Premise: OGR

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Mudbox - Session 4

Film Review: World Animation - Japan: Paprika (2006)

Fig 1: Poster.

Satoshi Kon' Paprika (2006) is an adventure and crime Japanese animation. A group of scientists invented a device called a DC-Mini, which allows psychiatrists to enter their patient's dreams in a therapeutic setting. However, the device is stolen and the thief uses it to control people's mind, causing chaos. Dreams start to blend, become reality and the line between conscious and unconscious blurs. The scientists, Chiba, Tokita, and Shima accompanied by a police inspector set out to catch the thief and put things back in order.

The anime is exploring the consciouses and subconscious. The whole film revolves around the dream world and questions whether what we see is real or not. As the characters jump between reality and dream it is very confusing and sometimes impossible to tell whose dream we see, as the dreams start to blend and merge. Furthermore, the film works with the idea whether it is right to enter someone's subconscious and therefore challenging the idea of morality and privacy; it warns against the dangers of tampering with the natural order of things.
Paprika deals with some challenging themes, such as dreams and reality. It is known that capturing the nature of dreams is difficult and often can come across as confusing. While the anime does demonstrate confusion, it also portrays how dreams work perfectly, as scenes, events, actions and people keep randomly changing, appearing and disappearing; it sometimes does not make sense, but neither does some dreams, which is why it was able to communicate the topic well.

Fig 2: DC-Mini.

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, manga artist and screenwriter. He said, he found the original novel extraordinary and seen a good potential in, and he was interested in dreams and subconscious; so he decided to make an adaptation of the novel, and has created a well recognised and sucessful anime. He have said that the parade scene is a symbol for the subconscious, containing old objects that represent the forgotten.
When adapting the novel, Satoshi Kon said he was always inspired by live action, but did not want to copy any other animation, therefore makeing something unique and different. 

Fig 3: Parade.

The film is a mixture between 2D and 3D animation, which means some parts of it were hand drawn and some where made with using computers. Satoshi Kon have said he prefered to do hand drawn animation, which made it very difficult to compbine the two technioques, but they have managed to blend the two in a way it is hardly if not impossible to notice. Him and his crew of 50  people have worked hard to achieve the goal and worked on a faily small amount of budget of $4 million. He did the screenwriting, production design and storyboard.

The anime is based on a novel, called Paprika (1993) by Yasutaka Tsutsui, which was serialised in a Japanese women's magazine Marie Clarie. The film was released in theatres in 2006 and was animated by Madhouse alongside with Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan. Madhouse is a Japanese animation studio, that is recognised for many well known and liked animes, such as 'Death Note', 'One Punch Man' and 'Redline'.
The anime was mainly positively received by viewers and critics from all around the world. The anime is rated an average of 7.2/10 on Rotten Tomatoes website by critics and 4/5 by the audience, making it a quite high ranked and Newsweek Japan included Paprika in its list of the 100 best films of all time; but the film is well rated on other film critic websites and magazines. Although most critics found the film mesmerising, some have said it is boring or does not live up to some rivals out there, such as 'Spirited Away'.

After its release, Paprika was screened on multiple festivals around the globe, such as the 'Venice Film Festival', 'New York Film Festival', 'Tokyo International Film Festival', 'TIFF Animation CG Festival', and 'International Film Festival' in New Zeland. It was also nominated for some awards, such as 'Online Film Critics Society Awards' (for Best Animated Film) and '63rd Venice International Film Festival' (for Golden Lion (Best Film)); and has won 'Montréal Festival of New Cinema' (for Public's Choice Award), 'Fantasporto' (for Critics Choice Award (Prêmio da Crítica)), and 'Newport Beach Film Festival' (for Feature Film Award for Best Animation).

Illustration List:
Figure 1: Poster. [Online] At: http://www.moviepostershop.com/paprika-movie-poster-2006 (Accessed on 25.01.2018)
Figure 2: DC-Mini. [Film Still] At: http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/04/framing-dreams-and-the-technological-uncanny-part-two.html (Accessed on 25.01.2018)

Figure 3: Parade. [Film Still] At: http://bankay.ru/library/1426-paprika (Accessed on 25.01.2018)

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Mudbox - Session 3

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Mudbox - Session 2

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Mudbox - Session 2

Film Review: World Animation - Australia: Mary and Max (2009)

Fig 1: Poster.

Adam Elliot's Mary and Max (2009) is a comedy and drama claymation (clay animation). It tells a story about the true friendship between two unlikely pen-pals. Mary Daisy Dinkle, an eight-year-old girl who lives in Melbourne (Australia) is a lonely girl, having no friends at school and having parents who don't care for her. One day she decides to write a letter filled with questions and sends it to America to an unknown person. Max Jerry Horowitz, a forty-four-year-old, severely obese man living in New York, is the person who receives the letter from the curious child; he decides to write back. Thus, their exchange of letters continues for years and their friendship becomes stronger.

The film follows Mary and Max through their life, introducing their struggles, happiness, and everyday life. Mary's parents are distant and neglectful, her father is always working and is never involved in her everyday life; her mother is an alcoholic. She has no friends, and she is bullied in school. The only things keeping her cheerful are her pet rooster, condensed milk / chocolate and her favourite TV show 'The Noblets'. Max is living alone in an apartment and is suffering from obesity, and while would like to lose weight, he is not giving up his diet. He is a Jewish atheist with Asperger's Syndrome, has panic attacks and don't understand / can't read people. He also has some pets and loves chocolate and the TV show 'The Noblets'. The two live very different lives, but they bond and understand each other through their love for chocolate and 'The Noblets', as well as their loneliness. As time goes by, they learn more and more about one another and help each other through life's ups and downs.

Max and Mary

While the film includes jokes and has humorous parts, which helps the audience to connect with the characters and take the seriousness of some of the topic dealt in the animation. It tackles some themes such as childhood neglect, mental health and illness, Aspergers Syndrome, loneliness, anxiety, depression, alcoholism, and suicide. These topics are not often approached and are considered to be difficult, they are often rather avoided and not addressed due to their seriousness and the difficulty to grasp them or the challenge to portray them correctly.

Adam Elliot is the writer and director of this feature animation. He has confirmed that the story was based on his real-life pen pal who lives in New York, is a big man, Jewish, atheist and has Asperger’s. They have been exchanging letters for over 20 years, and after he looked through a box containing their letters, he decided to make the animation. Elliot has said, he bases his films on his family, friends and people around him. 

The making of the animation took 5 years including, writing the script, making the storyboard, getting the cast and the physical animation. Elliot said if he knew how complicated it would be to make it, he would have never made it, but after winning an Oscar for his previous work he went on naively to making Mary and Max.

Fig 3: Making 

At first sight, due to the claymation, the film could be mistaken to be aimed at children, but the topic the story covers is definitely not for children. If the film would have been live action or different animation style instead of claymation, the events and topics in the film would have been more traumatising and harder to watch. But since the claymation brings a childish or rather cute look, it is easier for the audience to cope with the seriousness of the animation.

The animation was positively received by audiences and critiques and was deemed a success. Although it was not released in theatres in the US, it was part of many American film festivals. It was nominated for many awards, and has won the 'Asia Pacific Screen Award' (nominated for Best Animated Feature Film); 'Australian Directors Guild' (nominated for Best Direction in a Feature Film); 'Berlin International Film Festival' (nominated for Crystal Bear); and 'Ottawa International Animation Festival' (nominated for Grand Prize).

Illustration List:

Figure 1: Poster. [Poster] At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978762/ (Accessed on 18/01/2018)
Figure 2: Max and Mary. [Film Still] At: https://agoodmovietowatch.com/mary-and-max-2009/ (Accessed on 18/01/2018)
Figure 3: Making. [Online] At: http://gencdergisi.com/6499-iki-insan-bir-mektup.html?mwjjzwjsbmfkbcvx (Accessed on 18/01/2018)

Toolkit 2: Life Drawing #8

Toolkit 2: Adobe Mudbox - Session 1

Toolkit 2: Life Drawing - Term 1 Submission

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5 & 6

Session 7

Toolkit 2: Character Design Bible

Toolkit 2: Adobe Mudbox - Session 1

Toolkit 2: Character Design - Week 10, One-Day-Challenge

For the One Day character design challenge we were put into groups and given an existing children's cartoon, and our job was to each come up with an additional character (could be a hero, villain or even an animal). My team and I got the Canadian animated series 'Wild Kratts', which aims to educate children about animals. 

In the animated series, there are multiple heroes alongside multiple villains. After a long time of trying to come up with something that does not exist in the series or is not going to be designed by any other members of the team, I decided to create a villain.

The villains are based on already existing issues, such as captivity or animals' usage for fashion, so I  too decided to find an existing issue and base my character on it. I designed an oil company owner, who unlike the other villains is not trying to capture the animals, but rather carelessly pollutes the environment. I was trying to use the simplistic style of the other characters, which was slightly difficult for me. My aim was to try and make the character look oily and greasy, which shows the character's usual environment as well as his personality.

For the One Day Challenge

Toolkit 2: Maya Tutorials - Lighting & Rendering #2

Arnold

Part 2:

Sampling & Noise Reduction

Toolkit 2: Maya Tutorials - Jet Pack Jones - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling #7

Jet Pack Jones: 

 Pipeline 1: Head Modelling

Part 7: The Brow

Toolkit 2: Maya Tutorials - Jet Pack Jones - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling #6

Jet Pack Jones: 

 Pipeline 1: Head Modelling

Part 6: The Nose

Toolkit 2: Maya Tutorials - Jet Pack Jones - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling #5

Jet Pack Jones: 

 Pipeline 1: Head Modelling

Part 5: The Eye

Toolkit 2: Maya Tutorials - Jet Pack Jones - Pipeline 1: Head Modelling #4

Jet Pack Jones: 

 Pipeline 1: Head Modelling

Part 4: The Mouth