I was wandering around on youtube earlier tonight and I stumbled across a few different animated videos that I thought were pretty interesting. This video is one of the videos I stumbled on. It's an animated video that shows different animations of the human body, such as DNA strands, birth, and neck movements along with some other stuff. It got me wondering how often animation is used for medical purposes. Animation can be used for a lot of things, and one of those things is education.
Whether or not this is something you have already realized, but we as students see animation basically every day. Powerpoint presentations often contain some sort of animation in it. If you watch the news or shows like ESPN's SportsCenter, the graphics that they show are all different types of animation. For students involved in medication or the human body, or even geology students, animation is key to their studies.
Animated videos like the one I have given in the link have the ability to show students what they can't see with their own eyes. It can offer students an easier way to learn how different things work or how it looks. Take for example, this video. It explains the effects of smoking, but it does it in a far more scientific way rather than just saying "you can have lung problems." That video is a perfect example to my point which, as I stated earlier, is that animation is actually more important to education than what many know.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
65 Years of Smokey the Bear
In this post, my main point will be to show you how and why animation can be used to trick the viewer into some kind of emotional state. I am going to talk all about Smokey the Bear and why he has been influential over his 65 years of life.
The first thing that you need to know, and probably already do know, is what his message is. His message is and always has been, "if you start a fire, remember to put it out," and "only you can prevent forest fires." So if that is his messages, why did his creators make him a bear? Why isn't he Smokey the Deer or Smokey the Squirrel? Something that has more relevance to all of the worlds forests'. Bears are huge, girthy animals that look and are dangerous in real life. But not in the world of animation.
He is Smokey the Bear because he was animated to look as cute as a teddy bear that many children have by their side. I mean, what's more cute to you...
or
Smokey's message itself draws emotion, especially to those have have suffered due to a fire, but it is Smokey himself that draws in your attention. Everybody knows who Smokey the Bear is. If somebody told me they had never heard of or seen Smokey before, I would call them a liar. Smokey is a grade school classic. His cute smile and his cries for help have been heard for over 65 years in class rooms and his looks draw more emotions than his word. This is the perfect example of how animation can be used to draw emotion.
The first thing that you need to know, and probably already do know, is what his message is. His message is and always has been, "if you start a fire, remember to put it out," and "only you can prevent forest fires." So if that is his messages, why did his creators make him a bear? Why isn't he Smokey the Deer or Smokey the Squirrel? Something that has more relevance to all of the worlds forests'. Bears are huge, girthy animals that look and are dangerous in real life. But not in the world of animation.
He is Smokey the Bear because he was animated to look as cute as a teddy bear that many children have by their side. I mean, what's more cute to you...
or
Smokey's message itself draws emotion, especially to those have have suffered due to a fire, but it is Smokey himself that draws in your attention. Everybody knows who Smokey the Bear is. If somebody told me they had never heard of or seen Smokey before, I would call them a liar. Smokey is a grade school classic. His cute smile and his cries for help have been heard for over 65 years in class rooms and his looks draw more emotions than his word. This is the perfect example of how animation can be used to draw emotion.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
South Park Analyzation: Part 2
In this post I will talk about another scene from a different episode of South Park. This time, I will pull a scene from the episode "Cartoon Wars." This is the first episode of a two parter in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone are showing why the writers of "Family Guy" are really not that funny. In this scene, South Park uses its own animation to impersonate a "Family Guy" scene.
In this scene, the animation is not too different from what it actually is in Family Guy. There are some slight differences, as the characters' in this episode are made to make them look a little bit more ugly. The dog is also a different color here than what he is in "Family Guy." I'm not really sure why they made it this way, or like that for every other cartoon they portray, but I'm guessing the FCC or copyright has something to do with it.
These two pictures here are to allow you to look for yourself what the differences are from the real Family Guy (right) and from South Park's version (left). As you can see, there are slight, but noticeable differences in the pictures. Not only the differences with the carpet and rug, but almost everything about them is slightly different. From the clothing to the window everything is different, but if you're somebody who has watched both shows, you'd still recognize who they are portraying.
In this scene, the animation is not too different from what it actually is in Family Guy. There are some slight differences, as the characters' in this episode are made to make them look a little bit more ugly. The dog is also a different color here than what he is in "Family Guy." I'm not really sure why they made it this way, or like that for every other cartoon they portray, but I'm guessing the FCC or copyright has something to do with it.
These two pictures here are to allow you to look for yourself what the differences are from the real Family Guy (right) and from South Park's version (left). As you can see, there are slight, but noticeable differences in the pictures. Not only the differences with the carpet and rug, but almost everything about them is slightly different. From the clothing to the window everything is different, but if you're somebody who has watched both shows, you'd still recognize who they are portraying.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Early Days of Felix the Cat
For my second blog on animation I will explain the beginning scenes of "Felix the Cat: Eats Are West." Made by Pat Sullivan, the early days of this animated cartoon was actually made with pictures taken of the Felix the Cat sculpture made out of paper mache, but I'll get more in depth with that later.
At the start of this cartoon, Felix is shown walking through a farm yards with his head down. It then cuts to Felix stopping in front of a tea store and he jumps up and down with a big smile on her face. He starts to walk up to the store, but then stops and pulls out his pockets, which is strange in itself because he's a cat and cats don't have pockets. When he sees that he has no money, he looks at the screen and starts shaking his help. He stats to think and a question mark is shown over his head. On a hook attached to the tea store is a tea pot. So what Felix does, is take the question mark and pushes the tea pot back so that tea will spill out and into his mouth.
Next, he walks up to a flap jack sign, which shows a waitress holding a pile of flap jacks. Felix actually reaches into the sign and takes the flap jacks as if they're real and he runs off with them. Then the waitress comes to life and starts chasing him. Felix then takes the flap jacks and suddenly they turn into wheels, as he uses them to build a little manually controlled cart. After he runs through a fence, the cart breaks and he sees the waitress catching up to him and three exclamation points. He takes the three exclamation points and the bottom of the broken cart, ties the exclamation points up and makes them into a propeller. So then he starts to fly away from the waitress. In just a couple of scenes, Felix uses what shows his emotions to help his cause. He also is able to take what appears to be fake things, such as the flap jacks in the sign, and tries to use them as what they would be if they were real.
Felix the Cat was first electronically televised in 1928 in New York and, as I said earlier, was made of paper mache. From felixthecat.com's history page: "The 13" Felix the Cat figure made of paper mache was placed on a record player turntable and was broadcast using a mechanical scanning disk to an electronic kinescope receiver. The image received was only 2 inches tall, and the broadcasts lasted about 2 hours per day."
As the picture shows, Felix was placed on a record player turntable with lights surrounding him. Pictures of Felix would be taken for almost a decade, as this was how they began Felix's life on television.
At the start of this cartoon, Felix is shown walking through a farm yards with his head down. It then cuts to Felix stopping in front of a tea store and he jumps up and down with a big smile on her face. He starts to walk up to the store, but then stops and pulls out his pockets, which is strange in itself because he's a cat and cats don't have pockets. When he sees that he has no money, he looks at the screen and starts shaking his help. He stats to think and a question mark is shown over his head. On a hook attached to the tea store is a tea pot. So what Felix does, is take the question mark and pushes the tea pot back so that tea will spill out and into his mouth.
Next, he walks up to a flap jack sign, which shows a waitress holding a pile of flap jacks. Felix actually reaches into the sign and takes the flap jacks as if they're real and he runs off with them. Then the waitress comes to life and starts chasing him. Felix then takes the flap jacks and suddenly they turn into wheels, as he uses them to build a little manually controlled cart. After he runs through a fence, the cart breaks and he sees the waitress catching up to him and three exclamation points. He takes the three exclamation points and the bottom of the broken cart, ties the exclamation points up and makes them into a propeller. So then he starts to fly away from the waitress. In just a couple of scenes, Felix uses what shows his emotions to help his cause. He also is able to take what appears to be fake things, such as the flap jacks in the sign, and tries to use them as what they would be if they were real.
Felix the Cat was first electronically televised in 1928 in New York and, as I said earlier, was made of paper mache. From felixthecat.com's history page: "The 13" Felix the Cat figure made of paper mache was placed on a record player turntable and was broadcast using a mechanical scanning disk to an electronic kinescope receiver. The image received was only 2 inches tall, and the broadcasts lasted about 2 hours per day."
As the picture shows, Felix was placed on a record player turntable with lights surrounding him. Pictures of Felix would be taken for almost a decade, as this was how they began Felix's life on television.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Analyzing a Scene in South Park: Post 1
For my first blog on animation, I'm going to take a look into a specific scene in a South Park episode that helps narrate the story. The point of this particular scene in the episode "Grey Dawn" points out the racism and hatred of one of South Park's main characters, Eric Cartman. Cartman and classmate, Kyle Broflovsky (a Jewish boy), have been in many wars of words and even a couple of fist fights. Cartman is also a known racist towards African American's, as shown in one episode where he called his one black classmate a "black a-hole," except in full terminology. So this sets up who Cartman is.
In this episode, they boys of South Park are directed to stop old people from driving. All of the elderly people in this episode go to Country Kitchen Buffet before the day starts, so the boys were trying to think of a plan to keep them from getting inside the buffet. Of course, Cartman is the first to think of a plan. Keep in mind, if you don't already know, these character were initially made with colored paper trimmings, and now hold similarities to the styles of shows, such as Looney Tunes and Family Guy.
So the boys were all sitting around a camp fire and Cartman starts to say his idea. As soon as he starts to explain his idea, it cuts from the fire place to scenes identical to what he is explaining. His plan was to have the boys all "cleverly" disguised as black people. In this scene, you see they boys dressed in black outfits with black paint on their faces that doesn't even cover their entire faces. They then break into the building, and Cartman straps a bomb on to Kyle's chest and they "say their tearful goodbye's" as Kyle walks into the buffet and Cartman detonates the bomb and the buffet and Kyle are no more. You can watch this episode at southparkstudios.com and by clicking "episodes" at the top of the website.
In this episode, they boys of South Park are directed to stop old people from driving. All of the elderly people in this episode go to Country Kitchen Buffet before the day starts, so the boys were trying to think of a plan to keep them from getting inside the buffet. Of course, Cartman is the first to think of a plan. Keep in mind, if you don't already know, these character were initially made with colored paper trimmings, and now hold similarities to the styles of shows, such as Looney Tunes and Family Guy.
So the boys were all sitting around a camp fire and Cartman starts to say his idea. As soon as he starts to explain his idea, it cuts from the fire place to scenes identical to what he is explaining. His plan was to have the boys all "cleverly" disguised as black people. In this scene, you see they boys dressed in black outfits with black paint on their faces that doesn't even cover their entire faces. They then break into the building, and Cartman straps a bomb on to Kyle's chest and they "say their tearful goodbye's" as Kyle walks into the buffet and Cartman detonates the bomb and the buffet and Kyle are no more. You can watch this episode at southparkstudios.com and by clicking "episodes" at the top of the website.
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