Luxo Jr – A Black & White Film About Two Washers

One day about a month back me and our very own Student Rep Shoma Jevons saw some chimp masks on Amazon for £10.00
We decided it would be an extremely good idea to purchase them so we did.

Then we decided to have a play date at the park and film our outing.
This was how “Luxo Jr – A Black & White Film About Two Washers” was created.

It follows ‘Luxo’ a young man who went to the park to count his washers.
However all dos not go to plan when ‘Luxo’ makes a short and unlikely friendship.

It is a film about washers and relationships, I hope you enjoy it.

A black and white film about washers (Post Production)

This is a nice film about washers. Will post up the finished cut soon stay locked!

Nausea (animation techniques)

I used to really like the animation Luxo Jr, but after being shown it around 400 times in the space of a week it now makes me feel rather sick thinking about it… Yes it’s very clever and I do agree that it makes inanimate objects (the lamps in this case) have their own personalities, but after being bombarded with this animation over and over again I now feel as if I have been experimented on Clockwork Orange style.

i think this is the main reason why I want to avoid animating inanimate objects, I feel ill thinking about it, which I associate with the trauma of seeing two lamps bouncing around over and over again with… 

I want to do an animation as far from luxo jr as possible.

 

Terry the Twister (Animation Techniques)

This is a quick doodle I did in the app ‘Paper’ on the IPAD.
I wanted to start experimenting with different colours, which colours work together, and which don’t. I think this colour scheme does work.

I think that using multiple colours fo shading really helps to make an image visually pleasing as well, for example, this picture would look pretty crap if the tornado was just a single, solid shade of blue.

Because I’m a peasant, I cant afford the mixers and different brushes in the app at the moment, so I just used a lighter blue and a white to add some variation, However when I get some P I’m definately gonna buy all the brushes and the mixer as I feel this is a great app to experiment with, ad is good for initial ideas.

Peace.

Evolution (Animation Techniques)

Here is my debut flash animation!
I chose to do this frame by frame as I love the really mad and quick style that it can achieve. It took me about 3 days at uni.

I found it really strange that I am enjoying animating frame by frame so much. Usually I can’t sit still for more than 10 minuites without causing some mischief, but something about the process really got me engrossed in what I was doing.

It’s called evolution because you see a lot of shapes and creatures form into eachother, also it’s because that it what the letter “E” represents on the spherical shape in the animation. Some people thought it was actually a reference to the illicit drug ecstacy… But that is naughty.

I do not endorse drug use… I endorse evoulution.

An important step for me in any type of work that I produce is music and sound. I pretty much knew that I would use the tune ‘Antique Toy’ by ‘Future Sound of London’ after watching the 1st second of my animation.

The animation was definatley lacking something without the music, It really gives it character and pace… I’m actually really pleased with this, and I’m really glad that I’m enjoying animation.

All in all, happy days guv!

Animation Techniques

I’m currently really enjoying this unit. I love animation, although I’m not too skilled at it, I think that it’s an amazing way for people to create. However when I think about the brief and the lecturers desire for the animation to revolve and around inanimate objects I feel the need to make a noise similar to Chewbacca after recieving very inasive surgery.

Why does it have to be on inanimate objects? Apparantly because they want us to show that we can hold some sort of narrative and show that we can give these objects characters and emotions.

I literally think this is just a piss take. If any of you reading this have played the video game ‘Fallout 3’ you will realise that just because something has eyes, ears and a nose dosn’t mean that it has any sort of character, or emotion to it. The game is brilliant, a personal favourite of mine, but the character animations and voice acting are some of the worse I’ve ever witnessed.

To me, the characters in this game are almost inanimate, or possible missing some chromosomes… Anyway my point is that I think it takes a lot of skill to also make a convincing character who is just a regular person (maybe drawn strangely in Flash)

This is what I really want to do. When I remind myself that it should be of an inanimate object my heart just sinks because the ideas I have floating around my head are the complete opposite.

What’s the point in me creating something if it does not feel right? I’d just be cheating myself, and not developing my skills as an artist.

This is a picture that i sketched on my IPAD whilst watching ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’ this morning. It’s of a guy, possibly me, looking pretty vacant as some sort of alien slug is snaking out of his ear. This could be a metaphor for the type of cretins that appear on ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’ or it could just be that I drew a character and then added the slug in afterwards for no reason, but anyway when I come to think of ideas I end up doing this. Not cans of coke moving in certain ways!

The idea of me having to create something that I disagree with makes me want to just collapse into bed and hibernate untill this unit is over… Tommorow I am going to campaign for my right to animate a person or creature. NOT A CAN OF COKE!

 

 

Dutty Animations (Animation Techniques)

Nothing is better than a dutty animation in my opinion.

I have a love for the colour schemes that Firth uses, they are often quite bland, which reflects the overall mood and atmospher of the characters and the story’s themes.

A lot of Firths cartoons push social taboos, another thing I like. For example, some of the animations are about mental illness, or drugs.
What I also love about Firth’s animations is his choice of music, such as Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin & Brian Eno.

The addition of music to animation can really set the mood, weather it be a more obvious use of music, or a piece of ambient music in the background.

It’s How I Operate. (Animation Techniques)

This photo and others like these pretty much sum up my inspirations and moods that I like to convey in most of my work.
I love the dark and surreal, this is probably why i’m such a fan of David Firth.

What I don’t like is when people are consistently trying to find their own theories as to the thoughts of the artist when they were making their work.

I think that sometimes it’s best not to try and find a meaning for some things, It’s more personal and respectful to the creator if you just watch and enjoy.

For example I don’t know what feelings or messages the photographer was thinking at the time, and I don’t stay up at night trying to work it out. I just know that I like it and that it does make me feel something.

I love it when artists mess around with reality, It’s like putting a new lens on life. Seeing the world through the eyes of Charlie Sheen or Oli Batstone after a long night.

Egg Monsters, Ecstacy & Onion Skins (Animation Techniques)

I’m Currently in the process of creating a frame by frame animation in Adobe Flash.

I have found frame by frame to be the most enjoyable and immersive style of animation for me.

I’m heavily inspired by the works of David Firth, who has done some frame by frame animations. I think it gives a great rough look to the animation and makes it looks old skool. It feels less clinical and more charming, like the animator made it in a smokey room filled with pizza boxes instead of a scientist in a lab waiting for his next pay check.

Anyway the picture above is a screenshot of over 200 frames of my animation with the onion skin function selected on each of them. 

I don’t really like onions, but it turns out that their skins are bloody useful.

I thought I’d post this screenshot, as i think it is itself a work of art.

 

 

 

Take This Pill (Animation Techniques)

I love this animation, It is by David Firth.

When you look closely at the movement of some of the characters, you notice how simple but effective the animating is, their walk cycle is essentially just vertical lines that jiggle about. I also think the colour’s used are great and simple and really reflect the mood of the animation.