silly symphony - the skeleton dance 1929

silly symphony - the skeleton dance 1929

When I first saw this thing it felt really scary and creepy, but if one tries to see it as a piece of art and it becomes clear that the use of sound and the ability to synchronise it that well to the video is a pure work of genius. At least for me it is be cause I have had the pleasure of working as a video DJ (Vj) a couple of years ago and to see where it came from is a real gift to me. Makes me want to watch it again and again to analyse it further and sink my teeth in to it. So now I see amazing morphings and crowd animated scenes in it and the use of loops had always seemed to me a bit weird, but it just gives the cartoon the mark of the 1929 quality.

You Tube is really a great place to search for inspiration when you need it. The reason I go to that site is that literally the entire Planet has been shown in all of its aspects with the use of different video formats. People love to share their videos that contain all kinds of emotions and states of the body and mind, and are interested how many people will find those shared materials useful and interesting (via LIKES). I personally use YT for searching a videos that show old and valuable animations and music videos. I am not really a fan of violent or really I don't like to waste my time with 100000 funny videos, so I am looking for ART and SCIENCE tags on there. The most recent ones mere a live musical performance from my favourite electronic music artist Aphex Twin. He greatly inspires me and gives me the will to want to create something new and unheard (in audio ways). As for video formats I enjoy watching Animation festival winners videos in HD. Some people really live in a different place and that makes me feel like I am not alone and gives me inner piece.

A research portfolio

The life of Donyo Donev

45 years in creating animation

Donyo Donev came t

From his teenager years he played at weddings and restaurants. People used to glue good money on his forehead, that's why Donyo needed to keep his head looking upwards. But while he played the accordion, his friends took all the girls he wanted to talk to.o light 78 years ago in Berkovitsa. His father was a railwayman. Donyo was an average student and most of his grades were D's and even F's were . Was not good at drawing or gymnastics or singing. He made a deal with his father that he will get good grades if his dad buys him an accordeon. So he did get on a brand of "Traviata" with a maximum of 32 bass.

№ 1 animator in Bulgaria maintained a sort of "house museum" where he collected different brands of accordions.

He had fun not only playing them but fixing then aswell. The man just had a huge weaknes

an 40 years Donev discovers with great pain that his "fools" are not really his property, but the Cinema Center's. The popular characters were born in a very funny way. The first scenario was Atanas Pavlov's. Then viewers themselves began to suggest stories, and Peter Slabakov gave aliases to the "Fools". s for this instrument. After more th

-"During the creation of one of the series which both fools incubate an egg, from which pops the third fool out, Slabakov exclaimed:" Mityo ... Vatyo ... "La

ter with a smile Petyo told me that my third hero was named .....Donyo.

"Fool № 1 of the republic" was a victim of street beatings three times. Some guys attacked him in front of the church "St. George" and broke his jaw. Few millimeters - and the impact was going to sent him to the other world. Then he got beat in the City Park. Finally sprayed with spray and miraculously did not get blind, but for some time one of his eyes was closed. On several occasions, thieves stole things from his apartment in Sofia. Hijacking 500 BGN and one of his briefcases, inside of wich the

​​Donyo Donev really hated frawd. During his time there were a lot of his fellow animators that gained credit using someone else's works as their own. So he became an agent in the DS named Mr. Toshev. With that name he signed 11 documents that led to the firing of those who got some gold out of other peo

ple's backs. For that agent Toshev was rewarded with a 60 BGN rase of salary and was known as "the deserving artist".re were only drawings, two leva and one lev paper bill. Not much really.

His first cartoon as an artist is "Hulled and Grushko" (1957), but with "Duet" (1961) he made ​​his debut as screenwriter and

director. He has worked as an artist in the "Evening News" (1954-1956), artist and director in the Department of cartoons in SIF (1956-1970) and the SAF "Sofia" (1970-1993), where he was the head of a creative team.

Working on the

animation series "Three Stooges" from 1970 to 1990. Donev is the main editor of the newspaper "Three Stooges" (1989-1997), and the "Four Fools" (1997) and the magazine "bang."

In 1998 he was an actor in the movie "Wagner."

As a cartoonist he was presented in many exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad.

Donyo Donev was a professor at the NATFIZ animation accademy in Sofia and used to taught animation directing there.

Donyo Donev is an artist, writer and director of over 100 cartoons. Among the most popular ones are:

"Go back to Sorrento"

"Ekograma";

'Cause perduta ";

"Target";

"We called th

em and Kapuleti Montecchi";

"Serenade";

'Three Stooges' "Three Stooges - hunters" (1972);

"Three Stooges and the car" (1973);

"Three Stooges and the cow" (1974);

"Three Stooges - hunters";

"Three Stooges and the tree" (1977);

"Three fools and stupid" (1978);

"Three Stooges - athletes" (1979);

"Three Stooges - te

achers" (1980);

"Three Stooges - fishermen" (1982);

"Three Stooges in the restaurant" (1988);

"Three Stooges non-stop" (1990);

"Three fools in life and sport" (1993);

"Smart Village"

;

"Hamlet";

"Happy End";

"Joke";

"Diagnosis" (2000).

I personally had the extreme pleasure of not only seing him live, but talking to him about the path of the animator.

It hapened in the year of 2003 i think and i was a student in the National School for fine arts in Sofia Bulgaria then. So we had this drawing competition and i drew his 3 fools characters, not having the slightest idea that Mr. Donev was one of the jury. So the time for us came to stop drawing and we wai

ted for the jury to got rough each one of us and make a decision on a winner. Before i knew it Donyo was next to me and paprazi startew to take photos of him look

ing at my "stolen" idea. I was shaking and verry excited and afraid of what he might say to me about using his work as mine.

But my fears went away as soon as i saw him smiling and even starting to laugh. He said:

-"Boy, you have found the way of the Bulgarian animation at that age ?"

After that he t

In an interview Donyo Donev explained why he finds his 3 fools characters so interesting and unique.ook a photo with me and i was on the next day's newspaper next to the legend. I still have the page cut out somewhere at home and that memory really warms my heart and makes me go on with the path i have chosen.

"Self-irony is a

n important characteristic of the Bulgarian people, which rarely occurs in other nations, and I have developed it to its most clear and simple perfection. I am just the same fool as my painte

d characters. Because by being a bigger fool you can get rid of the real fools. If you show a fool that you are a bigger fool than him, you do is you tickle his pride and you manage to lose his attention. Fools love to look very smart and are very happy to make you a fool. Give them some fun and they will cease to annoy and bother you - you're so stupid in their eyes that they can safely leave you be- which is a real gift for you to be left alone with your own foolishness".

Self-irony is also a way to not go beyond your self. Many people, rising in their career or social status imagine that they are greater than others and that are special and deserve more. At such times, the abilit

y to see how stupid you are, helps to get your self back on the ground and in the reality as it is.

When Donyo joined the Academy of Fine Arts he had a band that used to play in pubs, weddings, christenings. He did not have time for his lectures and that drove him to be absences. He re-applied and entered the Academy for a second time. Elijah Beshkov once summoned him secretly in a corn

er: "Boy,choose one. Brush or accordion! Donyo suffered three days of dilemma - should he become a musician artist or a drawing artist?He started working in the" Evening News "as a cartoonist. After a month Todor Dinov, the father of Bulgarian animation visited the studio and showed him the art of making still images come to life. After that Donyo spent 45 years of his

life in the field of animation.

Sadly he died on

November 28, 2007 in Sofia.

Donio Donev- a life time in Bulgarian animation culture

Born on June 27, 1929 in Berkovitsa. Graduated "Graphic arts" at the National Art Academy in 1954.
Donio Donev has over 100 well known animated films that were aired over the world during his time, some of which are:ated "Graphical arts" at the National Art Academy in 1954
His first cartoons as an artist are "Gruh and Grushska" (1957), but with "Duet" (1961) he made ​​his debut as a screenwriter and director. He has worked as an artist in the "Evening News"(1954-1956), artist and director in the Department of cartoons in SIF (1956-1970) and the SAF "Sofia" (1970-1993), where is the head of creative team.
Working on the animation series "The Three Stooges" from 1970 to 1990 Donev is editor of the newspaper "Three Stooges" (1989-1997), and the "Four Fools" (1997) and the magazine "bang."
In 1998 debut as an actor in the movie "Wagner."
As a cartoonist is presented in many exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad.
Donyo Donev was a professor at the National and taught animation directing there.
He died on November 28, 2007 in Sofia."Three Stooges"

Three Stooges and the cow" (1974);"Smart Village";

Pixel to Pencil- the uncanny valley

Pixel to Pencil

led by Magnus Moar


Uni hours are interesting and i always get to see something new and amazing. After the lectures i feel inspired and ready to continue my projects.
First thing i had no idea what it actually ment was the "Uncanny Valley".
Turns out it is really important to understand what it is, so once you do you can make your decision on purely animators point of view whether or not you want your characters to look photo real or stylised.
For me it is important for a model to be really appealing and have as much human features as possible, my style of drawing and modelling has always been going a bit towards the photo real look. Now on the other hand i see that that was one of my main problems why i havent been able to get people to like and appeal to my creations as i would have wanted them to. It is all because we humans can really easily tell when a model who is trying to look photo real is really not as real looking. We are used to seeing our kind and can tell the difference when something is even slightly off. That is why i think i will start creating a bit more stylised characters so they can be accepted as i would want them to be. A stylised character has a lot more appeal qualities as it is cute looking for one thing and may produce more simpler human looking movements.

In the end i finally found the source of my non-acceptance error and i think i will be able to reach the level of likeness i was after. Thanks to the knowledge of the Uncanny Valley.

Here is a video that explains what it is for video games too.

Dear diary, today i had a lot of fun in London. We were in drawing class and after that we went to central London to c a movie called PARANORMAL activity"" (WE IS someone who you wont find out who is ) so it is a horror movie and i got inspired to direct a horror movie based on one of my dreams(nightmares) so now i think i will go on and try for a movie director :D

Hello Middlesex

So i finally arrived on the 28-th Sep. in London. Now its been a mounth since arrival and i am living in Ivy hall of residence (we have no net or heat working).I dont like it at all here, but atleast my new school is SUPER good and it makes me sorta forget about the harsh reality. I am Andon Hristov from Bulgaria and i am studying Animation in Middlesex for a first year. I feel in place here and i can speak to people about things that really interest me. Today we had a nice lecture led by one of our amazing tutors Magnus Moar. The lecture was a continuation on the time line of animation art since it came to BE till now. We saw a lot of usefull short animations and discussed diffrent ideas and methods of acheiving certain looks for an animated film. Overall today was a pretty creative day for me as i did my oun first creature walk cycle (4 legs) hand drawn on a lightbox using a pegbar to hold the A4 paper (i feel like i'm in an animation studio). I was not soposed to draw it that detailed its not an assignment, just something that i really wanted to do. I hope it turns out nicely, we'l see what tomorrow brings :)