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.

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.

Pilot

Hello! This is going to be a blog focused on animation, covering everything from animated short films to animation techniques. I'm planning to become a professional animator among other things in the future, so I hope this blog will help others as it will help me! If my schedule permits, I might post some of my own animations every so often as well. If any of you want me to cover a certain topic or film, feel free to let me know in the comments!
-Oister