Animation product research

Despicable me

Despicable me is a very successful animation which was released in 2010 and created by Dreamworks.  Dreamworks are an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates animated feature films, television programmes and online virtual worlds. They have released a total of 27 feature films including the franchises of Shrek, Kung fu panda, Monsters vs Aliens and How to train your Dragon.

 The director of Despicable me was Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud and the animation style that was used was computer graphics which worked well to interest the target audience of children but also encourages adults with its mature humour which is hinted throughout the film. The purpose of the animation used is to entertain the audience creating humorous characters and a serial, distorted world for the audience to enjoy because its different to their own and something that they've never seen before. 

Personally what i like about the film the most is how they have created the minions in a sense that they are hard workers controlled by Gru (the main character) The way that Dreamworks have shown the minions image as little yellow people who look almost like mine workers because of the way that they have been stylised. I also like the idea of how each individual minion look the same but have an element to them which makes them their own person; one eye instead of two, height, width, hair/no hair ect. Their voices also fit the image very well including their vocabulary which is linked to a baby human. All together the minions make the movie and without them it wouldn't be as humorous or entertaining for the audience.

 

Mikes new car

Mikes new car is a short film created by Pixar animation studios which was released in 2002, directed by Pete Docter and Roger Gould. This short film was Pixars very first short to utilise vocal performances and the first to use characters and situations from their released previous work. Pixar have created many animation films such as Toy Story, Up, Monesters inc and many many more.

 The animation style used of Mikes new car is also computer generated which hits its child friendly audience. The purpose of the animation is again purely to entertain the audience and help them believe in a different world to their own with a hint of realism that draws the audience' attention to a possibility of another world that human children are scared of all based on an idea of childrens fears of 'Theres a monster under my bed' or 'Theres something in my closet'. 

Personally I like the idea that this short film is almost a saftey hazard for children about the dangers of cars. This successfully engages the target audience because they're two favourite characters from Monsters inc! It holds the childs attention so that they pay attention carefully without them even noticing that they're being taught a lesson by Sully and Mike. 

The Simpsons

The simpsons is a very successful tv series which was produced by fox and is now the longest televised scripted show in history and has been running for over 20 years, it was directed by Matt Groeining. Fox is a global broadcasting company that has done many tv programmes over the years such as: Glee, Bones, American dad and many more. The animation style used is computer generated, starting with story boards being drawn for a rough idea of what the episodes would look like. Then they put together a rough black and white story board and then put it into the computer to show how the characters move and sound. 

The target audience for this program was not like any other animated program. It was targeted for more adults because of the dark and rude humour used. Even though it is animated the idea of it being a cartoon was more to bring humour to the piece and not have any source of seriousness to the episodes. The voices are also used to mimic the typical stereo types of Lisa being an innocent know it all with a high pitched voice, Bart having a high annoying voice for the class clown/ rebel and Homer having a dopey voice for a typical drunken character/dad.

 I personally like the simpsons because every time i watch it i can almost feel like i can relate to a certain character. Although the characters as a whole and the environment is realistic, the way that they have stylised the characters bring a humorous element to the episodes which makes the audience feel good about themselves and cant possibly be related to the characters because of the way they look.

ASDF movie

This series of 2-3 minute movies is a massive youtube hit that gained over millions of hits within the space of a month. Theres not a lot to say about this web series purely because it was an original idea by a group of students and posted it to youtube. It was uploaded to youtube on August 10th 2008, created by a username called Tomska. 

The skit 'i got your nose' was the opening skit that was ever created. This first skit to this day now has over 38 million views. The animation type used is computer generated which works well because not a lot of movement is used but the voiceovers are the main element which helps the graphics to encourage humour. The target audience is mainly for teenagers and youtube lovers! The whole purpose to the asdf movie series is to entertain and make people laugh! Pure blunt humour fills the 2-3 minutes and is enjoyable for all ages and audiences.

 Personally I like this web series because the humour is within short doses and then completely switches to a different scenario which makes the humour funnier rather than it all being on the same tone and becoming boring and non-origional.  

Arctic Monkeys- Do I wanna know?

This music video was released on 9th september 2013. The band which made the song is named the Arctic monkeys. Although they did not physically create the music video, a lot of their input was made to fit the style in which they had in their head of animation and put it together with their song. The animation style has been thought about very clearly as it looks crisp and has no simple bit to the video. 

The animation style is computer generated and personally i think that a lot of the graphics was created using photo shop software to then make the whole video clearly artistic which is the vibe in which the artists were going for to back up an original entertaining song. The target audience for this animation is for youtube fans and of course the fans of The Arctic Monkeys.

 Personally I like how each part of the video fits and flows into each part of the animation. The fact that the whole clip is adjusted to the music beat and rhythm also makes the experience of watching it more enjoyable so you can see the different aspects move in different ways to fit the music.

Twinings Advert

This advert for twinings tea was a joint creation by two separate companies: Abbott Mead Vicors BBDO and Psyop LA. The first advert was released on television in 2011 and Twinings are still continuing to create the same image of animation to advertise their product. They use the same song for each advert but also include different journeys and use different elements of music to make the backing track seem different. Paul Brazier was one of the creative directors for this specific advert. 

To create the advert they started to story board and sketch all of the ideas to the story. They then use a process called 'boardamatics' which is putting the story board ideas into the computer and slowly developing them to become more realistic and start to show a sense of flow to the piece. They then finally put it into 3d animation and start to colour correct and finalise the finished product.

 I personally enjoy this advert because its so original and not seen before. The way that they have carefully picked out the audience (woman) and narrated a story within less than a minute shows a sense of creativity. I also enjoy how the animation is taken to the extent where the reason why they have used animation and not real people is so that the audience can put themselves into that mind set and relate to the concept.

''We've created this really quite extraordinary piece of animated advertising to metaphorically explain the hectic lives that women today lead, and how taking just 10 minutes out each day to reconnect with yourself can have such an impact on the rest of your day. Take a look, and let us know what you think.''