Industry Notebook #1

Summary
　The article is “OUT OF THE SHADOWS” which comes from “Special Effects: The History and Technique (April 3 2007)”, a book that is wrote by Richard Rickitt, is talking about the movie effects and its history. At first, the author introduces some “toys” that were considered as the ancestors of cinema. He also mentions some persons who invented them and how the toys worked. The principle of those toys is manipulating light and shadows. Second, the author introduces “Persistence of vision”, a principle that makes a rapid sequence of different images appear continuous and is what allow people to enjoy watching film and TV. Finally, the article mentions Eadweard Muybridge(1830-1904), a person who developed a system of individual stills cameras set alongside a track to record the normal movement of men, horses and other animals. His photography was very important for the developing of motion picture devices.

Citations
　Richard Rickitt. Special Effects: The History and Technique. Billboard Books. April 3, 2007. Wikipedia <>

My opinion
　There are lots “toys” about shadows that author mentioned in this article. One is called ombres chinoises(Chinese shadow). It is a Chinese doll play. The stage is a translucent paper screen and there is a lamp project on it in the backside. When the characters that are made by leather are put in back of the screen, the character’s silhouette appeared on it. Moreover, the characters have joints. So you can change their pose by sticks. I’ve played it before. The principle is nothing but light and shadows. Although it is simple and easy to play, I didn’t know it is an ancestor of motion picture, further, I realized that a modern machine usually comes from some old, simple, easy ideals and even comes from a toy in my grandpa’s age. In our opinion, the earlier devices of cinema might like toys, they are simple and crude and even easy to make today, but they play an important role in the cinema history. Therefore, we should play our role well in our life, not for you, but for everyone who concern about you.The “Persistence of vision” has been noted by the ancient Greeks. However, it costs a long time to become a motion picture nowadays. The earlier devices were able to be improved, because of people’s curiosity. Even the ancestors failed again and again during the experiment process; it is still a very important motivation to push the cinema industry moving forward. Yes, a motivation is very important when you are doing something. I love watching 3D animations; I believe it could be a good motivation for my learning English. Ha Ha!

An artwork in my field

　Nowadays, due to the fast development of digital technology, people easily make a 3D animation artwork by using their own personal computers. Some of artworks are for commercial use; some of them are just for fun, so evaluating a 3D animation artwork is getting complicated. People like Wall-E because the character is cute, while some one prefers Final Fantasy because its visual effects are stunning. However, in my opinion, creative ideas and a good character design are the crucial principles when evaluating a 3D animation artwork. There are many great 3D animation artworks in recent years, but I would further to take “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” as an example to support my idea.

　First, creative ideas are an essential part of a 3D animation artwork. Story, dialogs or themes, interesting and unique ideas are the best way to catch audiences’ eyes. People always are expecting an entertaining story or something special when they go to a theater. If the artwork can not please or surprise them, they won’t remember it. On the other hand, creative ideas enable the excited audiences to talk about them and eager for sharing, even willing to go back to the theater again. “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”, a stop-motion animation artwork made in 2005, is a good example. Director Tim Burton completely shows his unique style and humorous ideas in this artwork. The story is about two different worlds: the living world and the dead world, and the color scheme between those two scenes presents an interesting contrast. That is, the living world is gloomy and boring while the dead world is colorful and carefree. Moreover, the people in the living world are greedy and scheming, but the people in the dead world are joyful and open. Usually, dead world is depicted as obscure and fearful place where the living people don’t want to go; also the paradise is always up in heaven, not underground. Tim Burton attempted to preach that we should be concerned more about living world. These interesting and special contrasts not only present a creative idea, but also provide an attractive element to this successful 3D animation artwork.

　My second principle is character design. It goes without saying that characters are the soul of a 3D animation artwork. A good character design can not only present a living role in front of the audience, but also can reflect their own background and personality traits. Even a supporting role has its own task, so characters need to be strong and interesting in a visual sense to get people’s attention. The characters in Corpse Bride are stand out from other 3D animation. Corpse Bride, the main actress with a decayed wedding dress, is not pretty, nor graceful, a maggot often come out from her eye-socket. She looks not attractive at all. However, these designs honestly show her tragic background, a poor bride was cheated and killed before her wedding. Further, the groom Victor, the clumsy main actor with nice clothes, he is not handsome, nor cute, he is always getting in a trouble, but he dresses well and plays piano well, that shows he comes from a rich family but he is not ingenious. Those designs honestly present a vivid character in front of people further guide the audiences accessible into the story. Such an example shows that Corpse Bride truly makes an impressive character design and inspires me a lot.

　All people have their own opinion when evaluating a 3D animation artwork. A complete consideration of people’s views is difficult to present, because they are so varied. However, unforgettable creative ideas and vivid character designs are the most crucial principles to me, because they guide me to clarify a quality 3D animation artwork from others.


In this article, all the pictures' copyright are belong to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
http://corpsebridemovie.warnerbros.com/

Happy Birthday

　Well, today is my brithday. This is my first time having a birthday in other country. However, I am not happy actually, beacuse my homework is havey every week and now I even haven't enroll the following semester's classes yat.

　Even so, I'm an optimistic person, so I still bought a GAP sweater for myself in this afternoon. No matter what the future will be, I wish I can get over all of difficulties in front of me and wish my family and all of my friends are also happy.
　I took these sunset pictures today, and the sunset was beautbul at the moment. I think god does bless me, maybe, ha ha~