April 2020 – Nicoco the Art Vader

Movie Analysis (sort of): Anastasia (1997)

Lately, I’ve been trying to rewatch all favorite animations from my childhood. Stated with Monsters INC, went through some classics such as Dumbo and Lady and the Tramp, and finished with Mulan. Looking for something new to watch I found Anastasia – an animation I loved as a child that I have forgotten about.

Half-way through the film, I went “wait a minute, Disney never uses this type of camera movement and what’s with their faces?”. At the end of the movie, my only thought was “Okay, it was nice, it reminded me of my childhood and I love Bartok, but something was missing… there was no Disney magic”. To my surprise, I found that the animation is a product of 20th Century Fox, directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.

Well, that explained a lot.

I am not going to focus on the story, the music or animation techniques used for the production, but rather, on these little details that I believe are the reasons I did not feel the “magic”. Thinking about Disney’s magic brought me to the comparison with the so-called “x-factor” – you can be a great performer and still lack this last bit of something that makes you a star. So, if Disney’s magic is the x-factor of animation, does Anastasia have x-factor?

I will start with the character design. I like the designs of Rasputin and Bartok – they show the personality traits of the characters and creates the classic combination of a villain, obsessed with his revenge, and the simple servant. However, we never find out why is he so passionate about killing Anastasia. His motive remains unclear, and so does his existence in the plotline. They could have had all these troubles even without him.

Anastasia (1997) 20h Century Fox Animation Studios

The character design of Anastasia and Dimitri is slightly disappointing. There is nothing special about them, no character can be found in their facial features and they remind of a generalization of all Disney princesses and princes. Even though they have the cartoon looking design, they have overly realistic expressions. As a result, these unmemorable characters have so many facial expressions that it is hard to follow their emotions. What is more, the acting of the characters was so realistic that it felt wrong at some moments. The same goes for Anastasia’s grandmother – not sure if that’s her or the evil stepmother of Cinderella that simply dyed her hair.

source: http://animationandsoforth.tumblr.com/post/127755063699/model-sheets-for-anastasia

The second thing I noticed, while watching the animation, were the blurry backgrounds. The scene where she is walking happily around the castle, the character looks out of place as if it is a mixture of live-action and animation.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the animation of the film is beautiful and I appreciate the effort put into the little details such as showing how nervous she is before meeting her grandmother – tearing the ballet program into pieces.

Salt and Peaches,

Nicole

Children’s Society: Inspiration and Initial Sketches

For some unknown for me reason, it turns out that I am better at writing at night. Not that I am good at it, I still suck, don’t get me wrong, but my thought is flowing smoothly, and I better express my mind.

So tonight, I want to share more about my inspiration for the Children’s Society project and the work of artists I admire.

As you already know, my film has a black background and contrasting, colorful main character and symbols.

Initially, I was inspired by Disney’s Dumbo, and more specifically, by the scene where Dumbo gets drunk. The scene is so different, compared to the rest of the film, that made a big impression on me. I loved the way, Disney portrayed the unconscious state of the character through the vast black space where huge, colorful elephants were dancing and coming closer and closer to the camera. I wanted to recreate a similar feeling with my animation. Therefore, I decided to look for more films, that had similar aesthetics – black background and contrast bright characters.

I found a music video on Vimeo, made by Sophie Koko Gate (I watched her Slug Life film and I absolutely love it, but will probably write about it in a different post) that fit the description perfectly.

Here is a link to it:

https://vimeo.com/105585712

I used the meaning of colors to emphasize the inner change of the character. I started with blue color to show her isolation and the hostile environment, went through the green color of the cocoon to indicate her personal growth, and finished with pink, to set the environment for the positive message of the girl.

As you can see from the illustrations and the character design sheet, I used a similar approach in my animation – first, I would draw the black outline of the character, and then I would color it.

Finally, I liked the roughness and sketchiness of Koko’s animation, and how she left some gaps while coloring to show the imperfections. I applied this sketchy look to my project, and I believe that it gives the film the authentic feeling of the strong emotional distress, discussed by the narrator.

Here are my initial sketches. As you can see, the idea evolved in the process and I changed the beginning. Initially, I wanted to show the girl gazing through a car’s window, as a train passes by, and use it as a transition for the next scene. However, as I was sketching it, I felt that it would look like a teenage series where the main character is going through a crisis of identity, and there is dramatic music in the background. Therefore, I decided to show how uncomfortable she feels in the car, almost as if she is too big to fit in it, and she cannot breathe. Therefore, I started designing a character with a large body, that makes her almost clumsy but also adds softness to her personality.

Bread and Butter,

Nicole

Quarantine and Chill

It’s been quite a crazy month.

I went home for two weeks … now I am staying for at least two months.

UK’s incredible, breathtaking, never seen in history measures (because they were non-existent) to deal with the upcoming pandemic were the reason I had to stay in quarantine alone for two weeks.

My extroverted personality went from “I need time for myself anyway, I can do yoga and draw” to “Jesus Christ I need people I am physically ill without human interactions.” So this post is about my mood swings expressed in my sketches/doodles/illustrations.

I bought a new marker, and I am trying to push myself to experiment more with shape and style by drawing without an outline. It is addictive, and I had to buy more paper because I was running low on it. Luckily, the best art shop is still open – because art is a necessity ya all. Enjoy:

In the second week, I decided to turn some of the sketches into illustrations. I called them “Love in Time of C(holera)orona” – spread love, not germs.

And finally, some random illustrations I made in the last days:

Now I am home, living with my parents for the first time in 5 years. Not gonna lie, now I started appreciating my quarantine.

I am learning to animate on procreate, but it is harder than it seems. I still can’t make it smooth, and it takes me a long time to make the character’s movement. What is more, I can’t work on different layers, and it makes coloring and adding additional elements harder.

Salt and Peaches,

Nicole