Reviews

Two reviews I did about High and Low culture in make up advertising (VRF).

On this first advert, the make-up brand Rimmel London promotes a new lasting finish foundation. For this campaign they have chosen a worldwide model, Kate Moss.

The technique used on this advert is “collage” which gives an informal touch.
The collage is made out of three overlapping photographs of the model; the photos actually look like they have been cut out from a magazine, as they are not properly cut. The product they are selling has the same style, it also look like a cut out.
This effect actually makes me think of a corkboard, where someone has displayed pictures of models and celebrities he likes.

The typography used for the slogan Foundation stays put, colour holds true is also very informal, it looks like a label. Usually this kind of display typography has a black background; here they have chosen to put a red one to make the label stand out. When I look at the advert the first thing I spot is the slogan and the product which is at the foreground.
The other slogan Face the day is wordplay, as face has two different meanings, face as confront and face as features, and the second one is obviously associated with the foundation. I think what they want to promote is a foundation aimed at self-assured girls. Kate moss’s poses and look confirm that, in my point of view she’s a hard-featured woman and on the photos she always looks strong and self-assured. The clear message they want to come across is, “if you want to have a London look such as Kate moss, buy this Foundation”.

Also, the box that contains a description about the product is not very remarkable. It’s located on the left corner of the advert, and the size of the typeface is really small, and I think it would be the last thing I would look at. Even The brand Rimmel London is so much more noticeable than that, which is why I think they have displayed the description box just on top of the brand, so when you look at the brand you immediately spot the box.

On the second advert, Dior Skin promotes a foundation called Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up. The image of the campaign is the Italian actress Monica Bellucci.

The advert looks simple. Just two elements are put together on a black background, the model and the product. It’s not an elaborate advert.
Since the model and the product fill all the space, the advert has a straightforward message.

There’s a lack of slogan or text explaining the product, or even the name of the foundation; everything you need to know about the product is on the bottle, which is on a bigger scale for the customer to be able to read.

Monica Bellucci appears to be nude, such as is stated in the name of the foundation, Nude.
On the picture she seems to be sat down and just a part of her shoulder and leg are showing, she insinuates but doesn’t show anything, which gives an elegant effect.
She stares at the viewer with her deep and suggestive look, which she uses to convince the customer to buy the product.

The lighting is really smooth on Monica Bellucci’s body, she seems to have a spot light behind her, which makes her hair looks luminous and the contour is very sharp, that makes her stand out from the black background. The product also has a smooth light that clearly defines it; we can guess what the materials of the bottle are, glass and shiny metal.

These two different adverts clearly reflect High and Low Culture.
Rimmel London’s advert is directly aimed at teenagers and is more casual and edgy. The composition looks a little bit too overcharged, too many things are put together and you don’t know which one to look at first.
Dior’s advert, would be more aimed at women, it wants to reach an older and more sophisticated public.
The advert has a finished look; it’s pure and denotes perfection. No slogan or text is needed, when the customers buy Dior products they perfectly know what they are buying, whereas in Rimmel’s campaign there’s a lot of text going on explaining why you should buy this product.
Also the name of Dior’s foundation is much more elaborated and appears to be much more luxurious: Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up, whereas Rimmel’s one is more straightforward: New lasting finish foundation.
The style of the bottle also makes a noticeable difference. Dior’s bottle is delicate, luxurious and elegant. Whereas Rimmel’s bottle is made out of bendable plastic, also it seem to be small which comes handy if you want to put it in your hand bag.

In my point of view, the boundaries between High and Low Culture are quite clear in these two selected brands. However, in Rimmel’s advert they could become a little bit blurred, because this brand has chosen a very well-known British model to promote their product, which could reflect High Culture. Apart from that I can’t see any element of Low Culture in Dior’s advert.

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Contextual studies sessions

Just a heads up for people considering a few weren't at todays guest lecture (which was a graphic designer by the way, a change from the scheduled jeweller) that next weeks session will be a New Media designer.....and also Dave Haslam (if he can be arsed coming in).

Please also note that due to a miscalculation in room bookings we will be having our lectures in room 101 probably until the end of the year now, this room is just to the right of the escalators when you climb the main stairs. It's pretty small, but the desks are actually parallel to the floor unlike those wonky ones upstairs.....




- Doritos update: Less than two days to go, i'm in pre-production but going for a very basic look so I should be animating tomorrow. At this point it's looking very unlikely that i'll do it in time.....

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Doritos King of Ads

Just a heads up for anyone who is still interested in this thing, the deadline is midnight (or rather, a second before midnight....pedantic bleeder!) this Friday so if you're submitting something then you'd better get that zimmer cracking!

I tied up all my loose ends for certain other project last night at 3am so I only read the Doritos brief for the first time this morning, I really wish I would've done something proper for this a while ago because a few of us were viewing some of this years entries earlier on and there aren't actually all that many which really stand out. I'm still viewing the latest entries at the moment in their different categories but so far it seems that the vast majority of submissions haven't even bothered the read the brief....which is a bit of a shame considering that 30% of the marks come from sticking to the brief.

Kitty pointed this one out to me and I think all of us were agreed that this is the best one that we've seen so far, it's very creative and but i'm still not sure that it stuck to the brief. There must be some absolute crackers out there surely?




It also appears that a lot of people are going down the amateur video shoot feel in their living rooms to mimic the 2008 winning entry. Poor show old bean, poor show.

I'm going to try and produce something for it depending on how the week goes, I did some research today and also took into account the celebrity judges panel and what I think they might be looking for individually. I have one or two ideas so I will try to rack my brain and get one of those into order tomorrow, a 29 second storyboard shouldn't take too long.....which would leave me Thursday and Friday.
Will I do it? .....hmmmm.

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Presentation box

A little pre-presentation teaser for you. This is a box I made for my infographics brief, it's styled on the old 80s Atari game boxes to catch the eye of those who remember them.

Essentially the same imagery as my presentation board but displayed in a different way, allowing for a choice within different environments. And also introducing an interactive element for people to browse the product at their will.

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adidas

Apologies for the radio silence this past week. I’ve been in London at the Marathon Exbo with adidas. I’m a foot specialist on the running team there and I had an amazing week! I managed to get a few quick snaps of the set up to write a review about the visual design.



I arrived on the Tuesday and got straight to setting up. When you attend places like these, you completely take for granted the amount of effort that has gone into creating the look. We had to do everything from, dressing the mannequins to putting the adidas stickers on all of the boards etc. It took a good 48 hours to finish but it looked super when it was all done. We had a massive space, and the designers had to make sure it all matched and that it created an iconic look and feel to adidas. The ways in which it did this was;
- the colours. There was a common feel of blues, greens and blacks. This gave the exbo a very futuristic look. Which I think was to make adidas look modern and up to date with all the latest technology (which we are!!)
- the typography. adidas uses the same typography over everything which again emphasizes the iconic look for the brand. The font is very simple, bold and easily legible. It also has connotations of fun and youth. Again, these are all words that adidas would also use to describe their brand.
- the shapes. There were so many shapes and movement in the set up which made it look extremely exciting and interesting for people who walked past, for e.g. the footwear circle, the micoach stand etc. It wasn’t just a basic set up with footwear and apparrel laid out. If anything, it looked more like an obstacle course which obviously fits in with the sporting genre.
- Extra props. They were little extras that added to the overall look of the place, for e.g. colourful bean bags, bright wardrobe boxes. These may seem small but they definitely made the whole room seem much brighter and fun.


We also had a blank wall which was for kids to write on, and on the other side of the room was a bigger wall for adults to write their ‘impossible is nothing’ quotes. This was hugely popular. To the point were people were lining up to write on it, and the doodles went all the way around the room instead of just on one board. This shows how popular interaction is. People love to get involved and place their mark.



Micoach is adidas’ new personal coach system which plays live audio feedback into your ear when you run. This particular product had its own stand and feel to it. There were big tv screens projecting a film throughout the day. Using mixed media like this made the audience more involved and again made adidas seem much more hip and up to date.



I felt very proud to be part of such a great design set up. There were a few points I wanted to put down of things that I appreciated. The little things that people forget but as designers we need to remember;

the stickers for all the logos
the colour of the floor and the material, for e.g. carpet? Wood? etc
the interaction for people
the banners
everything overhead
the colours
the shapes of the furniture
seating
lighting
signage, for e.g. ‘pay here’. Different ways to present this.

I really enjoyed my week, and I loved our set up. Visual Merchandiser? Mmm...too many possibilities of careers.

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STUDENTS - 8 TUTORS - 0

I'm referring, of course, to the number of students from our group who came in to school today compared to the number of tutors. I didn't actually count the students that came in but i'm guessing it was about 8, but the number of tutors was definitely ZERO.

Attendance must improve tutor folk, or the lunatics will take over the asylum....

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SAVE OUR DYING KIND ROLF HARRIS..

Rolf Harris attacks the Government for failing to support animators

The cartoonist Rolf Harris has attacked the Government for failing to support the British animation industry.

Published: 7:30AM BST 06 Apr 2010

The cartoonist Rolf Harris has attacked the Government for failing to support the British animation industry.

Harris, the Australian television presenter is widely remembered for shows including Rolf Harris's Cartoon Time on BBC One, said the Government was failing to protect the “rich heritage and wealth of talent in animation in the UK”.

Although the British animation workforce is one of the most recognisable worldwide, with successes including Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builderand Wallace and Gromit, the industry has halved in the last five years.

Harris, who turned 80 last week, said: “I feel I have an empathy with those working in animation, probably because my first job on television was drawing cartoons and, later, one of the most fulfilling programmes I did was ‘Rolf’s Cartoon Club’.

“It saddens me to learn from my friends in the animation industry that business is disappearing overseas, due to lack of Government support here. There is such a rich heritage and wealth of talent in animation in the UK.

“Many other countries give tax support in this area and it’s a great shame that more isn’t being done here in the way of tax incentives to match those given to the film industry. Let’s enable the home grown UK animation businesses to compete internationally.”

Animation production in England has fallen from 84 per cent to 28 per cent in the last five years, although the world’s animation industry has risen to an estimated 70 billion pounds, according to Screen Digest.

Harris, is patron of the newly formed group Animation UK, a new campaign to preserve British animation, joins a growing call to protect British children’s programmes.

One per cent of the 113,000 hours of children’s programmes broadcast last year were new commissions made in Britain, according to a recent report by the House of Lords which expressed concern at the increase in imported programmes on British television.

Oli Hyatt, chairman of Animation UK, “As a child, I used to love Bagpuss, The Magic Roundabout and The Wombles. As a country we are great at producing children’s animation. But over the last five years, over 50 per cent of the industry has dissapreared because it is so much cheaper to commission animators outside of the UK, like India and the US. Unless some action is taken, here’s a real risk of British animation disappearing altogether, which would be a big loss culturally and economically.”

The organisation has called for tax breaks, like those in Ireland and Canada, and a Government-backed animation fund.

Save English animation

SIR – The English animation industry is at a tipping point: it either survives or dies.

Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder, Noddy and Wallace & Gromit are all programmes that have turned England into a recognised centre for animation. However, within a matter of years, we will not be producing any such fantastic properties as a result of tax breaks and government incentives in other countries.

As a group of broadcasters, production companies and animators, we are calling for the Government to put English animation on a level playing field with the rest of the world. We must remain competitive and change must come soon, before talent leaks abroad, taking the industry with it.

The Government spends millions on educating some of the best talent the industry has, only for them to ply their trade abroad, lured away by the promise of jobs. Animation has contributed millions to the British economy. As an industry that has a heritage that we can be proud of, it would be unforgivable for it to disappear from England.

The Government has the ability to save the industry. It has already put in place a system to support film-making; it can do the same for animation. We hope that come 2012, the year of the Cultural Olympiad, we still have an animation industry we can be proud of.

Oli Hyatt
Founder, Blue Zoo Productions
Gregg Lynn
Managing Director, Chapman Entertainment
Howard Litton
Managing Director, Nickelodeon UK
Miles Bullough
Head of Broadcast, Aardman Animations
Jeff Dunn
CEO, HIT Entertainment

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Documentary about the History of Pixar Animation

Documentary about the History of Pixar Animation and a look at the First Years of the Pixar Animation Studio.

http://www.icefilms.info/ip.php?v=103059&

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HOMAGE OR STEALING

SIMBA/KIMBA

You may remember the Great Disney picture, Lion King of 1994 and you all must have been excited to meet all this fresh new characters unless you was living in 1960's Japan watching the animated series. Kimba the White Lion then your probably thinking...... wait a minute.....

see the comparisons on the video below ......

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TOON THOUGHTS ! ANIMATED MOVIE PREVIEW 2010

SHREK Forever After seems to be getting Bad ratings...Already..... in the USA

I Remember SHREK AND SHREK TWO vividly in my mind but hardly remember Shrek Three..all i remember is Justin Timberlake was a voiceover , right ?

what happened to the series..?

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON - doing well in the states. i watched it two times on the IMAX at Odeon. and i loved the movie..The story....the character design...even the score in the movie was great...............the way there used 3D wAs ALSO Top-notch..especially on the Dragon Sequences and the Final Battle With the Queen Dragon at the end..VISUALDELIGHT..but...except the ending which kinda left me freaked out just the last 2mins....

Dreamworks are also releasing a new movie - called MegaMind-- Ive seen the trailer and it looks alright to me. i love the voice-over of the main supervillian, Megamind, hence the title of the movie and he is voiced by Will Ferell....... Brad pitt will play a super hero called Metro-Man MegaMind's nemisis and Tina Fey will reportedly play as star reporter Roxanne Ritchi and Jonah Hill is playing a character called Titan. the movie will be similar to Monsters vs Aliens from my sources..

Disney's New Fairytale is called Tangled..a new name which Disney has said that there want to try to appeal to "BOYS" ...hahaha...good luck with that...will be hard when you are based on a fairytale called Rapunzel when everybody knows thats a princess movie. however i will give it a chance. i like the prince in this and i think hes got a good personality going about him so ill look out for this one.

i did like the Disney's The Princess and the Frog that was released a while back. loved the characters, the settings and scenery of New Orleans and i especially loved the Villian in this movie who is called Dr Facilier and the Prince of the Story, Prince Naveed , was also a great character in the movie.

Monsters Inc looks like its having a sequel.. I liked the First one so i hope there do well with the sequel.. and speaking of sequels..in just a few months. Toy Story 3 will be in our screens. im looking forward to it.. new story..new challenges..new characters and new jokes to laugh about..i can't wait.

PICKS FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE 2010. at this very moment. How to Train your Dragon wins hands down....................... 98% on Rotten Tomatoes review Site............

I LOVE What dreamworks has done with this movie and it deserves all the praise it deserves...

no-matter how much money Shrek makes, the critics judge if it deserves universal praise and from the looks of things. it may flop but you never know.. that's the magic of show business. it may win people than first thought........e.g James Cameron's Avatar....... All lies on how Toy Story 3 does, (and not to forget Megamind and Tangled thats coming up) it has had a cult following for about a decade now..and it has a real chance to impress so I hope it doesn't pull a Shrek this time because I want Toy Story 3 to do well...

P.S Why wont there be a Incredibles Sequel-- i'm begging ya...lol...

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If two of the biggest companies want to offer you a job in there department..which would you go to?

( Based on the company's films in the last 10 years)

Walt Disney Animation Studios

or

Dreamworks Animation Studios

?

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Guess who?

ok peeps, since all my project files were at home I didn't really have much to do today....well, apart from research for the new brief....or stuff for Mike....but lets face it, it's the transition period....we can't be arsed!

Anyhoos....I thought i'd have a bash at the air-brushing thing, i've not done it since our lecture with Stio. Peeps kept coming round seeing what I was doing and trying to guess whose face I was re-arranging.....so for those of you who weren't here today.....

"Can you guess what it is yet?"

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Culture Popped

Check this out kids.

It's a great blog filled with all manner of cultural mash-ups, from Star Wars propaganda posters to the trust-worthiness of beards.

Have a good scroll through coz there's stuff added everyday so there's LOADS of stuff on there, you're gauranteed to find smething to float your boat!

http://culturepopped.blogspot.com/

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Global Warming

Hello all, as you probably imagine I'm still in Spain, because of the volcano! I'm not gonna say it isn't nice to have a few more extra days at home, but well the truth is I hate missing college and specially missing the beginning of a new project.

Anyway, over the Easter break I've been working very hard on my infographics, and here is a proof of it (I think...).

As I said to Alex and Stíobhart I'm gonna post the animation so you can see I've done the work on time (sorry I couldn't post it before but I didn't have access to the internet till now!)

Ok..here it is..just enjoy it :) Hope you like it!

Global Warming from Sara Llompart on Vimeo.

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NEW BRIEF - GROUP GANTT CHART!

Picture of the group Gantt chart we did with Dave for the new brief "Manchester Postcards".

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The Princess And The Bee

An idea that popped into my head...

Original Sketch...

After my first go with the Wacom...

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ALL HAVE A LOOK

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/liverpool/2010/04/15/social-boom-networking-launches-in-liverpool/?utm_source=Creative+Boom+Liverpool&utm_medium=twitter

Would be super great if any of you guys could attend! Let me know.

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Errrm....

Ok, so I know i should probably have this sorted by now but i haven't so SHUT UP ALRIGHT!!!!

Please let me know which of these styles you like the most---






THANK YOU!!

x

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STIOBHART - OK so it wasn't 15 mins but not bad!!!!

It turned out the clock on the microwave was faster than the clock on my phone, so 15 minutes was not an accurate time. So i decided to time it on the stopwatch on my phone on the way home. Here is my recorded time. OK!!!

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Poster boards

These are my poster boards to go with the Marathon Training inforgraphic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kACLdMiOUn0). They are printed on sweeeet glossy paper and mounted on board. They look beautiful.




I also created a downloadable PDF file with all the hints and tips I mention in the animation for people who want to keep a little wee copy for themselves!

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Did I ever mention I am always early...

I managed to finish my animation on Sunday after hours of tedious work! I popped it on youtube to get thoughts back from friends and family etc and apart from Rob whose comment states 'the narrator sounds like a wierdo ;)', the feedback was really positive. I have also sent the link to Runners World to see whether they would like to use it for their website;



I'm now just working on some post production work, I am designing a PDF file which would go with the animation that people could download with all the hints I mentioned in the animation!

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*sigh*

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Creative Block :(

I wish I had done one on how to cook a steak, bake a cake, in fact anything other than Robin Hood Tax!!!!!

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I heart Liverpool

Taking some photographs for a new Music Mag for Liverpool. It's just getting started, will let you know when the first edition says hello! Here are a few snaps from today; (all rights reserved to Kitty Pemberton-Platt)

I love Liverpool...no really, I do!





This last one is just for fun...

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Sketchbook

Here a few pages from my sketchbook, for the infographics brief! I think I've cracked getting my sketchbook style into the animation piece.

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Flash - Will it endure?

I've been hearing a lot about the forthcoming HTML 5 lately, and how it is supposedly going to retire Flash in terms of its career in web design. What makes me wonder is....will Flash still continue to be developed if only for the sake of animation and applet creation?


I remember back when Flash came onto the scene, we were on dial-up internet at the time and any website at all which used it didn't just take a long time to load (even images at that time took minutes to appear).....it completely crashed the computer. I hated it so much back then because browsing the internet was like playing russian roulette, trying to avoid the websites that may lead to another 15 minutes restarting the system. But as time went on and things improved we were able to see bits and bobs of it in action....I still remember the matrix-style animation which had everyone amazed with what could be done with it, especially when it became 3D towards the end.




And although it's been around 10 years since then, and technology has sky-rocketed into the age of gaming and social networking....Flash is something, in terms of web design, which still doesn't seem to have made it....with many web designers shunning it for its poor user accessability and choosing to keep their sites low key using languages such as Javascript, CSS and HTML to code them.
Whilst some sites can use Flash quite effectively and end up with a really stunning website, others still crowd their pages with it and even now it can still take a while to load them.

Even with plugins installed and updated every so often, I sometimes still come across flash websites which refuse to load. The deciding factor, however, may lie within portable media devices such as mobile internet technology and iPod/iPad gadgets where few (if any) flash websites will display at all.

....which is where HMTL 5 comes in.

HTML 5 is the latest version of the common web language which most people have at least a little bit of knowledge of, even this blog post has used it, I never imagined that the HTML short course that I took in the late 90s would still be of such use today. And yet what i'm hearing lately could very well help me to understand the other programming languages used in games development which i've never been able to get my head around.

Basically the new version of HMTL will apparently have the capability to be able to display Flash-like elements, but without the need of a dedicated plugin, meaning that designers could create flashy, creative, interactive websites without comprimising uesrs not having the ability to view them. It will also mean that these websites would be viewable on all mobile and iPod-like technology, all-in-all making Flash unnecessary in the world of web design.

Another thing that I have been shown with regards to HTML 5 is its abilities for games development, whole 3D games of the past having been re-created using just HTML! I think that this could very well mean another great surge in independant games development amongst individuals.


Although this is just the hype i've been given, whether it will eventually live up to this remains to be seen. But I do wonder what future Flash has in the next few years to come....
I don't think that it should be completely forgotten as its uses span more than just web design, if it were not for the effective use of Flash I wouldn't have had the success that I had in my Japanese studies recently.

I don't really know the ins and outs, but from what i'm hearing it's looking like a bright future for web design. But is it the end of the road for Flash?

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Problems with Flash

Ok, so over Easter I have worked a lot on my animation with Flash, and now I call the software FLASH CRASH!!

Because of the amount of images in my animation it kept crashing every few minutes so here are a few things I did to slightly improve it;

- decrease the size of my images in Photoshop. (its quite time consuming but saved me a lot of crashes)
- worked from a external harddrive a lot of the time.
- I created a new project file for every few scenes - seems silly but it worked.
- Press the 'eye' button on the folders you arent using, so they are invisible on the screen, it saves Flash from having an overload trying to put all the images on the screen.
- every hour or so give the laptop a rest - it works well after a little sleep or restart.

I think that's it! I have had quite the problem with it over Easter so unfortunately I can't go back and make tiny little changes which I wanted to but overall I am pleased!! Only got a bit left to do :) yaya!

Hope everyone else is well, see you Tuesday!

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Stir Fry!!

My house love Stir Frys! We pretty much rock at cooking a mean stir fry. One thing I am always mesmerised by, is the colours inside the pan, aswell as the smell.
A few nights ago I decided to whack out my camera and take a few snaps. I had a bit of a dentist nightmare yesterday so I cant eat for a few days, so looking at this pic is slightly torturous!! But I thought I would share just one of the images with you guys, it may get your Japanese Taste buds tingling...This image hasnt been edited either - thats just how beautiful it naturally is.

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New Dr Who - UNT - title sequence

As some peeps may be aware from the advertising all about the place, this Easter saw the arrival of the new Dr Who, Matt Smith, and from what i've been hearing since....it sounds like he is already a favourite of the experts.


I am not a die-hard fan myself and I have never seen any of the episodes from the 60s or 80s era, but in the mid-90s the BBC started showing re-runs of the 70s shows which spanned the era of both John Pertwee and the ever popular Tom Baker....so I watched these aswell as the movies with Peter Cushing which used to be on TV quite often.
When the new era came about with the introduction of (local lad!) Christopher Eccleston I watched the first few episodes to see what it was like and i've kept watching since, I was a bit dubious about David Tennant's portrayal at first but likened to it later on with the thought that it gave the character more depth.

I know a few hardcore Dr Who fans whom I wouldn't dare give my own opinion to.....they can get quite violent about their passion......and up until recently they had been telling me how David Tennant's portrayal was up there with the best of them. But it sounds like the creators have hit the right note with the latest Doctor because after only the pilot episode screened just last week they are telling me that Matt Smith's Dr Who portrayal is already the best ever.


I myself wasn't expecting much based on what i'd seen before watching it, but I was actually really impressed with the way they had wrote this particular episode to bring in the new Doctor.
But what I wasn't so sure of was the change in the opening title sequence.

The opening for the previous series was very modern and quirky, I thought it was ok and it fit the mood of the series fairly well.




And with the new sequence they have changed the typography to give it a feel of the original series....which again ties in with this new characters traditional image, the nice use of the letters to make up the tardis in the sequence is quite a nice feature. But i'm not sure about the sequence as a whole, the music seems to be lacking something which underwhelms the piece.....and the graphics look a bit too clean and perhaps not chaotic enough. What do you think?

My mam watched this with me and she actually thinks it's much better, purely because "there's no flashing in this one".

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Review - How to Train your dragon

Went to see this film today with Louis and we both loved it! It had all the elements of a beautifully filmed live film and they realised this amazingly with animation. It had ambience, great lighting and a believability......I was completely drawn in. Of course it did help having the 3D element and it was in fact the first film I have seen in 3D that actually worked. I have found that a lot of films have been brought out in 3D and it has been pointless and unnecessary, but the whole element of speed and flying was definitely enhanced wonderfully through the element of 3D.

The dragons, were amazing, me and Louis came away wanting a pet one, they were shown to have cat like qualities and the use of eyes as a point of communication was very effective. It is all about the eyes!!!! There is a lovely part when they make friends as seen on the clip above, and the dragon decides to share his food with the boy. It uses alternative communication brilliantly and reminded me of when you feed a baby and have to use head gestures to get the point across. Such a simple idea, but it makes me wonder would I have thought about that! There is such a lot to take into consideration to make a piece beautiful.....I need to watch more films....is that possible!!!!!

I am a bit of a sucker for a tale of mythology and action and a all ends well tale, but even without this I loved the film, because I think you would have to have a hard unchildlike heart to not be drawn in. It had all the style of a film epic with great panoramic views and music and it showed how far and fast CG is moving. My favourite moment was when there had been a massive explosion and the ash flew around the cinema, the lighting was low and the sound almost completely silent and the ash was floating around your head. It was tres tres cool!!!!

So a definite thumbs up for this film....go see!

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A film made just for me!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_lMihSKkgA

It won't allow me to embed but check it out a full length animation in 3D about OWLS!!!!!....."Legend of the Guardians" and it even comes out the day before my birthday....made for me. Check the link and you will know what I am talking about! So exciting!

Happy Easter all xx

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And another thing....

Here's another thing i done recently.

The other week my mate asked me to make a quick poster for his band who were playing at the Academy supporting The Automatic. It was not to be printed, only to go on the band's facebook/ myspace page. He asked me on the day of the gig, so i did a quick one just with 'Tonight, Academy 3' on it, and used a photo i'd taken at a previous gig. He seemed to like it and by way of payment got me into the gig free (ordinarily 15 quid), in to the bar he runs - Sound Control - free (ordinarily a fiver) and got me numerous free Jack Daniels (estimated value 30 to 40 quids). So I was pretty pleased. Does that count as paid work? I like to think so.

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A thing i've been doing...

Alright blog monkeys. Here's a thing I've been doing. I was meaning to take some pictures of Shelley getting bigger for ages and didn't get round to it because of all the house stuff i've been doing, but finally took some the other week. I've been playing around with a couple in photoshop since. Here's one for you to have a peek at.

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easter lea-egg table

you want wit?... you want reparté?... you want riposte?... - well, you can bugger off!  i'm only doing this while on my easter holidays, as i'm procrastinating furiously, rather than go outside in the freezing cold to work on my motor.

so you'll have to make up your own football clichés, this month.

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How To Train Your *OMFGSOCUTE* -ahem- Dragon

Ok so I went to see How To Train Your Dragon the other day in 3D at the IMAX, if i'm going to see cuteness, I want to see it THIS BIG! Anywho....It was a Dreamworks picture so didn't really know what to expect as I think Pixar have the upper hand just a lil bit. Oh and the IMAX had loads of midgies in it =S so we had to quickly eat our Ben n Jerrys real quick for fear of attracting them ='(

Sooo...Dreamworks seems to have this habit of giving their humans no real... 'character' I think, for instance, Pixars interesting way of creating Mr Hendrickson in UP, they always seem to be quite boring but ho hum.

The dragons were wonderful, not too imaginative but 'Toothless' the dragon you see on the adverts is soo cute you just want to take him home! The way they've characterised the dragons is great, obviously taken from cats, but really well done. I was worried about the storyline at one point but alas, I neednt! It was really good and i'm really pleased with how they played it out. A simple story but enjoyable for everyone, I really recommend it. Go see it!

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Oliver Postgate

Did anyone by chance catched the BBC four programme on Wednesday night about Oliver Postgate....

Well as I need to do more reviews I thought this might be a good chance to do one about this programme because it was interesting.







Firstly, who is Oliver Postgate and secondly, what did he do and finally, why should we know about him today?

Oliver Postgate was bus driver...(only kidding) was an animator but if you look at it another way he was the driving force behind trying to create more animations for children for T.V in the late 50's.
Postgate in his make shift studio (his bedroom) produced many simple (low budget) stop-motion animation some only lasting about 5 -10 minutes. This was also produced using low standing equipment and wiring a camera with a motor then wiring to a control to allow the person the capture single frames and later going on to set up Smallfilms animation company. Being able to write scripts, do the filming and being able to do the voices animations could be produced quickly.
Works he created is Ivor the engine (below), The Pogles, Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and (very annoying) The Clangers.






So why is he still important today? simple answer he was and still is a genius, the scriptwriter, the animator and the man with many ideas. Many if you look around today at small animations you find similar style, which can be classified as new contemporary. I think work such as, Ivor the engine I think is very inspirational and influential to animators today as the animations shows a strong force to push and experiment with equipment and not to rely heavily on one thing because you might get it done quicker but it might not be unique in style or language.

Hoped you enjoy.... P.S I am not that old to be asked did I enjoy them as a kid....

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