Blog specimen 2, Final, John Lyver

Blog # 11

http://lyverfive.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/blog-11-john-lyver-casper-the-friendly-ghost/

Blog # 13

http://lyverfive.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/blog-13-cut-scenes-by-john-lyver/

No changes made to either blog.

Blog 13, Cut Scenes. by John Lyver

I have noticed a trend in video games to market the games towards having better and better graphics for computer animated cut scenes in video games.  I find that commercial after commercial of video games I see tend to focus the majority of the commercial showing clips of these animated cut scenes. This seems odd in a way since the focus of the game is the game itself and not a 30 second cut scene every few hours of game play. However, this seems to be the way to get kids to drool over the latest game by showing them the best in cut scene animation, forget actually having quality game play or good graphics in the game itself, the market is all about the cut scene. Game company after company seems to place the focus primarily on marketing and pushing the hype of a game based more on the cut scene animations then on the game itself.

One game in particular seemed to focus the whole game around the cut scenes and the story line was the many focus. It was more like watching a movie then playing a video game, which for me I found to be very annoying. I played the game to play the game, not to sit around and watch cut scene after cut scene after cut scene. With Kingdom Hearts 2, it seemed like I spent more time waiting for the lame scenes to end then I did actually playing. Now I appreciate a beautiful cut scene in a game with great CGI as much as the next person, however, when the whole focus of the game seemed to be on the cut scenes I lost interest in the game.

I remember when another Square Enix(formerly Square Soft) game was advertised that I had to have based solely on the animated scenes. Final Fantasy 7, I had little to no knowledge of what an RPG actually was let alone what turn based combat meant, yet I had to have this game. Fortunately, FF7 turned out to be a great game and the cut scenes simply went along well with the game as a whole.

Has the focus shifted in the past few years? Do game makers only see cut scenes and flashy graphics as the way to make a buck? I mean sure you will get people to buy the game based on those things, however, if they expect the sequel to their games sell well they are going to have to reach for a little more substance and enjoyability then just an eye catching cut scene.

Here are some game trailers from a few years ago and some more recent, watch how little (and sometimes not at all) these trailers show the actual game play verses eye catching computer animated scenes.

Final Fantasy 8

Metal Gear Solid 4

StarCraft 2

Fable 2

I commented on Sarah Askri’s Post at http://animationayshun.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/coraline-blog-13/#comment-36

Blog 12, John Lyver, 3D come back?

I remember reading last week in the chapter about how certain cartooning companies had been producing 3D cartoons. However, they stated that 3D was just a passing fad and it did not seem so popular. I happen to agree and find 3D films to be somewhat annoying yet they can still be interesting. With all the 3D cartoons that flopped and the idea that 3D is not popular it is still in use today and seems to be coming back in popularity in more recent animated and live action films.

I think we can all think back to a time when as children 3D seemed like the coolest thing for an animated cartoon. However, we were quickly disappointed at the fact that the image seemed more like 2D cut outs that just stood at different depths. Even if you have ever been to Disney World I seem to remember there being several movies they show in 3D, the “Honey I shrunk the Kids” show at Disney in EPCOT comes to mind. There is also one I believe in the Magic Kingdom featuring Donald Duck going through several of Disney’s animated films that was 3D as well.

With this so called passing fad we see more and more today animated or live action films featuring special showings for a higher ticket price of a 3D experience. Two movies that come to mind are “Avatar” and “Clash of the Titans”. I also found a site featuring a list of some other movies that were released in 3D. http://3dmovieslist.blogspot.com/ . I keep hearing people rave about how good “Avatar” in 3D was and that I have to see it in 3D despite my hesitation to 3D films. So why is 3D still around and on the way back? The new style of 3D is obviously more advanced and is more capable of rendering 3D in a way that is a great deal more complex and detailed then 2D cut outs at different depths of the past. Also movies are now being filmed in 3D which gives them a better quality 3D experience then 3Ding older movies that were not filmed in 3D.

Avatar Trailer in 3D

I commented on Sydney McClanahan’s post at http://dominiquefranc.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/blog-post-12-my-neighbor-totoro-tonari-no-totoro/#comment-13

blog 11, John Lyver, Casper the friendly Ghost

For Chapter 11 I was reading about how Casper the Friendly Ghost, and a few other cartoons did not do so well and seemed rather boring in their storyline, so I decided to check this out for myself. Obviously this show is about the Ghost of what appears to be a young boy who goes around befriending people and animals. The story line for Casper is basically as the book says, that the story line is almost identical to every episode.

 The storyline for Casper seems to be that he goes around looking for friends yet is judged from the very beginning as to be one of the bad Ghosts that go around scaring and tormenting others. However, the young and more innocent of the people or animals usually befriends Casper right away as they have not yet learned not too. Casper uses his abilities as a ghost to help out his newly acquired friend, in this case a monkey and at the end of the show he makes friends with all the other monkeys. I can easily see a moral here of to not judge a book or in this case a ghost, by its cover or appearance.  This plot line seems to be the basic plot of pretty much every Casper cartoon. This cartoon also teaches children the value of being kind and to help out others in need. We can also see this kind behavior taught in another Casper cartoon.

Ultimately, Casper is not a bad cartoon. It does not teach any poor morals or contain aspects just for a cheap laugh. However, the similar plot line in each cartoon does not make the viewer eager to see the next cartoon. For children who love to see the same thing over and over again might work out well, but in time it’s too predictable.

I commented on Sarah Askri’s post at http://animationayshun.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/animator-vs-animation-blog-11/#comment-31 .

Blog 10, 4/5/2010, Tom and Jerry, by John Lyver

Tom and Jerry is a cartoon I am certain most of us are well aware of today. Tom and Jerry is the classic tale of Cat vs Mouse, or in the case of Tom(the cat) Vs pretty much everything else that isn’t a cat. Tom and Jerry cartoons are known mainly for their very funny slapstick humor. However, most people may not realize but it uses a  lot of music to help tell the story, there is not a lot of talking in these cartoons. Music was used to help tell the story ever since Disney’s Silly Symphonies and was also used Merry Melodies and eventually by MGM. Still most people tend to focus on the fact that Tom and Jerry can be rather violent  and for a children’s show, yet most would argue that cartoon violence is not the same as live action violence.

As Tom tries to catch Jerry and his friends episode after episode Tom uses different tacts in order to capture Jerry.  Tom is hardly successful in his attempts. In this cartoon “The Duck Doctor” Tom is even using a gun to shoot at Jerry’s bird friend. Perhaps this is an anti hunting episode. However, despite Tom being more heavily armed then Jerry and his Duck friend, Tom manages to still get hit with an anvil, squashed by it and in one scene flattened by a big pig. This violence is of course fake cartoon violence.

Hardly anyone takes the violence of Tom and Jerry and tries to act it out. In all my years of watching these cartoons it never occurred to me that I should strike my foe in the face with a shovel in order to see the head of the shovel take the form of the one being struck, in this case usually Tom. It just wouldn’t make sense even to a child to take a cartoon and act it out in reality, its clear even to small children that ‘cartoon physics’ is at play here in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, and that this type of behavior is not realistic in anyway. If this cartoon had taken on a more realistic type approach to its violence then perhaps it might be more dangerous for children.

The 1950s were a different time however, so I am not sure how people felt about these cartoons. I can only guess that since they have remained popular and well known even until today that not as many people as today would have issues with this lovable cartoon.

If you would like to see more funny examples of Tom getting pulverized check out this.

I commented on Amanda Cole’s Blog at http://amanda22192.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/10-does-any-of-the-nickelodeon-cartoons-have-a-finale/#comment-22

Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies, Blog 9 for 3/30/2010, by John Lyver

Merry Melodies today is probably more well know then Disney’s old Silly Symphonies, especially among younger peoples of the day. Both of these types of cartoons use older forms of Classical and Jazz music in order to help tell the story. Merry Melodies has done well with promoting many classical works of music with their cartoons. Often times people hear a song and remember not for its classical significance but because it was used in a  bugs bunny or other Merry Melody cartoon. One thing I have noticed with the differences between Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies is how they use their music. Merry Melodies uses the music to help to set the mood for each scene or for each character where in Silly Symphonies on they tends to do the opposite and have music be the main focus of the cartoon.

We can see Merry Melody using music as good background music in the cartoon “A Day at the Zoo” we can see therefore that the music does not become the center of the cartoon but is used more to add feeling or a theme to each character(s). Each time the camera pans to a different cage for each animal the mood of the music changes to match the characters. We can also see this change when a character changes mood, for example the young man who is tormenting the Lion the music is light and happy where as when the narrator corrects the young man and the young man seems sad for what he has done and, the music changes. At first the type of instruments or timbre that is being used is that to show the change expression of lightness in the playing stringed instruments and more serious to the heaver sound of woodwinds and brass.

In the Silly Symphonies cartoon “Music Land” we can see how the music is very much the central theme of the cartoon so much so that all the people are musical instruments. They instruments do not really talk they simply play music, even when the saxophone was locked up he wrote not in words but in musical notation. The music of this cartoon is also much louder then that of the Merry Melody cartoon. The Merry Melody cartoon had less volume so the music is a lot quieter, this is so that the focus is more on the action of the cartoon.

I commented on Hayleigh Allingham’s post at http://hallingham.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/blog-post-9-ethnocide/#comment-27

Blog 8 for 3/23/2010 John Lyver, Scrappy

For Blog 8 I decided to see why Scrappy was not ultimately successful. I watched Scrappy’s Band Concert This cartoon though still in the times of black and white was very dry and not terribly humorous. There seemed to be no real main character of the cartoon and little to no plot line. Scrappy was not as successful as other cartoons of his day like those of the Disney cartoons.

I noticed that many of the motions in this cartoon were repeated over and over again, this is of course to lower the amount of frames the animators had to draw but they style of it being repetitious got to be very boring very quickly. The cartoon itself just seemed very repetitious and did not seem to be going anywhere. I can see why the theater owner quoted in chapter 8 was displeased with these cartoons. I also noticed the character Scrappy himself looked a lot like the other cartoon characters of the time especially Mickey Mouse, all you would need to do is add ears and a tail and a nose and Scrappy went from human to our adorable pal Mickey.

I wanted to look at another Scrappy cartoon to see if perhaps it was only that one episode that was not so good. So I watched another Scrappy cartoon called ‘Showing Off’. Scrappy in this cartoon is less serious then he was in the other cartoon. However, the cartoon still seemed to lack anything of particular interest or humor. This cartoon had some more cute moments then the first one, it was still rather boring though and the background was very plain and hardly moved which placed more focus on the characters. The characters were not that interesting either. Scrappy also tried to win the girl by smoking a cigar, which would have been more acceptable in cartoons in the 30s then it would be today.

In light of other cartoons Scrappy seems to be lost in the popularity of other cartoons and does not stack up to the popularity of its competitors.

I commented on Rebecca Townsend’s blog at http://rtownse4.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/blog-post-8-western-spaghetti/#comment-11

John Lyver, Blog Specimen for Midterm

Blog 1 http://lyverfive.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/blog-1-for-hist-389-bugs-gets-the-boid-john-lyver/

I added a visual link and updated and proofread the text.

Blog 4 http://lyverfive.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/blog-4-felix-the-cat-old-and-new-by-john-lyver/

I updated and proofread some of the text in this blog.

Blog 7(due 3/16) John Lyver, Bugsy gets Mugsy

In the cartoon Bugsy and Mugsy, Bugs bunny gets to try his hand at enforcing the law by teaching two mobsters a lesson.  Bugs uses multiple ways to trick Rocky and Mugsy into not trusting one another all the while he aparently is building a large lit up sign revealing to the police that it is these two mobsters hiding place. This cartoon and a few other Bugs Bunny cartoons were written around the time when graphic novels (comic books) were coming into popularity, and particularly comic books containing the Mob. Bugs bunny shows the true heart of the animators and the american people in this time of mobsters by not letting them get away and not letting this kind of mob behavior be unpunished.

The animators could have taken the approach to glorify mob violence like comic writers sometimes did, yet they took a very different approach and show their viewers a different side of the mob, and turns them into a joke. Instead of having competent murderous mobsters these two guys are portrayed as not being too terribly bright. Bugs uses an old telephone to talk to one while he sleeps and plants ideas in his head that his companion is out to get him in order to get his hands on the loot, which Bugs thinks is Carrots since one of the mobsters states the jewelry is 14 carat. These cartoons still contain a lot of funny cartoon violence, but not the type of more realistic violence that is portrayed in the media else where.

Bugs comes back to teach these humorous mobsters in another cartoon. He tricks them into thinking the cops are coming and has them hide in an oven which he then starts the gas and blows them up(Dont try this at home kids).

I commented on Michael Griffith’s post at http://mgriffi5.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/post-7-prometheus-and-bob-evolution/#comment-24

Extra Blog, Up, By John Lyver

‘Up’ the new computer animated feature from Pixar, is a humorous and touching story about an Old man(Mr. Fredrickson) dealing with the lose of his wife and the lose of his and his wifes dream of reaching paradise falls. As he tries to live out his life in peace and quiet he is confronted by two issues in the real world, increasing urbanization of his town in which he is the last house left on the block, with construction all around him and by a young Boy Scout(wilderness scout) named Russell. As he tries to escape having to live in a retirement home he decides to attach numerous ballons to his house to make it fly and enable him to escape from the old folks home and the urban environment. However, he is unable to escape the Wilderness Scout who somehow manages to get stuck on his house as it takes off. Mr. Fredrickson is trapped with the new responsibility of watching after Russell while trying to get his home to paradise falls. This movie is amazingly beautiful in its animation and its scenery, the characters also move in very believable ways while still retaining their cartoon like qualities.

‘Up’ like its other earlier Pixar movies contain great use of 3D like images on a 2D screen. The characters contain amazing depth, shape and colors while still looking very human in appearance and in motion, even if all their physical features aren’t completely life like, for example Mr. Fredrickson has a very large and angular square shaped head. The dogs in this movie also have very believable movements, this can especially be seen in the dog ‘Doug’ who is the main dog Russell and Mr. Fredrickson befriend, besides the fact that Doug can speak to them in English (and sometimes in other languages depending the setting of his collar).  Along with the believable physical movements the use object motions are lifelike and detailed as well. While Russell and Mr.Fredrickson stand on the porch of his flying house you can even see the hairs on Russell’s move in the wind in a realistic fashion.

The use of color in this movie is very well done. This can be seen in all over the movie in every scene especially in the balloons, one scene in particular is when Mr. Fredrickson’s floating house flies past a young girls window as she is playing and the colors of the light coming through the balloons lights up the room with all sorts of different colors. In paradise falls there is a stark contrast in colors depending on whether they are showing the top of the falls which contains a lot of rocks of mainly dull colors while they are in the forest you see a very large range of bright colors of the plants. The use of color on their bird friend ‘Kevin’ who looks to be some sort of large ostrich like bird is also very eye catching. This use of color can also be an indication of which characters are friend and foe. Mr. Fredrickson’s house has some interesting and pleasing colors as well as Russell’s uniform showing they are people the audience should be pleased with, while in contrast the villain’s air balloon is a dry color of gray and his hide out area in a valley filled with the bones is void of life and color other then dull rocky colors indicating he is a harsh and unfriendly character.

‘Up’ is an amazingly beautiful movie filled with many moments of laughter, fear and a few tears. It contains many visual characteristics that are subtle and not always noticed but that make an overall impact on what we are seeing and feeling through out the movie.

I commented on Chris DeMarco’s blog at http://cfdemarco.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/animated-movie-post-lilo-and-stitch/#comment-49