Research: Aesops Fables

In my assignment I planned to create little stories showing morals and animate them.
Whilst Researching I found out that I wasn’t creating stories I was creating fables. So I decided to research into Aesop’s fables and tried to understand his work.

Aesop's Fables
"The Aesop's Fables refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620—560 BC), a slave and story-teller that lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. There are many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as 'The Fox and the Grapes '(from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), 'The Tortoise and the Hare', 'The North Wind and the Sun' and 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf', are well-known throughout the world. In the 3rd century AD Apollonius of Tyana,"
(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop)

Aesop’s Fables contain a short narrative try to illustrate a hidden message.
Each of his fables has a simple moral that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. For example, the fable of 'The Tortoise and the Hare' declares that: slow and steady wins the race.

I asked myself what is the secret of his fables' appeal and how they are still around today. I started by reading some of his fables and noticed that they are all short, sometimes only a few lines and are never longer than a page. I think that this is why they are still remembered and thought of today.

I also think that part of the appeal is that not only humans, but animals, rodents, fish and even the trees and plants talk within his fables. In stories animals often make more sense than humans. When the animals do something controversial they seem to get away with it. I think that by using animals as characters, Aesop could speak freely and frankly without offending anyone.

Fable
"In its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale embodying a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. "Fable" comes from Latin fabula (meaning 'conversation', 'narrative', 'tale') and shares a root with faber, "maker, artificer." Thus, though a fable may be conversational in tone, the understanding from the outset is that it is an invention, a fiction. A fable may be set in verse, though it is usually prose. In its pejorative sense, a fable is a deliberately invented or falsified account."
(Oxford Dictionary)

Maxim
"Maxim. A fundamental priniciple or rule. A maxim is a wise saying, especially one intended to advise or recommend a course of conduct. In comparison to its approximate synonyms: saying, adage, saw, motto, epigram, proverb, aphorism, the term maxim stresses the succinct formulation of an ultimate truth, a fundamental principle, or a rule of conduct. The word derives from the Latin word maximus, "greatest", via an expression maxima propositio, "greatest premiss"
(Oxford Dictionary)

I really enjoyed reading and trying to understand Aesop’s fables, I would like to capture some of the magic of his work and translate it into the 21st century. I will try to make my animations more grey than black and white morals so that people can interprate them in different ways. I will start to create more storyboards and more surreal morals.

BBC Newtalent animation competition

I will be sending my animations to this competition when I have finished.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newtalent/comedy/animation/

The closing date for entries is midnight on Sunday 31st December 2006.

"During January 2007, our top 60 sketches will be showcased on the BBC New Talent website. The public will have a chance to vote for their favourites over this time, and these votes will be taken into consideration by our panel of judges."
(BBC Talent)

The go ahead!

Right! I've got the all clear from Jane and Carol so its GO GO GO !

Baby tree face test

Here are some character tests of the surreal character 'babyseed'. I created these tests to experiment with different facial features and expressions. I am happy with this character and am now starting to animate with it.

Animators Survival Kit page 40-66

I found my book mark at page 40! I started reading it last year but had to work on the Gameplay project so I had to stop reading. Today I read from page 40 to page 66. which is about 25 pages all together. I learnt alot about Extremes, Inbetween's, Breakdowns, Ease Out/In's, and Key's.

I also learnt that I am a "Straight Ahead" animator! which has lots of disadvantages :(
I will try to use the "Pose to Pose" animating process now with one of my animations.

Research: Richard Williams

Throughout this project I will be constantly referring to Richard Williams book 'The Animators Survival Kit' as it has all the animation know how I need for this project.

I want to have read the whole of this book by the end of this semester. This will truly help my understanding of weight in 2D and 3D animation.

Richard Williams 'The Animators Survival Kit' 2001 p001-342

12 weeks left

84 days left

342 pages in 'The Animators Survival Kit'

If my calculations are right I will need to read 4 pages a day minimum. Witch is OK I guess.

I think it will drastically improve my animation knowledge.

Research: Richard Golesowski

Richard Goleszowski.

Richard Goleszowski joined Bristol-based Aardman Animation in 1983, and began working on the likes of Morph and Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' video. He has also brought us the award-winning frolics of 'Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire'. He's also directed Aardman's hugely-successful 'Creature Comforts' series.

I have chosen Richard Goleszowski to research, as I like the way the lips move on his characters and animals. 'Creature Comforts' and 'rex the runt' are both made in stop motion claymation.

I am going to study his works on facial movements in his animation to further my understanding about lipsinking and emotion.The thing about rex the run is that it’s surreal but believable and that’s what I am trying to achieve for my animations.

here is some of his work's
'rex the runt'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTOivRZqMxw&mode=related&search=

Research: Don Hertzfeldt

Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is the creator of many short animated films. These films typically feature hand-drawn stick figures acting out combinations of slapstick and black humor along with heavier existential themes.

Hertzfeldt creates his films with traditional pen and paper animation, without the aid of computers. Instead he works mainly with 16mm or 35mm film cameras and occasionally employs relatively out-dated special effect techniques.

In 2001 the animator's fifth major film 'Rejected' was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. In 2002 Hertzfeldt was named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "Top 25 Filmmakers to Watch."

Don Hertzfeldt is one of the funniest and sickest modern animators working today. I plan to combine his style with my style then create some cool animations.

Don Hertzfeldt likes to use 16mm or 35mm film cameras as he can't see himself making a film in front of a computer. I am going to animate using flash as I have made some animations with it before and liked them.

He said “it’s just another tool, and the problem is that people don't understand that the format you shoot on is just as important as picking whether to shoot in colour or black and white. It changes your entire film”

I will take this into consideration when animating although I think this type of animation will suite flash perfectly.

To see some of his work follow the link below.

'rejected'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXlR-EMijk

Animation 2 Flower love

Story: Flower love
Simple nice Bob goes to smell the flowers but one gets stuck up his nose!
All the small flowers laugh as Bob goes crazy! Bob is about to stamp on the little flowers but when he looks up he see's that a massive sunflower is watching him and judging him! The sunflower kills Bob as the little flowers dance in his blood.

I got the concept for this from our criminal justice system. Would people be happier in the UK if the death sentence was brought back?

Animation 1 Baby Tree

Story 1 (baby tree)
Cute little seed baby tries it hardest to grow into a big strong tree, then Mr Chainsaw guy appears and kills him for the lumber!

I want to portray the emotions of a tree as if it was alive. You could say that trees are alive already and we are just murdering them. The true quote at the end forces you to think about the mass murders that some companies are committing for financial gain.

Test animations

baby tree test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lgz6twykNg

flower love test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuV11pbHRI

I have a story for both of them and am creating the storyboards now!

Test sketches

Here are some test character sketches I have been working on.
Whist doing these sketches I was thinking of small moral situations that these creatures could help me to portray in a humorous fashion. I will try to experiment further in this style to create some other surreal characters.

Introduction

Aim:
To produce several abstract characters that will interact with each other within 5 short humorous 2D flash animations.

Process:
I will start by sketching lots of abstract characters in black and white, once I have done this I will chose the best characters and start to develop them in a storyboard. I will then experiment with their movements, personalities, morals and emotions. I will put them into short funny situations also experimenting with voice over’s, lip sinking and style.

Research:
I will research into several animators including don hertzfeldt (rejected) Richard Golezsowski (creator of Rex the Runt) John Kricfalusi (Creator of Ren And Stimpy).

Outcome:
5 short 2D animation’s of funny abstract humour.