Blog Assignment #7 Animation Deconstruction

In Toy Story, the animators chose certain color schemes to create contrast between characters. In the first picture, Rex, a dinosaur, is a primarily green hue but plays with darker shades to give his skin a scaly texture. Pig is completely pink, a tint of red hue. Mister Potato Head on the right has a brown body but his accessories are all very saturated colors. In the second picture, Woody has a light colored skin but pure brown hair as well as his hat. His clothes are duller colors of yellow and red but his vest contrasts with black and white. Little Bo Peep has fair skin but has the pureness of pinks on her dress and yellows in her hair. These bright hues help relate these characters as toys to children and are visibility separated from other elements of each scene. It is apparent to me that the deeper you go in the scene in each of these pictures the colors get duller which shifts the focus to the foreground and the bright characters. Other toys in the scene also follow the set rule of bright hues.

Each scene in these pictures has excellent lighting techniques. In the first picture the characters are back lit from it appears to be a lamp on the table. It gives the characters a warm highlight around them which separates them from the background. It gives a nice late afternoon or early evening mood to the scene which in my opinion is laid-back and relaxed and this definitely contrasts with Mr. Potato Head's attitude. In the second picture both Woody and Little Bo Peep are well lit but the background is under exposed. There is also a blue tinted back light on these subjects. Both of these lighting elements help the audience's eye go right to the characters and the action in the scene. The light bounces of the material of the characters giving them a plastic appearance which is really important in a movie about toys. I think that the primary purpose of light in both of these scenes is to give the characters texture and bring them out from the background.

Blog Assignment #6 Storyboard Imitation

Storyboard for Hot Rod's First Jump Scene

Director Akiva Schaffer follows the 180 degree rule smoothly in this scene. The first action axis takes place between Rod and his friends who are sitting on the side of the road. The first cut swings 150 degrees on the same side as before to get a reaction shot of Rod. The same then switches to a medium shot of his friends as Rod is preparing to make the large jump. Then the action axis switches to Rod and the ramp he is about to fly down toward it. We get a good behind view of Rod and his bike as the camera pans up to reveal his intended path down the road. The camera makes another 180 degree swing to the front of Rod to get a good image of his face of determination and then pans up to reveal his inner thoughts of the spirit eagle. With all these large degree changes the director follows the 30 degree rule. In this scene however, Schaffer does not make good use of the Rule of Thirds. Shot 1 puts Rod's head in the upper left hand corner of the shot but puts his friends in the center off and to the right. Shots 2, 4, and 5 put Rod in the dead center of the screen giving the frame a visual vertical axis. Shot 3 puts all three of Rod's friends in the same shot but I believe this follow's the Rule of Thirds because the most important of his friends Kevin, Rod's step-brother, falls into the upper right hand corner. The director probably wanted to create a more dramatic feel as Rod prepares himself to hurl himself off the ramp by creating visual symmetry. When he puts Rod in the dead center of the screen we know that this movie will center on him.