Advanced 2D - Week 1

 In this lesson we looked at the brief and had an introduction to the module. By the end of the 'advanced 2D' module we have to create a 30 second animation and show how we generated the idea, how we produced it and researched it, to show the flow of our work.

We the3n went on to look at narrative and non-narrative and what they meant as well as experimental and abstract animations. This helped us look at the style of animation we want to create and got us to think about possible what style of animation we want to go into in the future.

Narrative animation - is the art of telling a story which has characters and a structure (beginning, middle and end). It involves continuity and unity of style, along with dialogue.

Non-Narrative -
Abstraction- uses shapes and colours accompanied with music, but doesn't have a structure or continuity.
Experimental - does not have a conventional narrative.


After learning about the above, it can help us to look at the style of animation we want to create and research more in depth about it so we can start the production of our animation.

 Homework -
For homework, we were asked to choose a Narrative, Non-Narrative abstraction and experimental animations that we like to show in the next class.

 These are what i chose - i looked at future shorts

Non- Narrative - Experimental - 

Benga 'Baltimore clap'

I like how simple the animation looks and the use of only three colours which differentiates between the characters. I love the use of this animation to the sound as it it quite catchy and you want to clap along, although the animation can be slightly odd in places i think it makes the animation stand out more. It doesn't have a conventional narrative but uses colour and shapes along with the animation which makes it experimental.

When i researched about this animation i couldn't find a lot about how the animation was created. I did find that it was created by a Kristofer Strom for the artist Benga as the music video. He has done many other animation similar to this one fro other commercials and music videos.

Narrative - 

The Art of Drowning - Diego Maclean

I like the sketchiness of the animation and i feel that it goes well with the topic of death the poem is about, although the animation itself explores the lighter side of death. The poets name is Billy Collins who is also the narrator and his dull sad like tone of voice adds emotion to the animation.

Diego Maclean‘s 2009 graduation film from Emily Carr University, has had been successful in festivals such as: Sundance, SXSW, Toronto Int’l. Film Festival, and Annecy.
I feel Diego managed to show the lighter side of death through what he drew and a long with the poem you don't think the animation is just sad the part about the fish makes you laugh, and so you feel better about the death topic.

Below is the poem the animation is of:

I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.

After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat.

How about a short animated film, a slide presentation?
Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph?
Wouldn't any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography-
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned.

Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance
here, some bolt of truth forking across the water,
an ultimate Light before all the lights go out,
dawning on you with all its megalithic tonnage.
But if something does flash before your eyes
as you go under, it will probably be a fish,

a quick blur of curved silver darting away,
having nothing to do with your life or your death.
The tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all
as you sink toward the weedy disarray of the bottom,
leaving behind what you have already forgotten,
the surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds.


Non- Narrative - Abstract - 

 Walter Ruttmann - Opus IV

I like this abstract animation because i like how the light and dark messes with your eyes similar to an illusion.
When researching about this abstract animation i found that Walter was a designer and creator for Lotte Reiniger and many other people in Berlin. This animation was created in 1925 and he used different shapes and colours to go along with the music.