What you see is what you get

Experimental animation

'Abstract Animation' explores the use of not figurative forms and movement. Synchronisation of images and sound, the meaning of Abstract timing and movement does not need a narrative or characters , uses rhythm and paces , explores different points of view, goes in to depth regarding the overall idea. Explores the states of a materialisation on screen. Morphs from one object or emotion in to another in a seamless way. Can draw our attention to both big and small forms at the same time. Imitates what the sound could look like. Exists in to a non-dimensional distorted space. Thinks outside the box. Turns the box in to an oval and implodes with emptiness. Leaving us wondering and filled with questions with no easy answer. It is complex in a simple way. It looks like letters build from numbers in an alphabetical order and reverse. The tempo in the animation is felt by our own heartbeat be cause it is often the same. It takes your mind out side of your body and shows you the other side or what it could be like. Gives you a new law to consider. Seeing an abstract piece is like diving in to the unknown and even once you are in side you still don't know if you will be back to the "real" world. You start to feel unsatisfied by the normal everyday things and you feel that something is missing. Then you let it go and unleash the chaos that has been embed in to you from the start. No holding back now you must chose here or there, where everything can happen even when you least expect it to. You can have as much control or totally let yourself to the flow of space energy and continue to go past the barriers we have set here ourselves. Experiments are the only thing leading to a real discovery or even the creation of something completely new and unknown so far. It has all been an experiment at first, and now it has been developed and perfected, but never forget it was on the drawing board and in pieces on boring objects and shapes. You combine this with that and something new appears, just some additional tweaks and it can even be operational. How can you know what a chocolate lemon tastes like if you don't make one. I feel that with Abstract animation not even the sky is a limit. It can go way past that physically visible distance easily and as fast as one second in to a given frame of a film. I much prefer to add some abnormal features to my backgrounds or even to the characters as it makes you see a new way of telling a story or showing an emotion. It is the best way for me to communicate an idea to the viewer. My dream has always been to be able to show to the normal person what I see in my nightmares and night projections. To take them on a journey to a place they never knew existed. I know it sounds cheesy, but that is just what it is, a real trip that people only get when they are on some hallucinogen drugs. Really it makes me feel pain to see so many closed minds, knowing what a human can do and achieve if he just lets loose and relaxes his body. Just leaving the mind scatter in all possible directions and gather memories of lost and long forgotten places. People are surprised of how time stops or slows down or speeds up. That's because there is no time, it is just an illusion a bar we set there not knowing how many things we loose while doing so. I don't blame no one, if I could I would probably do the same and someone would be writing this addressed to me. Never the less there is still a big percentage of open minded people who are doing what ever they are good at to infect as many as possible with the virus called ART. And this brings me to the point of actual Art of Animation, and Experimental in particular. Does it really have a deeper meaning or is it just what it looks to be. Is the creator of the animation acting like a messenger from another dimension, being brought here to shout us that we need to change? Or is he just a differently raised child of a different time, trying to earn a living? The questions just lead to more questions, what I know for sure is that Abstract Animation Art is a way of expressing your thoughts and desires with no words. It does not matter if the point doesn't get across, it matters that you as a creator felt the rush to do it and have done it. Importing stock from "there to here".

Selling it for a reasonable price and getting rich be cause of the reflections of your actions.

Annotated reference list.

Anime News Network, 2011-06-26,[online] Available at: http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/press-release/2004-01-05/anime-at-the-alamo [Accessed on the 8-th January 2012]Information about anime screening dates at Alamo cinemas.1998-2012 Anime News Network

Buried Treasure, Oct 26th 2006 http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/buried-treasure/2006-10-26 [Accessed on the 8-th January 2012] A great review on " Robot Carnival" by Justin Sevakis. Screenshots ©A.P.P.P. All rights reserved.

ANNCastm, Jan 15th 2010 http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/anncast/2010-01-14 [Accessed on the 8-th January 2012] ANNCast takes a 2 hour long interview with Carl Macek, one of the main promoters of Steamline in 1980. by Zac Bertschy & Justin Sevakis

Research Portfolio:Robot Carnival by Katsuhiro Otomo

Research Portfolio:

Robot Carnival is a Japanese anime anthology film released in 1987. It consists of nine shorts by different directors, many of whom started out as animators with little to no directing experience. This film has gained a small cult following.

Each has a distinctive animation style and story from each director within a steampunk-like setting, as well as ranging from comedic to dramatic.

Directed by Atsuko Fukushima and Katsuhiro Otomo.

The opening takes place in a desert. A boy finds a small "coming soon" poster advertising the Robot Carnival, and becomes frightened and agitated. He warns the people in his village, most likely to escape, when a huge machine with many robots performing in niches on its exterior grinds its way right over the village. Once a magnificent traveling showcase, it is now a decayed, rusted, malfunctioning, engine of destruction.

Franken's Gears:

Directed by Koji Morimoto.

A crazy scientist tries to give life to his robot with lightning, just like Frankenstein. When it comes to life, the robot copies everything the scientist does. Overjoyed, the scientist dances with glee, trips, and falls. Seeing this, the robot dances, trips, and falls on the scientist, killing him.

Deprive:

Directed by Hidetoshi Omori.

This segment features a humanoid robot and an invasion from space.

Presence:

Directed by Yasuomi Umetsu.

This segment (featuring dialogue) tells the story of a man who has an obsession with a robot girl he has been secretly constructing in an attempt to compensate for the lack of any close relationship with his wife and family. The setting seems to be British and of the early twentieth century, but also suggests another planet or a future which has attempted to re-establish a former social structure. When the robot takes on a personality of her own, far beyond what the man had programmed, he smashes her in a fit of panic, and leaves his secret laboratory for what he believes is the last time. Twenty years later, the man has a vision of his robot appearing before him, but then blowing up before he can take her hand. He returns to his shed to find the robot still sitting smashed in a corner, just as she had been left years earlier. Another twenty years elapse, and the robot appears again before the man. This time, he takes her hand and walks into the distance with her, before vanishing in front of his shocked wife. This is the first short that contains intelligible dialogue (characters in Opening speak in gibberish), but little of it is actually spoken on-screen - all but a few lines are given in voice-over, or with the speaker's mouth obscured.

Star Light Angel:

Directed by Hiroyuki Kitazume.

A shōjo story, featuring teenage girls at a robot themed amusement park who are friends. One of the girls finds that her lover is now going out with her friend. Running away in tears she finds her way to a virtual-reality ride. Pleasant at first, her memory cause the ride to summon a giant laser breathing mecha. But one of the park's 'robots' finds himself in the role of knight in shining armor, and allowing her to let go of her darker emotions, and to move forward in her life. While at first confusing, this is deceptive, as many of the elements are logical in hindsight. The visual style of this segment was heavily influenced by the music video for A-Ha's "Take on Me."

Cloud:

Directed by Mao Lamdo.

This short features a robot walking through time, and the evolution of man. The backdrop is animated with clouds that depicts various events of the universe. Such as the modernization of man, to the self destruction of man. Most the events in the backdrops takes place from Rome to present day society. Eventually the same angel who cries for his immortality, makes him human towards the end.

A Tale of Two Robots—Chapter 3: Foreign Invasion:

Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo.

This is set in the nineteenth century and features two "giant robots" directed from within by a human crew. In the style of a movie serial of the sound era, a Westerner in his giant robot attempts to take over Japan, but is challenged by locals operating a "machine made for the parade" -- a Japanese giant robot. The style of this segment is somewhat reminiscent of a Japanese World War II-era propaganda film. Despite the title of this segment, there is no known prequel or sequel. The voice acting of this piece are a mix of English and Japanese with the Westerner speaking English and the Japanese speaking their language.

Nightmare:

Directed by Takashi Nakamura.

The city of Tokyo is overrun by its machines, as they all come alive for a night of revelry, with only a single, drunken human (Chicken Man) awake to witness it.

This features the recent Japanese myth that machines can grow by connecting onto other machines, regardless of the purposes for which they were designed.

Ending:

Directed by Atsuko Fukushima and Katsuhiro Otomo.

The Robot Carnival is stopped by a little hill in the desert. Unable to climb the sandy obstruction, the Carnival stalls at its base. As the sun sets over the traveling relic, flashback stills recall the grandeur of the Carnival at the peak of its existence—an unparalleled engine of mirth that brought timeless joy to the various cities it visited. At sunrise, we see the platform chug forward with a sudden burst of power and crest over the dune in its way. The final push proved to be too much for the aged contraption, and it finally goes to pieces in the desert. The bulk of the film's credits are then shown concluding with an epilogue.

Epilogue: Years later a man discovers an orb among the remains and brings it back to his family. It is a music box featuring a miniature robot ballerina. As it dances, the children applaud. The ballerina finishes its dance with a leap into the air and explodes, blowing up the shack where the family lived, leaving "END" in enormous letters lying in its place as the only survivor, the family's pet llama, struggles to regain its footing.

Here are some of my favourite parts from four of the segments composing the best scenes in my likening.

Robot Carnival Opening

Robot Carnival "Franken's Gears"

Robot Carnival -- Deprive

Presence

Cab Calloway St. James Infirmary by Fleischer

Another absolute master piece. This time an actual JAZZ STAR has been added as an ingredient to give to us the viewers an amazing show to watch. I love the animation method called rotoscoping that lets a person trace a already shot video source of something performing an action and draw on top of it, leading to a very realistic looking animated movement for the output. Rotoscoping was used here in order to give Fleisher Brother's Koko the Clown ghost morph character his unique realistic dance moves. And the voice actor for the character is non other than the great Cab Calloway (singing St. James Infirmary). He just managed to embed the spirit of the 30's in that song so well that once you hear it it does not matter if you like a different style of music, you just can not say NO to that sweet sounding blues.

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.