READING & WRITING

Chapter nine in Liz Blazer’s Animated Storytelling is a great guide on finding the most appropriate technique to best represent your story. For example, Blazer says that 2d animation can make a story feel warmer and more innocent, perhaps because it has an emotionally relatable feel due to children’s movies (Blazer, 165). In contrast, she uses the example of Coraline in 3d animation style to explain how it can create a more realistic and naturalistic style.

Blazer also points out that animation can be a combination of styles and you do not have to choose only one style. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Mad Men title sequence example. The 2d flat silhouette of a falling man mixed with realistic advertising photos from the 1960’s creates a juxtaposition of an ideal advertising world and don Draper’s dark personal life (Blazer, 162).

However, I would criticize this chapter as one that is most challenging to understand because it does not provide enough visual examples. Although you cannot show motion in a book, more screenshots and storyboards would be helpful in each paragraph to understand more examples of each technique. Althougha couple story boards were used, I would have loved to see more screenshots within the text for more visual explanations.

Blazer, L. (2020). Animated storytelling. Peachpit Press.

RESEARCH TO INFORM

At 6:28, this video represents the squash and stretch animation technique. You can see the hare changing position to represent the force and weight of the character as they hit the wall.

At 48:03, this video represents the follow through technique. Although it is a very small detail, the rhino’s ears keep moving after he as stopped moving to make him appear more realistic.

At :41 in the below video, the roadrunner demonstrates the anticipation technique. He bends his knees and squats before he jumps to do hopscotch to prepare for a big jump and make it seem more realistic.

At 1:48 in the below video, Tiger demonstrates the arc technique. When Tiger bounces, he goes in an arc shape as opposed to a straight diagonal line. This arc more accurately mimics a real life bounce.

At 1:22 in the below video, Mei’s angry face is an example of the exaggeration technique. Her anger appears more extreme with her mouth enlarging and eyebrows raising to provide a more dramatic effect.

CREATE 

This is a logo I created for an event hosted by the band, Endless Field. This event, called “Gathering” is an event where jazz musicians join together in nature and write a songs. In a natural setting, music is created and it is an open space for creating and sharing poetry and visual art.

I wanted this logo to represent a serene nature setting with the colors and music. I also wanted all of the elements such as the music notes to come together and literally gather. I also wanted the background to look like water and/or watercolors to represent ideas expanding and art being created. The music is an original piece created by Endless Field Band.