Animation in relation to audience

Presto
Pixar (2008)



This animation appeals to an audience of both children and adults as usually all pixar films do.
The cute loveable character of the rabbit appeals to children of a young age and will find the slapstick humour quite funny and will keep them entertained.
Adults will also enjoy this because of the slapstick humour involved but also because the style of the introduction is styled upon early Disney cartoons of the 1950s-1960s and will make them reminisce of when they were children watching similar cartoons of slapstick values, featuring appealing characters.
The CGI style of the animation is typical of a modern animated feature, and is smoothly rendered and pleasing to the eye. It features dim lighting as it’s set in a theatre and spotlights focus upon the action of the main characters. It is fast paced and full of action, keeping everyone entertained.



Love Hina
Xebec (2000)



The suitable audience for this animation is teenagers aged from mid to late teens, most likely male. This is because it deals with subjects of university entrance exams, dating and a male living in an all-girls dormitory, and all are shown in a comedic style.
It features a lot of innuendoes and quick rude humour which again would not be suitable for people younger than mid-teens.
It is made in the style of Anime as it is of Japanese origins, so more of the slapstick humour and witty lines are more understandable by a Japanese audience and their culture, but Otaku who follow Anime and Japanese culture closely will be able to understand.
It is very eccentric, full of colour and features a range of varied characters all with funny characteristics.



Robot Chicken
Williams Street Studios / Ghost Planet Industries (2005)


Robot Chicken - Six Flags Guy from SpeCT on Vimeo.

This is a stop-motion animated series shown on the Adult Swim channel. It features short comic sketches acted out by animated dolls. These comic sketches usually mock popular culture and references toys, tv shows, films and popular trends. Topics that would be found funny by teenagers in their late teens to young adults.
The use of dolls who have cut-out mouths are posable in positions and can move in quite comic ways. This gives the animation a visual style not found in any other animation out there.
It is original and gives a suitable amount of entertainment whilst remaining short (episode duration of about 10-15 mins).



Babar
Nelvana/The Clifford Ross Company (1989)



This cartoon is aimed at a very young audience. It follows simple styled characters following the adventures and challenges undergone by Babar the young elephant. It is colourful and the stories contain morals for growing and developing children.

Inspiration from Wario Ware

Bust a move!

It's one day project time again. Today I have the task of developing a character/style sheet for a key ‘character’ in my proposed animation idea.
I've been going through some ideas recently but the main one that's stuck in my head is an idea of a 70's disco guy who busts moves on people's asses for disrupting the groove. Basically he resolves situations and fights crime.
It'll lead through a variety of choices in the narrative of whether you groove to resolve or to chill and let things flow. Depending on the situation this could have good or bad consequences.
It'll lead to a boss mode at the end of the story where you have to do some dance dance revolution style button pressing in a game to beat the boss level and finish the story.

So for the one day project, here's my initial character idea showing the key character in front, 3rd, side and back facing positions. He is currently unnamed at the moment, so if anyone can help me out with some ideas for a name, post a comment or email me.



Character Bio:
White
Early 30s
Single
6'5" (-6" for platforms)

Favourite music:
KC & the sunshine band
Jackson 5
Bill Withers
(Anything with funky bass)

Favourite films:
Starsky & Hutch
Charlie's Angels

Let's hoist the jolly roger and set sail in Piracy

I have recently become very engrossed with following the ongoing trial in Stockholm, Sweden against the website thepiratebay.org which is probably going to be one of the most important cases ever witnessed by the file-sharing community.

The basis of the case is that the major media corporations: Warner Bros, MGM, EMI, Colombia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG and Universal are suing four of the people behind The Pirate Bay for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws".
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is leading the charges in the trial which started on February 16th and is scheduled to finish on March 4th and is being broadcast live on Swedish public radio.

34 cases of copyright infringements are listed, 21 of which are related to music files, 9 to movies, and 4 to games. On the second day of the trial 50% of the charges were dropped.

The pirate Bay has received a huge level of support that has taken everyone by surprise. They are the biggest BitTorrent site in the world. Hackers attacked several of the IFPIs websites today and there are people outside the court translating the case for others, others have released a documentary, whilst many others have been following the events and every development online and posting words of support on blogs and forums.
A news report of the website hacks can be found here.

To read an overview of the trial, its history and to get an understanding about the whole case, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial.
Or follow on the Pirate Bay's Spectrial website trial.thepiratebay.org

This case provokes thought and shows how American media corporations and government feel that they can police the internet and control everyone's activities on it. These US businesses are suing over what is illegal in America but in their ignorance have not taken into account that it is not illegal in Swedish law.

What I find quite interesting is that in Sweden, there is a political party called The Pirate Party, who support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property. They believe in freely sharing information and culture, although are not involved in illegal activities. The party has 9,000 members and its youth organisation has just over 4,500 and they are currently in the process of preparing for the 2009 European Parliament elections.

Some noteworthy documentaries to check out on the subject of copyright and piracy are Steal this film and Good Copy Bad Copy. Both are free and legal to download and distribute and I thoroughly recommend watching them.

some interesting links:
Torrent Freak: torrentfreak.com

Timeline of file-sharing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_file_sharing

Piratbyran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratbyrån

The Swedish Pirate Party: http://www.piratpartiet.se/international/english
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party

Steal this film: http://stealthisfilm.com/trial/
Good Copy Bad Copy: http://www.goodcopybadcopy.net/

Webbernet Stumblings of interestingness

Whoo. New post. First in a while.
Been wasting some time tonight browsing around sites of interest and random webbynet-ness.

Although i have come across it before, tonight i have been hooked on the wonders of Vimeo. I love that it is a gold mine for creative wonders and inspiration for dull, uninspired individuals like myself. There are so many fantastic videos to be found on there. Check it out.

Oh and along with my random weebbynet browsing i have come across a new music artist i quite like. Coeur de pirate produces such aural satisfication from the beautiful piano melody and aurgasmic sound of French singing.
Again, check it out :-)

BAIMP Narratives Out of class assignment

"According to your interpretations, break the narrative of each image apart into ‘nodes’ of action/events and come up with alternative ‘interactive’ variations to this narrative of the group's own choosing. How would you be able to play with or tell an alternative story interactively?"

Lil' Red Rides da Hood

A late post but this marks the start of my Narratives unit work and our group project based on a fairy-tale.
Exactly a week ago today i met with the other members of my group to start discussions on ideas for our project on exactly the same seats in The Loft as we are this minute.
Anyhoo... We got discussing through a variety of ideas and thinking what fairytale we could adapt into our interactive narrative.
We all agreed upon Little Red Riding Hood.