Contextual Influences in Art and Design: Animators, contemporary and historical.
Research a variety of animators and their films.
Explore their style; who influenced; what medium they used - stop motion, cut outs, mixed media.
Explore their style; who influenced; what medium they used - stop motion, cut outs, mixed media.
Tim Burton's; Corpse Bride:
Burton loved Stop - motion based films, he was influenced by impressionists' and expressionists' work, especially those of German origin. Tim Burton's rather wacky and cooky creations, are that of a Gothic style which is rather interesting and has a definite feel towards most of his films. Burton is quite frequently, famous for his dark and Gothic stylised films, these have been captured by the young and old alike and have a lot of power which has been captivating people from an early age. Also, Burton specialised media is Stop - Motion, and also Puppetry. Tim Burton on animation: -- 'There is an energy with stop-motion that you can’t even describe. It’s got to do with giving things life, and I guess that’s why I wanted to get into animation originally. To give life to something that doesn’t have it is cool, and even more so in three dimensions, because, at least for me, it feels even more real. With the large Marge thing or the dinosaur – any time we could throw in some stop-motion, the better. We could have had a lot more if they’d let us.' -- Corpse Bride Warner Bros Elizabeth Hobbs; The Last Regret of the Grim Reaper:
Elizabeth Hobbs is an artist who is based in East London. She trained at Edinburgh College of Art and then on graduating began publishing small editions of her own artist's books and prints under the name 'Spellbound'. She began making animated films in 1998 whilst undertaking a postgraduate degree at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. She made The Emperor with Animate in 2001 and in 2002 The Witches was commissioned by Cineworks in Scotland. In 2004 she wrote and developed The True Story of Sawney Beane about the infamous Scottish cannibal. This film was a co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and Red Kite Productions in Edinburgh, and has won many awards. In 2007, Elizabeth made The Old, Old, Very Old Man, about Thomas Parr, who reached the grand age of 152 in the year 1635. Elizabeth's style is quite mixed media, with the first one being used in tusche on paper, then the second one being painted and erased on a simple white bathroom tile. I found this particular piece to be rather quirky and it quite dark which is what drew me in to this particular animation. The name also drew me in, as it has that daunting feel of Death and is rather unpleasant. However, this is not the case here, this particular animation was quite uplifting and the sound of her voice made the animation seem like Dark. Disney; The Skeleton Dance:
The clock strikes midnight, the bats fly from the belfry, a dog howls at the full moon, and two black cats fight in the cemetery: a perfect time for four skeletons to come out and dance a bit. -- The night promises to be a scary one. Lightning flashes. The wind howls. A tree branch in the shape of a hand seems to grab for a frightened owl that spins its head around like a top. The clock on the church tower strikes midnight, sending the bats flying out of the belfry. Two cats on gravestones fight by pulling and stretching each other's noses like taffy. A skeleton rises from behind a gravestone, frightening the fur off the cats. But an owl's hooting scares it, and it retaliates by throwing its skull and knocking the bird's feathers off. It's time for the skeletons to dance; and they perform as no living creatures could. Written by J. Spurlin -- The Skeleton dance, for me is quite an interesting animation, it is quite the most imaginative and very quirky animation, I've seen. This animation features a haunting and yet hilarious vision and it quite immaculate. When you first see the skeletons their appearance you can somewhat see why in 1929 that some people thought that this was far too gruesome to be a cartoon. Also, the fact that is in Black and White enhances that eerie graveyard setting, and the fact that the animals of the owl, cat and dog is rather intriguing and can be somewhat strange and unusual too. |
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