Bridgette Goes to College

I’m going to format this post a little differently today. Instead of paragraphs upon paragraphs of me prattling on, here is a list of some fun facts about the animation of How to Train Your Dragon! (1, 2, and 3!) I spent some time watching the bonus materials (behind the scenes etc) and commentaries for the three films, only...How to Train Your Dragon 2 has a disturbing lack of bonus content and no commentary by anyone whatsoever. At least, not on the disc I own. But I don’t suppose the average movie watcher honestly cares if a commentary is included on a disc.  So without further delay, here we go! ·        Every kind of complex animated element that exists in the movie happens within the very first scene of HTTYD. Fire, smoke, the ocean, every main and secondary character is introduced, there’s flying and catapults… ·        There were 4,000 controls for rigging the dragons, half of which were in the face. · ...

This post is taking a completely different direction than I expected.I had fully intended to write about the evolution of character styles in animation, as in the differences between characters throughout the decades like Felix the Cat, or Robin Hood – Zootopia, or human characters in Shrek VS Frozen. While I still think this is a fun idea, I either wasn’t using the right key words when researching or no one else thinks it’s as important or interesting as I do. So I decided to save you all the trauma of me prattling on endlessly with possibly unfounded opinions and just share a couple of videos instead. These are a couple of dark, quirky short films made by Zealous Creative on YouTube. I adore them and want to bring attention to them.   Plus also they’re stop-motion. Stop-motion is hard, painstaking work, of posing and positioning for hours on end for only 30 seconds of footage. Personally, it’s my favorite kind of animation. The people who do it, do it well, and becaus...

Today I wanted to talk a little further on the history of animation, specifically hybrid animation. By hybrid animation I mean 2D and 3D, not 2D and live action, or live action and other computer generated special effects, which, let’s face it are in 80% of movies now. I mean 3D objects in 2D environments and vice versa. Technology has been improving and advancing rapidly ever since the very first computer animation Vertigo in 1958. It was only 25 years later that these two mediums of animation were finally combined in a short test in 1983 titled Where the Wild Things Are. The first time hybrid animation was used in a film was two years after that in Disney’s 1985 The Black Cauldron. This surprised me, even though it shouldn’t because The Black Cauldron is such a strange movie that’s been left behind in the dusty back corners of the Disney vault that it just makes sense that it did something noteworthy and no one remembers. Although, you could debate on how noteworthy it ac...

I can’t remember if making themed blog posts is a class requirement or if I just decided it was a good idea on my own. Does it matter either way? I think not. Anyhow the class I’m taking this month covers 3D modeling and animation so buckle up. Today I wanted to, as briefly as I can, talk about the history of animation. Or a portion of it anyway. If I tried to cover all of it we’d be here for days. It is generally considered, at least by those who believe all the lies Disney tells, that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first ever feature length animated film. It’s not! “Blasphemy!” You cry in outrage. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1937, but the first feature length animated film predates it by exactly 20 years. In 1917 the film El Apostol was released in Argentina, made by Quirino Cristiani. It was 70 minutes in length, ran at 14 frames per second, and used cutout animation. Cutout animation is essentially stop-motion using flat pieces of mat...

I’m sorry. I’m talking about The Lord of the Rings again. Wait, no I’m not sorry . This is the last week of my video and audio editing class so I wanted to make one final post specifically about film (for now, at least). ...And also because there’s this one scene in The Two Towers that keeps coming to mind. Instead of sounding like a total nerd I should probably just refer to it as the “They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard!” scene and everyone will know what I’m talking about. There are moments in the sequences where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are running across the plains of Rohan, but they’ve actually stopped moving and the camera has not. The subject is essentially motionless in the frame but the background is moving behind them. This helps keep the sense of urgency. Peter Jackson even talks about those specific scenes in the Appendices (bonus material, sorry, they’re labeled as Appendices on the discs and I love it), and how he never wanted the camera to be still at any poi...

I’m at a loss as to what I want to blog about this week, so I’m opting to talk about my first project for my digital video and audio editing class. The project was to create a series of three Instagram stories. I knew right away I wanted to make the project about Out of the Box. Out of the Box is a joy to be a part of and I can’t imagine my life without it. "Out of the Box is Lakeland Community Theatre's "troupe with unique abilities." This troupe of special needs actors has grown to over 100 current members ages 10 to 60+ (including 25 teenage volunteers). These very unique and talented individuals share a passion for theatre, and they are having a blast getting to do what they love! The group was formed Fall 2011 by LCT staff, parents, and volunteers.The troupe meets once a week at Lakeland Community Theatre, located in the Lake Mirror Complex. During class, they work on improvisation, scene work, dance, poetry, music, social skills, and more. Twice a year...

Who’s gonna bring the cinnamon? Who’s gonna bring the cloves? Who’s gonna bring the lavender? And who’s gonna bring the torch? I almost forgot about blogging this week, because I have a house/puppy sitting job that starts today so that’s where my mind has been the last few days. But I didn’t forget, hence why you’re seeing this post. Wow, so enlightening, thanks Bridgette. So to keep it short and simple today I wanted to share a music video of Long Live Death, by Mono Inc.  A bit morbid, I know, the whole concept of the album Welcome to Hell is, but I love it. The video is fantastic as well, with all the staging and the warm golden lights, so it’s a little morbid and sinister but beautiful and solemn at the same time. The thing that I wanted to talk about has more to do with the editing portion than other things I usually notice. It’s in slow motion. Sort of. Not all the time. And honestly it’s not very noticeable because today was the first time I caught it, which...