Steve Cutts

The first time i watched his animation is when i arrived Uk and download the Youtube. I don’t remember which viedo i watched that time but after that video.  Steve Cutts’s short film named Man began to show by itself. And it appealed to my eyes. After watching it, i always think about  the plots of that short film.

So this wasthe first time i began to know his work, but not his name.

After many days, i watched his another short film named In the Fall on the YouTube.

And recently， i watched his another short film named Are You Lost In The World Like Me?

I find they have the same style of drawing, so i want to research them. What amazing is when i am researching them,  i find they have the same animator——————–Steve Cutts.

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Just like the remarks of the magazine above, this man is really good try to use animation to show the ironical situation we are facing now.  Sometimes use animation to show some thoughtful things will be much better. Because animation can exaggerate some emotions, feelings and actions. That will give audience a deeper effect. So let us see, how this animator show ironical situations to audience.

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Virtual Information Time:

With the development of phones and computers, no one can leave digital media products. If someone does not answer the phone and does not update his lives on the Internet, most of people will think this person has some bad things or even died. In the past, we only have fixed telephone in the house, we have to wait for the phone and can not leave the house. That is inconvenient. Now, we are convenient, but there are also many problems.

The animator tries to focus on the people’s numbness and apathy in the real world. And they try to live in the virtual world. They do not care about other people who around them. They try to make themselves look good in the virtual world, not care much more in the real world. This short film has a style of Disney.

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Human and Environment:

This is also a hot topic since we have industry and pollute the environment. But the animator give a new way to show them.

 

The story began in the 500,000 years ago and ended in the future time. There is a man he is always walking in the animation, so happy and relax. However when he is walking, he will do some bad things to the lives in the earth. In the beginning, he stepped on a worm, use snakes to make shoes for himself. With he walking longer and longer, his desire be bigger and bigger. He ask more and more things and lives from the earth. Finally,  he is a king in the rubbish and the aliens come to the earth, they feel angry about this man. In the end, they kill the man.

I really like the way of talking story. Happy characters do bad things make the story more ironical.

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Dull Work: 

This topic is also hot. Because more and more people works like a robot. Their work does not have many chances to think, they just repeat, repeat and repeat. I think this job named ‘robot job’, because you do not know when, you will be instead into robots and lose your jobs.

 

The man accidentally fall from the building. At first, he is afraid of death and want to be saved. But in the fall he thinks about his whole life’s best bits, he find his life be the same after he beginning to work. In the end, he thinks death maybe not bad and peacefully waits for the falling’s ending. So death is not terrible, what’s terrible is boring life. This is a really interesting short film idea.

Changings between images

i really like changes between images. And the changes add some interesting sound effects will make the animation be really interesting and powerful. At the same time, it makes the animation has much more imagination.

This film gives a good example of how to change images into images.

I really like this part of this short film, because the line is also changing and moving. It gives the animation a feeling of science. I think if someone want to draw something about science, she or he can use this way to show his plots. Sometimes changes are easy but having dynamic changes is not easy.

If you watch clearly, you will find the changes also need laws of motions. Some thing from the big thing to the small thing, that can have a bomb. And the somthing wants to from big and maybe fat to thin and long( like the snake). It can use pulling, after pulling there should have a rebounding. Just like rubber bands. And if these actions add sounds effects, that will be perfect. I think i should learn more about the laws of motions.

I find many Disney animation have some actions which is cyclic. In this short film, you can also find this. For example, the big shear cut dogs and the soup ladle knock eggs and birds fly otside the eggs. Many examples. That gives the film make more interesting. I think i can try this cyclic animation.

 

Nono-chan

This is also a film by Studio Ghibli, the film was adapted from Cartoonist Hisaichi Ishii. I really like this film. But this film was not a huge box-office success. I think maybe because the audience in that time like to watch the Luxuriant pictures and some exciting plots. This film talks abot the family of Yamada family. This family has grandmother，dad, mom, brother and sister. It is a traditional normal family in the Janpan. 

Just like what you can see from the pictures. This is this film’s style of characters and scenes. The characters keeps a comic style, they have clear and relax lines. The colors all use water color to draw, and the color is not dark or showy.

The scenes also follow the characters’ style. Not complex but clear and has a different fresh, clean, normal feelings. I like this feeling, because this film talks about the normal ,interesting and warm life in this family. This style can make me feel peaceful and simple just like a feeling of home. I think this film really has a big courage to do like this. As we all known, the Commercial film is really popular, but it doesn’t like characteristic and the plots are all look the same. This film like a clean water in the film. And i think, this film is not only for the children, but also for the adult or even older you can also watch this film. Different stages will have different ideas about the topic after watching it. This film uses many clips of this family’s life to show different small topics of the family.

Family is a fusion between men and women, between children, teenagers, adults, old people. This film shows the fusion by these families live together and experience together. There are many warm and meaningful words in different small topics. Some words even can touch you and make you think about family a lot and even cry. So I think this film is a successful animation film, but it is not a successful products. Sometimes because many reasons, some good works will get much more money from the audience, but this just can say they are successful products. If the works can touch people’s ideas, that will be a really different existing.

It also uses the way of voice over. The daughter’s voice talks about the plot and if there has dialogue, there will have different people’s voice. The daughter’s voice is really cute.

I can’t understand the film clearly, but i like the way of talking the story.

This film named The Bow / Hwal, the director and screen writer of it is the same people—-his name is Ki-duk Kim——–a Korean. He is really good at using pictures to talk the story. He has strong personal style of his works. He didn’t get the education of the film making. But he used 10 years to shoot 12 films. Many of them get awards internationally. But his work, maybe because of the topic, he was controversial. 

This film is be classified into plot, love, erotic. But i do not feel anything about erotic, maybe is the old man washed girl? But the pictures are not erotic i think. The story i think talks about a old man and a girl’s story. The old man has two boats, one big, one small. He used the small one to take the fisher to the big boat to fish and enjoy the view of the sea. 10 years ago, he brought a 6 years old girl to the boat. When he found the girl on the land, she was alone and didn’t have parents to company. The old man raised the girl on the boat, instead of that, the girl should marry to the old man when she was 17 years old. The old man’s age just like the girl’s grandfather. He took care of her. Some bad fisher will do bad things on the girl, the old man always uses bow and arrow to make alarms. The girl learned bow and arrow from the old man. She also loves the old man i think. But she never leave the boat since the 6 years old. One day a young man came to the boat. The girl maybe be interested in him i think. I do not think this is love. But the old man is angry about that. The girl began to hate the old man and want to leave. At the same time, the young man wanted to help the girl and fall into love with her. He wanted take the girl to the boat. The old man wanted to die, he wanted to give up killing himself, but the girl also giving up fleeing away. They got married, but the old man finally jumped into the sea, and died. The girl finally left with the young man. This is the main plot, there are also many details plots, for example the old man can prophesy by using the bow and arrow and many other things which have religion significance.

Why i think this film is really good, because there are only some words in the 90 minutes, almost every plot are showing by the actions and eyes. The main characters even didn’t say any words in the film. They look like two mute, but they are not. So i have to say the director is really amazing. And the actor and actress are really amazing. They use their facial preforms and actions to finish all the plots. Really amazing.

The scenes are also not complex, it is only sea and the old man’s two boats. Because they are almost no dialogue in the film, that gives audience a lot of imagination to think about the plot to taste the actions , emotions, things in the scenes and so on. Gave people a big room of thinking. Different people will have different view of love in this film. But you should use a day which you want to calm down and watch works. Because there is no dialogues, so maybe some people will can not calm their heads to watch. So the advantage is also the disadvantage, but it can make people remember it.

The voice has interaction with the animation

Back Then (Dir Diego Porral/ Spain 2016)

Do you remember this short film in the Manchester Festival? I really have a good impression with this animation. And my animation also try to follow this style———-the voice has interaction with the animation or you can also say, the animation has interaction with the voice. That is really good to make the voice has interaction with the animation, because this can make the plot be more interesting and let the audience understand the plot much more. This film talks about the little boy came to ask his father, how you and mom meet? Then the Dad began to talk about his memory, but the mom disturb Dad, because she had a different memory with Dad. Anyway, the plot is really interesting. The film uses the colorful world to be the memory world. So it is easy to distinguish past and now.

I really like the film’s interaction. For example, Dad and Mom have different memory of the dad’s figure and wearing. Dad has a different memory of the Mom’s dress color and her friend. I think Dad’s memory must be wrong, because he put his emotions in the memory and he wants he looks better in the memory to his child. But the process, the mom said no！you are wrong… is really interesting. And the animation is also interesting.

 

Using different ways to finish one film

The main character Overwhelmed by a “phantom itch” from his missing pinky toe,  and this missing toe occupied almost all the life of the main character. He wanted to find his missing toe, but in the end he found the things and people around him are much more important than that missing toe. This short film try to show a topic: a man must come to terms with his situation or succumb completely to his obsession.

This film’s color, scenes design and characters designs are really exquisite. Why i want to research it, because it use many ways to show the animation. 2D and Stop motion. And the combination is really good. We always should remember that the ways of making film is not important, the most important is how to make the animation’s plot looks good.

WOW, it is really amazing! There are so many styles in this one film, and you do not feel they are strange in this film. Because each style all suitable for each plot. How many styles you can find in this film? This film, sometimes the characters are made of paper, sometimes they are made of wood, sometimes they are 2D, soetiomes they are Origami… And even they are made of the same way, they have different styles and designs. But the pictures are really beautiful. I think one animator should try different way to make films, because when you in charge of all the ways, your film’s plot will not be limited by the technology.

If i studied Animation next year, i want to try make the main character be made of stop motion’s materials, for example wood. The scenes be made of paper and the emotions on the characters be drawn by painting on the computer. I think it will be really interesting to do the film like this.

My showreel

I try to find all the animation i did to make this showreel.

 

I used this music to be my showreel’s background music. Because i think the music has a young power, people listen to this music will also have power.

I cut it and made the final sound of it gradually be lower, lower, lower and none in AU.

Because the teacher only required one minute showreel. I added the animation and music in PR.

This is the final showreel:

Showreel research

I really like her animation. Her showreel is not only a showreel for me, in this term i often watch her showreel again and again, many many times. This music and her animation make me feel relax when i am busy with my works. And at the same time, I really like her animation’s style. I hope i can try her style too. I like the animation’s colors just like her.

I really like the first part of the showreel.

How can she do this? I try to stop the video quickly and help me to screenshot. I think make the written words have animation is also i should learn and practice. I am not good at this part or i can even say, i still not care about this part. But i want to try some animation of the written words. I think this can make the film look more interesting. Because sometimes the titles also have interactions with the characters or scenes. That can make the film has rich animation

This part, the blue elephant run and jump, i can feel the speed from the animation. I find the elephant has a different position in different time, and it gives a new feelings for the audience.

The elephant i think is big—-small—-big—-small, the land is small—-big—-small———–big. Really interesting animation. That gives a really amazing speed feeling.

This part is also very good. She is really good at the space and characters’ moving and transition. Almost all the animation in this showreel has animation of space and characters’ moving and transition. Really amazing. I will try to practice more.

 

Cat City

I have to say this animation’s music is really crazy. And because of this, i feel the animation is also crazy. This film’s style is really beautiful. Not only this. This film has a good camera shoot. Each scene’s change has a fast speed. This speed of camera make the plot feel compact. I think the animator of this film is really good at clipping videos. I am not good at this. This part i think is course of Montage. I watched it again, WOW, a really good speed of scenes change. And the animator designed many uncommon view in the film.

Look at the Compositions of pictures, really amazing and they give people a feelings of pressure. Just follow the topic of this film i think. I think this film talks about a cat was away from home, and worked by itself in the city. At first, without families it was happy, but with the boring and repeated lives in the city everyday. It began tired and had no power to work. In the end, it chosen to leave home.So the fast music and fast speed of camera are really suitable for the busy city life and the cat’s anxious inner.

Angel

Because there are two angles appeared in my film, and i do not know how to draw angles. So i searched their pictures on the internet.