Animation Issues in the Early Years

Some interesting issues raised about women working in the animation and film studios in America during the 30's 40's and 50's. Gender and race were a problem in society in general at the time so I suppose it is easy to see why these issues were a problem in the film subjects as well as the working enviroments. I am not surprised that women were only allowed the lesser rolls in working in the studios, persumably not many people of ethnic minority were employed either.
Ethnic people in America have never been supported in society and there is still a far greater divide than most places in the world. Considering that there is such a variety of races represented in America it is a great shame that it remains a huge issue today.
Back in the 40's nad 50's there were alot of social problems and issues that were brushed aside and not discussed openly. Being gay at that time was not discussed , violence against black people in the deep south was at fever pitch level and rising, and women were about to enter their most challenging time for equality in th 50's since the 1920's.
Creatively an amazing period but socially a challenge!

'Feet of Song' by Erica Russel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-S77OAxGt4

This is probably my favourite animation shown so far, along with some of the other abstract pieces. The film is full of life and vibrancy, movement is vital throughout the whole time. Music plays a huge part in creating atmosphere and the co-ordination between the animation and the beat of the music is aesthically brilliant. It shows a timeless quality that only true artists can achieve. This film is as watchable today as it was at the time of its making, and will remain entertaining for the future to anyone who enjoys abstract art and music.
There is something about art and creativity from the first half of the 20th century which was so amazing for original work and nothing seems to compare with it and for me it was so inspiring and still is.

Fantasia

The viewing of Fantasia was a long experience, very colourful and explosive, but quite long.

The sound effects section was more to my taste as it was abstract and more about patterns and textures. It is an incredible piece of work but not one I could view more than once.

Some of the scenes were very watchable but some are just too young. The themes seem to be quite mature in parts considering it is a cartoon and yet then there are some scenes purely aimed at children.

Disney on the whole for me is too cute.

Light and Heavy

I really enjoyed the animation practice session on Tuesday 23th, our first real animation task.
Trying to deal with the difference between light and heavy bodies jumping really does start the brain thinking about mass and volume, in a way you would not normally do.

I found it really difficult at first to think of how many frames would be required throughout the seqence, I wasn't so much surprised by how many it took, but terrified! I used 41 frames for the first one on heavy, but needed to use more for the anticipation on the second bounce from the spring board.

The end result was better than I thought for the heavy version.

At this point in time I am only half way through the light figure drawings, but I look forward to seeing the result. I plan to improve the heavy figure animation by adding in drawings at the anticipation stage.

First ever Blog!

It will take a very long time for me to get use to doing this blogging malarkey, next time I will try to think of something to say.