COMM 360: Reflecting on My Experience

            When I first started this class I was transitioning from a teaching candidate in the education field to a major that I truly had a passion in. I was always interested in studios, radio stations, animation, movies, and graphic novels, and I always wanted to turn my interests and fascinations on these subjects into a career. In a later point in life, when I’m financially settled and ready to hunt for the perfect job, my choice would be working behind the scenes in television or film. COMM 360 gave me a chance to study the works of cameras, lighting, and audio all in one classroom. I was so excited by the opportunity, I stayed a couple hours after class to familiarize myself with the equipment on my own time. For my overall attendance, I know that I only missed one or two classes for more pressing issues with family and medical situations, but every day that I was there I took in as much as I could from the offered positions in the projects, fixing and tweaking equipment for shoots, and just learning as much as I can. As for participation, I tried to my hand on as many different jobs in the studio as I could, but I never built up the courage to attempt and be a director during a shoot. I’m not a born leader, I emerge as one when no one offers to do it, but I would not volunteer when others are better at it. I like being the behind-the-scenes guy, like a Grip in the industry. I’ll take action and responsibility on whatever placement is giving to me by a director, and I would do it to the best of my ability. I asked Professor Williams as many questions as I could to better understand the sound system, as well as camera set up. I also asked questions to Torin, a friend of mine who was also part of the class, and had a decent amount of background knowledge of the study. I practiced outside of class when I could, and used the key given to me by Professor Williams to come in on my time and experiment with the equipment with Torin. I learned plenty from this classroom that I could demonstrate by knowing my role and showing other students in the class on how to properly set cameras, use the sound board, and anything else that I had to time to learn about. As an outside project in class, I helped with the Inauguration presentations on April 7^th on my own time to understand how all the things I learned were put to use in the real world. With my time put in inside and out of class, I think an "A" for the course would suffice, I did my best to learn and experience as much as I could to better prepare myself in a career I'm excited to be a part of. 

In and Out: Character Design

My first blog correlated to Communications 345 was about myself and the things that I liked about animation. Today, I'm wrapping up my blogs for said class with a post about what I think is the most important phenomenon of animation. It took me awhile to think about a certain topic within animation that I would like to talk about, and just last Saturday, I came across a game that helped me choose the topic. Gearbox Software , the game company behind the Borderlands game series, recently started an open beta to allow gamers to test out their new game Battleborn.

This game has not been under my radar since I first heard of it a few E3's ago. I knew of it's existence, but never saw any gameplay or what the playable characters looked like. After participating in the beta over the weekend, it has quickly become one of my favorite games of recent time. The gameplay is fantastic, the aesthetics are great, and the voice acting and humor are pretty top notch. Although, I think the best part of the game is it's character design.

Just look at those characters! They are all so distinguishable from one another! All unique, and all with their own funny personalities in-game. I think the thing that makes me want to watch an animated movies, play a game, or anything else that can be labeled under the animation field is the way they design their characters. I'm a fan of realistic animation, but the wackier the design, the better. To the left is the character Montana. His exaggerated muscle mass compared to his normal sized head is absolutely hilarious to me. You can tell a lot about his character just by looking at him! To the right is the character Orendi. What can you tell from the character? You probably think she's evil right? Maybe with a maniacal personality? If so, you're right. In-game she's batsh*t crazy. Anyways, I think character design is key to animation. It's what draws in a lot of people to an animation project, including myself. I can honestly say that my favorite animated movies are my favorites because of character design.

Did America Hijack Animation?

In Part Two of Detheaux - Communication and the Anti-Disney Aeshestic, written by Jean Detheaux from Animation World Magazine, Detheaux expresses his saltiness of the United States taking beautiful works of art made in foreign countries and turning them into bland shells of what they were previously created for.

"Why is it that, so often, Hollywood and the "North American popular culture" take something that has depth and complexity, and almost invariably, transform it into something that is so very bland, so full of clichés, based on recipes, so predictable, so tasteless (in all the meanings of that term)? Disney reigns supreme amongst those guilty of borrowing (stealing?) civilization-forming myths, and turning them into entertainment, in effect "de-mythicizing" them, rendering them "harmless" and depriving them of their deep significance and impact, nullifying their formative mission."

Rembrandt, 1600s Dutch Painter

 Using works of art by Rembrandt as an example, Detheaux uses parallels between paintings and animation to discuss how America is essentially ruining the media with cookie-cutter animations used for entertainment rather than cultural expression. One of Detheaux's biggests complaints in the "invasion" of one dimensional, and linear, story tellers that are extremely simplistic. Rather than appreciating the magic of the form, a story is tacked on to keep audiences interested in a coming of age story, or a story of good versus evil. According to the author, Disney is the biggest culprit in doing these acts, and I kind of have to agree with him. Kind of.

Personally, I believe that Disney USED to be that kind of company, that prioritized story with simplistic plots in the animation. However, in recent years, Disney has produced some very clever movies with great meanings behind their storytelling and beautiful animation. Jumping from 2D to 3D, this year, Zootopia by Disney was released. This movie had the best of both worlds. Amazing animation, and a intricate story that was above Disney's standards. So I do agree with Detheaux with his commentary on early Disney projects, but today, Disney is way better at creating combinations of story and art. I for one welcome our new Disney overlords.