Sound visualization in MTV idents

Since MTV is a channel mainly focused on music (besides reality shows) it's a given that MTV has to, in one way or another, explore sound in order to market themselves successfully.

Back in 2010 MTV launched a third generation of the new MTV idents, which helped them create a consistent identity throughout the world (as I blogged about it earlier).

For this phase, MTV and 55DSL together selected a handful of visual artists – Alex Trochut, iLoveDust, James Roper, Tei, Yué Wu and Zeloot – who each designed a T-shirt based on one of the five senses. Each artist was then paired with a motion design studio to turn their original artwork into a 30 second short film. 

James Ropers made a T-shirt design based on the sense of hearing. 

Roper claims that there is no deeper meaning in his work and that its single purpose is "Pleasurable retinal violation." He also claims that he channels his OCD into his work as he likes doing repetitive things and pays great attention to detail. I found this artist and his work very fascinating,  that;'s why I wanted to share a bit about it, but the main point here, is his 30 sec video (for some reason I wasn't allowed to post just the hearing video, so I'll give you all of the 5 senses)

It is very interesting to see how different artists interpret different senses. Portraying any sense visually is not an easy task, but hearing-vise, I think Roper approached this with his individual understanding of sound and as a result, created a very powerful visual impact. 

Another MTV ident I want to write about is Soundquake. It's not an animation but I still think it's useful to look into it. Actually, there's not much I can tell you about it since the director was not an individual person, it was MTV WDS Milan and it was released with the same MTV Power x 1000% campaign (as well as the 5 senses). But I found the idea very interesting, because it seems that sounds disrupts  a perfectly static image with vibrations and turns something perfectly placed into a chaotic mess. Also the play on colors is really tasteful, check it-

http://vimeo.com/11166004

Fantasmagorie (1908) by Emelie Cohl

Fantasmagorie is an 1908 French animated film by Émile Cohl. It is one of the earliest examples of traditional (hand-drawn) animation, and considered by film historians to be the first animated cartoon.
The film largely consists of a stick figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live action where the animator’s hands would enter the scene. The main character is drawn by the artist's hand on camera, and the main characters are a clown and a gentleman.
The film, in all of its wild transformations, is a direct tribute to the by-then forgotten Incoherent movement. The title is a reference to the "fantasmograph", a mid-Nineteenth Century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images that floated across the wallsThe film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a blackboard look. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was exposed twice (animated "on twos"), leading to a running time of almost two minutes. It borrowed from J. Stuart Blackton, the "chalk-line effect"; filming black lines on white paper, then reversing the negative to make it look like white chalk on a black chalkboard. Blackton and Cohl also borrowed some technics from Georges Méliès, such as the stop trick.

The Begining of Anime

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of anime. I don't actually like it, but I figured it might be because I know so little about it. After all, it has to be a global phenomenon for a reason.  So here is some research I've done about the history of anime.
It all started in the early 20's with a medical doctor Osamu Tezuka and his manga Astro Boy. At the time Japan was considered to be place that makes American goods and cheap toys. And from the historical point of view, Japan was still haunted by the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it was pretty brave of Tezuka to tell a story about a robot boy with an atomic heart, disowned by his creator. Tezukas work was considered to be a Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney  and he was often times titled as the goth father of anime.
Shortly after the firestorm descended on Disney, the company took the position that it was largely unaware of Japanese Animation in general, and Tezuka in particular. Their animators, it was categorically stated, were not influenced at all during the production of their own King-of-the-Jungle lion film. That entire scenes were lifted from Tezuka "splash" panels were merely coincidence. It was therefore a bit of a reversal when shortly afterward Disney and Studio Ghibli announced that Miyazaki's back catalog of films would be distributed by Disney ... a company that was officially "unaware" of the medium.
Also the fathers of Japanese animation were considered Ōten Shimokawa, Jun'ichi Kōuchi and Seitaro Kitayama. At the time they were exploring new techniques, but the animation were mostly for commercial purposes. This was the first generation of Japanese animators also called Kamishibai.
The second generation consisted of such animators as Yasuji Murata, Hakuzan Kimura, Sanae Yamamoto and Noburō Ōfuji, who were students of Kitayama Seitaro and worked at his film studio. Kenzō Masaoka, another important animator, worked at a smaller animation studio. In 1923, the Great Kantō earthquake destroyed most of the Kitayama studio and the residing animators spread out and founded studios of their own.

Classical Elements: part five

My animation is finally done!
I am so proud to finally share it and I am really satisfied with the end result. The music is St Philip Street Breakdown by George Lewis, I came across it randomly on Spotify, and I felt like it would go well with the animation, when I actually put it together, I noticed there is a similar rhythm so I managed to synchronise the music with the video and I feel that the music fits perfectly for the animation now.
I also came up with the title Aqua Est Vitae. It's latin for "water is life", I chose to do the title in latin because, to be honest, it just sounds better.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I do-

The Flip Book

Researching the history of flip books was actually very engaging to me because back in the Animation Skills module we had to do flip book, so I felt more interested in researching how they began. As it is obvious the concept of flip book is very straight forward- it is a sequence of images in a book, and the illusion of animation is created while flipping through the pages as quickly as possible. It may also employ a series of photographs instead of drawings.
The flip book was patented by John Barnes Linett back in 1868.
In 1894, Herman Casler invented a mechanized form of flip book called the Mutoscope, which mounted the pages on a central rotating cylinder rather than binding them in a book. The mutoscope remained a popular attraction through the mid-20th century, appearing as coin-operated machines in penny arcades and amusement parks. In 1897, the English filmmaker Henry William Short marketed his "Filoscope", which was a flip book placed in a metal holder to facilitate flipping.
I conciser the flip book to be a very convenient way of animating as it can be done by anyone and does not really need any special equipment for it.

Computer Generated Imagery

The history of computer-generated imagery goes hand in hand with the history of the computer itself. The arrival of the third generation of computers in the 1960’s opened the path for the first experiments with CGI effects.
For the origins of computer-generated imagery (CGI) we need to go back to the year 1968. In this year a group of Russian mathematicians and physicists lead by N.Konstantinov created a mathematical model of a moving cat across a screen. A program was made for a special computer by the name of BESM-4. The BESM-4 computer printed hundreds of frames that could be converted into usable film material.
The first 3D computer-generated imagery was created in the film Futureworld in 1976. In a scene the hand and  face of the actor was enhanced with the use CGI. Futureworld used 2D digital compositing to materialize characters over the background.
After these first steps into discovering the possibilites of CGI a probably familiar man named George Lucas saw it’s possibilities. George Lucas conceived the popular Star Wars franchise which made use of top edge CGI effects at the time and many that were never seen before. The 1977 movie became a huge box office hit and became an inspiration for many CGI effects that followed.
As we entered the 21st century CGI possibilities became almost endless and more and more mixed with the authentic film footage. Movies as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Matrix: Reloaded (2003) and The Polar Express (2004) pushed the boundaries and possibilities of CGI further. Lord of the Rings was the first to make use of artificial intelligence for it’s digitally created characters as it also created the first photo realistic motion captured character. The Matrix: Reloaded thereby was the first to use Universal Capture to capture more frames in an image. Furthermore in 2004 the animated film “The Polar Express” (2004) pushed the boundary by being to first to use motion capture on all it’s movie characters.

The Zoetrope

The Zoetrope or The Wheel of Life is on of the many pre-film inventions that are linked to animation. The Zoetrope is a cylinder that turned in motion creates a deception of motion, through the vertical slits on the sides and image sequences inside. Apparently a similar device id found to created around 100 year BC. But the basic cylinder formed Zoetrope was invented in 1833 by a British mathematician William George Horner who was aware of the previously invented and very similar Phenakistoscope. They both work on the same principal but the Zoetrope is more convenient for viewing.
These days there are 3d Zoetropes who apply the same principal but using 3d figures. Now they are used in several animation themes exposition for instance by Studio Ghibli (in the Ghibli museum in Tokyo) or Pixar (which was first shon in the Museum of Modern Art).

History of Russian Animation

Some say that if you don't go to visit Russia, Russia will come visit you!
But in all fairness Russia has a great and fully evolved animation industry. The animation from Soviet period still holds the wanders of my parents generation. Even my generation grew up watching it (more or less).
It all began with Aleksander Shiryayev. He was a principal dance for the Imperial Russian Ballet, but apart from dancing he did a few puppet-animations. But it was forgotten until the rediscovery of his work in 1995.
After Shiryayev followed Ladislaw Starewicz. I already covered him in one of my previous posts, but those whom did not read it I 'll elaborate: he was a trained biologist who used embalmed insects for his stop motion animations. Also his 1913 41 minute film The Nigh Before Christmas was the first film to use live action and stop motion in the same scene.
After Starewicz emigrated, the Russian animation industry went to a standstill, mainly because of the October Revolution.
Only in 1920's the Russian authorities could start financing experimental studios. Since it was the wartime period, they mainly produced short animated propaganda films. In doing so, the early pioneers like Ivan Ivanov, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Nikolay Khodatayev could experiment with the equipment as well as the aesthetics (which were very different from the American animators). As Ivanov mentions this in his memoirs, the aesthetics might have been influenced also by the atmosphere created by the Russian avantgarde.
In 1935, inspired by the short reel from Mickey Mouse, sent by Disney to the Moscow Film Festival, Soyuzdetmultfilm studio was created in order to focus on Disney like animation, exclusivley cel technique.
When Nikita Khrushchev in 1956 proclaimed the end of the personality cult of Joseph Stalin, he started a process of political and cultural renewal in the country. Even though animators still needed a while to free themselves. From the 1960s onwards, animation films gain completely new qualities. The starting point for this was Fyodor Khitruk's film The Story of a Crime (1962). Not only had he changed the animation style to something that resembled what the United Productions of America was doing, but for the first time since the avantgarde years, he was able to tackle a contemporary story.

And really have to share the themes song to this (it' just brilliant):

Finally in the 1970's Nu Pogodi! (Just You Wait) was born and it was the most popular Soviet animated series. To be honest these series hold a special place in my heart, because I grew up watching them. It is simple in its plot-  wolf chasing a rabbit (sort of like Tom and Jerry). But the wolf had a phrase for the end of the episode when he fails to catch the rabbit- "Rabbit, Just You Wait". That's actually my translation, if you know a better one, please let me know. But anyway the animation in this is just awesome. The theme song triggers great nostalgia to everyone from my generation and older.

After the end of the Soviet Union, the situation for Russian animators changed dramatically. On one hand, State subsidies diminished significantly. On the other hand, the number of studios competing for that amount of money rose a good deal. Most of the studios during the 1990s lived on animation for advertisement and on doing commissioned works for big studios from America and elsewhere. Nevertheless, there were a few very successful international co-productions, e.g. Aleksandr Petrov's (former Sverdlovsk Film Studio animator) Oscar-winning The Old Man and the Sea (1999, from Ernest Hemingway's novel) or Stanislav Sokolov's The Winter's Tale (1999, from William Shakespeare's play) that earned the director an Emmy.

Classical Elements:part four

Dragon frame saved my life!!!
Here I was depressed because of the failed animation and the knight in shining armor arrived and saved my day.
But seriously, good thing my tutor suggested I re scanned it with Dragon Frame. The result came out completely different. The shots were still and neat, the image quality was better and IT  TOOK CONSIDERABLY LESS TIME. I'm writing this in capitals because it took me like 7 hours to scan the frames in, whereas with Dragon Frame it took nearly an hour. AND you can play it instantly, AND it has onion skin (or whatever you call it, when you can see the previous frame) AND you can export it as soon as your done, AND it was very easy to use it.
 Anyway Dragon Frame- best thing in Europe, saved my animation. Whoohoo!

Classical Elements: part three

Animating frame by frame demands a lot of patients. Especially if you decide to scan in all of the 240 frames with scanner.
First of all, one of my great downfalls with this project was that I did not test it. I should have scanned it in as soon as I had the first few frames and see what it looks like. As for the animating, there's not much to talk about, just drawing key frames, looking at the animatic, filling in the inbetweens. I decided to outline everything in the frame with a marker because I felt like it gave it a better look.
After 7 hours of scanning the frames I learned a few things- the scanner was too small for the frames, by overlooking that fact I jeopardized the composition of the frames, which resulted in an unsteady and messy look of the animation. The other thing I learned is always check the dpi. Mine was set too high, which resulted in slowing down the process. The third thing- I'm just not patient and tidy enough for this process.
The end result did not satisfy me, and to be honest made me panic.

Apparently it was 30 frames per second, but even by slowing it down did not look good to me. So I decided to try and redo it on Flash,

The Television Era

In 1980's The Golden Age of Animation came to a close as most of the periods veterans retired or died. The new generation of animators were innovative, and ready to take part in a new era of animation. So television started drawing people away from the big screen, which resulted in a big decline for Walt Disney, however it gave way to new companies such as Hanna-Barbera. Television animation started tackling more topical subjects even though most of it was labeled as "children's entertainment". The television era became very demanding for the animation industry, so more low-budget and quickly made cartoons were produced, this meant a significant decrease in quality and detail. During this era, emerged a lot of cartoon series such as The Jetsons, Scoobu-Doo, The Smurfs.

The Invention of Cinematographic

Cinematographic was and invention made in 1890's and it was a projector, printer, and camera in one machine that allowed moving pictures to be shown successfully on a screen which was invented by history's earliest film makers, Auguste and Louis Lumière.
Louis Lumière worked with his brother Auguste to create a motion-picture camera superior to Thomas Edison's kinetograph, which did not have a projector. The Lumières endeavored to correct the flaws they perceived in the kinetograph and the kinetoscope, to develop a machine with both sharper images and better illumination. The Cinématographe weighed only 16 lbs., which allowed for ease of transportation and placement. As well, the Cinématographe was manually operated by a hand-crank, as opposed to Edison's electrically powered camera, which was not readily portable. Furthermore, while only one person at a time could use Edison's kinetoscope for viewing - through an eyepiece, peep show style - the Cinématographe could project an image onto a screen so a large audience of people could view images simultaneously.
The Cinématographe produced a sharper projected image than had been seen before due to its design, in which a kind of fork held the film frame behind the lens in place using the perforations in the sides of the film strip.
In 1897, the Lumières further added to their invention by using a glass flask of water as the condenser to concentrate the light onto the film frame and to absorb heat. The flask also acted as a safety feature, as the light would no longer focus on the flammable film if the glass were to break due to overheating or accident.

Wartime Animation

During The Second World War both sides of the Atlantic streamed all sorts of morale-boosting and influential propaganda. As animation was a fully evolved art form at the the time, it seemed only fair to use it along side every other form of art for propaganda purposes. Even the most famous animation company Walt Disney contributed to wartime propoganda by making such movies as Education For Death: The Making of a Nazi (1943)

Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942)

Fall Out Fall In (1943)

and many more. For Disney it seems really out of tune, but non the less it was their contribution to Western porpoganda. To rectify the situation, in 1941 the Nazi government called the establishment of a strong German animation industry capable of producing both color cartoons and animated features. Thus, all able animators were commanded to step up production and focus on theatrically viable cartoons. Among the filmmakers called into action was Hans Fischerkoesen, who was among the most distinguished animators remaining in Germany between 1933 and 1945, and whose work during the war years included a trio of remarkable films: Verwitterte Melodie (Weatherbeaten Melody, 1942), Der Schneemann (The Snowman, 1943) and Das dumme Gänslein (The Silly Goose, 1944).

The Golden Age of Animation

The Golden Age of Animation started in the U.S. right around 1928 with the advent of sound cartoon. Though the milestone of animation being synchronized with sound and dialogue appeared in My Old Kentucky Home, by Fleischer studios 1926. The invention of cell animation technique back in 1910, with much refining and innovation, led the industry into a whole new innovative era. During this period emerged many legendary cartoon characters like Mickey Muse, Betty Boop, Popeye, Donald Duck. The catalyst for this explosion of animation was Steam Boat Willy, an animated short by Walt Disney.

With these new characters rose a new standard in animation, and so did the competition for the head of the industry, so sound effects and music became a standard fare. Walt Disney pushed the technical boundaries of animation creating the first ever animated feature film Snow White ant the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, and with this, set one of the most important milestones in history of the animation.
The Golden Age of Animation came to an end in 1960's with  the decline of animation.