Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I decided I would do the HIV process. Not too much for the virus itself. Simply based on taste and interest in the biological process I could have done any of them. What I am really interested in is the social aspect of HIV and AIDS. Right from the beginning and from my own point of view as well, I noticed that HIV in the Western world is being toned down in scale and effect. 0.6% of the human population is infected by HIV.

This is from Wikipedia, I know, but as initial research it is fine. Whether the numbers are exact is not important, they are close enough.

UNAIDS and the WHO estimated that AIDS killed more than 25 million people between 1981, when it was first recognized, and 2005, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. Despite improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS pandemic claimed an estimated 2.8 million (between 2.4 and 3.3 million) lives in 2005 of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.
UNAIDS estimated that 33.3 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2009, up from 26.2 million people in 1999. They also estimated AIDS-related deaths in 2009 at 1.8 million people, down from a peak of 2.1 million in 2004, new infections at 2.6 million, down from a peak of 3.2 million in 1997, and the number of people in low- or middle-income countries receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2009 at 5.2 million, up from 4.0 million in 2008.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst-affected region, with an estimated 22.5 million people currently living with HIV (67% of the global total), 1.3 million deaths (72% of the global total) and 1.8 million new infections (69% of the global total). However, the number of new infections declined by 19% across the region between 2001 and 2009, and by more than 25% in 22 sub-Saharan African countries during this period. Asia is the second-worst affected region, with 4.9 million people living with HIV (15% of the global total).”

The largest amounts of people infected are located in sub-Saharan Africa. 70% is an unbelievable amount. Nowhere in Europe are we exposed to such misery and terrible human condition. This is what I want to show with something quit dramatic.

This is my first look at colours and stuff, done this morning before the tutorial. Nothing fancy, not meant to be biologically accurate either.

Photobucket

My animation will include the cycle of the virus but it will also include something to contextualize the infection.

After Effects Tutorial

This is the first After Effect Tutorial. The video is absolutely useless as this was more for practice and effects.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Life Drawing Session

Good life drawing session with a new model. This was done with craft paper.





Monday, April 11, 2011

Sylvain Chomet

Sylvain Chomet represents the renewal of classic animation at it's highest level. His beautiful designs contradict strongly with the specific style of 3D animation. The beauty of watercolour counter acts with the clean and sharp look of 3D modelling, though this is not always the case. Chomet himself uses 3D, even though he does hid it beneath his style. Though Chomet is the mind and art behind his films, his production are truly international, with work being done in France, Canada, the UK and more. His career started in the bande-dessinee(BD) an art form so dear to the Belgians and French. This heritage can be seen throughout his work.

Chomet started his studies in Angouleme, in the newly opened art school, to study bande-dessinee. Their he met Nicolas de Crecy, a now extremely influential BD author. It his De Crecy's unique style that is seen throughout Chomet's backgrounds, the characters being mainly his. Their association resulted in “Leon la Came”, and darkly humorous tale of an old man finding his grand-son, victim of constant stomach issues, and helping him to succeed in life. The story doesn't stop their, being full of bizarre and interesting caricatured characters. Chomet wrote the script, and De Crecy drew everything. This first major work, which is now considered a genre-defining classic, already shows the direction Chomet would follow in his career. This is also the style he would choose for his backgrounds, as shown in his first 30 minutes animation, “La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons”. Their again De Crecy and Chomet collaborated in what is a superb piece of animation. The nervous style of De Crecy married to perfection the characters of Chomet.

Chomet is now a clearly established on the 7th art scene. His unique style has seduced people around the world, giving a new life into 2D animation.

Chomet works with his time. Is style is unique, and while he does prefer the 2D illustrative medium, it does not mean that he only ever uses that. His use of 3D is always subtle, yet incredibly efficient. In an interview, he explains more about his process and the reason for it. He uses 3D mainly to represent vehicles, such as cars and bicycle. Drawing a bicycle is difficult, animating it even more, and the Triplettes de Belleville included a lot of them. He says that asking an animator to animate a bicycle was close to suicide. This when 3D comes in, as it allowed easier animation, and after receiving a clever texture, would completely melt into the style of the film.
Sylvain Chomet has a particular view of animation. He sees it as an art form, not simply as a commercial way of making money. He believes in the human adventure, and as Fiachra Gibbons, from the Guardian says, this “doesn't quite explain why Chomet, having had Hollywood studios falling over themselves to accommodate him after the huge and unexpected worldwide success of Belleville Rendez-Vous (or The Triplets of Belleville, everywhere but the UK), decided to set up shop in Edinburgh, which has little or no tradition of animation and only a tiny pool of artists to draw on. He is not quite sure why either. But he did.” (Gibbons:2010)

He greatly enjoys the non-speaking cinematographic technique. All of his animated films, from La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons, Les Triplettes de Belleville to L'Illusioniste, don't include much dialogue. This stylistic decision is easily explained by the experienced animator himself. Chomet says in an interview given to Animation World Network: “I’m very involved with the whole “line test” thing. For me, when you’ve worked all day on an animation and that moment when you see the drawings move, that’s a really magic moment, and there is no sound to it. I also think that an animation without the constraints of spoken words is stronger. If you have to fit everything to the words, all the gestural movement revolves around the mouth. Without it, you are much freer to create true animation, to talk through animation itself. Animation modelled around the dialogue is like something, which has already been set in stone, there’s less scope for interpretation. I have always wanted the animators to bring something to it.” (Moins after Chomet:2003)
Animation is the art of movement and dynamics. By giving free reign to his instinctual drawing, One thing that really shows, is his heritage as a comic artist. He started his career wanting to be a humoristic newspaper illustrator. This shows in his extremely caricatured style. His style has matured over time, loosing its eccentricity, but gaining in assurance and class. His first animated film, La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons, took the style to an extreme, the first design elements of the Triplettes present already. Yet the drawing was much sharper, its harsh lines exaggerating the form. In the Triplettes de Belleville, the line smoothes out but keeps the exaggeration of his beginnings. In L'Illusioniste, the exaggeration is almost lost, but a smooth and incredibly efficient line is found.

Chomet stays very critical of how animation is perceived in the world. Yet his view would not be called “passé”, but actually quit avant-garde. He is bringing an art form back to its original level. Animation had lost some of its magic and incredible results. Chomet is bringing it back. His lack of trust in Americans is interesting to point out. He sees the American industry, not the people, as being extremely preoccupied with money rather than the actual beauty of the film itself.

After the critical success of the Triplettes of Belleville, he agreed in an interview that: “At Cannes, I got the reception, which I would have expected from Annecy. And at Annecy, it was just absolutely crazy. The film has already notched up one of the highest foreign sales scores for a recent French production. Before Cannes, 25 countries had already acquired the film; it’s now 37, including the U.S., which was initially quite wary, as usual. I’m worried about the Americans. Will they cut some things out? I know that a lot of there appreciate my work. The problem is that the people in charge at the big companies are rather more censorious.” (Moins after Chomet:2003)

Sylvain Chomet has revived the art of 2D animation. Classical Animation is still being done around the world, but Chomet has given it an extra edge. He has succeeded in making it inimitable. His films would only work in 2D, and their success shows. His next project has everything of a masterpiece already written on it. Set in the Commune in Paris, in the late 1900’s, not much information has been leaked yet. The last hint Chomet gives us is a simple name. Baudelaire.

Bibliography

– http://www.awn.com/articles/people/sylvain-chomet-s-ithe-triplets-bellevillei/page/3%2C1
Visited on the : 05/04/2011 Philippe Moins – Sylvain Chomet interview.
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/10/sylvain-chomet-belleville-rendezvous-illusionist Fiachra Gibbons
Visited on the : 05/04/2011
– http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=1149786&clef=ARC-TRK-G_01 Claudine Mulard
Visited on the : 05/04/2011

– CHOMET, S. – De CRECY, N. 2002. Leon la Came. Casterman


Image Reference

– Image 1: http://ebooblog.com/EN/cinema/short-films-sylvain-chomet-illusionist-eiffel-tower-the-lady-pigeons/ Sylvain Chomet: La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons

– Image 2: http://williampedalson.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-top-ten-cycling-movies.html Sylvain Chomet: Les Triplettes de Bellevilles.

– Image 3: http://dvdtoile.com/CritiqueDvd.php?14485 Sylvain Chomet: Les Triplettes de Bellevilles. 

– Image 4: http://www.daemonsmovies.com/2010/03/27/lillusionniste-the-illusionist-russian-movie-trailer/ Sylvain Chomet L’Illusioniste.

Maya Rig

Maya Rig I haven't managed to finish everything. Still some naming to do and some joints to link together.




Friday, April 8, 2011

Art of Publication

Presentation1

The Jubilant Step Ladder

Log Line: A step ladder is left inside a shed. One day someone uses her and she is exultant. She runs away in joy and than has a laugh with a nesting bird.

Premise: The joy of finally being used.

Script:

Ext: Slow zoom of the shed. The wind blows, leafs fall from the tree.

Int: We have a look at the ladder. It turns its head as it hears sound outside hoping to be taken.

Int: Suddenly, a hand enters and grabs her.

Ext: We see the man putting the ladder down. As he puts it down, laughs at his face and runs away.

Ext: It runs and runs and runs. It jumps around and gets attached to a tree and laughs with a bird.

The Jubilant Step Ladder

My final animation. A bit shaky in the end, an interesting first try nonetheless.