[FILM] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) came out during the era when CGI animation was becoming ever popular, while Atlantis wasn't a box office failure, it did not make a fraction of what Dreamworks' Shrek (2001) and Pixar's Monsters INC (2001) made. Because of the considerable success of these Computer Generated animated features, people were getting the perception that hand-drawn animation was becoming more and more outdated. However, I do not think this is necessarily true, I think the downfall of Atlantis was because of something purely different; the film is that it's one of the very few Disney films that I didn't really consider for children, the film's target audience did not seem clear to me. There was a theme of anti-capitalism going throughout, people were dying throughout the film and there was many violent themes that I wouldn't have considered suitable for children. This was possibly the first animated feature films created by Disney to have an absence of songs, which I feel lightens the mood of any film which has dark subjects, for example; The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1996). Even the script which was wrote by Tab Murphy, who also wrote the script for Tarzan (1999) seemed to lack excitement, it had witty dialogue here and there however it was nothing amazing.

There were many reasons as to why the film wasn't successful, however I didn't feel that the animation was one of those reasons. In fact, the art style was very pleasant, Disney paired with animator Mike Mignola, the artist for the Hellboy comics, known for his bold designs and uses of shadow and silhouettes, I think the style suited the film and was different from other Disney films from the past. Disney even went out of their way to seek out Marc Okland to create a whole new language for the Atlantians, whose previous work was to create languages for alien races in Star Trek. 

The only thing that brought the film down was the story. and I feel because of this, people will blame the animation when films like Shrek and Monsters INC are more successful, even now when we compare Winnie the Pooh (2011), the last traditionally hand-drawn film to Puss in Boots (2011) and Rio (2011), which came out in the same year, there was a significant difference in the Box Office indicating that the CGI films were more successful than the traditional film, but again, it isn't the animation medium, people would rather see a fresh new story, not a story that has had over 27 films about it.

“We get good hand drawn animated films just as much as we get good computer animated films and vice versa. The technique is not what makes a film superior but rather the story, characters and themes that make the film relatable to the audience. How that film is put together is secondary. The problem comes when the people in charge of a film compare and contrast what is popular at the time to what works. This is nothing new in the film making industry as it happens almost all the time.” (Burbank)

Burbank, Moriah. "Is Hand Drawn Animation Dead?". The Silver Petticoat Review. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

[PERSONAL] 28-10-2016 Presentation and Feedback

On the 28-10-2016 I had to present my work to my fellow MA students aswell as the tutors, I interpreted the presentation as a showcase of the work we have produced over the time of studying, however during the actual presentation I did infact talk about the reasons behind my project, this was the presentation I presented:

28/10/2016 - When Dreams Became Data - Presentation from Jack Alexander Gray

I got a variety of feedback from my peers and my tutors, one of the pieces of feedback was the animation software i'd be using. They recommended trying to use After Effects and/or Premiere Pro to make the traditional and digital hybrid. They felt that the imported JPEGS might come out clearer in alternate software. I was also recommended to attempt the animation using a lveaction and stop motion hybrid, however because of the time limitations this was ruled out. 

One of the main things I wanted from this presentation was feedback on the ending of the animation, as I could not think of a suitable ending. Here were some of the suggestions they had for me: 

• Have the male character scan himself onto the computer and meet the female character digitally
• Have the female character become traditional and the male character become digital
• Have the female character be projected onto the wall with the traditional character
• Have the female character be printed off and then be together with the traditional character

I think I like the character being projected onto the wall with the traditional character, it seems like it'd work without the characters being forced into a different medium, I also want the traditional character to show off the 12 principles of animation and the female character to show off tweens etc. However I will continue writing my script and see how it'll turn out, once I have a final script I will experiment with storyboards.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Story Development - Drafts 1 & 2

As you may be aware from the previous posts, I have a rough idea of the story I want to create. However, the story I am creating now is different from the story I wanted to create in early September, I originally wanted to main character (The Monkey) to leap out of the animation paper and interact with the "real" world, below is the script I produced for that story:

Script Draft 1

As you can see, the story was finished and could have worked well, however I felt that this would disregard the symbolism I wanted, which was that the character works well on paper, and doesn't need to enter the new world, plus it would have been very difficult to get the character off the paper considering I am drawing this character entirely traditionally, the only way it would work is if I drew the character in Adobe Flash once he jumps out of the paper, which would again disregard the who reason behind my idea. So I wanted to confine the character to paper and have him interact with the "paper world" he is in, below is the script I produced for that story:

Script Draft 2

I felt that this was along the right path that I was wanting, however these two scripts made the character seem incredibly mischievous and I don't know if the audience would like this. Plus I didn't think the story was strong enough, there wasn't enough interaction between the traditional method and the digital method, so I have been thinking of different ideas I could use to incorporate both mediums.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have an idea which could incorporate both mediums, and this would also allow me to use both an Old Animator and a Young animator, this story would involve the Old Animator dying of old age, and a new, younger animator takes over, using the digital method, and rather than the traditional character be mischievous, he could just be curious. I will think more about this idea in the future, but for now I think I have a fairly solid idea for a story which involves 4 characters, the cat character I will call Max, The Old Animator, The Young Animator and the digital character, possibly a love interest for Max the Cat, we shall see.

[BOOK] Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon

"An animated cartoonist must be able to talk English, Irish and Swedish, must know the Ten Commandments, the law of gravitation, locomotion and it's uses, mind over matter, psychology and its actions on cheese, the rules of the world, "cohesion," and it's lifting capacity, navigation, [be] a strong believer in Darwin, [know] the art of tuning a bass violin, the internal combustion engine and its use in the home, how to fry an egg, many innumerical things touched upon so lightly by our famous men and, above all, the animated cartoonist must have a one-track mind." (Klein pg.254)

Seven Minutes is a critical and historical look into American animation focusing on animation created in 1928 to 1963. The book tells the history of a variety of studios in this time, from Fleischer Studios to Warner Brothers, animation's role during the war and it's affect on the animation industry and the development and phases of different drawing styles, comedy styling and story-lines of this time.

The book is intriguing, although it focuses on the history of studios, it talks about the development of animation techniques, one in particular is the Pop and Smear style of animation, where characters pop from pose to pose with a few smear frames inbetween, as seen in The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942). There is so much information about classic animation in this book, some of which I will be able to use when animating the traditional character, such as the screwball style of animation, which uses a sardonic and fast movements which moves the character from pose to pose using slapstick gags, a favourite for cartoons of the 1920s to 1950s.

Overall the book is a fantastic read, it has a great history of animation studios other than Disney and has great examples of animation styles and their development over time.

Klein, Norman M. Seven Minutes. London: Verso, 1993. Print.

[PERSONAL] Bradford Media Museum - Meet the Aardman Team: Jay Clarke

Jay Clarke is one of the storyboard artists for Aardman animation, he has worked on the Shaun the Sheep Movie, Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions, Chop Socky Chooks and many more. During the event, Clarke gives a 20 minute demonstration on how to draw Wallace and Gromit and explains what a story board artists role is in the animation production. Although the event was only 20 minutes, the information he provided was very useful, from learning how to draw expressions onto characters to the development process at Aardman. Below is a quick look at the event:

After the event, I went over to Clarke to ask him the following questions; How did he get started in the industry and what is his favourite medium of animation. The information he provided was incredibly useful, he stated that he and Nick Park attended the same university; Sheffield Hallam University studying film and animation, and he kept in contact with Park until he joined the Aardman team. He finds CGI increadible however has a love for stop-motion animation.

Once we had finished talking, I went and took a look at the Aardman exhibition they had for the week, which featured new models from the Pirates! (2012) movie as well as information about how Aardman integrate CGI into their movies to help workflow. Overall attending this event was an enlightening experience, I would hope that in the future Clarke would do a longer more in-depth event delving deeper into the pre-production at Aardman. 

[PRACTICE] The Old Man Digital Test

This is the final design for the old animator character I have in mind, I will be experimenting with a young character and compare the two, I have even been toying with the idea of incorporating both, however I still need to think of where to go with it first. I like the look of this character, I personally don't find him scary or intimidating to look at, I wanted him to look gentle and kind, perhaps the grandfather to a few kids. I'll try him in a few more positions in due time if I decide to stick with him, for now i'll experiment with the young animator design.

[INSPIRATION] Cartoon Saloon - Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea was a charming animation and a refreshing look at modern hand-drawn 2D animation. The thing that made Song of the Sea so special to me was the fact that it followed it's own animation conventions, it was original and didn't try to mimic any other animated style. It was a sort of eye opener as to the potential of what modern hand-drawn animation can become, without tween cheats or model animation to make the process quick and easy. Song of the Sea was created by the animation studio Cartoon Saloon, with it's previous film titles The Sectet of Kells, an animation which also felt original and took hand-drawn animation to a new level. 

The animators were told to match carvings and paintings on old rocks in Ireland (where the animation was created) for the visuals, whereas The Secret of Kells tried to match old tapestry for the visuals. I find this a very original concept, to match ancient art-styles to create something completely new and modern. Cartoon Saloon are currently in the production of another animated feature called 'The Breadwinner', which is set for the summer of 2017.

I found Song of the Sea inspiring, it was something new and original and a stepping stone towards mainstream animation being brought back to the big screen. Since Disney has stopped producing hand-drawn feature films, its up to independent studios to start creating inspiring animated films , and I believe that Cartoon Saloon will be the hand-drawn animation company that mainstream animation needs. During an interview with the founder Tom Moore, he had this to say;

"I think today 2D animation has a responsibility, much like painters had after photography was invented, to reinvent what it is. It can’t go after realism, because there is no point; it has to do something only 2D can do. In painting, we got Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism and other modern movements because of photography." (Thill, S, 2015)

Thill, Scott. "Tomm Moore on 'Song of the Sea,' Reinventing 2D, and Dodging the Studio System". Cartoon Brew. N.p., 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

[PERSONAL] Doncaster Museum - Open Art Exhibition

I have always enjoyed open art exhibitions, as it is a way to have a look at some of the art styles of creators in local areas. The Doncaster open art exhibition had over 150 artist with varying styles and techniques. Although this isn't related to my practice or my research, I feel it is relavent to mention as it is a way of showcasing design work. Open art isn't limited to fine artists, it is for any creators be that a comic book artist or a concept artist. One of the artworks showcased was a large painting of Iron Man selling at £900, while across the room was a manga styled drawing selling at £50.

I think open art exhibitions would be a good place to sell or showcase character concepts or art concepts from animations that we have created, there were many similar products that were created by local artists and the exhibition is open to anyone and anything. Perhaps next year I might showcase some character artwork there and see if anyone would comment.

[BOOK] Thinking Animation - Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CGI

"2D has a kind of freedom that is difficult to reproduce in CG. In 2D, the artist can draw what he/she wants. He can make use of squash and stretch techniques that are easy to draw in 2D but hard to duplicate in CG. In CG you are bound to physical restrictions. You can only work on an enclosed, controlled environment. Facial in a character is probably the hardest thing to duplicate in CG, In 2D, the artist usually deforms the face in ways that are physically impossible." 

Thinking Animation is a book which explains how animators of today can utilize techniques of traditional animators and incorporate them with computer generated animation. This book is useful for me as it gives explanations of the ups and downs of both Hand-drawn animation and CGI, while also explaining the history of the field of animation. It delves into the studios of today and compares them to studios of the twentieth century and also has interviews with a variety of animators from various backgrounds of animation. One of the most useful things about this book for me is that it compares the box office for 2d animation to CGI animation and how well they each did from 1994 - 2005. Overall this is a fantastic book with lots of useful information, which will help me over the course of my Masters.




Jones, A. and Oliff, J. (2007). Thinking animation. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology.

[PRACTICE] Animation Test #2

Now that I have the final design for my cat character, I decided it'd be best to try and animate him using a light-box. Last time I attempted to draw the character jumping on and off screen, however this time I wanted to make the character walk on and off screen. Here is the result:

It's only a 4 frame walk cycle as the main focus on this test is importing and embedding the video file onto the flash file to give the illusion that the character is walking on a piece of paper in the room. So using the light test I produced earlier I added another sheet of paper in the center of the room and attempted to embed the character walk cycle onto it, this is the result:

The result was successful, so far. Embedding the character meant I had to convert the MP4 version of the walk cycle to a FLV so it'd work and be manipulated in Adobe Flash, however, I noticed that I cannot edit the image further, for example: I cannot 'skew' the image nor can I 'distort; the image like I had hoped. Because of this, I will have to do a few more tests using various editing software to see if the effect that the video is on a wall that isn't straight on can be achieved.

[DRAWINGS] The Old Man Design Idea

I have toyed with the idea of having the old man a lanky guy with glasses for a while, but when I drew the character a bit bulkier, it just sort of fit in my mind. Rather than have an old man who looks like he is old, why not have an old man who is still full of life, continuing to pursue his passion for animation even now.

I wanted to old man to have a mustache and either be bald or wear a hat, however I will probably have the old man enter the room or leave the room with his hat on. For the time being, I am happy with the design of the older looking man, I feel like he is aesthetically appealing and doesn't represent the "grumpy old man" stereotype. I will attempt to draw the man digitally shortly as he will appear in the animation through a digital medium. 

[PRACTICE] Final Character Design: The Cat

This is the final character design for the protagonist of the practice animation I will be creating, the character will be a cat wearing a t-shirt, gloves and some boots. I feel like this is a nice character design and follows what traditional animators in the 1920's would have drawn. I am yet to think of a name for the character but I am thinking something along the lines of a common name for a cat, such as; Max. I will try and draw the character in a few various positions and I will shortly attempt to draw a character that this character can interact with.

[PERSONAL] The Second Character

I am in two minds with who I want my second character to be, one part of me wants the second character to be a representation of myself; a young animator just starting out in the business and the second part of me wants the second character to be a representation of the older generation; a talented older gentleman who continues to use a light-box even now.  

Young Animator

I feel like a young animator might be a good match up in my practice, this is because it'll be a nice switch from the older animation style to the newer model based young character. I feel like it could be a nice match in having a young animator draw something on a light box, perhaps for the first time, and then it comes alive and runs from paper to paper, there could be a comedy aspect in how the young animator reacts.

I might draw the young animator with the cartoon character and see how they look together. I feel like it could be a nice match up. However, I am leaning towards the possibility of the older man as I don't feel like I can get a point across of the older generation of animators being less lazy as animators due to the fact that they used a light-box to capture each individual frame, but I will see what happens with the characters nonetheless.

Older Animator

I find older people more interesting to draw personally, old men have very specific look and build to them. I feel like using an old man to interact with the cartoon character could be very interesting, however, would the older man treat the cartoon like a son? Or would he be annoyed at the cartoons bouncy personality?

I think I would prefer the second character to be an older man, I feel like it'd be a lot more likely that an old animator would choose to use a light box to create characters rather than a younger person. Plus I think it could be interesting to have a sort of double act with the two characters, a young animation and a older person.

I will try and draw some old man character tests and see what they look like, maybe having him interact with the cartoon character to see how they'll look together.

[BOOK] Makin' Toons - Inside the Most Popular Animated TV Shows and Movies

"Animated feature films will continue to provide jobs not only for computer programmers, but for animators, designers, painters, writers, directors, producers, composers, editors, voice actors, and all the other human talent integral to the creative process. Factor in Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, and television's voracious appetite for programming in general, and it's clear that cartoons will be around for a long, long time." (Neuwirth, 2003)

Makin' Toons is a very interesting read, as it gives insight into how cartoons have been created, pitched and produced ranging from The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy to Ice Age and Shrek. It's nice to read how each show was created, pitched and more than not turned down by studios until one day they are green lit. Allan Neuwirth has created a very informative and entertaining book which has opened my eyes to the creative industry, and just reading about how animation studios and voice actors start out to the behind the scenes of some of the biggest animated shows and films could make anyone more excited about animation.

Neuwirth, A. (2003). Makin' toons. New York: Allworth Press. p.261.

[DRAWINGS] The Cat Design Idea

I have done a little more experimenting with different animals, and I feel like I have come up with a fairly good character idea. I have tried experimenting with cat ears, I thought this would be much easier to manipulate rather than big round monkey ears. I will more than likely change the clothing choice for the cat design, perhaps giving him a shirt rather than bottoms. However for the time being I am fairly happy with the design idea, i'll experiment with a digital version shortly.

[PRE-PRODUCTION] Concept Art - Light-box and Room

I'm trying to do a few art tests along side the light-box animation tests, one of the objects that I know i'll be drawing and will feature in the majority of the practice animation is a light-box. One of the things I thought would be difficult was to get the light box to look like there was a light at the back of paper. 

I wanted to try and see how the light-box would light up the room. So to test this, I attempted to illustrate how the room would look from the perspective of someone sat in front of the light-box, so this would include; The light-box itself, the desk, anything on the desk and the back wall covered in various drawings, this is how the concept art turned out:

Personally I think that the room could work with the light-box being the light source, as it could symbolize that this is where life is created. As you can see from the earlier room design, I wanted to make sure that the room has no windows, this is because I wanted the light-box to be the only light source, or maybe there could be a lamp on the desk, regardless, I want all the light source to come from the area where the light-box is. The drawings on the wall are just placeholders for various drawings I will put on the wall, the drawings up there currently are various scans I have scanned from 2011 - 2016. The drawings that will be on the wall will be of various characters that the main character can interact with. So far I am pleased with the designs and I feel like if I can keep the art style up it should be a very aesthetically appealing animation.

[INSPIRATION] Manipulation (animation)

Manipulation is an animated short created by Daniel Greaves, the short won the Golden Mikeldi at the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films for the best animated film of 1991. I am inspired by this video because it is a very similar concept to what I am wanting to do, however I want my animation to feel alot more modern, rather than mixing live action with hand-drawn frame by frame, I am wanting to mix hand-drawn frame by frame with 2D digital animation.

The short was a very good idea and the concept was fantastic, it has inspired some ideas for story for my animation; perhaps the hand-drawn character could anger the digital character in some ways, or vice-versa. I'll think about story soon, I hope I can create an animation which can compete with Manipulation. 

[PRACTICE] The Animation Room

The story will take place in a single, small animation room in a house. I had toyed with the idea that the events would happen in an animation studio but I thought that perhaps a house would be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. The room I have in mind has a desk in the middle of the room, a couple of book shelves, a bin and no windows, the walls will be full of various drawings, scenes and sketches, and on the desk stands a lone light box. Using the Homestyler software I designed a very basic layout of how I imagine the room to look:

This is just the very basic design of the room I had in mind, the room will only be small and be filled with animation equipment. I will eventually draw my own version of the room and use this design as a guideline to where I want some of the furniture. 

[PERSONAL] Bradford Media Museum

The Bradford Media Museum is a fantastic place to learn about the history of British animation, from Aardman to Ray Harryhausen there are hundreds of facts about these pioneers. They also feature a little section on the history of animation altogether, starting way back at the Thaumatrope. 

The main reason why I wanted to go here for my Practice and Research was because I wanted to get a good look at some of the animation cels they had on display, the main focus of the Exhibition is hand-drawn animation and stop-motion animation. I wanted to see how the professionals created their pre-production and production and see if I could gain some inspiration for my practice.

The one thing I forgot they focused on was their description on each animation technique, from CGI to silhouette animation they explained the process and gave examples of the practice. One of the things I discovered was that; 

"Tron was the first feature film to use computer animation. Disney assembled a team of software designers and animators for this. Though it inspired a rising generation of animators, Tron failed commercially, causing Hollywood to ignore computer animation for most of the 1980s."

This supports the reason why when John Lasseter pitched the idea of using computer animation for a future project, it was firmly dismissed and later resulted him being fired from the Walt Disney Animation Studio.

"I threw myself into suggesting projects that would show how the computer could be used to take Disney Animation to the next level; I even did a test. It seemed like a natural extension for this studio that had always been so innovative. I kept getting the answer, "NO, that's not how it's done." But I kept trying, I wouldn't let go of the idea that computer animation was something Disney should be doing, because I knew it would make the studio and films better. Then one day, the manager of the Animation Dept., Mr. "No" himself, called me into his office-and fired me."

If the experience at Bradford has taught me anything, it's that hand-drawn animation still has lots of hidden potential even now. The animations that were there had aged well, I strongly believe that if some of the animations there had been released now they would still be well received, however I feel like hand-drawn animation needs something new, that can compete with all the special effects and photo-realism that CGI has, maybe through my studies I can figure out what that something is.

[BOOK] The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation

The Illusion of Life is an incredibly good book if you are wanting to read about the history of Disney animation and all the techniques the pioneering animators used. The book is interesting as it follows the history of Walt Disney and his company from before and after his death and shows concept art never before seen from various Disney films. I've wanted to get my hands on this book for a very long time for one particular chapter; The 12 Principles of Animation. These 'principles' are what the animators followed when animating their characters, below are the 12:

• Squash and Stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Slow in and Slow Out
• Arc
• Secondary Action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid Drawing
• Appeal

[PRACTICE] Animation Test #1

After a meeting with Sarah Ann Kennedy, we thought it'd be best to try an animation test, to see if; animating something on paper, then super imposing the animation onto a separate animation could be feasible. It's been nearly 3 years since I have animated using a lightbox so I thought animating using one would be a challenge in itself, however, below is my first attempt since 2013:

I can't say animating using a lightbox is easy, and I can't say that the animation I produced was any good, however, practice makes perfect and this is the first step into this project, i'll be producing many more tests in the near future.

[INSPIRATION] Tom Ruegger and the Animanacs (1990's Era)

"I was just driven to make cartoons, wanted to, needed to, and was given great opportunities along the way. I tend not to be a very reflective person. In retrospect, I can see that the HB cartoons of my childhood meant a great deal to me, and I truly did want to capture some of that magic. A half hour cartoon variety show with stars and various segments. I feel very fortunate that I was able to team up with a cornucopia of talented people to make Animanaics happen". - Tom Ruegger

The Animaniacs have always been an inspiration to me since my childhood, growing up it was one of my favourite television cartoon shows. The humor was spot on, it was educational and it was animated fantastically. However, the thing that stuck out to me the most was that it was a very self aware cartoon, it broke the forth wall numerous times. Even during the opening, they jump right out of the light box into the animation studio.

Warner Brothers animation is completely different to Disney animation in my personal opinion, Warner Brothers tried to make cartoons that tailored for both adults and children and crammed them with jokes fit for both, however Disney cartoons were very safe and kept child friendly. As I said in a previous post, Disney has it's own world with it's own physics, like wise with Warner brothers. However, the difference with Animaniacs is that their own world and physics only apply to the Warner Brothers because they are "cartoons", no other character can squash, stretch and break the laws of physics in the animation. 

This is one of the big things I want to get across in my own practice as I want the cartoon character I create to be able to have it's own world with it's own physics, whereas the second character (the animator) will not have that attribute and can only follow the laws of our world. 

[DRAWINGS] Hand Tests and Face Changes

I have been experimenting with a monkey character as one of the main characters in my animation practice, however I have been thinking about other animals which could play the lead role. The face shape would stay the same, however I would give the character a different set of ears, indicating the type of animal the character is trying to portray;

[From the left] Top Row; Cat, Dog, Rabbit, Pig. Middle Row; Cow, Elephant, Hamster. Bottom Row; Human, Mouse, None, Monkey.

As you can see, there are many different types of ears I could give the lead character, however so far I only see a possibility of using 4 ears; the cat ears, the dog ears, the cow ears and the monkey ears. I feel that these sets of animals would appeal to an audience. I will draw a few concept drawings with these animals and see which ones work more.

I wanted to experiment with the body, more so, the clothing. I was inspired to do shorts, gloves and boots as this is the attire of Mickey Mouse, however I have experimented with the possibility of a shirt, gloves and boots, similar to that of the Warner Brothers, below is an example;

You'll notice that there are also a lot of experiments with hands, personally speaking I find hands the most difficult thing to draw, and 1920's animated characters have distinct hand styles because of their gloves and four fingers. I wanted to experiment with a few different hand gestures, so far I am happy with how they turned out, however I will continue practicing drawing hand gestures.

[BOOK] Re-imagining Animation - The Changing Face of the Moving Image

“Digital tools do certain things very well and film cameras do other certain things very well. One will never be “better” than the other, they’re just different, but there’s a herd mentality in the industry. Digital is everywhere today not because it is a fundamentally better format, but because it is cheaper and easier. When everybody stampedes in one direction you start hearing meaningless statements such as ‘film is dead’ or ‘2D is dead’, and all the old stuff just gets thrown out.” (Wells and Hardstaff, 2008)

Re-Imagining Animation is a book which discusses the place of contemporary animation. Frame-by-frame animation used to be the go to medium, however with technology forever advancing we are seeing less and less hand-drawn animations, this book has short case studies and are supported by images and captions, it talks about the current production of animations and various mediums and it supports what I am researching currently.

Wells, P. and Hardstaff, J. (2008). Re-imagining Animation. Lausanne: AVA, p.61.

[PERSONAL] The Michael Foreman Exhibition; Painting with Rainbows

Painting with Rainbows was an exhibition at the Harrison Museum in Preston, it showed off the artwork, props, films and books of Michael Foreman, a well-loved children's book writer and illustrator. I was able to learn how Michael was inspired to write stories during the wartime in Britain, he created War Boy an autobiographical story about his experience as a child during the war. 

Going to the exhibition enlightened me onto a sort of "children's book" style of drawing which i'd never really taken into consideration before, it was bright and colourful considering some of the stories. It also showed me that inspiration can come from anything, from your experiences as a child or your experiences now. I was happy to have gone to the exhibition and be introduced to engaging and colourful characters and the worlds Michael has created for children.