tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72649913615073375032024-03-17T00:17:00.318-07:00SMFA AnimationA blog from the Animation crew at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-17289813214210633942011-04-23T12:54:00.000-07:002011-04-23T13:16:28.154-07:00Pas de DeuxWhere would we be without Adobe today? How could we possibly manipulate images?Well, in case you have already forgotten--I know I sometimes do--it bears mentioning that people have been doing the same things we're doing with Photoshop long before Photoshop came along.Norman McLaren's "Pas de Deux" (1968) is truly a masterpiece of image manipulation. The title is the name of a type of ballet dancesmfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-47888127662754258562011-04-21T02:36:00.000-07:002011-04-21T03:03:12.993-07:00North American Film Festivals and the Fate of AnimatorsI've been to the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival twice now, and it's given me a tiny peek into how people find work and get noticed in the independent animation community. Cards are exchanged, demos are handed out, promotions are held and there are competitions even for high school and undergraduate students just starting out. It struck me as very healthy to the community of artists smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-34522220228140451682011-04-20T20:16:00.000-07:002011-04-20T20:43:07.801-07:00"The only thing was to stay at home and wait for it to happen" Caroline Leaf - The StreetAfter watching the hand-crafted animations of Caroline Leaf , I felt intrigued. There was something so therapeutic about her work, the color scheme, the music and sound effects. I enjoyed how her art told a clear story about the loss of a loved one, dealing with the death and the family's reaction. I wish that there was more animation made in this style today, even as a young adult I would watch smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-61699596163629750422011-04-20T18:52:00.000-07:002011-04-20T20:55:00.424-07:00Confronting DeathThe dynamic, beautiful animation When the Day Breaks addresses the emotional turmoil of a young female anthropomorhpic pig character. She witnesses the death of a total stranger and the experience sends her reeling. In the aftermath she puts the death in quiet perspective through an animated exploration of the city in which she lives, including to the dwelling of the stranger who was killed.The smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-30141589862303766342011-04-20T18:36:00.000-07:002011-04-20T18:41:37.117-07:00This little Piggy went to market, This little Piggy wishes she had stayed home<!--StartFragment--> When the Day Breaks is a cartoon animation, with a theme that uses the song, and a plot that uses it as a double-entendre. It begins with a Chicken, who finishes his breakfast, and goes to the store to buy more lemons, and biscuits. Meanwhile, over on the other side of town, a cheerful Pig sings the song’s title to herself as she peels potato skins for her breakfast. As she smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-29709109828979129732011-04-20T15:22:00.000-07:002011-04-20T15:23:17.499-07:00There Will Be A TIme When We'll Be Nostalgic About This.The thing that I respond to most in A Letter To Colleen is the frankness of the time and place. This could have been any suburban home in America. Even though this took place in the early '90's when people wore baggy Jenco's and Kathleen Hanna was getting into fights with Courtney Love; the story of testing out boundaries is timeless. Being young thinking everything at the moment is so important smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-15778686407742850122011-04-20T14:51:00.000-07:002011-04-20T15:11:52.756-07:00Post-OscarIn searching the internet for more information on Frank Mouris, I discovered very little past what I already knew of his Oscar-winning animation: Frank Film, made in 1973. I did happen upon a website taken from the April of 1999 issue of Animation World Magazine titled On Winning an Oscar. The article interviewed Frédéric Back, Gene Deitch, Faith Hubley, Tyron Montgomery, Jimmy Picker, and smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-57305796345072927462011-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:002011-04-20T13:14:12.974-07:00The Animator Who Flattened BambiMarv Newland started his animation career in LA with the animated short Bambi Meets Godzilla in 1969. from here he animated commercials for a short period of time lasting until he moved to Canada. While there, he worked on animated advertisements for Sesame Street and Educational Television. He also worked on pieces of longer films. He co-designed and story-boarded "Super Joe." He did other smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-34509054806832821682011-04-20T11:04:00.001-07:002011-04-20T11:44:36.005-07:00Norm McLaren's NeighborsNorm McLaren was born in Stirling Scotland in 1914. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art. His earlier works involved scratching the enamel off of film and painting on it. Two of his earlier films won several prizes at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival.McLaren moved to New York just before World War II, and asked to join the National Film Board of Canada a few years later. In 1952, McLaren smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-37919499268518367852011-04-18T11:26:00.000-07:002011-04-18T12:16:11.324-07:00Martha Colburn's World of AnarchyStills from Martha Colburn's "Myth Labs" 2008Martha Colburn is one of my favorite contemporary animators, and having been able to see her work and listen to her speak at the Museum School last semester was definitely a highlight of my academic career at the Museum School. My favorite animation by Colburn is "Myth Labs" (2008) and "Dolls VS. Dictators VS. Deerhoof VS. Evil" (2010). Her marriage smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-30497421101805830262011-04-16T11:03:00.000-07:002011-04-16T11:34:21.057-07:00The Draw of the Dark and MysteriousPolish artist Walerian Borowczyk is not too well-known today. Or perhaps he is, though not necessarily for his animated short films. Trained in painting at the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, Borowczyk first earned public attention as an artist through his poster designs for cinema features, which earned him a national award in 1953.Soon thereafter he found his way to animation, and produced some smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-70850023616047233822011-04-13T23:45:00.000-07:002011-04-14T05:28:42.816-07:00Michaela PavlatovaEarly Czech animators were faced with the misfortune of Soviet censors scrutinizing their work. Michaela Pavlatova was fortunate enough to miss these times in Czech history, but they are evident in her work in other ways. Absurdity and sexuality seem to be a response to the "sphere of personal relationships rather than the Communist State" in her work. Michaele Pavlatova has claimed that real smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-23514472226501366482011-04-13T22:57:00.000-07:002011-04-14T00:18:41.768-07:00Igor Kavalyov is an animator born in Ukraine in 1963 at the time part of the USSR. Igor animated a short in 1990 called Yego zhena kuritsa. I haven't any idea what the piece means however I am in love with the illustrative treatment and the kinetic residue on even the stillest of frames. In moments of stagnancy the animation still jets color about abstractly within its strong graphic containers smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-58265601234565547352011-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:002011-04-13T21:11:16.444-07:00Bjork has good taste.Revisiting an old tidbit of information from a previous animation course, "Human Behavior", the music video to the song of the same title by singer Bjork, gives little nods to the classic short film "Hedgehog in The Fog". The references, most notably the hedgehog running through the woods, the setting, and the small hint of the latter's musical score, are neat to see in the more current piece. smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-36935684960774289022011-04-13T19:24:00.000-07:002011-04-13T20:19:23.199-07:00The Quay Brothers: The Cabinet of Jan SvankmajerThe image above is a still from The Quay Brothers' animation The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984). In a world of banal objects and structured environments a series of events both surreal and unexpected are wielded into the world by these objects. In dissecting the structure and mind of Jan Svankmajer, The Quay Brothers (pictured below) create a clever dialogue with the master animator, but alsosmfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-17220168244458903602011-04-13T19:14:00.000-07:002011-04-13T19:14:52.715-07:00Mythology and the UncannyThe use of mythology has been a constant theme in our class. In Harpya(Harpy) an extremely creepy and unreal short made by Raoul Servais. In the Greek Mythology Phineas who had the gift of prophecy angered Zeus by revealing too much of the future. He was punished by being blinded and left stranded on an island with a large buffet of food which he could never eat. The harpies always swooped in andsmfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-57263790514872795292011-04-13T19:10:00.000-07:002011-04-13T19:40:48.519-07:00Priit Pärn Born in Estonia in 1946, Priit Pärn is one of the most recognized animators from the area. Although art and animation were not Pärn's first profession, he always found time to draw. His drawing were featured in local papers and he eventually was asked to work with Rein Raamat on the film Kilplased. After this experience, Pärn directed his own film, called Is the earth round? In the years smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-54292298367225316562011-04-13T18:34:00.000-07:002011-04-13T19:01:34.938-07:00Jan SvankmajerJan Svankmajer is a Czech artist known for his unique surreal animations. He attended the College of applied Arts in Prague as well as the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. The study of puppetry greatly influenced his animation works; especially with the use of stop motion. Svankmajers animations are amazing examples of the stop motion technique and often smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-78348616733729156202011-04-13T18:04:00.000-07:002011-04-13T18:44:02.257-07:00Raoul ServaisRaoul Servais, an independent film maker "The Magician from Onsted" earned a world famous reputation. In 1963 Servais attended The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, this school has produced many animators and film makers who soon made it to The United States of America. Servais felt comfortable there because of a teacher named Albert Vermerien . Servais' first camera was made out of a cigar-box , butsmfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-30578612736353460352011-04-13T17:28:00.000-07:002011-04-13T17:33:37.123-07:00RESISTANCE IS FUTILEJiri Trnka’s The Hand is a puppet animation with a theme equivalent to the Twilight Zone. It is a story about an artist who makes ceramic pots, so that when the pot for his beloved plant breaks, he can replace it with another one. Here he lives his peaceful life, devoid of any awareness to events that would be taking place in the world outside. But then, he suddenly hears a noise coming from the smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-7839420601805112592011-04-13T15:32:00.000-07:002011-04-13T16:08:24.872-07:00Yuriy Norshteyn was born during a World War II evacuation in Penza Oblast. He studied at an art school, but his first career was working in a furniture factory. He soon took a two year animation course, though, and was able to find work at an animation studio. He was involved with the animation for the 1962 film "Who Said Meow?" He would work on about 50 films before getting the opportunity to smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-15781312146310692642011-04-09T10:59:00.000-07:002011-04-18T08:09:13.764-07:00Lenica and the Grotesquery of Ubu RoiThere are some high quality images from Jan Lenica's animation film, "Ubu et le Grande Gidouille," posted on one of my favorite image-sites, 50watts.com. The explosive, grotesque and surreal theatre work by Alfred Jarry is an inescapable one, revisited and re-made numerous times by the creative minds it attracts. Lenica's own aesthetic makes it his own, especially with his strong and bold, yet smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-6044331216605320882011-04-07T04:38:00.001-07:002011-04-07T05:10:33.578-07:00Self Reflexivity, Modernism, and the American CartoonWhile reading Norman M. Klein's Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon, one aspect that was fascinating was Klein's relations between the modern constructs of painting and the advent of modern American animation. The major characteristic that makes both a painting and an animation modern is self-reflexivity (as seen in the 1863 painting Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (The smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-37119500396924078832011-04-06T23:12:00.000-07:002011-04-07T02:48:50.712-07:00Disney World
Both Warner Brothers and Disney are incredible forces in film. Perspective on the origins and development of these major studios is incredible. Disney's successive failures before professional success. The bouts with Disney and his employes to the crossovers of staff to Warner Brothers. Considering the volume of internal drama its remarkable the amount of work that was produced, the stability smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264991361507337503.post-80520172941646872662011-04-06T22:39:00.000-07:002011-04-06T23:04:28.232-07:00The Art of Going Off-ModelOkay, so, I was going to start off by linking to an old post from John K.'s blog (the creator of Ren and Stimpy, the Ripping Friends, George Liquor, and renowned misogynist/bitter has-been), but not only can I not find the post, looking through all his remaining posts about Bugs Bunny it became evident I wasn't going to find anything nearly as relevant to the topic I wanted to touch on. It was smfa.animationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00657828981754900574noreply@blogger.com0