Inbetweening: A Basic Explanation

     Animation has various techniques and things to discuss. For this post, I will give a simple explanation on inbetweening. With this technique, one takes their key frames, which are the main frames of the action, and add more frames in between. The more frames added, the better the animation. However, this is not always true as it all depends on the motion, its complexity, and the number of frames it needs. For instance, someone about to break down and on the verge of tears would require more frames to animate than a simple handshake between two parties. Below is a video demonstrating the use of inbetweens.

"Loving Vincent": Bringing Van Gogh to Life

     Recently, a documentary called "Loving Vincent" has came to the public's attention. While it may not seem like much, these frames were animated traditionally...with paint. Over 5,000 people from all over the world applied for a position to work on this film, and only 100 were accepted. They went through rigorous training to emulate Van Gogh's signature painting style as they went through every frame. Everything needed to be precise from the colors to the proportions of everything so the animation could be fluid. Over 1,345 paintings were discarded after 6 years of creative development. 62,450 frames in oil paints were painted over the course of the project as well. I am impressed by the amount of effort went into this film. The artists faced heavy criticism with "doing unnecessary work that could be done on the computer", but I admire how the team continued onward as they wanted to dedicate this to Van Gogh. The website is http://lovingvincent.com/ and below are two videos which go into further detail about this documentary if you want to know more about it.

I've Been Ghosting Along...

     A ghost in the world, a ghost with no home, this cat from another plane of existence walks around its owner's home after its death in this animatic. Throughout the video, the cat walks around and observes the owner's life after its death. It seems the owner struggles with the cat's death. However, after a while, they cope and manage with it by getting a dog. Out of jealousy, the cat causes mischief, though it decides to deal with the reality of the situation shortly after and move on from this world. I find the story to be moving. The art perfectly sets the mood and the colors go well with each other. It is impressive how the creator made these backgrounds on index cards and added the characters digitally as it shows how much work and love went into this. Below is the video for those who wish to see it.

The Guardian Series

     Created by NeroGeist on YouTube, this animated series features wandering individuals that encounter a special power. It is still in production, plot and animation wise, but there is still already much out to show. It is admirable to notice the difference in quality between videos as they become more recent with NeroGeist. One can tell he works diligently as he does all the animation by himself. In the first video, "The Guardian", an orphan walks around a forest only to be met by a mysterious spirit. He is then taken to a floating island to help the other spirits and becomes their Guardian. At the same time, in "The Explorer", this individual gains a power and witnesses his transformation. One more character is added to the mix as the Guardian rescues a drowning girl and gives her powers. 

     I respect this animator's passion for animating and fleshing out this series. He has to deal with college among other things, but is still able to continue onward. I'm actually looking forward to where he goes with this as it seems that there is so much potential and so many things to be explored. The music is astounding and it fits so well with the animation. Below are a few other videos from his series that he has posted so far.

Reversal of the Heart

     A wonderfully done animation thesis film, "Reversal of the Heart" keeps your attention throughout the whole thing. It took the animator, Carolyn Chrisman, two complete years with the help of her fellow animators to finish this masterpiece. This work features a dragon and a princess, whose fate was cursed due to her knight's gift for her. For revenge of killing her young for the gem in the necklace, the dragon turns his beloved into a dragon as well. The princess then struggles throughout the film to revert back to her human form.

     I admire the hard work everyone put in this film. Upon the first time watching it, I felt as if I was watching something straight from Disney. The art style is memorable as well as the scenes. I felt sympathy for the princess as she tried to overcome her struggles. I was glad to see the creator approach the conflict and how she managed to do something completely different with the villain rather than killing them off. One can tell Chrisman was dedicated to her film and that it paid off generously.

Hey, Mr. Sunday!

     "fake!fake!" by "A Crow is White" is a spunky video featuring an equally as spunky protagonist. The story seems to be abstract, but you can tell she is trying to overcome something. Her inner demons, a secret? Or maybe she just wants to be loved and accepted by all. It could be anything as the story is up to the viewer's imagination. The animation is bright, eye-catching, and just entertaining to watch. The character designs are remarkable and leaves a lasting impression on you as well. I would recommend this to everyone as the animation is so fluid and full of detail, it should be watched by everyone.

Below this post is the video itself. Turn on subtitles for the English lyrics!

Do You Ever Feel Like a Plastic Bag?

     It took 22 different animators to finish. Each one had to animate it to a man on his last legs trying to sing to Katy Perry. Why, it's none other than JonTron's "Firework" animated cover! 

     Even if you are not a fan of JonTron or do not know who he is, you have to admit there was a lot of love put into each part from the animators. For those who are unaware, JonTron is a guy who reviews videos games and movies on YouTube with a comedic spin. The idea for this video was created from one of his earlier game reviews, "Dinocity", where he did a small cover of this song at the end of that video and his fanbase called out for the full version. As a result, he stated that if he reached his goal for a charity livestream for "Teach for America" that he did a while ago, he would sing it. And sing it he did. With the help of an animator, Mike Bedsole, they were able to reach out to other fellow artists to make their own animations for the video.

Animator of the Month: Vivziepop

Image Source: Vivienne Medrano's icon from her Tumblr

It's time for the next Animator of the Month, and for this month of September is Vivziepop, or Vivienne Medrano!

A major in traditional animation from School of Visual Arts in NYC, Medrano works as a freelance animator. She is mainly known for her animated music video "Die Young" and her thesis film "Timber", which has monsters coming together to dance despite their differences. Zoophobia is a comic that she has been working on which features characters from her "Die Young" video. It takes place in a world that is completely different from our own with creatures having the ability to talk just like humans. 

Medrano's thesis film: "Timber"

Her illustrations and animations have a distinct style that is memorable and makes her stand out. They are always brought to life with her choice of colors and dynamic expressions. There's never a moment when looking at her works that makes you feel dull or bored.

Animatic vs. Storyboard

The previous post I made referred to a popular video that was made in the form of an animatic. For this one, I would like to show the differences between an animatic and an actual storyboard. For reference, I will use these two videos from a cartoon called Steven Universe, one a storyboard and the other an animatic:

The storyboard is more rough, as it simply shows the concept for the scenes. On the other hand, the animatic has cleaner lines and a lot more action happening, as it is supposed to be animated. The first video can be as rough as it needs to be to show the main poses for its sketches. It works for simple scenes that do not really portray any heavy movement, and animatics are better suited for action-packed scenes. However, that does not mean that animatics should only be used for scenes with that kind of content. They can be used for any scene to get the feel and timing of certain elements as they are played out. In the end, both prove to be useful and both are used for animated and live-action works across the world.

It's Like Magic!

On June 5th, 2015, a magical animatic was uploaded to YouTube. The video involves a necromancer named Leopold who is able to control otherworldly beings with music and Luca, a demon assigned to look after Leopold. In the video, Leopold summons an orchestra of spirits which in turn bring a ghost in the form of a demon. For those wondering about the term "animatic", it is an animated storyboard which is produced before the final piece for a sense of pacing. It can be used for any sort of film, but it is typically for animated ones.

I love this animatic as it has such a nice flow with the story and song. Every beat is considered important and one can tell a lot of effort was put into it. This was originally going to be fully animated with a crowdfunded campaign, but due to legal issues with the band's manager, the artist, yuramec, was unable to obtain permission to do so. It could be possible that since Mystery Skulls was already associated with another series of animation, Magic was not able to be cleaned up and finished. Regardless, the animatic is still enjoyable to watch and it brings me joy to find out that yuramec will bring back these endearing characters in a webcomic called "The Necropera" in the future.