Critical Studies: Shinji Hashimoto.

For this critical studies task we're required to choose an animation based on it's style, genre,  studio or auteur. I guess my choise is going to be based on a style.

I've always been a big fan of comic books and manga and used to rip out the pages where they had sketchy drawings. Because in my opinion they are more dynamic and realistic. When Linkin Park's "Breaking the habit video" aired  it was something out of this world! I have never seen a comic book come to life before! Even up until now this animation still remains one of my favourite pieces.

This animation was made by "Studio 4°C". This studio has produced numerous feature films, OVAs and shorts. Their work is various and has a unique and also peculiar style: from being totally reckless and weird to very detailed. As you have guessed, I'm going to focus on the animation style. So the person I've chosen as my style guru is Shinji Hashimoto.

It was extremely hard to find the owner of this "sketchy style" because there's not much information on this artist on the Internet. And I'm still not sure if it's right. At first I was convinced that the person who provided the key animation and directed it was the owner of this style. Also while looking at other pieces of animations that utilise the same style, Kazuto Nakazawa was usually part of the animatiors crew. While browsing through Wikipedia an other sourses I didn't find any additional information regarding style and just went on believing that Kazuto Nakazawa was the hand behind it.

But while I was reading the interview with him i found an interseting thing: "The Sketchy style of the Kill Bill anime and the music video for Linkin Park (the guy who asked this question incorrectly credited him for doing Kid's Story in the amatrix) was not his invention, but instead the invention of another animator, Shinji Hashimoto, who first used the style in Isao Takahata's film My Neighbours the Yamadas". This part part put me in the right direction.

The main reason why I have put Shinji Hashimoto's work in the center of my attention is that it has a particular drawing style that I would like to master. I'm not even sure how to name it. It's rather sketchy but almost realistic enough to believe that the chracters are human. The way he makes emphasis on  character's eyes is beyond me. When he was asked where did he get the idea to use a scratchier style he replied: "Basically I don't like drawings that are drawn very clear-cut. I prefer sketchier pictures that have more atmosphere to them. I have used this sketchy-type thechnique on two other productions. The first time was on the titles for earlier project, and the second time I used the sketchy style from beginning to end was on a film for Studio Ghibli".

Shinji Hashimoto provided key animations for the Animatrix's " Kids Story". The Animatrix is a 2003 direct-to-video anthology film based on the Matrix trilogy. The film is a complication of nine animated shorts. 

"Somebody tell me

why it feels more real when I dream than when I am awake.

How can I know if my senses are lying?"

"There is some fiction in your truth, and some truth in your fiction.

To know the truth/ you must risk everything."

Shinji Hashimoto Interview: http://www.intothematrix.com/rl_cmp/rl_interview_hashimoto.html

Kazuto Nakazawa interview: http://pareview.livejournal.com/22070.html

Critical Studies: Brothers Quay

Brothers Quay are two of the most remarkable filmmakers  of our time. Working in collaboration since at least 1969, when they first moved to London from the United States, their stop - action films have introduced a generation of viewers to a lyrical darkness not often associated with animation. Influenced heavily by Central European writers and artists their work reflects the dark psychology resulting form a  century of industrial warfare, surrealist art and dialectical politics. For example they especially been inspired by figures like Polish killed by a German Nazi officer Bruno Schultz , on whose story "Street of Crocodiles" is based. As well as German Dada painter Max Ernst, but also the influential multimedia Czech filmmaker and puppeteer Jan Svankmajer. The latter it is noteworthy has also influenced other famous noted individuals such as film director Tim Burton and the American-born British screenwriter, director and actor Terry Gillam, who is also a member of the Monty Python troupe. Stephen and Timothy Quay would in fact be such great admirers  of Svankmajer that they dedicate on of their short films to him, entitled "The Cabinet of  Jan Svankmajer"  (1984).

This was probably the most mysterious and bizarre animations I have ever seen, in a good way. After watching I felt rather confused and had all these questions running through my head (like: why the action was happening in that particular evironment? why did they use all the machinery? what's the purpose of it?) The puppets were something from the horror movies, had different body parts attached, and sometimes missing those. In my opinion, this animation had one huge flaw - music. The sounds were so annoying that I had to turn off the animation just to rest my ears and then get back to it afterwards. I have to say that they have approached the world of stop-motion in different way. 

Puppets, toys and dolls with missing limbs, misplaced parts, an metal armatures showing through their torn and frayed clothing that's how mainly Brothers Quay characters look like. 

Critical Studies: Experimental Animation.

In our fast moving world it's hard to bring something new, get noticed or leave a long lasting impression. Art is no exeption. It seemes that every movement in art has already been invented and there is nothing more we can add to it. Is creativity incising? 


In my opinion, there is always a capabilty to bring a new idea to life even though it seems impossible.   For some it may occur by an accident while others dedicate their whole life to it. 


I used to think that animation is all about cartoons and nothing more. But the boundaries were eventualy broken and the animation itself was taken to whole new level. Artists were not afraid to experiment, whether it would a success or a failure. The experimental animation is a great example of that.

William Kentridge is one of the best representatives of experimental animation. He's widely known for his prints, charcoal drawings and animated films. His works are of great inspiration to young artists. They also motivate to try something in the same manner or find a slightly alternative approach.

Critical Studies: Ub Iwerks.

Ub Iwerks turned upside down the world of animation as we know it. Not only by introducing the immortal Mickey Mouse to us but also inventing a technology that has revolutionized feature animation. The development of his multiplane camera that gave animators the chance to saturate their cartoons with greater depth.


One of his first Iwerk's animations with Disney for Universal Pictures was "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit"which was a big success. It encouraged Disney to push the boundaries and make films more technologically advanced. The whole cartoon was animated entirely by Ub.

After "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" became a big hit Disney and Iwerks came up with a new character - Mickey Mouse. Together they developed the idea and personality of Mickey and Ub was given a task to bring him to life. That's when a new chapter was added to animation history. 

Iwerks became Disney's right hand man. As an animator Ub was dedicated to work and produced animation at a record-breaking speed. He animated the first Mickey Mouse silent cartoon  entirely by himself within a three-week period, completing as many as 700 drawings a day.


Additional: "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story" a documentary film from Leslie Iwerks. 

Critical Studies: Animation Timeline.

1824 -Peter Mark Roget presented his paper "The Persistence of Vision with Regard to Moving Objects" to the British Royal Society.
1831 - Dr. Joseph Antoine Plateau and Simon Ritter constructed a machine called a phenakitstoscope.
1872 - Eadweard  Muybridge started his photographic gathering of animals in motion.
1887 - Thomas Edison started his research work into motion pictures.
1889 - Thomas Edision announced his creation of the kinetoscope which projected a 50ft length of film in approx. 13 seconds.
1889 - George Eastman began the manufacture of photographic film strips using a nitro-cellulose base.
1892 - Emile Renynaud, combining his earlier invention of the praxinoscope with a projector, opens the Threatre Optique  in the Musee Grevin. 
1895 - Louis and Augustine Lumiere issued a patent for a device called a cinematograph capable of  projecting moving pictures.
1896 - Thomas Armat designed the vitascope which projected the films of Thomas Edison. This machine had a major influence on all sub-sequent projectors.
1906 - J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film called "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces". 
1908 - In France Emile Cohl produced a film, Phantasmagorie which was the first depicting while figures on a black background.
1910 - Emile Cohl makes En Route the first paper cutout animation. 
1911 - Winsor McCay produced an animation sequence using his comic strip character "Little Nemo".
1913 - John R. Bray devised "Colonel Heeza Liar", and Sidney Smith created "Old Doc Yak"
1914 - J. R. Bray applies for a patent on numerous techniques for animation. One of the most revolutionary being the processes of printing the backgrounds of the animation.
1917 - The International Feature Syndicate released many titles including "Silk Hat Harry", "Bringing Up Father" and "Krazy Kat".
1919 - Pat Sullivan created an American cartoon "Felix the Cat".
1923 - Walt and Roy Disney found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Extended Max Fleischer's technique of combining live action with cartoon characters  in the film "Alice's Wonderland".
1926 - The first feature-lenght animated film called "El Apostol" is created in Argentina.
1927 - Warner Brothers released "The Jazz Singer" which introduced combined sound and images.
1928 - Walt Disney created the first cartoon with synchronized sound called "Steam Boat Willy".
1930 - The King of Jazz is produced by Universal. In it is a short animated sequence done by Walter Lantz. It is the first animation done with the two strip technicolor process.
1934 - Urb Irwek creates a multi-plane camera. This camera is capable of filming several separate layers of cels giving the final frame a truly three dimensional look.
1943 - John and James Whitney produced "Five Abstract Film Exercises".
1945 - Harry Smith produced animation by drawing directly onto film.
1957 - John Whitney used 17 Bodnie motors, 8 Selsyns,  9 different gear units and 5 ball integrators to create analog computer graphics. 
1961 - John Whitney used differential gear mechanisms to create film and television title sequences.
1963 - Ivan Sutherland and SKETCHPAD at MIT/Lincoln Labs
1964 - Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laboratories, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies.
1972 - University of Utah, Ed Catmull develops an animation scripting language and creates an animation of a smooth shaded  hand.
1972 - National Research Council of Canada releases Hunger/La Faim directed by Peter Foldes and featuring Burtnyk and Wein interactive keyframing techniques.
1982 - Tron, MAGI, movie with CG premise.
1983 -  Bill Reeves at Lucasfilm publishes techniques for modeling particle systems. "Demo" is "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn".
1984 - The Last Starfighter, CG is used in place of models.
1987 - John Lasseter at Pixar publishes a paper describing traditional animation principles.
1988 - Willow uses morphing in live action film
1992 - Beier and Neely, at SGI and PDI respectively publish an algorithm where line correspondences guide morphing between 2D images. 
1993 - Chen and Williams at Apple publish a paper on view interpolation for 3D walkthroughs.
1993 - Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living creatures.
1995 - Toy Story first full-length 3D CG feature film.
1997 -  First computer animated movie viewed with 3D glasses Marvin the Martian.
1998 - First ever computer animated widescreen film A Bugs Life.
1999 - First use of CG interpolation in Bullet Time effects The Matrix.
2004 - First movie shot completely on a green screen using digitally scanned images as backgrounds Able Edwards.
2007 - Flatland First CGI feature film to be animated by one person. Made with Lightwave 3D and Adobe After Effects.
2009 - Avatar First full length movie made using performance-capture to create photo-realistic 3D characters and to feature fully CG 3D photo-realistic world.
2010 - Coronation Street Live first use of CGI in live broadcast.

Critical Studies: Report on the Flip Festival

I had a great chance to attend an International Animation Festival "Flip" on the 29th of October in Wolverhampton. Had no idea what to expect since I've never been to animation festival before.
The day started with an open shorts session where we were watching animated movies. I liked the most of them but especially the 3D animation "Detective Detective" by Awner Geller & Stevie Lewis.


The Flip was continued by a showreel and presenation from Aardman about the process of character design from sketches to large stuffed figures. Once again I was convinced that animation is a "pain in the ass". I regret not taking part in Aardman's workshop later that day. It seemed fun watching from the distance.

They showd a great number of animations on the next open shots session. I could outline couple of   them. First was "The Making of Longbird" which takes us behind the scenes to look at an Animator/Filmmaker as he struggles with his character. Second was "Fixing Luka" - a stop-motion animation about a girl Lucy who thinks that her brother is broken. She thinks that he should be fixed, but not in the way she imagines...But the most outstanding, in my opinion, was "1984 Animated Visuals" by Rob Pointon. The animation itself utilises a variety of animation techniques: largely charcoal on a single surface, oil painted, cut-out and emulsion on wall animation. All of this combined with stage performance. It was loud, interesting and use of traditional art made it impossible to forget. Definitely inspired and ecouraged me to try something in the same manner.

The day continued with a presentation from The Brothers McLeod on their pathway to creating "Isle of Spagg". Explained how the main characters were developed, their influences, use of colour pallete. I really liked their drawing style also had a fun time watching this movie. It was unique, colourfull and psychedelic. 

My day at the lighthouse ended with the third open shots session . I only remember two movies: "The Ballad of Nameless Joe" and "John and Betty"animation. The first one is about the musician who made a bet with the Devil but unable to deal with the consequences he cons his friend Joe into paying his debt. Joe ends up returning from hell, wanting to settle the score. The second was about elderly couple who are happily married until John's unhealthy obsession with solving crimes leads him to grow dangerously suspicious of his wife. In the end his wife dies by accident so as he.


All in all, I had the time of my life at the Flip. I definitely consider coming back next year.

Critical Studies: Researching Animation

"The Skeleton Dance" 1929

The first animation of the Silly Simphonies produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks. This was one of my favourite cartoons. I remember watching it on an old video player, which could be atributed to antiques. I've searched for this animation for years and stumbled upon it only by accident. The movie seemed scary enough back in the childhood days but even now it still looks disturbing. 

The action takes place in the cemetery with a rumbling lightning opening the scene.Closing in on an owl which hoots are timed with music as the wind blows through and a branch descends onto the owl, in the shape of a hand. When the clock strikes twelve bats come flying form the tower, cat's tug on each other's noses the first skeleton makes appearance, later joined by other. The cartoon is accompanied by Carl.W.Stalling's and Edvard Grieg's music. 

The skeletons dance in various and ridiculous ways and play makeshift musical instruments. Which also shows a great example of squash and stretch. It's hard not to notice that there's quite a lot of repeating going on and most of the scenes inherent symmetry and sometimes you know what's going to happen next.

The cartoon ends with the rooster crowing at dawn, which scares the living daylights out of the four skeletons as they scatter back to their coffins.

''The Skeleton Dance" series is one of the most unique Disney's films which stand out from the mass of his works. This cartoon is definitely one of my top favourite movies.

Critical Studies: First Lesson

For our first Critical studies lesson we were introduced to world of animation. Throghout the whole course we'll be introduced to the principles of animation, gain skills and knowledge of the history and development of animation.


We were divided into groups and given a sheet of paper to write everything we know about animation. This was one of the examples of information reserching by exchanging the information  between students. While other methods were: art books, internet (web pages, blogs), interviews, DVD's.