The Plastic Box

I decided that I would visit the site called The Plastic Box where there is an animation series entitled "Teddy and Anna." This animation interested me because it was very different compared to the Barbie My Scene animations that I viewed earlier. The first thing that I noticed, was that this animation had a setting that was quite unusual. It appeared to be taking place in the 1920's era, yet the technology that was shown in the animation was not available in the actual 1920s. The setting gave it a more futuristic appeal. Also, the colors scheme that was used was very different compared to the scheme in the My Scene animations. In "Teddy and Anna," the bright warm colors were used everywhere, not just in the important places as in the My Scene animations. Instead, of audio for voices, "Teddy and Anna" just had music playing in the background and the dialogue was printed in words on the screen. This gave the animation the look of a silent film, which also was popular in the 1920s. The movement in "Teddy and Anna" also differs from the My Scene animations. In "Teddy and Anna," the characters have a very smooth motion when they move unlike the characters in the My Scene animations. I think that the animator needed this element because there was no vocal audio to keep the viewer watching. Then again, that's just my opinion.
I was also watching the story line in each of the episodes of "Teddy and Anna." Each of the episodes are thought out carefully and have a cliffhanger ending so that the viewer will watch the next episode. Of course, so far there's only 6 episodes, and the story isn't completed yet. After watching episode 6 I'm waiting to see what happens to teddy and Anna and the strange men that took something from Anna's dad's office. Anyway, I enjoy "Teddy and Anna" because of it's story line and it's amazing animation. I can't wait to see what happens next!

"My Scene" Animations

I went on the Barbie site and checked out the My Scene animations there. My 5 year old sister enjoyed watching them with me while I was babysitting. Who knew homework could be so convenient! Anyway, I was watching the short animations at My Scene and I noticed a couple of things about the animation itself. I noticed that the objects that were standing out the most were brightly colored and more often the center of the scene. For example, when one of the girls were talking, she was brightly colored and the center of the screen. In addition, the background used a dull color scheme that hardly moved at all. In the short film entitled "Does She Buy It?", the whole background is mostly black, white and grey. However, in a shot of a rack of clothes only one of the shirts is colored yellow making it stand out. This shirt is picked up by one of the characters which defines that the shirt was important to notice.
I also observed the minimal movement that the characters provided. When they spoke, their facial features did most of the moving. I assume that the creators wanted the viewer to focus mostly on what character was saying. Also, when movement is supposed to be portrayed, in some scenes just the background is what is really moving. For example, in part 3 of the same film "Does She Buy It?" the girls are supposed to be dancing at a club, but instead of their bodies moving, the background colors stream across along with the still figures of the girls. The idea that the girls are dancing is apparent because of the louder music and the setting that the girls are in. This shows that movement isn't the only solution to expressing an action. This not only saved time for the animators but it also made the animation more interesting.