T-Shirt War

After researching different animation videos, I stumbled across T-shirt wars I was amazed at how clever and realistic it was. Pixilation is the type of animation for T-shirt wars; after being inspired by this video I have persuaded my group that we use the pixilation technique. T-shirt wars is not just inspiring on the quality of the video they have made adverts for 2 of the biggest companies in the world; McDonalds and Coca-Cola. This advert is quite random so the target audience is quite hard to find. If I had to choose a target audience it would be the young as it’s very simple with the things they do i.e. blowing up a balloon. The team used 222 shirts and it took 2 days to film.

 

T-Shirt War

The Brothers Quay

The brothers quay are formed of Stephen and Timothy. They are identical twins born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, US. They currently live in England and have so since 1969; when they came here to study at  Royal College of Art. The identical twins are admired and renowned for their creative work; Most of the animation is made up of dolls which creates a dark feel. The brothers work usually doesn’t contain dialogue which means they rely a lot of music and sound FX. The brothers work spans from music videos to films they have worked for the BBC and MTV. The brothers famously said "Puppet films by their very nature are extremely artificial constructions, even more so depending at what level of 'enchantment' one would wish for them in relation to the subject, and, above all, the conceptual mise-en-scène applied." - This really sums up The Brothers Quay. 

Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer is a Czech film director he has influenced many people including; The brothers quay. Svankmajer has always been interested in art and film from an early age going to; the college of applied arts and the Prague academy of performing arts. He is most famous for mixing stop motion and surrealism together. Most of Svankmajer’s films are quite dark, strange and even disturbing. Svankmajer married a lady called Eva Svanmajervoa she was also very talented in art she painted, and wrote they often worked together unfortunately she died when he was 69. A lot of Svankmajer’s work is based around food many say that he had a terrific experience growing up. Svankmajer creates the illusion of movement by speeding up his film. Svankmajer famously said “I never call myself an animated filmmaker because I am interested not in animation techniques or creating a complete illusion, but in bringing life to everyday objects.”

Jan Švankmajer

Ray Harryhausen - Dynamation

Ray Harryhausen was an American born on June 29th 1920. Ray Harryhausen is still alive and well at the age of 92. He specialized in stop motion and model animation. Ray Harryhausen helped films big films such as “King Kong” be big films. He helped them do this by his break through of realistic miniature models. 

Ray Harryhausen -  Dynamation 

The process was simple but very effective.  He projected a live action image onto a rear screen in front of which was placed the animation table with the model.  He would then place a glass sheet in front of both.  When the live action plate had been shot Ray would establish where he wanted to make his matte line and so by looking through the camera viewfinder he would re-establish that line and with a wax pencil on the end of a stick, follow that line by drawing it on the glass.  When he was satisfied that the line was accurate he would then paint out, with black matt paint, the lower section, below the line.  He would then photograph the animation of the model reacting to the live action on the plate.  Afterwards he would then create a second pass in the camera to reinstate the lower previously matted out section so creating a combined image of the creature seemingly as part of the live action.

Willis O’Brien

Willis O’Brien was an American motion effects and stop animation pioneer. “He was responsible for some of the best known images in cinema history”.  His most known film for my generation would be the first ever King Kong. He also made some other well known films such as; the lost world and Mighty Joe Young. Willis O’Brien left home when he was just 11 years old. He was also a professional boxer winning 9/10 fights. Willis O’Brien created the illusion of movement by creating detailed miniature models; using this technique was very simple but very effective. He would create enough frames until there was enough to be played rapidly causing the persistence of movement. I feel Willis O’Brien was amazing at what he did; using such limited resources he has managed to be respected even today in the film world.