In my first article of this series I talked about why people watch animated movies and tried to analyse what were the advantages of animated movies over regular ones and what are their limitations. Having briefly touched that, now I'll aim at exploring the herculean process that goes into making these movies which seem so easy on the eye and how animated movies are treated all over the world-both, in terms of production and reception.
I was recently given an assignment in which I am required to make a one-minute stop motion animated movie. From what my teacher showed in class, the motion in the previous years' submitted assignment movies was only clear if it they had more than 24 frames per second of rate. Now, for the first time in my life I actually did simple math and calculated painfully that to make a proper 1 minute animated movie, I will have to click more than 1800 pics, as at least 1440 pics will be required at 24 frames per second and of course many shots are bound to be rejected as they are susceptible to being out of focus or any other technical problem. Now just imagine what it takes to make a full-length animated feature. So, just to show you how the mouse travelled to Paris to become a chef (in few minutes), teams of animation experts have have toiled hard for months. The mode of work and representation can be different, depending upon the theme. They can range from a simple flip book type illustration to series of sketches like in Disney's Paperman to mesmerising paintings like in 'The Man Who Planted Trees' to even clay and puppet animation like 'Mary and Max' and the earlier versions of Muppets. Sometimes, minimal colors and extravagance leaves us with the most brilliant of movies as the focus is solely on the message.
Now let's talk about the major animation houses in the world who rule the roost right now. There is a broad classification when it comes to animation in the world- East and West. East includes manga and a very wide variety of animation. But talk to anyone about Japanese animation and the first thing they are likely to think is that you are talking about cartoons, which is one of the sad misconceptions prevalent among people around the world. Japanese animation is different from the other major popular Western animation in the sense that the former has dared to touched upon issues that the latter doesn't considers worth documenting. Things like war, metaphysics, history, loss, etc., have been brilliantly portrayed in movies like 'Grave of the Fireflies', 'Spirited Away' and many other movies of Studio Ghibli which employs the phenomenal Hayao Miyazaki to direct most of their movies and seldom or never has he misfired. Both commercially and critically, his movies are universally accepted. Visually striking and identifying with the basic child in every human being, his movies are more than just carnivals of colours.
In West, or Hollywood, three main animation studios compete for the attention, Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney. All of these come up with grand releases every year, preceded by heavy promotion and great buzz. Pixar has made a mark by giving movies like 'Wall.E', the 'Toy Story' series, 'UP' and many other critical darlings, while Dreamworks has remained more colourful and commercial in their approach with movies like 'Shrek' series, 'Madagaskar' series and other similar light hearted, high-on-entertainment-value movies. Disney Animation Studio comes up with movies like 'Lion King and 'Frozen' which have their own typical style drawn generously from the classic Disney cartoons about love, prince and princesses. 'Beauty and the Beast' is another such example. But it too, never ceases to surprise the audience every now and then.
Broadly speaking, the basic difference between the styles of Hollywood and Japan lies in their treatment of subject matter and the subject matter of course. While Hollywood studios opt for a colourful approach and light, universal subjects that can be identified more easily by young audience worldwide, their Japanese counterparts go for more country-specific topics usually, that are sometimes colourful and sometimes not that vibrant. But their topics have more cultural and historical significance so they find ample audience in their country itself. Having understood the basic treatment of animation worldwide, we'll touch more topics in the next part of this article. Stay tuned this then. The best is yet to come.
Originally published at: http://theindianeconomist.com/to-infinity-and-beyond-part-ii/
I was recently given an assignment in which I am required to make a one-minute stop motion animated movie. From what my teacher showed in class, the motion in the previous years' submitted assignment movies was only clear if it they had more than 24 frames per second of rate. Now, for the first time in my life I actually did simple math and calculated painfully that to make a proper 1 minute animated movie, I will have to click more than 1800 pics, as at least 1440 pics will be required at 24 frames per second and of course many shots are bound to be rejected as they are susceptible to being out of focus or any other technical problem. Now just imagine what it takes to make a full-length animated feature. So, just to show you how the mouse travelled to Paris to become a chef (in few minutes), teams of animation experts have have toiled hard for months. The mode of work and representation can be different, depending upon the theme. They can range from a simple flip book type illustration to series of sketches like in Disney's Paperman to mesmerising paintings like in 'The Man Who Planted Trees' to even clay and puppet animation like 'Mary and Max' and the earlier versions of Muppets. Sometimes, minimal colors and extravagance leaves us with the most brilliant of movies as the focus is solely on the message.
Now let's talk about the major animation houses in the world who rule the roost right now. There is a broad classification when it comes to animation in the world- East and West. East includes manga and a very wide variety of animation. But talk to anyone about Japanese animation and the first thing they are likely to think is that you are talking about cartoons, which is one of the sad misconceptions prevalent among people around the world. Japanese animation is different from the other major popular Western animation in the sense that the former has dared to touched upon issues that the latter doesn't considers worth documenting. Things like war, metaphysics, history, loss, etc., have been brilliantly portrayed in movies like 'Grave of the Fireflies', 'Spirited Away' and many other movies of Studio Ghibli which employs the phenomenal Hayao Miyazaki to direct most of their movies and seldom or never has he misfired. Both commercially and critically, his movies are universally accepted. Visually striking and identifying with the basic child in every human being, his movies are more than just carnivals of colours.
In West, or Hollywood, three main animation studios compete for the attention, Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney. All of these come up with grand releases every year, preceded by heavy promotion and great buzz. Pixar has made a mark by giving movies like 'Wall.E', the 'Toy Story' series, 'UP' and many other critical darlings, while Dreamworks has remained more colourful and commercial in their approach with movies like 'Shrek' series, 'Madagaskar' series and other similar light hearted, high-on-entertainment-value movies. Disney Animation Studio comes up with movies like 'Lion King and 'Frozen' which have their own typical style drawn generously from the classic Disney cartoons about love, prince and princesses. 'Beauty and the Beast' is another such example. But it too, never ceases to surprise the audience every now and then.
Broadly speaking, the basic difference between the styles of Hollywood and Japan lies in their treatment of subject matter and the subject matter of course. While Hollywood studios opt for a colourful approach and light, universal subjects that can be identified more easily by young audience worldwide, their Japanese counterparts go for more country-specific topics usually, that are sometimes colourful and sometimes not that vibrant. But their topics have more cultural and historical significance so they find ample audience in their country itself. Having understood the basic treatment of animation worldwide, we'll touch more topics in the next part of this article. Stay tuned this then. The best is yet to come.
Originally published at: http://theindianeconomist.com/to-infinity-and-beyond-part-ii/
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