Question: What has been the most challenging aspect of getting work done on this project thus far?
How are you addressing this challenge?

How about just trying to get the scheduled components done AND having to worry about the littlest details in the blog AND having to deal with other class assignments?

Addressing this challenge? How I always address this sort of thing: Just deal with it and get it done.

Shot3 and 4 inbetweens from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Journal Question

Pick a piece and, making use of the vocabulary below, write a paragraph that articulates your sense of how successful or unsuccessful the piece was. We are not necessarily “judging” the piece, but making informed observations about it:

• evidence of strong structural elements (narrative or otherwise: sense of place and context in introduction, clarity of articulation of and viewer engagement with the introduction of the hero’s conflict, growing sense of tension as development events occur, clear and powerful articulation of climactic moment, satisfying conclusion)

• sophistication of movement design (sense of weight via speed changes, squash and stretch, secondary action; strong acting via silhouette, gesture, and key poses; grace and fluidity via arcs and secondary action)

• evidence of character thought process, motivation, and appeal

• strength of composition and staging (effective and informed use of closeups, medium, full, wide, and other shots; use of active negative/positive space, size relationships and overlapping of forms to orient the viewer towards important shot elements

• effective pacing that keeps the viewer engaged from beginning to end

• strength of design and color: line quality, character and object proportions, color palette that supports the story and establishes an appealing aesthetic

"Bruxism" by Aleson Ho

What stood out to me the most was the design and color in this one. The main character is stylized and visually appealing to a point where I like her in the first millisecond. There was also an appealing sense of texture in this one, and the painted background was good too; it brought to mind the more artistic animations of UPA studios.

The main character's actions were easy to follow due to good use of gesture and expression, or.

The woman's gestures could use a little more hesitation to get her actions or intended actions across better, but the squashing and stretching does help articulate her stress and frustration while inside the eyeball.

For the character's thought process it was helpful that there was a lot of expressive gestures and such, however they could have been a little more exaggerated because I didn't quite understand it on the first viewing. Though when the eyeball seemed to start devouring her painting and she tried to pull it off, I did get the idea that she wanted to protect her artwork.

I think I can say the same for the structural elements. I didn't quite understand what the giant Eyeball was about until the second half of the cartoon. When the harsh voices started to annoy the young woman I figured this cartoon was about the insecurities artists go through when receiving criticism. Rather appropriate for an art student.

Regarding the pacing I liked how the character held on the more expressive poses.

The composition and staging seemed appropriate for the story; getting the basic story across with long and medium shots and establishing details with the closeups.

Completed Key Frames and added a more visual prologue



Feb 16 Animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Feb 12 Animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

February 12, 2013

Question:
1. How do you hope/want the audience to react/respond to your piece?

2. How do you want them to feel for the characters?
What kind of connection do you want them to feel?

3. What sort of audience reaction would leave you disappointed?
What would be the best response? Imagine a critical review of your piece that would make you feel that your piece was understood and that it was recognized as being a great piece, a festival winner-what would the review say?

Answer:
Well, that was a long question...

Ideally I'd just like the audience to laugh at the character interaction. Because it's based on such an obscure piece of movie trivia I don't expect a lot of people to get engaged in the framing narrative, and I'm okay with that. (I'm used to having to explain to people who Orson Welles and Roddy McDowall were.)
But the initial core of this cartoon is supposed to be the interaction between the two actors. How we see them interact as civilized adults and make peace avoiding inevitable confrontation, but then act like a couple schoolboys in hitting each other.

Responding to the characters? I've never thought that far ahead. It's not like it's a feature film where you have to keep the audience invested for a long time. At the very least I don't want the audience to hate them. I'd like them to enjoy the personalities brought out in the short.

What sort of reaction would leave me disappointed? How about if they didn't watch the cartoon at all. That would be just rude.
For me the best response would be good remarks on the gestures, expressions, the liveliness of the characters and the timing. That the audience can see a lot of life and personality in these characters even though we see them for such a short amount of time.

shot6 key poses from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

Feb5 updated animatic from Victoria Heckman on Vimeo.

February 5

Question: What is my relationship to the main character?

What experience inspired me to create him/her/it?

Answer:
In the case of Orson Welles, when I was studying at the Delaware College of Art and Design I took a film history class, and when we learned about Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, in a lot of ways I was awestruck. Not only did I learn why Kane was such a ground-breaking film, but I found Welles himself to be a fascinating person. I wrote a report on one of his films, and I made him the subject of an outlaw ballad, which I later illustrated for a pseudo-children's book.
I could elaborate more on that, but I don't have enough time at the moment...

As for Roddy McDowall, it was around the same time as I was learning about Welles. The first thing I remembered him for was he was the voice of the recurring villain Snowball in Pinky and the Brain. I learned that he was also in Laserblast and A Bug's Life, which was my favorite movie when I was nine years old. A little later I learned that he had been in film since he was a child, so out of curiosity I saw How Green Was My Valley, and while I couldn't explain why yet I was, once again, awestruck.
I think it's because nowadays it's practically a law of nature that former child stars should be dysfunctional as adults, whereas McDowall not only continued work as an actor, but also turned out to be a responsible, functional human being. In a world full of self-absorbed egomaniacs, I guess I found it wonderfully refreshing to see that some celebrities are capable of humility.