Cultural Events - Natural History Museum

On March 14th, I also visited the Natural History Museum on the DC mall. The main reason for attending this museum was the current exhibit on Indian-American culture, showcasing the struggle of Indian immigrants to be successful in America. Featured was a large wall of famous Indian Americans, including M Night Shyamalan, and Mindy Kaling. At the end of the wall was a sign that said "email us if we missed any Indian American trailblazers". I noted to my girlfriend that Aziz Ansari was conspicuously absent from the wall. She pointed out that it was a wall of Indian American firsts, and we couldn't think of anything he was the first to do.

The exhibit also showed many cultural artifacts and religious symbols, as well as contemporary Indian American art. I thought it was very important to see art so closely linked to another culture, but still coming out of an American locale. The culture of Bollywood and of Indian Americans was on show, and as weird as it is that they placed it in the Natural History Museum, particularly with the American History Museum half empty, it was a great show of culture.

Cultural Events: American History Museum

On March 14th, I was in Washington, DC on the mall. I went, with high hopes and childhood memories, to the American History Museum. My hopes were satisfied, my memories were less so. Many of the long-standing exhibits, including the ones that covered the history of television and film, from Seinfeld's puffy shirt and Dorothy's red slippers to Oscar the Grouch's trash can, were under construction, and in their stead was a much smaller version of the same exhibit, lumping cultural artifacts from the colonial era just 20 feet away from Tony Hawk's skateboard and an old Apple II.

Regardless, the cultural importance of the items on display was great. There was a large exhibit about wartime America, which helped to connect me to the time of my grandmother's youth, as well as an exhibit on food culture in america, covering everything from the first drive-thrus to Julia Child's kitchen, remade in the museum's space. There was a large exhiibit on Edison's light bulbs, and on the invention of the Internal Combustion Engine, prompting me to give my girlfriend a long-winded explanation of why we need internal combustion engines powered by hydrogen, and how global  warming wouldn't have happened if the Hindenburg never crashed...

Being in this muesum made me feel like the "American" identifier meant a little more than I'd previously felt. It was also pretty funny to see the exhibit on First Ladies, clearly written before the 2008 election, juxtapose the question "Who will be the First Lady to the first female president?" next to a photo of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Cultural Events - Quilt Exhibit at Scarborough Library

On March 11th, I went into the Scarborough Library to see what the "Quilt Exhibit" that had been run on our calendars all semester was. I was surprised to find, after looking at all the quilts, that they were all made by the same woman, Phyllis Nichols Rowe, when I picked up the program. I was also confused by the date listed on the program indicating that the event should have ended months ago, but that's alright.

I never understood quilts. I've been perpetually confused by what the meeting point between art and blanket is, and why anyone ever thought to make such a thing anyway, but then I remembered that I own 4 different zebra-print blankets, and figured that's probably weird to someone who likes their blankets in basic beige. Quilts, I suppose, must be a fashion, but one that comes from a cultural background that I don't really understand. I respect, however, the artistry and effort that goes into a quilt. I don't think I would be able to machine-sew a quilt, much less hand-sew and embroider a story into each panel.

So I suppose the great value in this exhibit is helping to explain the artistry and  culture behind quilting to people like me who are completely ignorant of the form.

Cultural Events - March 7th - Laurel Art Guild 46th Annual Juried Open Exhibition

On March 7th, I attended the opening of the Laurel Art Guild 46th Annual Juried Open Exhibition at the Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland. The program celebrated local artists in the Prince George’s County and Montgomery County area. Many great works of art were on display, primarily photographs, paintings, and drawings, alongside a small handful of digital art and mixed media. The event was attended by most of the artists featured. It was interesting to see so many people able to walk up to the artists and ask questions.

I felt this event was culturally important because local art events show the world that the gallery is not a place of elitism. Anyone can be a great artist and have a chance, and open events such as this one show that off in a beautiful way. There was no notion of superiority at this event. The curator walked the room the same way that the attending audience did, the same way that the artists did. A small handful of children were playing in the hall, and rather than scream or get upset, as one might expect from an art gallery curator, he was entirely gracious and forgiving, understanding that contemporary art is not always a child’s greatest interest.

I think that the world of art as a place of acceptance, rather than elitism, is what makes an event like this truly special and important. I hope that future art events I visit have a similar attitude.

Simba's Fear

For this blog, I'll be discussing this scene from The Lion King.

The scene fades from Mufasa's death to Simba roaming through a cloud of dust, looking for his father. His every expression indicates fear. When he hears the lone wildebeast, he is suddenly hopeful for just a moment, then he sees his father's body and is sunk back into fear and sadness. He tries to wake his dead father, then cries out for help with tears in his eyes.

The magical thing about this scene is the degree to which it follows the old filmmaking adage of "show, don't tell". Simba says nothing to indicate that his father is dead, or that he's sad, or afraid. Instead, those emotions are animated into him. The work on Simba's eyes in this sequence is actually quite fascinating. He says an extrordinary amount with the way he moves his eyes and eyelids.

Simba is a scared little kid, and we can instantly relate to this without any statement from him on the matter. He shows his emotions, he doesn't have to tell anyone he's sad, anyone can see it. In fact, he doesn't tell anyone his feelings, besides Scar, and this ends up setting up the film's second act of repressed emotion.

Realistic Unicorns

What is a realistic unicorn? On the surface, it seems like a contradiction, after all, unicorns are not real, and can therefore never be realistic, but in the world of animation unicorns can still be depicted in a realistic way. How?

Well, let's go back a little and look at how animation allows things to NOT be realistic. The most obvious way is through anthropomorphic depictions of animals. Take, for example, Netflix's Bojack Horseman.

Bojack is a horse, except, he's not a horse. In-universe, he behaves as a human does, though with some minor horse-like actions. In the Bojack universe, as well as in Mickey Mouse or Winnie The Pooh, animalhood is more of a ethnic identification than one of species. Mickey Mouse speaks in a high-pitched voice, Pooh Bear loves honey, Bojack's rival, a dog named Mr. Peanutbutter, hoards tennis balls and chases the mailman, but otherwise lives the life of any Hollywood has-been.

These characters, despite being animals, are realistic as humans. Perhaps, Disney's notion of the fantastic applies here, and the characters are made as fantastic humans with animal heads. Mr. Peanutbutter is certainly a caricature of a golden retriever, but his human-like tendencies are clearly based in the reality of a human.

So what if we want to animate a unicorn? We can't rotoscope a real unicorn, because there are no real unicorns. So what do we do? We rotoscope horses.  Suddenly, we have a creature that runs the way our mind wants unicorns to run. Then the audience gets to praise our film for it's realistic unicorns.

Principles Of Animation

This material is a bit dry, but ultimately useful. For my example, I will be using "It's A Wonderful Day For Pie", A Family Guy song animated in the style of Disney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlk36vgygh4 

12 Principles Of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch – animated objects should change shape as they move, but retain volume, in order to look interesting to the viewer.

In the Family Guy clip, the way Peter's body stretches as he floats down from his flight to the pie as the song begins.

2. Anticipation – The pull back before motion in a living character.

Before the song begins, Lois's arms move toward her chest with the pie before they move toward the camera.

3. Staging – Where things go in a shot for best effect.

The way, throughout the song, that nothing enters the frame until it's ready to be the active element.

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose To Pose – animating from start to finish vs. animating with key frames. 

This was clearly done with Pose to Pose, as certain shots are clearly composed as stills, then animated, as well as the fact that Family Guy is always animated Pose to Pose, as they draw the keyframes, then send those to South Korea for inbetweens.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action – the whole body doesn’t stop or start at once.

The way the Bird/Quagmire moves his head before the rest of his body when beginning to fly is an example of this.

6. Slow In and Slow Out – the timing of in-betweens for satisfactory motion.

Motion in this whole sequence has slower in-betweens than most Family Guy episodes.

7. Arcs – living things move fluidly, not like the robot dance.

In the whole sequence, everyone is constantly moving in wide circles.

8. Secondary Action – Minor business of a character, not to upstage primary action.

The way characters move their hands while speaking in this video.

9. Timing – the number of drawings taken to show an action.

When Lois spins over to Teakettle/Joe, her spin is only really animated for 4 or so frames, as it happens very fast.

10. Exaggeration – Show the most emotionally effective version of an emotion or action.

The way they use facial expressions on all the characters to show contempt when Mort the Jew comes to the door is very exaggerated in a very Disney way.

11. Solid Drawing – One must be able to make good drawings to begin with in order to animate.

The whole of the scene is essentially a sequence of moving paintings of very high quality. Very solid.

12. Appeal – Creating images which a viewer wants to see, that stimulate the viewer’s imagination.

The image never stays the same for more than a few seconds, keeping the audience interested.

Fred’s 14 Points Of Animation

1. Appeal in Drawing – Essentially the same as Principle 12.

2. Staging – Essentially the same as Principle 3.

3. Most interesting way? - Essentially the same as Principle 12.

4. Most entertaining way? - Essentially the same as Principle 12.

5. Are you in character? - Does this character seem like he would do what you are making him do?

6. Are you advancing the character? – Does this contribute to the characterization?

7. Is this the simplest statement of the main idea of the scene? – Could this be done in a more efficient way for the audience to understand?

8. Is the story point clear? – Does this tell the story effectively?

9. Are the secondary actions working with the main action? - Essentially the same as Principle 8.

10. Is the presentation best for the medium? – Does this serve animation well?

11. Does it have 2 dimensional clarity? – Can the subject of the shot be understood alone?

12. Does it have 3 dimensional solidity? – Does the subject fit with the backdrop?

13. Does it have 4 dimensional drawing? – Does the subject move properly in time?

14. Are you trying to do something that shouldn’t be attempted? – Does the shot make sense?