Wall.E

Wall.E has got to be one of my favourite animations to watch, and who can blame me? For a start it's amazing to think that for most of the duration of this film there is very minimal dialogue, yet you still fall in love with the characters and there is so much personality within the characters that it practically renders speech unnecessary. The attention to detail when it comes to body language is why the film has managed to successfully do this and I really love that so much effort has gone into the character's movements in order to express their feelings and thoughts, it's nice to see something like this being done for change.

Speaking of characters, I love them all. Each character has it's own personality and each character is very different from the rest, which is also really nice to see, as many animations these days have very typical characters within them. But, it's not the fact that they have personality that draws me to them completely. It is simply because I think that the designs and the rendering of the characters are just amazingly beautiful. In particular, I love the design of Wall.E because of how he isn't a perfect, shiny robot like the rest. The attention to detail within this character amazes me every time I watch this film because you can tell that so much effort and thought has been put into every little flaw within him, which makes the character unique and his own, he isn't like all the others and it adds to creating an individual personality for that character.

Another thing I really like about Wall.E is the environments within the film. Again, they are very beautifully rendered and, again, there has been a great deal of effort and thought put into the details within them. I also really like the vastness of the environments and how they capture the essence of it being an abandoned world really well. I feel that the environments help to create a very strong atmosphere and they also help to tell the story really well too. Another thing I enjoy about this animation is the overall aesthetic. I feel that the characters and the environments work really well together and the overall style and tone of the animation works well together.  

Overall, I find Wall.E very beautiful to watch, and although I don't care much for the love story that the storyline follows, I do enjoy this film visually and I feel that it has been rendered well. It makes me think about how I can make my own animations have the same effect on an audience by inspiring me to experiment with more detailed environments and character designs. 

The Animated Self

In today's briefing we were given our last brief of the year (I don't know whether to be sad or happy), in which we have been given the opportunity to create an animation that reflects our interests in the subject, our strengths, and what we would like to further develop. Although I don't have many ideas right at this very minute, I'm actually looking really forward to this brief, as it will give me the chance to focus on aspects within animation that I want to develop and explore further throughout my time on this course. It will also help me to pick out specific aspects within animation that I could benefit from improving on.

Not thinking about this too much, from a previous project I am aware that I need to improve on my drawing, so I could develop an animation that explores the human form in movement in order to develop my drawing skills. I could also extend this to environments within an animation, as I could focus on creating very detailed environments that the camera can pan through. These aren't definite ideas, but they do give me a starting point to start thinking about which areas within animation I'd live to improve on.

I'd also like to think about which area of animation I'm most interested in at the moment, but I think it's safe to say that I find the whole process and the many different methods all really interesting. Having said that I do find storyboarding tedious sometimes, but I do enjoy coming up with the story and I find storyboarding quite fun if I'm really into my idea. I think at the moment, I'd like to focus on character and environment design simply because I feel that this is what I need to improve on the most, as I do struggle sometimes with both character and environment design. But other than for that reason, I'm not sure which area of animation I like best, as I enjoy the entire process for different reasons.

Finally, I think it would be a great opportunity to show my strengths within animation as well. For instance, I could showcase my ability to create digital or traditional animation, as these have improved greatly over the period oft he course.

I need to start to think about what I want my animation to show exactly and I also need to think about which aspects of animation I am really interested in.