Chapter 8 of Art in Motion


Chapter 8, in Maureen Furniss’s Art in Motion,  went over the aesthetics of stop motion animation, discussing everything from look to movement. Furniss argued that 3D animations  had width, height, and depth, compared to a more 2D animation which has only width and height. Furniss also wrote about the three main types of 3D stop motion animation, being figures, clay, and pixilation. From Furniss' writing is easy to tell that one has to pay a lot of attention to detail when going about stop motion animation. Backgrounds, characters, size, angle, and lighting all help to create the mood of the film, as well as allow the production team to get good material. What I found to be really interesting was that sometimes the production designers would make characters bigger at times to get close up shots of them. If done right, the figures can come to life on screen. 


Clay Animation and the Early Days of Television: The ‘Gumby’ Series


Michael Frierson’s article, “Clay Animation and the Early Days of Television: The ‘Gumby’ Series”, focuses on the introduction of television, its advancements, and marketing. The introduction of the television really shook things up for Hollywood, and pushed them to try and make better and cleaner looking work, much like the work seen on a smaller screen in family homes. Sadly, some studios couldn't compete and due to budget cuts a lot of studios began closing sections and selling material. A lot of the material ended up being syndicated on television, because it was mostly cartoon shorts that could easily be fit into a schedule. Cartoons being broadcasted pulled in viewers, especially children. More studios began to develop projects aimed at children. With this new attraction, companies began to search for ways to market television for children.  The filmmaker Art Clokey developed the “Gumby” show. Gumby aired up until 1971, but then in the 1980′s Gumby was resurrected.  Low budget filmmakers have become fascinated with Gumby, and because of this it brought him back. 


The Brave Little Toaster


Recently, I watched Toy Story 3, but something was different this time. I still adore the movie, just something was off to me. The plot of the movie reminded me a lot of another movie, which isn't very unusual these days, yet it brought back feelings of nostalgia. An old childhood film lost in the bac of my mind. Then, when flipping through film websites, a title popped up: The Brave Little Toaster. That's a terrific film that I haven't seen in a long time, and what's more surprising was I saw a few names from the Pixar team on that list. I read into it and found out that a big number of the founders of Pixar met while working on The Brave Little Toaster, and they all acknowledge the similarities between that film and Toy Story 3. Both films feature an object that goes on a journey, feeling lost and unwanted by their master, then through a series of events they end up in a garage dump. I now love both films even more, because Toy Story 3 was the Pixar team returning to their roots and finishing a fine trilogy at the same time.