Class Presentations

I feel like everyone did a really good job of explaining their topics for their presentation. I really enjoyed Kayla's topic on web comics today. I had never heard of web comics until today, and I find the whole idea to be very interesting. I think that it is a great way for new artists to put their work out there for others to see. And like Leeper said, if you love doing web comics (or whatever form of art you enjoy), do it for that reason. Maybe you will become a great web sensation because of your web comics, and maybe not. But becoming famous should not matter in the long run, because if you really are enjoying what you are doing then you will want to create no matter what. And in the end, if you are not happy with what you are doing, then what is the point in wasting all your time trying to make others like what you are not happy with yourself?

Being Understood As An Artist

"After all, wanting to be understood is a basic need- an affirmation of the humanity you share with everyone around you. The risk is fearsome in making your real work you hand the audience the power to deny the understanding you seek; you hand them the power to say, "you're not not like us; you're weird; you're crazy."" This is another great quote from the book Art and Fear. I think that this really speaks true to many artists, we want our work to be understood in the same way that we feel, but when you are putting your work out into the world, you are making it vulnerable to many different perceptions from others. The truth of the matter is, not everyone is going to understand your work in the same way you do as the artist. I think that is better to make artwork that you feel a connection with and enjoyed making rather than constantly worrying about what someone is going to say about your work, because they don't understand it the way that you do.

Fears About Yourself

This book, Art and Fear is really an interesting book to me. I didn't think that I would enjoy it at first, because the first book we read at the beginning of the year was a little hard for me to follow and understand. However, this book is great, because it brings up all the fears I have when I am creating my artwork. As I am continuing to read through the book, I feel like it is helping me to understand that perfection is not the answer when creating your artwork. Error in artwork is a good thing because without it, there is no room for growth in your work. Something that I have learned this year in my drawing class, is that I really enjoy doing self critiques on my artwork, as well as hearing from others what they think of my artwork. It has definitely proven to help me to improve my artwork just over the course of the semester, I can see how much my artwork has changed for the better, because I had myself and others there to tell me works in my pieces and what does not. I have been able to learn from some of my mistakes and experience new techniques and mediums to see what works with my style and how it can make me better as an artist. I will leave you with this quote from the book that I really like, "For you, the seed for your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections are your guides- valuable, reliable, non-judgemental guides-to matters you need to reconsider or develop further".

Fear of Creating Art

I really liked the reading tonight in the book Art and Fear. It made me think about my own fears that I deal with when creating my own artwork. One of my biggest fears when creating my art is the response I will get from the people that see it.  Most of the time when I draw, I draw things that are familiar to most people, because I generally know the response that I will get from those types of drawings. But, putting artwork that I have created from my mind is so much harder, because I am allowing myself to be vulnerable to other's reactions to my ideas But, after reading this I kind of feel like my fear of what others will think is kind of silly. I mean, we are all different and feel things differently and that should be portrayed through our artwork and not everyone is going to respond the same way to the same piece of artwork. So, no matter what I create some people may like it and some people may hate it, it shouldn't be a reason for me to hold back my ideas and limit my creativity.


I also found it interesting that the idea of calling yourself an "artist" is more of a modern thing, because throughout history when people created artwork, they were not thinking of themselves when creating. None of their emotions and feelings were portrayed throught their work, it was more of a form of recording and a language to them, rather than expressing themselves. Today, artwork is more about expressing how you feel and what you believe, and that was not the case throughout early history.

George Lucas In Love Film

So, the George Lucas In Love film was obviously a hit with the class, everyone got a laugh out of it! But, even though it was kind of a silly film, I got something of meaning out of the film. When the professor/yoda was talking to George Lucas, he says "search not for inspiration, inspiration will find you". I find that statement to be so true, and it reminded me of a time that I did some research on Charles M. Schulz, and I found out that all of his characters from the Peanuts cartoons had actually been inspired by people he knew. In the film, all of the people that were with George Lucas on campus seemed to inspire him to create a character that was like them, and it ended up creating a great story. I just thought that the idea of letting inspiration find you rather than looking for it, was a good point in the story, and a great idea when creating stories.

Hoppipolla

The Sigur Ros film was so heartwarming!! I can't get over how adorable and sweet it was. I loved that these older people were just having a great time reliving their childhood. I think that it really goes to show you that you are never to old to have fun. I don't know what it was about this film, but it just made me smile inside and out. The music in the film was very light hearted and child like, and it definitely worked well with the film.

The film seemed to be relatively simple to make, and applied a great idea of never being to old to use your imagination and being able to relive your childhood. Over all, I think that this film/music video was a refreshing new take on what being a child at heart really meant.

"War Photographer" and Gorillaz

I was not a fan of Joel Trussell's film "War Photographer". I thought that artwork appeared to be the style of some goofy cartoon that you would find on Cartoon Network (which I am also not a big fan of). I did not think that this film would be appropriate for children, because they showed the use of alcohol and tobacco products. That should not be in children's films/music videos, as that would be considered promoting these products to people that were under the age. I know that this film was not made to be fancy and professional, but even taking that into consideration I just didn't like the style of it, or the alcohol and tobacco products that were used in the film.

On a better note though, I was completely blown away with the Gorillaz video. Yes, it was a little dark, but it was so unique compared to what I am used to seeing. I think that it is really awesome that they use animated characters at their performances and leave their identities unknown. But along with the other students in class, I am left wondering as to whether they actually perform live at their concerts or if they play the music on a CD or something. I am just absolutely amazed with the idea that they created this animated band, and that people will go and see them in concert, that is just so cool to me!!

Music Videos

 

The music videos today were pretty entertaining. I really liked the first video "I want a girl". I liked it because I thought it was a neat idea of finding random people to listen to a new song, and give their honest input on it. It was a great idea for a music video, because it was cheap to produce, but you still got a taste of the music, while getting other people's feedback, and seeing how they responded to the music that was playing. I felt like that was a really unique way of going about a music video.

The other music video I really enjoyed was the Johnny Cash one, where a bunch of different people would draw in a frame, and they put them all together to create a video for the song. I thought that was another wonderful idea of creating a music video, and it is definitely not something you see everyday, I think if more people saw that, it would really get some attention. I think that is was cool to see different people's artwork in the video and how they portrayed their own ideas in the song.

When Life Departs Class Discussion Response

In response to the discussion in class today about the film "When Life Departs", I would have to say that I feel like this film is perfectly fine for children to watch. I think that it allows young viewers to form ideas of their own on how they think death works, and even though that may not be the Christian idea of death that many of us grew up learning in Sunday School, it is still important for them to hear others thoughts on how death works in order for them to decide what they believe to be the truth. Even if someone thinks that not showing their child this film will make these ideas that aren't considered to be Christian go away, they are wrong. Going to school, they will be presented with these ideas from their peers and the same questions that the movie causes children to ask, will eventually come up anyway. I think that if children are living in a Christian home, they should be able to watch this film and the parents should be comfortable with it, and be able to explain to their child what is the truth, and the fact that not everyone believes the same things.

When Life Departs

Considering I am an animation major, I'm not too big on documentaries. But, I am going to give an exception to "When Life Departs", for two reasons, it was an animated documentary, and it absolutely touched my heart. I thought the idea was beautiful, and creative, and although it was sad at some points, I think that it would be a great film for children to watch. I think that it was interesting to see a child's take on death, and how so many different ideas children have on the idea of death. Talking with some of the other students in class, it kind of seemed like some of them didn't like this film as much, because it brought up some children's ideas that maybe God wasn't real, or that it was too sad, because the little boy's brother dies. But I think that it is a good film for children to see, because it can help them form their own ideas, and understand about death from their peer's point of views. All kinds of children have different ideas about it, and not showing a film to kids that talks about death, doesn't make death go away, its just pretending its not there for the time being. Kids should be able to have an understanding of death, and I think this film is a calm, age appropriate film for children on the idea.

Quiz 2

 

Out of all the animated films we have watched in class, I would have to say my favorite was Tin Toy. I understand that the baby was super creepy, and probably didn't do well for Disney Pixar because of that reason, but for me it made me more appreciative of Pixar's short films. It shows me that what they make seem so easy comes from lots of hard work, and in that film they hadn't mastered creating people with CG and it just proved to me that they have come a long way since then constantly working harder to make their software better in creating characters that are people in CG.

I have also come to the realization that if I try to create a short film like that, I will ultimately fail, because the technology that Disney has is not available nor the time, and amount of people that it takes to work on a short 5 minute film. I am better off coming up with an idea that will work well with the software that is available and do what I can with that. You can still create great films from CG and not have all the "fancy technology" that Disney has.

Pfffirate

 

After watching the film Pfffirate I have to say I was extremely impressed with the animation. No, it was not Pixar quality, but it didn't have to be because they utilized the program softwares they had, amd they did it well. I loved that they were able to come up with an idea that worked well with the software they had, by doing so, I think it made the film to be successful, and they were able to keep it affordable.

The film "After You" was great as well, I liked that the characters were odd textures compared to the rest of the background. And it was inspiring to see that a college student created that, hopefully I will be able to make super awesome short films like that one in the next couple of years to come.

Pixar Short Films

I loved class on Tuesday, considering we were watching Pixar short films! I had never seen the short film "Tin Toy" though before, and I have to say it was weird to see that not everything in the film looked absolutely perfect. I mean, when I see Pixar films I always expect everything in the film to look flawless. It was encouraging to see that they had problems when creating the baby in the film, because it just goes to show you how much work it actually takes, and what they make seem so easy is actually complicated, and I liked that we were able to see the work put into creating characters and them actually having flaws. It kind of makes me think "Wow! Disney isn't so perfect after all!" It makes me appreciate them even more because they do work so hard and mess things up sometimes, but they grow from those mistakes.

I thought it was really cool to find out that for each film that Pixar creates, they create their own software for creating the film. I had no idea that they did that, and I think that is so interesting and I'm sure it costs a fortune to create new software for each film. I also loved that when watching the short films, I was able to pick up on some of the characters and objects used and then I was able to relate them back to some of the actual films like "Toy Story". I guess they do that because it costs so much to create new software, so they want to use some of the characters and objects in the short films in their feature films as well to save some money. I think that is a great idea and a super creative way of doing it as well, it also makes it fun for the viewers when they are able to pick up on things like that.

Pixar

First off, can I just say how completely excited I was when I found out that our reading assignment was on "The Secret of Pixar Storytelling"! I was a little shocked that this is something we are going to be learning about, because I feel like Professor Leeper has been trying to steer us away from the idea that Pixar films are worth watching, and trying to get us to watch things that aren't as well known...well aren't as well known to me anyway. Don't get me wrong, I have very much enjoyed the things we have been learning in class, and it has helped me to be more open minded about films, but Disney Pixar/ Disney anything is what gets me interested!

One of the things Stanton mentions in this paper is "Be wrong as fast as you can. Get your ideas onto the page. The real gold is mined later." I found this quote to be extremely encouraging to me, because often times, I have an idea for a story but then give up on it, because I can't get it right the first couple of times I try it out. After reading this, I found that it can take 3 years sometimes to get a story the way that you want it to be. I shouldn't be so quick to throw my ideas away when they don't turn out the way I planned the first time. It is a long process, and I guess patience is something that I'm going to have to learn if  I really want to create something that is worth watching and that I will be proud of.

Something else that I felt like was a great idea, was turning down the sound when viewing the reels to see if you can understand the flow of the story. I think that is a very vital part of creating a story, you should be able to understand what is going on just through the images rather than sound, and I think that helps you to determine whether your images are effective in the film.

Caroline Leaf's Films

 

After watching some of Caroline Leaf's films in class, I have to say that I really respect her for coming up with a new way of creating films by using sand. However, my favorite film that we watched would have to be the one called "Love in the Cold", I found the film scratching technique to be really cool, and definitely not a common technique that is used.

When Professor Leeper said that one of his previous students asked why the characters were so ugly, I have to say that does not shock me. I kind of agree with that student in the sense that, it is not the typical characters we were used to seeing growing up, like those happy perfect looking Pixar characters. It is a different technique of art in creating that needs to be respected, I think it is great to see other ways of characters being portrayed than what we are so used to typically seeing, it opens our minds up to different forms of art, and the fact that in actuality people in real life are not that perfect looking cartoon character Pixar makes everyone out to be. I would not consider Caroline Leaf's portrayal of characters as "ugly", but just different, and different is good.

The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa

After reading tonight's homework assignment about Caroline Leaf, I was really interested to see exactly what sand art was about. So, I looked up her film "The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa". I have to say, that the idea of sand art, is not at all what I imagined it to be. I thought it would be a much more simple concept than what she made it look like. The idea of sand art seems like a really complicated medium to use, after watching this film, however, she does a very good job with using sand.

The story of "The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa" was interesting as well. This man changes from a person to an insect, and when his neighbors and friends see him as a bug they are frightened and run away from him. They all turn away from him because he is different now, and they were looking at him from the inside rather than the outside and what his personality had to offer.

Frederic Back Films

In the films we watched in class today, I have to say that I did like the story lines and the way that Frederic Back went about telling the stories, however his mediums that he used to produce the films, I was not a fan of. I did not like that "sketchy" drawing look about them and they way the lines were constantly moving, I found it hard to focus on the film, and it even distracted me from the story at times, especially in the film "The Man Who Planted Trees".

The story line in "The Man Who Planted Trees" was beautiful. The fact that the man changed his job of being a shepherd, to a beekeeper, because the sheep kept eating the trees. I think that it is just a beautiful concept that he cared more about nature and the trees he was creating around him than his job.

In "Rien", from the beginning of the story it was very obvious that he was retelling the creation story. Until, Adam and Eve began transforming into all of these different animals and creatures that they saw and wanted to be like. However, after the discussion I understood the point that Back was trying to make about how when God created them, the humans thought that they knew better than God, and they destroyed everything and were never satisfied by what their own desires were. I thought it was great way of getting people to understand that if you trust God, and allow him to be the ruler of your life and take control of your life, you will much happier with his decisions than your own.

Inspiration!

 

I was really inspired by Co Hoedeman's films that I saw in class today. The way that he creates such pure children's films with a morals involved in them, is exactly what I want to do. I loved that his films were so simple and he did not use a lot of expensive technology in making his films. My favorite film that we watched today had to be Ludvic: "Dancing With Grandma". I just loved everything about that film, it was absolutely beautiful.

In the reading tonight, I liked that I was able to find out some interesting facts about Walt Disney's earlier films. I did not know, that Snow White was Disney's first colored film, but I did know that it was his first full length animated film. I thought it was really weird to find out, that when Snow White first came out, children were genuinely frightened by the witch transformation scene. But, like it said in the article, I guess that growing up when that film came out, as opposed to now, is extremely different in the types of media that children are shown and grow accustom to. Children of today's generation have more of a resistance to fear than children did in the 1930's.

Sabastian's Voodoo

I thought the video of the upset little girl, throwing the temper tantrum was very interesting today. It was interesting to be able to see how things were perceived in her mind, when she was angry. And then, how in the end she felt better from venting, and gave her mom a hug. I thought it was good to be reminded of how children feel and see things differently from adults often times. The little girl saw a bunch of adults pointing their finger at her, and making her feel small. In actuality, that is probably not the case, but as a child that is what she felt. But in the end, she realizes that those people are still there for her, and love her, even when she is upset with them. I think the video just had a good concept to it.

I really enjoyed the films we watched today in class, that were made by the Canadian National Film Board. So, I looked up some more films from them today, and I came across this video called Sebastian's Voodoo. I know, it sounds a little odd, right? Well, I watched it and it is a beautiful film. I'm not sure I grasp the whole understanding of what is going on it, but what I think is going on, is this man is torturing these voodoo dolls, and one of them ends up sacrificing himself to save one of his fellow voodoo doll friends. He has to kill himself, in order for the other ones to be saved. Watch it!!

Fame and Fortune

I agreed with Professor Leeper today, when he said that if you were worried more about money and becoming famous, then you are only serving yourself and not God. I think that in the beginning alot of us have this great intention of using our talent to worship God, and to show other's His love. But, it is so easy to get caught up in what is popular, and what the audience wants to see, rather than what they need to see. I mean think about it, do you think God gave you this artistic ability to make you famous and glorify yourself, or to to glorify Him and make His name known?

Media is a powerful tool, and we should be using it to show other's God's love. It doesn't matter if you don't make alot of money, and if you don't become famous from your film. Even if only a handful of people see your film, and it changes their life in some significant way, where they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, I think that is much more important than all the money in the world, because in the end God will provide for us anyway. What we need, He will provide.