HND 3D Animation - Funny Foibles

   The aim of this first project is to create a 45 second 3D animation, the main theme of which is to be "The Chase." The basis for this theme is that we are looking and taking inspiration from animations created between 1930 and 1960.

    The most famous animated features of this era were undeinably the works of four major animation and film companies. These were Disney, Metro Goldwyn Mayor, Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera. From these companies came works of art that captured audiences and remain legendary to this day. To name a few, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and Tom & Jerry have all gone down in history as icons of their industry.

   The first step in my research so far has been to indetify these iconic characters, look at what made them famous and see what they had in common. What I found was that where the characters themselves are very different from each other, both aesthetically and through personality, they all have a unifying bond that keeps a similar trend running through their cartoons.

    What makes these characters, all of differenet shapes and sizes (even species,) similar to each other? I find that it always seems to be style in which they are portrayed and more importantly the way that each character moves that keeps them alike. Almost every character from Bugs Bunny to Felix the Cat has the ability to bend, twist and run in ways that would be unimaginable in real life. The ability to morph ones form to suit each exact situation is a real staple of the time period. Exaguration of movement is emphasised to a point where the motion itself becomes the joke. This could be considered the purest form of comedy within animation as it requires nothing but itself to create humor.

   A personal goal I have set myself with this project is to create something completely unique. Whilst I would still like to convey alot of the classical animation influence through the personality and movements of my character, the character itself I hoped would be more reflective of modern animation and our current stage in the industry. A modern animation remineniscent of the golden age in summary. I feel that this is probably quite fitting as one of the first issues I  identified was that while we are looking at characters such as Bugs, Daffy and Mickey, these guys were all animated in classical 2D which was where their charm and hilarity came from for me. Trying to transfer this atmosphere over into 3D and to not lose to much of the effectiveness is a challenge I look forward to.