Analysis of existing animations

P1,P2,M1,D1 

Two different types of animation are stop motion and line drawings 

P1: Explain the different techniques for animation

Stop motion: 

Stop motion is one way to film animated films it is a technique in which objects are moved in small increments in-between frames they are individually photographed and then they are put together it is played and creates movement Examples of this are Nightmare before Christmas, Wallace and Grommet, shaun the sheep and Coraline. a technique used is claymation this is used a lot by Aarderman studios. and almost always uses a 3D backdrop instead of 2D 

Two genres typically used in stop motion is Fantasy and Horror these genre is used as they have the ability to make a lot of different magical creatures a reality through molding them out of clay such as Jack Skellington in The Nightmare before Christmas. They use dark backgrounds and create lots of different magical creatures. By using stop motion they are allowed to control the movements of the characters allowing to make the characters more inline with the genre controlling every aspect of their character. 

In the genre of fantasy they can create large scale backgrounds that are very detailed without using up a lot of resources such as the family home in Coraline instead of having to use a real large home they could use a small scale set putting the main focus on the characters. This allows the focus to be on the genre as everything is in control. Stop motion animation is a old animation technique The very first documented stop motion animated film is credited to J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith for Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus which was released in 1898. this was much easier and cheaper than other animation techniques 

Stop motion worked well for nightmare before christmas because it made using magical fantasy creatures much easier making stop motion the more viable option clay works for horror as it is easier to create characters and sets with a creepy feel to it 

Line drawings:

A hand drawn sketch that moves frame by frame so that the shape evolves and moves, it is commonly used in contemporary advertising - Line drawings are generally created using adobe illustrator, adobe flash and Lightbox- Scalable vectors graphics (SVGs) are animated by code - Fantasmagorie - Line boils - Drawing/tracing over a character to appear animated - More drawings - less animated - Less drawings nervous/ cold-

 Line drawings examples are Spirited away and Pinocchio 

Two typical uses of line drawings are Anime and Film these are portrayed through the different aesthetically qualities they both poses such as in anime the characters typically are slim and without a nose. They also have large beady eyes, it is also difficult to distinguish the difference between the men and women when they are young. Anime uses clean lines giving it a smooth and clean look. such as in spirited away where the movements are smooth and human like with a clean feel to it making it satisfying to watch. It also offers a refreshing new outlook to western cartoons giving it a strong USP as it is unlike anything in the western world. Through the use of line drawings in Anime you can see the emotion in the characters faces creating a connection towards them. 

Another use of Line drawings is films such as Pinocchio which use clean lines to create emotion and backgrounds. Line drawings can create almost anything such as fantastical beasts and grand castles making it appealing to children and even parents. Line drawing is commonly used by disney and anime it was widely popularised by disney with their first big hit snow white. fantasmagori is the most common genre of animation especially for disney 

P2: Describe the uses for digitized animation in the media.

An example of a use of animation in the media is for film and television which is typically aimed at the younger audiences but it also includes the older side of the younger audince and this is the teens to young adults. Animation can be used to create ideal worlds for children movies as every little detail is perfect. It is also easy to create child friendly characters that do not scare off-put them such as wallace and grommit. Fantasy characters such as these can easily become a reality though the use of digitized animation such as stop motion which can see clay models brought onto the big screen as a child friendly character. This is why the most common genre seen is fantasy and adventure films for children. there are platforms where this animation is acesable such as Disney plus which has a huge variety of their animations accessible by their audiances on their child friendly platform animation ranging from line drawing to stop motion. 

Another example of a use of Line drawing animation is anime and advertising Line drawing consists of hand drawn sketches meaning the animation is limitless and the only limit is the artistic ability's of the artist drawing  This is useful in anime as you can easily see this perfect world be created with a smooth finish. This is also useful for advertising as the brand can be advertised easily through drawings. When there is a good design it will be eye catching making it especially good for advertising as they can advertise their product with any object or in any setting all they need is to draw the setting then animate it into an advert. 

M1: Assess the suitability of animations for the target audience.

Line drawing & stop motion 

The target audience for Traditionally, animated content is associated with younger audiences which are children from the ages of 3 - 14. Television programmes such as Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny, and disney films from snow white to frozen, have been largely pitched at children of both genders but films such as frozen are more aimed at the female audience whereas films such as Pinocchio are more aimed towards the male audience as they deal with more masculin themes through genre of action and adventure which is more suited to the male audiance this works with Both line drawing and stop motion as it makes for a grand scene with lots of things happening in the action scenes. They are targeted towards children by the child friendly themes and characters such as Pinocchio and becoming a real boy which is aimed at the working class as he is the son of a carpenter. However as it was created in the 1940s there is very little ethnical diversity and all characters are white. There are also targeted towards the adult audience as that is their secondary audience they adapt it for the secondary audience by inserting jokes that will only be understood by the adults as it explores adult themes. 

This type of animation has a soft and easy to watch style with smooth lines and satisfying drawings this is perfect for the audiance of young children as this will capture their interest and draw them into the fantasy world of whatever piece of media they are watching. Line drawing was what was used in early animations which can now be considered classics such as snow white and pocohantus. Films such as these set the meta for what a classical line drawing targeting younger children should look like this is still used today as it works and attracts multiple audiances as it is sutible for both the primary and secondary audiances following a narrative which is put foward in a suitabe way for the younger audiance such as the ways they present love and death in a way for young children to understand.

 Stop motion is animated content which is typically aimed at the younger audiances in the 4-12 range. Films such as wallace and grommit and Shaun the sheep an example of a studio that typically creates stop motion animation is AArdman studios they aim the majority of their products as both genders but there are some films which are more suitable for males such as the film pirates and scientists which can be for both but leans more towards themes for the younger male audience. They also do advertising for a variety of different programs an example of on is the advertisement playing after dancing on ice which is aimed more at the female audience however the age range is much larger as ti will be seen by a larger variety of ages they alter their animation to make it suitable for the medium being used. Another exmple is angry kid a comedy sketch show for the older audience they just their animations keeping the same stop motion style of advertising but they adjust the characters and themes to make it more suitable for the older audiences. 

Stop motion is a slow process but can have high rewards as it looks very attractive to audiances when done right, however a negative is it can take a lot of time, resources and money. Studios such as aardman specialise their brand around stop motion using clay figures which look simmilar to children's toys this makes their style of animation suitable for their audience as the characters are not threatening or scary and are appealing to the audience. The themes explored are usually child friendly as the majority of stop motion is for children they will use themes such as friendship and working together as not only the look but the story is also suitable for the audience as it is appealing to the children but further into that depending on the animation it can be aimed at the male or the female audiance an example is frozen which has a female audiance it appeals to them by having characters who are female and focus on themes based around females characters such as the two main characters in frozen. 

D: Compare digital animations from two different countries around the world. You should make reference to the characters, themes, environments and narratives, and provide illustrative material to support your ideas. (D1) 

Digital animation is extremely different all around the world two such examples being anime from the east originating from Japan an example of films are spirited away and my friend totoro which are both from studio Ghibli which was created by Hayao Miyazaki. In this style of animation it is driven by an narrative different to the west, in comparison to western animation it explores deeper themes. There is usually a more complex story with hidden deeper meanings as it is aimed at a larger audience than western animations. There are a lot of references to Japanese mythology. With characters that represent spirits and mythical creatures from Japanese culture. One of the largest and most widely known studio for animation is haiyo miazaki's studio ghibli which has produced many films and introduced anime into the mainstream western media. 

 films such as spirited away represent many different themes in relation to japan one being the Aesthetics. Anime is very different to other types of animation, Anime focuses a lot on the faces as that is where most of the characters emotion is seen and anime is very much driven by emotion and deeper meanings such as spiritual journeys and characters discovering themselves through a journey this si represented through spirited away as the main character goes on a journey and has a spiritual journey odf understanding. Anime originated in Japan and is east Asian style of animation. And was popularized after the loss of world war 2 when the Japan was in a bad place with little food and a very bad economy so anime allowed them to escape this harsh reality. it has since become extremely popular in western culture as it is something completely different to what people are used to seeing. They typically are set in japan sometimes in rural japan on the fields or in the urban side of japan, however there are a lot of gore and anime can be very violent with grand fight scenes 

Digital animation in america is extremely different to that of anime from the east. the most famous animator from america is disney and pixar who have made many films both live action and animation which is the majority films include cars, frozen and snow white. the style of animation is usually line drawings and more recently CGI, They are usually aimed at the younger audience with hidden jokes for the older audience such as parents. They follow themes such as love and friendship and usually involve a journey to gain or save something at the end.The films take fantasy and aim to make it a reality through the animation such as cars which is a film distributed by Disney and made by pixar about cars coming to life. the story follows a racecar who is lost in the desert. it is set in a world run by cars. This s different to spirited away and anime films as they are set in different parts of the world cars is set in the western society and the character finds belonging and family in a leightharted way which is different to anime as the challenges they face are different as they audice both have different levels of maturity. 

Cars is an adventure movie made in a typical pixar style of animation and that is line drawing giving it the disney/pixar feel as well as the themes which go hand in hand with he views of the companies it is made for a majority western audiance of children aged 4-10 of the male gender and middle class as their parent would take them to the cinema to see the movie 

The majority of the films shown are set in the US in urban areas. Anime is typically for the older audience whereas disney animation is for the younger audience.