The Iron Giant- Last Blog of Semester!

The Iron Giant Blog

Choosing “The Iron Giant” was a very easy decision for me to make. This is probably one of my favorite animations of all time. The 86-minute PG rated film came out in 1999, featuring Eli Marienthal, Harry Connick Jr., and Jennifer Aniston. I had never heard of the film before class, and didn’t know if I would like it, but after about 5 minutes, I knew this would be a favorite. Jennifer Aniston is my favorite actress, so the fact that she was the mom’s voice was the icing on the cake.

“The Iron Giant” is about a young boy, Hogarth, who finds a giant robot while exploring through the woods. At first, Hogarth is scared of the giant, but after coming in contact with him, realizes he is just as innocent as he is big. Hogarth and the giant become friends, and to keep the giant out of danger, Hogarth brings him to a junk yard owned by Dean McCoppin, a new friend. While Hogarth is trying to keep the giant safe from harms way, Kent Mansley, a government agent, is trying to discover this giant and destroy him. The movie tells the wonderful journey of these two new friends and the struggles they face along the way.

This animation, directed by Brad Bird, has had 19 award wins and 14 nominations, including the Sierra Award for Best Nominated Film, the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing, and the Young Artist Award for Eli Marienthal’s phenomenal voice-over talent. The film was featured in 1999, competing with two other well-known animations, Toy Story 2 and Tarzan. Opening weekend the film made $5,732,614 in just the United States.

Brad Bird came up with the idea after a visit to the Warner Bros. studio. He was flipping through some sample artwork projects and found a young boy and a giant robot. When Warners asked Bird if there was anything he was interested in, he pitched the idea for “The Iron Giant” and they went for it.
 

After reading over some of the movie reviews, it seems that the rest of the world feels the same way about this movie. I could not find one review that said anything even slightly negative toward the film. Every review talked about how it was the best animation they have ever seen. There were older people who said they don’t even have children and loved it. It says a lot when a PG rated animated movie gets a good chunk of a movie reviews from older people saying they cried during it and thought it was amazing. I thought this was one of the best, if not the best animation I have ever watched and am actually very surprised that I had never seen it before my senior year of college. I thought everything about it, including music, voices, and visual images, were awesome. They picked a great cast for the voices and the music was catchy and went perfect with the movie. The actual animation was so believable, unlike a lot of other animated films I have seen. There was just something about the characters that made you want to keep watching. Within 10 minutes of the movie, I felt like I was emotionally invested in all of the characters. I am very excited that we got to watch this movie in class! 

References:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129167/
http://irongiant.warnerbros.com/cmp/ig_video_frame.htm

Module 9- Components

Component 1- FS MP3 Player

The first Flash component that I found was a FS MP3 Player. I am a huge fan of music so this caught my attention right away. The component works for Flash versions MX, CS3 and above in ActionScript 2.0. Music can transform a good website into a great one, and this component does just that. It also allows for the person viewing the site to have full control of the music playing. They can choose which song best suits their mood, making the experience that much more enjoyable.

You could sue someone using this component in a project or website if they are not careful of how they are using it. Music has been a big issue over the years with the illegal downloading sites, so this just adds to the risk. Limewire, Kazaa, and Bearshare are just a few of the illegal sites. Besides risking lawsuits, sites like this can also give off viruses that will harm the computer. If someone is putting illegal music on this MP3 player component, they are doing something illegal and risking a lawsuit. When using a component like this, you need to make sure that you are using legal music files. 

Component 2- Photo Gallery V1

This Flash component, the Photo Gallery V1, is a very cool feature that can give a website that extra touch. I have always been a huge fan of images and photos, so this component interests me. I have seen many different ways to scan from one photo to the next, but this component allows for a full screen photo with easy navigation. People can get so much more out of site if there are images to go along with it. One personal example I have is of a Tropical Resort website I have been looking at recently. On this site, there is a photo gallery of all the different parts of the resort. If I had not seen those pictures, I may not have chosen that resort. Fortunately, they displayed a variety of photos that made me feel comfortable about purchasing from that resort.

The only thing I could think of that would cause a lawsuit regarding the Photo Gallery V1 is if inappropriate pictures were being used. Personally, I have experienced a problem with pictures posted on Facebook. People I know have posted pictures of minors being served alcohol and legal issues have come from it. Also, some people have privacy issues and their face can’t be publicly displayed. If an image was taken of a crowd and then put online, someone could sue the photographer for putting up the image without having people sign off on it.

Module 7 Blog

When the Wind Blows 

The animation that I watched, “When the Wind Blows,” was very different from what I had first anticipated.  The movie, made in 1986, is about a couple that builds a shelter to prepare for a nuclear attack. The director, Jimmy T Murakami, has also directed “Battle Beyond the Stars,” and “The Christmas Carol.”

From just reading the title, I thought it would be about a couple in the country living their lives, but it ended up being very different. I don’t know much about nuclear wars and the holocaust, so this movie gave me a good perspective.

Looking at the animation itself, I found it very interesting. What I think stuck out most to me was the different types of drawing and animation that was used throughout the movie. Some scenes looked real while others were very much cartoons. This is different than most typical cartoon animations that I have seen. Most Disney movies like “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid “ have one consistent type of animation. There is one movie, “Enchanted,” that came into my mind when watching this movie. In Enchanted, there is real life acting with actors and sets, and there was also animation with cartoons. Even though “When the Wind Blows,” was nothing like this, it was one thing that was sort of similar. In “When the Wind Blows,”  I couldn’t pick one specific type of animation. There was once scene where the camera is panning through the house and it looks like everything is made out of clay. Then there is the scene where the couple is laying with blankets and the blankets look real while the couple is still cartoonish. These two scenes stuck out to me because they were so different.  It was very back in and forth in terms of how I perceived the movie. One minute I thought it was a scene made of clay, and then next minute it looked completely computer drawn. At the beginning of the movie, it was real people and real cars, which compares to the movie "Enchanted." I remember thinking, "Am I on the correct YouTube video." I was confused at why there wasn't an animation until the actual story started. Of everything that I took away from this movie, that was definitely the most memorable. Being able to use different types of animation in one movie can bring a lot to a story line. If someone brought up this idea to me before watching this movie, I would have been confused and probably would have thought it was a bad idea, but after watching, I think it is a really cool effect.

I also took note of the camera angles and sounds throughout the movie. The camera angles were great and the way the movie was shot overall was great. I like how they changed the way you looked a one specific place, such as the kitchen, so that you got to see it from all angles. This gives the audience more to work with and think about. I believe that imagination is a huge part of making an animation great, and I was able to imagine a lot during this movie because it gave so much information. This goes along with sound as well. The sounds used and even the voices of the character fit the movie perfectly. During some scenes, I was able to close me eyes and imagine being there with the characters. It is hard for a lot of movies to do that, especially animations.

Overall, I though the use of camera angles, animation types, and sounds all worked very well for the movie. Jimmy did a great job of showing deeper sides of the characters, giving more meaning to the story!

Music Animation Thoughts

Olympics 2008 Monkey Movie - BBC Sport
Click Here for Link

I chose the animation “Olympics 2008 Monkey Movie.” I found this to be a very cool animation and when I was watching it, it reminded me a lot of my younger years. When I was young, I loved playing video games with my brother, and for some reason, this animation reminded me a lot of that. Between the music and the event taking place, it all seemed very “video game” like.

I thought the music was perfect for this story. It was definitely a different style of music (something I am not used to), but I still found myself interested in what was going on. I think my favorite part was when the monkey and the pig meet. The music starts to sound very much like a video game and this is where I think it first reminded me of one. Looking at the music overall, I think they did a good job. It fit exactly how I would have imagined it to.

The timing of the animation has a lot to do with the music as well. Certain parts need to be timed perfectly with the music to get the full affect, and I think that this was done just how it should have been. The music starts to pick up as the journey goes on, which I thought was smart. This made me more eager to see what would happen in the end. If the music was dull the whole time, I don’t think I would have been so tempted to watch the entire thing through.

Before I wanted the animation with music, I wanted it on mute. I wanted to compare the animation with and without music to see if there is a big difference, which there is. I had a very different feeling about the story when I watched it on mute, which I thought was very interesting. I never thought music would have such an affect on a piece of work. After watching this, I was thinking a lot about the idea of music in any type of scene, whether its real or animated. Music has such a huge impact on the way someone interprets what is going on, and can be the difference between a good and a great scene.

Now that I have made an animation with music, I don’t think I will ever want to make an animation without some sort of music or noise in the future. It adds so much to a video, making it so much more exciting for the audience.

Lastly, looking at just the animation (not music), I would say they did a great job with techniques, angles, colors, and perspectives. I knew exactly what was going on during the entire story and the different perspective and angles gave it depth and meaning.

Poetry Animations

Brenda Cardenas- Song
One of my favorite animations is “Song” by Brenda Cardenas. What I thought was unique about this animation compared to the others was how it was made. The animation looks like it is in layers. Some of the layers are different textures, which gives it even more of a layered effect. For example, the man looking at the sunset and ocean looks like he is made of clay while the background looks like it was made on the computer. Like all the other animations, I also like how each phrase of the poem is animated to match its meaning. For example, the phrase “I glimpse their backs, volcanoes rising out of the sea,” is animated with whales jumping out of the water. The man is looking out at the sea, and the whales look like volcanoes coming out of the ocean. It is really cool to see how many different ways you can perceive a phrase. For my poem animation, I want to be able to match phrases with an animation that gives it more meaning than just what it is saying.

Maurice Kilwein Guevara- Dona Josefina Counsels Dona Concepcion Before Entering Sears
This animation is different than “Song” in a few ways. First, it is done using almost all drawings, and second, the animation does not give a “different” meaning to each phrase of the poem. The words match what is going on in the animation exactly, unlike “Song” where the animations give the text an alternate meaning. For example, the phrase “that’s right, he’s baldy,” shows a drawing of a bald man. It is simple and follows the poem exactly. I also found it very weird that the entire animation used drawings except the end with the Sears background. This showed me a different way to use animations (the drawing technique). I had never thought of doing an entire animation in drawing. It gives the poem a different effect.

My Simple Character

I had a lot of fun making my simple character! In class I did a very simple sketch of a little girl, but once I started playing around with illustrator, I changed a lot of my ideas and ended with a little red head. I originally wanted to make a bobble head character with a small body and big goofy head, but I ended up giving her a proportionate body. I Googled little girl clip art and took ideas from different cartoons to make my own unique character. I am still playing around with animations. I want her to wave and eventually to blink. I am not sure yet how I am going to do that, but I will keep playing around with Flash. I have been looking at some cartoons on TV to see how they move and definitely got some ideas. I want her eyebrows and mouth to move to help change her facial expression. There is still a lot that I need to learn in Flash, and hopefully once I get better, I can have my cartoon do a lot more.

One of my Favorite Banners

XV Rescue Banner

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2010/08/subaru_paperclip.php


As I was going through the banners, this paperclip banner stuck out after I was getting doubtful. This XV Rescue banner is an interactive banner that catches the eye of the audience. The paper clip is a very simple idea and when it asks the simple question.. “What can you make of this paperclip” and “Click and bend it however you want,” you can’t help but want to bend the paper clip and see what the banner is all about. Surprisingly, I found myself wanting to continue this little mission until I was done and figured out what I made of the paper clip and why I was bending it. Unfortunately, when the banner was finally finished, I had no idea what XV Rescue was. I decided to go further and look it up on Google. There was an entire website about it and it is connected with Subaru, but I am still confused at exactly what it is all about. One thing I may change about this banner is to tell more information about the product/service at the end. The beginning was very catchy, but it didn’t finish with a clear explanation of the product or service.

There was a lot used on this banner that was made in flash and other adobe software’s. They use a lot of motion throughout the entire banner, but what I found to be most interesting was the fact that it was interactive to the audience. As the audience, we were able to play with the banner and make the paper clip however we wanted. This is what was so catchy and made me like it so much. I also found myself doing it more than once and seeing how many different positions I could get the paperclip in and how many seconds it took. When I scrolled over the buttons, they changed so that you could tell you were scrolling over them, and all the text had action incorporated into it so I was never bored with what was going on.

Little funny things like this might be more useful than you think. I had no idea what this service was before this banner and I went further and looked it up just because it was catchy and funny. I thought this was a very cool banner!

About Me!

Hi Everyone!
My name is Lauren. I am a senior Advertising major and an Interactive Digital Design minor. I play lacrosse here at Quinnipiac. My number is 3 and I am a midfielder. I am from East Longmeadow, MA and live in an off campus house in Hamden.
This summer I had an internship at a small firm called Farm Credit Financial Partners. I worked on some human resource projects and on the company website.
Can't wait for a fun fall semester!
Enjoy my blog..
Lauren