[INSPIRATION] Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse (1920's Era)

"Cartoon animation offers a medium of storytelling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world." - Walt Disney

One of the main influences for my practice is the classic Mickey Mouse shorts from the 1920's. I am particularly drawn to this era of animation because it is so expressive and exaggerated, it looked fun to animate. The animation isn't intended to be realistic, it has it's own world with it's own physics, it's something I want to incorporate into my practice. I want the animated character to be able to change the shape of his body, and squash and stretch when he feels fit.

Back in 2013, Walt Disney Company created a short animation called "Get a Horse" featuring the classic 1920's style of animation, as a tribute to where it all began. I really enjoyed the short and felt it really captured the heart of classic Disney animation, below are some of the concept art from the short:

[DRAWING] The Monkey Design Idea

I am wanting to create a character for my practice that could embody a traditional animation style; following the classic principles of animation and perhaps a rubber hose style of animation. I thought it might be a fun idea to try and draw a character which is similar to Micky Mouse, Felix the Cat and Bimbo the Dog. The character I came up with was a monkey with a large grin, large ears and a round belly, I want to stay true to the 1920's era of character designs; jet black eyes, large mouths, white gloves and big shoes.

I am hoping to make the character a bit more "rubber", I want him to have his own physics and his own rules; be able to take his tail off if he so wishes and squash and stretch his body at his own disposal. I'll be experimenting more and more with this character by researching more characters from older cartoon shows, below is the clean version of the monkey character.

[RESEARCH] The Decline of Hand Drawn Animation

"At first the cartoon medium was just a novelty, but it never really began to hit until we had more than tricks, until we developed personalities. We had to get beyond getting a laugh. They may roll in the aisles, but that doesn't mean you have a great picture. You have to have pathos in the thing." - Walt Disney

Animation has come along way since digital drawing has come about, from CGI to Flash animation there are just so many easier ways to animate without using a light-box. But does that mean animation has improved? Personally speaking I do not think it has, CGI animation has come along way and is still wowing audiences even now, however I feel the quality of 2D animation has decreased in recent years, frame by frame is becoming less common in mainstream films and television. Only recently Disney shut its doors on hand drawn animation and has no plans for it in the future, big named companies such as Cartoon Network, MTV, IMAX, Warner Brothers and even Disney are outsourcing their animation to India and we are seeing more and more model based animation shows and less hand drawn.

My research will focus on how animations are created in recent years and how even with the advancements of technology; whether or not the quality has decreased. For my practice, I want to incorporate both traditional animation along with digital animation, I will create a short film about a digitally animated animator and his traditionally animated cartoon character, the character will come alive and embody the techniques of traditional animators. The animation style of the cartoon character will be a sort of rubber hose, 1920s Disney animation with a hint of the wackiness from Warner Brothers animations.

I want to have the animator to be model based, so to get the contrast of rubber hose traditional animation to the model based animation style. I will do some more research into both the styles and come up with some concepts in the near future, this is early stages for my practice project and hopefully I can make it look appealing.

[PERSONAL] The Robot Idea

I've been thinking about what sort of idea I would like to make for my practice project, I had been thinking for a while that I would like to do a silent 2D digital animation about an alien robot crash landing in a rural forest on earth and having to repair his ship with the help of a boy scout. I wanted to try and convey reaction through a sort of "robot" character without speech or emotion, while also being a double act with another character who would be highly emotional. I had started the character designs for the robot:

I wanted to create a tall looking robot, designed to look like someone who could pilot a ship, I thought about having a smaller looking robot to convey an innocent look, scared of the new world he has crashed into and maybe have a couple of jokes about having stubby arms trying to pick up parts of the ship, but I thought that having a robot who is capable of doing everything correct and just wants to fix his ship would make it more interesting when I introduced the scout boy character. I was inspired by films similar to the Iron Giant with a mix of Lilo and Stitch and Pikmin; crash landing on earth and using the help of the planets inhabitants to get back home. I like the concept of "alien being" meets "human child" as I find it to be a nice match up, considering they are both fairly innocent and unsure still unsure of the world.

Above you can see the robot designed in full detail, I had not chose a colour for the robot however I did experiment with a few colour combinations. I am very happy with the designs as I feel I could have had fun animating the robot, especially in the scenario I would put him in, below you can see the first page of the storyboard draft:

I chose to step away from this idea however, because I didn't feel it represented what I wanted to research, that being "the decline of 2D digital and traditional animation". I want to create something which backs up my research, and I thought of a brilliant way to do so. I enjoyed the robot idea and I may return to it one day in the future, but for now I will move forward with my second practice idea.

University of Central Lancashire - MA Animation - Animation Journal Introduction

Jack Alexander Gray's Animation Journal

This blog will represent the time I spend studying on my Masters, I will post anything related to my practice and research, including but not limited to; drawings, inspiration, books I am reading, events I have attended and things I deem appropriate to put in my journal. In each blog post I will put in the title text in square brackets to indicate what it is I will be talking about on the post, the text includes:

• [FILMS] - Information or reviews for a film, TV show or documentary relavent to my practice or research.
• [BOOK] - Information about a book I am reading, or anything from the book I want to remember or found interesting and wanted to share
• [PRACTICE] - Any updates about my practice that I feel like I should share.
• [PERSONAL] - Anything that I want to share that may or may not be related to my practice or research.
• [DRAWINGS] - Any concept art, doodles, character designs, art pieces or anything related that I have created for my practice.
• [RESEARCH] - Any updates about my research that I feel like I should share.
• [INSPIRATION] - Anything that has inspired my project

I hope you look forward to seeing the information I put in this blog and follow me through my Masters at the University of Central Lancashire.