The Cat That Came Back

The 1988 animation "The Cat that Came Back", has three distinct elements that help push this animation to new heights. The three elements are music, story, and facial expressions. All three work together to help the others out. The story is about a man who finds a cat on his doorstep one day. He at first seems ecstatic, but after the cat destroys his childhood toy, attitudes change.
The first thing that struck me was the use of facial expressions form the man. They are over exaggerated, but it really works; it is not like the expressions of the lady in "Lavatory - Love Story". Whereas her faces are realistic, the old man's faces involve being squished and stretched. I think these transformations helps the viewer feel more of his emotion. From the way the cat acted though, I think my face too would have been changed too.

The story here too, although predictable at times, is funny, clever, and enjoyable. He would dispose of the cat in one way or another, only to have it reappear, destroying his house. The way the story panned out really helps the music too. Every time the cat came back, the old folk song would play, really bringing everything together.
Each time the man would throw the cat out, the gags would grow on a grander scale. it started with him putting the cat back on his doorstep, and ended with him riding the rails to finally finish it off. This railroad scene has some elements that, although random, help show how crazy this story is. While riding on the rails, the old man actually runs over all these women tied to the rails. I believe this is paying homage while at the same time poking fun to the cliched scenario of having damsel in distress tied to railroad tracks. He proceeds to easily ride over at least thirty of them, when he comes to the cow. He miraculously rides over him, and just when the audience thinks nothing can stop him, he encounters the ladybug, which he kills, but at the same time thwarts his plan. That whole gag adds to the depth of humor this animation brings.
Lastly, I believe a very important part to this is that the backgrounds help the story as well. They are usually simple, but they add to the location. Perspective is another thing. The perspective is every changing, just from the old mans way of moving. At one part, he walks back into his house, but before he enters, his body leans forward to the point where it seems as though he is incredibly close to the camera, but as a matter of fact, he his actually right next to his door. I think this technique could be quite useful in future projects. Of all the animations for this assignment, I found “The Cat Who Came Back” to be the most immersive and helpful to express storytelling, animation, background and use of perspective, and humor, something I find to be very, very important.

New Character

My new character is a big step up from my last one. At least this one seems like he has some personality. I haven’t come up with a name for him yet but I’m sure it’ll come to me one day. I made him in illustrator and yes, I know he has two separate chins.

I can’t draw. Told You So.

My first sketch looks very creepy, and my second looks like he’s very…relaxed. I tried to add hair on my animation but I really screwed that up so I decided to leave it out. I think with practice I will become better at this, hopefully.

I Can’t Draw. Fact.

Truth is, I can barely draw a stick figure. I am that bad at drawing. I was very impressed though with what I saw on iwantmyflashtv.com. The Ray and Iso video I thought was really clever and the animation was really nice. What I don’t know, is what program he used to design that. By the end of this class I hope I’m able to do that.
I was surprised to see the end of the world video on the module, only because I was young when that came out and remember it being hilarious, and it still is. That video seemed like it was less complicated than the Ray and Iso video. But I am getting the feeling that even though I can not draw, it depends on how I use what talent I have. drawing isn’t everything, story is also very important. Ray and Iso could have had really bad drawings, but because the story is clever, I would have still enjoyed it.

Flash Banner

When we were told to look for a flash banner, I had the perfect one in mind. I remember going to espn’s website once and seeing this ad from Apple. All of a sudden, the menu started moving with the ad. I thought it was one of the coolest ads I’ve ever seen. By the end of this class, I hope I can do something even in the slightest bit like this.
Some things I noticed was that (obviously) the flash ad goes outside of it’s boundaries and alters the ESPN website. The company that made the ad and ESPN I would think had some contact with each other to set this up. Ads like these add a new level of depth to the banner, and it is near impossible not to notice when one visits the website. I find some banner ads to be obtrusive and annoying, but when something different comes along like this, I feel like people wouldn’t mind at all. This is one of the types of skills I hope to develop in this class.

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/03/apple_ipod_games_espn.php