Tag: animation

Daniel Radcliffe, Sitwell & Oxxxymiron

I am not a natural rap fan, but I am always impressed by people who do it with intelligence. Words are words after all and there is a history of rap arguably as old as the G&S nightmare song in Iolanthe, but certainly going back to Edith Sitwell and William Walton’s “Façade”, a series of sound poems or Klangdichtung. Sitwell simply called them an “entertainment”. This nonsense incantation is the stuff of magic and religion. With my own interest in Edward Lear, it is not perhaps surprising that I should be a fan of Façade!

Sitwell first performed Façade standing behind a painted curtain and speaking through a papier-mâché megaphone, the “Sengerphone”. Noel Coward hated it.

edith-sitwell

I did the 1951 version of Façade in a concert a few years ago and have always thought how well it would animate! The rapidly morphing images would lend themselves to gloriously anarchic animation. The concert version is much briefer than the revised 1977 version and Walton’s music is tremendous. It is, however, fiendishly difficult to remember all the words because the whole piece is predicated on nonsense. But great fun.

Below is my version of the Cecil Beaton portrait from late in her life. I suppose this was Beaton’s take on the famous triple portrait of King Charles. It was all done with her head poking out of bits of torn paper. Very interesting.

At the time, her personality was probably more important than her poetry, but I think if it is considered in the context of the modern rap movement, Façade becomes much more significant.

daniel-radcliffe

I saw Daniel Radcliffe rap the “Alphabet Aerobics”. Really very impressive.

Here is a link which I hope Youtube does not remove:

Meanwhile, I urge you to follow Miron Fyodorov, now known as “Oxxxymiron” whose work, though so far in Russian, is clearly clever and punchy. Heavily influenced by Grime, (and better than Guf) he is very keen on the Rap-fighting thing and has some bookings next year in Canada when he promises to do something in English. Meanwhile, he is writing his third album.

Here is a song from his second Album “Gorgorod” which tells a story through a series of rap pieces. This song was, I think, censored by the TV screening. I was in the audience (the show was the Russian equivalent to the Graham Norton show, or The late late show with James Corden in the US) and afterwards the host of the show, Ivan Urgant I think, gave me a signed T-shirt asking me publicly (to much mirth from the rest of the Russian-speaking audience) whether (a) I spoke any russian at all, and (b)if I understood what was going on. I confessed that I had not the slightest idea but that I was a dutiful member of the audience and I knew my job was to laugh and applaud. It was clear, anyway, that Miron was in complete control!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-man-who-was-raised-in-slough-and-raps-in-russia-8324127.html

oxxxymiron-by-tim

Trial by Jury, Judge’s song

Here is a post on progress on the Judge’s song from “Trial by Jury”.

This is a line test of the first verse. The Right arm and some of the body is still missing as well as the earlier frames of the pigtail and the pupils.

The animation was completed on the Harmony/toon boom system though I note the production of the brilliant and recently-screened “Ethel and Ernest” on BBC was done with TV Paint which seems to offer so much more opportunity in terms of textures and usability. Harmony was a wonderful tool when it was run by the Vogelesang family, particularly Lilly and Joan, but they were taken over by Corus entertainment in 2014 or so and it does not seem to have been the same ever since. I have been teaching in a school in Moscow that apparently promotes the software and it was a devil of a job to get it actually to work at all on the school machines. So much for Industry standard! I note the company also acquired Animo, Pegs’n’co and the Cambridge animation system, rival 2d animating software and has not made any effort to update any of these since, effectively smashing the opposition and leaving precious little choice.

Here is an earlier version:

judge-decree1

judge-decree-2

This is the finished “look”-

Screen shot 2016-12-31 at 13.54.36.png

First combined image of background and character…

judge-a-print-first-version

Trial by Jury- the rehearsal

 

Working on an animated version of this Gilbert and Sullivan classic. See older posts.

This is a piano version of the overture and probably will survive in some form in the final film but for now is a way to promote the idea I hope!

https://animate-tim.com/2016/09/19/trial-by-jury-backgrounds/

Some history work

Just been working on a project for the BBC. The title is being revised so meanwhile here is a bit of work which is not being used in the project but I think is rather fun. This is the story of the crowning of Queen Victoria as Empress of India, as imagined in the style of a comic strip…the-raj-colour

History of the Music halls part 2- progress

For the last year I have been grabbing time between lectures to make some progress on part 2 of the documentary talk about music hall. I have also been finishing some storyboarding for a couple of proposed films and some preparation for a BBC project, so it has been a full year! (That is by way of a preamble and an excuse for tardiness!)

Here is the full documentation on a piece I have just finished animating which is based on a song by Harry Champion:

First sketches:

campaign 1697.jpg

campaign-1693

with jacket sleeves:

With coloured and shaded hat:

body sketched in:

campaign-1694

the tomato plant:

and adding the jacket design incrementally

campaign-1695

The finished product:

The Context:

The first part of the Music Hall documentary:

The Coburn scene developing:

Marie Lloyd scene:

The original song:

My animation:

The beginning of the film (Music Hall part 2)

 

 

Trial by Jury

courtroom designI have finally got round to some trial animation for my proposed film  of “Trial by Jury”.

Here is the earliest design of the Judge:

Here are a few bars from the Judge’s song and a rough version of the animation. I will post an update in the next few days.

Here follow some Victorian judges as portrayed chiefly by spy

 

red robed judge

 

and here is the famous picture of D’oyly Carte and Barrington as the judge

j-20188      BarringtonJudge

The Bacchae

Many years ago, on the slopes of a mountain range overlooking Sparta, I wrote a musical version of the Greek play “The Bacchae” by Euripides. Here are a few choice lines!

dionysosdis

Chorus:

Feet flood past

We dance the Asian dervish

Never last to praise the fruit we service!

Fruit we seize to squeeze into wine.

Mine, an idle idyl passing the time.

 

The night is brighter

For the fighter downs the sword

To down a jug of wine

And praise the Bacchic lord

Come, join the praises

Of the legend of the ages –

Dionysos.

 

Pentheus:

Why have you come here

You insolent man in a dress?

Too freely festive, your hair in a mess.

 

If there is a message from this play, it must surely be that the gods are greater than we are, and laugh at them or love them, we should still be respectful of them. Isn’t that how we should treat the media?

 

 

Principles of Animation. First lessons

and here is the final black and white rough

This is primarily for my students in Moscow, and is a collection of recent notes

1 animate

The first lesson is all about

1) ARCS, (the ball follows an elliptical arc- this is PHYSICS: see my lecture on the physics of animation)

2)TIMING/SPACING,(timing is the bounce or accent, but spacing is where you draw the balls on the paper. They are NOT the same thing)

3)SQUASH & STRETCH (as the ball falls it stretches. as the ball falls it speeds up.)

4) preserving Volume (The ball may change shape but the overall volume remains the same throughout)

All writers seem to agree that this is a slightly dull lesson, but there is an interesting kink revealed by RICHARD WILLIAMS which is rarely taught and is the main focus of this lesson and handout. That is the location of the stretched ball immediately before the squash.

Here is a rough sequence for a film I am just working on. Note how loose everything is, but also note the practical value of the “balls” lesson… I shall add updates to this, and try to add some footage of inbetweening etc…

and a few days later this is how it looks:

and here is the final black and white rough:

Here is the finished sequence:

Here is a recent example of some walk cycles…

 

2 animate

3 animate

4 animate5 animate

6 animate

Here is a new song and character for the Music Hall film.

here is the finished sequence from Music hall history, part 2: