtle in the group, indicating he is the youngest and silliest.

Adventure Time

The design of this turtle is simple and very different from the others. For example, its has no fingers and toes, it has a crown and also has yellow hair. It's eyes are closed and by judging the way it is standing, it could quite old and innocent. The show is stars in 'Adventure Time' is aimed for kids with some sort of maturity, so judging by the look of the character, it goes for a suited look to the other characters, simple but somewhat detailed, such the pattern of the shell on its back and the teeth in it's mouth.     

Shape Sheet

Idea FeedBack

The feedback for the ideas I had given out were very helpful and motivating, some even gave me ideas. For example, for my second idea when it came to doing a retoscope animation of someone playing a guitar and colorful and amazing things are happening when he plays certain notes, the feebback I was given gave a small idea of developing the character, in which, what happens to him when he stops to playing. He could be inspired to do something after the sequence and wishes to achieve great things. 

 However, the idea everyone agreed on was 'Winter Butterflies', as the story tells of a traveller meeting a snowman looking for some warmth, the two travel through the forest and adventure towards a source of heat, the snowman finds what he was looking for and gradually melts in front of the weary traveller, he wish was granted and the traveller picks up the snowman's carrot nose and begins to eat it when walking away. The group thought this was a great idea as it aims to all audiences, and is heartfelt with an emotional bond between the two. I think, overall, this is the idea I'm going to go for for my animation final. 

  

Breaking Characters Into Shapes

Coming Up With Ideas

Shapes Of Characters

Mike: Soft, kind, all round, harmless, small, weak and sensitive. Stays close to his friends and is easily afraid. 

Sully: Strong, confident, bulky, at times, can be a scary. But deep down, he is a softy and cares for those who are close to him. 

Randal: Sly, slick, very self fish as he wants to always to be the best. Attention seeker, rude. 


Blu (Cycle): Kind, a little rude sometimes and self fish but cares deeply for his friend Mac. Quite adventurous and brave, wants to be heard most of the time and wants to be in a centre of attention.

  
Mr Incredible (Square): Heroic, brave, cunning, strong, fights for his family and for citizens.

   
Ice King (Triangle): Evil, sharp, stupid, very self fish, sometimes tries to care for others but ends up ruining everything, had a cheerful past until wearing the crown a few times he began to lose control of its power.

Studio Ghibli Research

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese computer animation film studio, it began in 1985 after the success of one of their films 'Nausicaä valley of the wind'. Throughout the years, the company have made nineteen feature films so far, including some short films, television commercials and a television film. After some years of their success, the company opened a Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo on October 2001. The company itself was owned by Toshio Suzuki, but stepped down on February 1st 2008, so Koji Hoshino (President of Walt Disney Japan) took over. The lead animator however, Hayo Miyazaki, confirmed his retirement on September 1st 2013, this lead to his son Goro Miyazaki, to follow his father's foot steps and continue the company. Recently through this year, Studio Ghibli have announced on making their first television series called 'Ronia The Robber's Daughter' that will be released some time in 2015.

The types of products Studio Ghibli have made are usually fitted with the fantasy/sci fi genre, films such as Castle in the Sky (1986) the first official film made by Studio Ghibli, Grave of the Fireflies (1988) considered one of the best and most powerful war films, My Neighbour Totoro (1988) In which this gave the company's logo, Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) which won the Animage Anime Grand Prix Prize and also the first film Studio Ghibli became partnership with the Walt Disney company to record an english dub, Princess Mononoke (1997) it was the first Studio Ghibli film to be a hit outside of Japan and begin their attention from the world, another is Spirited Away (2001) the film became the most successful film in Japanese history, it is also considered one of the greatest animated films of all time, it won a Academy Award for best animated feature at the 75th Academy Awards including a Golden Bear at 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, How'ls Moving Castle (2004) After a major hit in Japan, Peter Docter who worked with Pixar, dubbed the film into english, the film was also nominated for best animated feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006, The Wind Rises (2013) it was the highest grossing Japanese film in Japan, it was also Hayo Miyazaki's last film. 

 The techniques Studio Ghibli use is mainly focused around hand drawing with a mix of CGI, the use of CGI was used to help animators that had trouble with scenes that were too complex to create using their traditional animation, movies such as Princess Mononoke had this along with digital paint, that sped up the process of finishing the movie on time. To add, how this all begins is by a simple idea, the idea begins to develop and then the idea is made into a script. When the script is finished, character designs are made, what Studio Ghibli go for within their characters is that their costumes are usually based on their personality and what place they have in society, when the character designs have finished, the story board is drawn from the script, the artists illustrate key frames and basic movements first and then begin to sketch frame by frame, when this task has been done, the artists put the sketches on carbon sheets before being burnt on transparent cells. Color is then put on the drawings by hand, using water color, this gives the sketches more depth and detail, for the background, it is hand drawn and painted separately.The cells are then placed on the background, each frame is shot individually.
When it comes to dialogue however, the creators are given a choice to either do it before or after the animation, doing the dialogue before the animation does help the animators model the character's faces when the actors speaks, giving some realism to the piece. Last but not least, music and audio are then added to the film and then film is published.  

In conclusion, Studio Ghibli is a vast, creative company, that captures the hearts of the old and young with it's characters and beautiful stories. With stories such Spirited Away and My neighbour Totoro, with the water colour style backgrounds and well told plot, it captures the viewers eyes and makes them think that this is more than just a animation but a message,  saying that whoever you are, you can always succeed your goals. Taking risks and doing things you have nothing done before. The animation techniques they use are original and unique, knowing that when watching the film you know they have put blood, sweat and tears into their master piece. The animation takes time, patience and not to forget, frustration, meaning the companies artists and animators put effort into their work, which shows commitment to their friends, family and fans. The fact it is hand drawn is unbelievable, it is not rough drawn, its clean and easy to follow of whats going on, the characters all have a similar yet different look, all with their own personalities and their own fashion, speaking of which, the artists try and use fashion to represent the character's personality, with the colour and the way the wear their clothes. And also the actors and actresses, they record them saying their lines before the start of the animation to capture the facial expressions and feelings they show, it gives the artists a bigger picture of how they speak and react, drawing the little details of the cheek bones and the smiles the actor gives.                     

Character Design

Character design is the combination of physical traits and narratives.
 The look of the character has to be informed by personality and the context (Genre, location, setting.)
The face is the primary channel to express emotion of the person (Hence the many big headed cartoon character)

A lot can be said in the posture and body language. Hands are an effective way of expressing personality. How the character carries their weight also informs about their personality - particularly which body part they lead with.

Chest - Confidence, strength, heroic.
Pelvis - Lazy, laid back, chilled back
Head - Intelligence
Knees - Cowardice

Power and dominance revolve around expanding.

Power: Take space up + Expand
Weakness: Making small, taking small space.


Chest - Confidence, strength, heroic.


Pelvis - Lazy, laid back.


Head - Intelligence.

Knees - Cowardice

Studio Ghipli Notes

Bear Animation

On after effects I animated a bear, as simple as it sounds, it was quite technical. First, we uploaded the bear onto photoshop and separated the body parts into layers, then, we uploaded the bear onto after effects and made grouped them together, and frame by frame, I moved the body parts, making it look like it's walking.  

Animation Products Research

Film

The Lego  Movie

Year: 2014 (February 14th) 
Which company made it: Animal logic, a australian animation and visual effects studio at FOX studios. Produced visual effects and animation for films such as; The Great Gatspy, Happy Feet, the Matrix and many more. 
Who directed it: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller 
The animation style: Computer animated stop-motion
Target audience: Family. Especially those who have played with Lego as a child and those who still do
Purpose of the animation: The purpose of it to make it feel like a childhood movie, using the elements of stop motion, it feels and looks like an actual lego movie. It gives a colorful and comic look, making it stand out and make people take notice. 
What you like about it: In my opinion, what I like about is the range of colors and how smooth the animation is, it was clear to know what was going on in a scene and easy to understand. Moreover, the more you watch it, the more you notice things you didn't notice last time, so much is happening in the background because of the shear amount of detail and humor. 



Short

The Paper Man

Year: 2012 (November 2nd)
Which company made it: Walt Disney Studios 
Who directed it: John Kahrs 
Animation Style: Hand drawn/Computer Animated 
Target audience: Adults and children of all ages.
Purpose of the animation: To change the look of animation, mixing 3D animation with hand drawn which gives a unique and artistic effect, it gives a new look towards animation, in fact, it could change animation and its technology forever. 
What you like about it: In my opinion, I like it because it looks beautiful and charming, the way the animation and hand drawing come together is perfect, it kinda makes you inspired of doing something different as well. 




TV Series

Adventure Time

Year: 2010 (April 5th)
Which company made it: Cartoon Network
Who directed it: Pendleton Ward
Animation Style: Hand drawn animation
Target Audience: Children
Purpose of animation: The purpose of the animation is to give a colorful, friendly and eye popping look, it shows it's creativity to the audience very well and gives a simple look, allowing kids of all ages to understand clearly of what's going on 
What you like about it: What I like about Adventure Time is that it gives a colorful, simple look, that makes it eye catching. It gives a friendly, crazy sense and makes you feel welcome to the world of Adventure Time, for me particular, I feel like a young boy again watching something that reminds me of the shows I used to watch during my childhood.  


Web Series

ASDF movie

Year: 2008
Which company made it: Tomska
Who directed it: Tom Ridgewell
Animation Style: Adobe Flash
Target Audience: Teenagers 
Purpose of the animation: The purpose for the animation is to be simple, and easy to understand of what is going on, even though it is in black and white, it doesn't stop the shear amount of humor that is expressed within the video.
What you like about it: What I like about the animation is that it is smooth and very funny, it is a video full of funny sketches, what more could you want? Every clip is unpredictable and hilarious and will make those who love the video, reference it to their friends of friends endlessly.    


Music

Gorillaz - DoYaThing

Year: 2012
Which company made it: 
Who directed it: Jaime Hewlett
Animation style: CGI
Target audience: Teenagers and adults
Purpose of the animation: Through the years, the band Gorillaz have done 2D animation  for their music videos, this time however, they break the boundaries and go for 3D CGI, making the band members closer to realism for the audience.
What you like about it: What I like about the music video is that it gives a closer look on the band members of what their life is like, during the video, you see their three room apartment in a mess and random, crazy things appear, such as a bowl full of ears and a person in a fridge. It represents the band quite well of how close to insanity and weird they really are, which I like personally.
   


Advert

John Lewis - The Bear Who Had Never Seen Christmas

Year: 2013
Which company made it: Adam&EveDDB
Who directed it: Laurent Simon and Adian McClure 
Animation style: Hand drawn, stop frame and 3D models
Target audience: Adults and children of all ages
Purpose of animation: The purpose of the animation was to do something people haven't seen before, the creators of the animation even said they went out of their comfort zone to achieve such a task. Their main objective was to show what it felt to witness Christmas for the first time, with their hand drawn animals and 3D modeled backgrounds, it gave a sense of happiness and warmth, when the Christmas tree is revealed, you feel the spirit of Christmas rush into you. 
What you like about it: In my opinion, what I like about the animation is that its visually detailed and beautiful, with the use of colors and special effects, it made me feel welcomed to their world. 

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First Animation

This type of animation is called 'Retoscoping', how I did this was by taking a ten second video of myself and then exporting it to aftereffects as 'video to layers', this allowed me, frame by frame, to draw over the footage, it took a lot of time and patience but in the end, I finished it with this result.

AE animation

How I did this animation was by creating/drawing shapes on photoshop, each one with their own layer, I then exported it to after effects, merged the shapes together and created key frames for each movement. It was a simple process till i had to export the dialogue and sync the mouth with it, this meant I had to place each mouth moment in the order the dialogue starts. In the end, I got the mouth movements on the right spots.

Gifs

How I made the 'Fabulous' gif (Above) was by getting a video and uploading it onto Photoshop as video layer, frame by frame I edited the video and added my own text.