#brianburns

In the twentieth chapter of Austin Shaw’s Design for Motion: Fundamental Techniques of Motion Design, Shaw delves into the subject of character design. Similar to screenwriting, Shaw suggests starting with a written character profile. This allows one to fully understand a character, which matters a lot when trying to choose visual representations of that character’s emotions. There is something called a 2d layout sheet that might follow that allows an artist to understand the different views of their characters. The chapter is actually pretty short, but Shaw suggests making a character-driven design board. Considering my film will be fully character driven, I appreciated the suggestions made by Shaw in this chapter, despite its brevity. 

 In the third chapter of Maureen Furniss’s The Animation Bible, Furniss, in heavy detail, goes over pre-production. She begins the chapter with choosing personnel – who will be on my team? For me, it’s Enrique, Duane and Ana. Then Furniss suggests a few questions to ask when developing a concept. All of these questions are things one should have answered before starting one’s project. Next Furniss goes into pitching ideas and then writing the script. I sort of feel like that’s the wrong order – but maybe not in animation. Timing was the section I was particularly interested in. “When pre-recorded sound controls timing, it is necessary to ‘read’ the soundtrack to determine how many frames of visuals are required to accompany it” (Furniss 73). This is important to remember as I use pre-recorded sound for my project. To finish the chapter, Furniss goes over style guides – similar to a style frame but a little longer and turned to often throughout a project, and she suggests a test run. I just did this for my project! 

 In the fifth chapter of Andrew Selby’s Animation, Selby goes over different production techniques. He starts with the origin of animation: a magic lantern. This probably isn’t the very beginning, as suggested in earlier readings, but it was an integral part in the history of creating animation as an art. Selby introduces cel animation and other 2D techniques. Eventually Selby gets to stop-motion – something we know a lot about at this point. I particularly liked learning a little more about armatures and intend to use them very soon. Selby wrapped up the chapter with where we currently are in production: 3d computer-generated animation. 3D animation has sort of taken over, at least in terms of feature length films. It has been consistently used in Pixar. Selby, like Furniss, also touches on sound and its importance in all productions. 

Our video isn’t posting so here is a link: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HxymL4cyWB1_Na3bt4O2VrT_vMVR7Wdc/view?usp=sharing

1.    Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival

2.    Los Angeles International Student Film Festival

3.    Animation Block Party, Brooklyn NY

4.    CineYouth Film Festival, Chicago IL

In the first chapter of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, the author attempts to make us rethink comic books and dives into how he came to really appreciate what comics can do as an art. The book is written in the form of a comic book – in a way that both helps and hinders my ability to learn from this resource. It hinders me in that I went through and read the whole thing without thinking to look at the pictures; I read it like a novel. It helped me when I went back and reread it by making myself look at each picture and notice how it creates action within a single frame. McCloud makes the point that usually comic books are “poorly-drawn, semiliterate, cheap, disposable kiddie fare – BUT – they don’t have to be!” (McCloud 3) Hey that sounds pretty familiar… isn’t that what people say about animation too? Because most people associate animation with the Nickolodean shows they grew up with – some poorly made, some well made, all made for children. Like animation, comics, according to Will Eisner, are a form of “sequential art.” (McCloud 5) McCloud really draws the comparison when he writes: “You might say that before it’s projected, film is just a very very very very slow comic!” (McCloud 8) THIS IS WHY STORYBOARDS ARE SO IMPORTANT. It helps you visualize your film (live action or animation) like it’s a very very very very slow comic.

In the second chapter, McCloud dives into the vocabulary of comics. To start, he goes about finding a definition of the word “icon.” Icon “mean[s] any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea.” I really like the part where he says, “When you enter the world of the cartoon – you see yourself.” (McCloud 36) There is something so different about cartoons specifically that allows us to to disassociate and take on the cartoon as real. One weird thing about me – I do remember thinking that the characters from Hey Arnold! were real living, breathing, humans. Considering that, it’s amazing that I’m graduating college in a month.

In the first chapter of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, the author attempts to make us rethink comic books and dives into how he came to really appreciate what comics can do as an art. The book is written in the form of a comic book – in a way that both helps and hinders my ability to learn from this resource. It hinders me in that I went through and read the whole thing without thinking to look at the pictures; I read it like a novel. It helped me when I went back and reread it by making myself look at each picture and notice how it creates action within a single frame. McCloud makes the point that usually comic books are “poorly-drawn, semiliterate, cheap, disposable kiddie fare – BUT – they don’t have to be!” (McCloud 3) Hey that sounds pretty familiar… isn’t that what people say about animation too? Because most people associate animation with the Nickolodean shows they grew up with – some poorly made, some well made, all made for children. Like animation, comics, according to Will Eisner, are a form of “sequential art.” (McCloud 5) McCloud really draws the comparison when he writes: “You might say that before it’s projected, film is just a very very very very slow comic!” (McCloud 8) THIS IS WHY STORYBOARDS ARE SO IMPORTANT. It helps you visualize your film (live action or animation) like it’s a very very very very slow comic.

In the second chapter, McCloud dives into the vocabulary of comics. To start, he goes about finding a definition of the word “icon.” Icon “mean[s] any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea.” I really like the part where he says, “When you enter the world of the cartoon – you see yourself.” (McCloud 36) There is something so different about cartoons specifically that allows us to to disassociate and take on the cartoon as real. One weird thing about me – I do remember thinking that the characters from Hey Arnold! were real living, breathing, humans. Considering that, it’s amazing that I’m graduating college in a month.