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BSA203 Ethnography, part one and Methodologies: part one.

1. Ethnography began when social anthropologists began to study the cultures and lives of small, isolated tribes and their cultures. People like Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead are examples of social anthropologists that set the scene for ethnography today. 2. The researcher has to spend time in the field around the people ho they are studying, rather than just observing them from afar. Routine and normal aspects of everyday life should be considered as research data. The researcher should try to learn how the people being studied perceive their own world rather than just drawing from the researcher's own observations. There is an emphasis on interlinkages between various features of the culture rather than just isolating facets from the wider context that it exists in. It is understood that the researcher conclusion isn't a direct reproduction of what they observed, but rather a construction, meaning their own experience within that research is recognised in their

BSA225 Making Planets on Maya

I animated the Earth to move around the sun while a moon moved around the Earth. I did this by attaching spheres to a curve and putting a texture on the Earth and moon. The sun was made using the content browser on Maya.  On the first render I thought the light direction looked unrealistic so I altered the directional light a bit. This led to render number 2: This directional light looked wrong to me again, however, it was better than the first one I rendered out.  I think that this light is better and more realistic than the other renders I did.

BSA225 Creating a 3D Animatic

Overall, once I figured out some basic maya skills, I found the 3D animatic fairly easy to do. However, in creating my 3D animatic I ran into a few problems. Firstly, I was in a rush because I had just over a week to get it completed rather than two because I was going to be missing a few days of school. This stressed me out a little. Also, I think because I started doing it in class in the computer lab that we had already gone through Maya settings, before taking the project to another computer room where I hadn't used Maya, the dimensions of the playblasted clips changed. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until I took the separate playblasted clips into AfterEffects. This means that mid-way through my 3D animatic, the dimensions of what's in the scene changes. Another issue that I ran into was the sound from my 2D animatic couldn't be simply overlayed over the new 3D animatic because some of the timings were slightly off and I wasn't happy with it. To comb

BSA203 Contemporary World Drama

1. I think that Pussy Riot's case was different because they were recognised as being a movement rather than just a group of protesters. 2. I think that the masked performances gave the public the impression of an pre-meditated organisation rather than just a bunch of idiots on stage. I think that this made Pussy Riot appear more threatening to the people that they opposed, so therefore, yes, the way they chose to present their ideas to the public does set them apart from other people who just shout their ideas without actually appearing to fully believe in them to the point of having a fully organised 'organisation'. 3. It could be seen as radical feminism because they are a group of women, shouting about oppression, in what can be taken as an extreme and unyielding way that infers that they are not willing to compromise their stance. It could be seen as an attack on the patriarchal state because they said in their songs that they disagree with the state because it is

BSA206 Animation 1986-1989

When the Wind Blows (1986)   is an adaption of a Raymond Briggs graphic novel. It's about an old couple who naively follow survival instructions after a nuclear war breaks out. It used photographed model sets for backgrounds. It is praised by critics and is an argument against the nuclear arms race. Brothers Quay were influenced by Eastern European animation, surrealism and Jan Svankmajer's work. They created nightmarish stopmotions. Street of the Crocodile (1986) is their best known work. The video for Sledgehammer (1986) rejuvenated Peter Gabriels career. It is a mixture of people-motion and stop-motion and was directed by Stephen R. Johnston and made by Aardman Animation and Brothers Quay. It became one of the most played videos on MTV and considered one of the best videos ever made. The debut film from Joanna Quinn, Girls Night Out (1987), was about a woman called Beryl who gets taken to a male strip club by her work friends. The short film won several awards at the

BSA206 New German Cinema

New German cinema was launched in 1962 by a group of young filmmakers, after writing out the Oberhausen Manifesito. They thought the films of Germany were of low quality and content, which they wanted to change. Three directors led the movement; Werner Hersog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. They tried to make German cinema reflect contemporary issues and aimed to make German Cinema relevant again, by making the quality of story better and less repetitive and cliched. They wanted to make German Film catered for, and reflecting the lives of, a German audience rather than just a low quality copy of Hollywood film. The movement lasted from the 60's, through to the 1980's. They dealt with themes of despair and gloom as the filmmakers rejected the idealistic, escapist films that were being shown since the days of the Nazis. New German Cinema dealt with contemporary issues in a post-Nazi Germany. The movement was inspired by French New Wave film.

BSA206 Motion Capture in Film

Rotoscoping was one of the earliest versions of motion capture. Its is where animation is drawn of real character's performances.In  Gullivers Travels (1939) rotoscope was used for the main character. The 2001 movie, Waking Life , is also done using rotoscope. Waldo by Jim Henson, is also made using motion capture. Sexy Robots was another breakthrough for Motion Capture film, it was an ad to sell cans. This had to be a robot that moved like a woman, which had to be created by a computer. They filmed a live model with spots painted on her body to get the information that the computer could use to animate. The 1990 version of Total Recall which was a failed attempt at motion capture. In the end they animated the scene instead. The music video Don't Touch Me  (1989) by Dozo was done in Motion Capture, as well as Peter Gabriel's Music Video for Steam , which has motion capture in it too. The first game was Highlander: The last of the Mcleod's (1995). Grand Thief

BSA206 British New Wave

A group of young filmmakers and critics founded the British Free Cinema Movement in 1956. Directors Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson, John Fletcher and Tony Richardson struggled to get their films shown in the commercial circuits so they joined together and had their short documentary films screened in a single programme. This was held at the national Film Theatre as Reisz was event programme manager there. They chose the name Free Cinema to say that their films were produced outside of government funding and control. Therefore the films were free to be radical, personal and adventurous. The manifesto that they wrote stated a belief in freedom, the importance of people and the significance of the everyday. The free Cinema movement led to the British New wave. This titles applies to a series of films released between 1959 and 1965.  They are known as "kitchen sink" drama films because they depict grubby, gritty everyday life. The films tended to be based on Plays and Novel

BSA225/226 Storyboard and 2d Animatic.

Finished storyboard for "The Grower".  Drawn in Storyboard Pro, this is the storyboard that was submitted for BSA225. The Character design wasn't fully completed while drawing up this, although, it is mainly the colour scheme that changed. I'm happy overall with the backgrounds and I think this storyboard accurately conveys the mood, setting and story that I was trying to present.  2D Animatic  Also made using storyboard pro, I got my flatmate to play the drumbeat/heartbeat sounds and I got some of the other music from Bensound ( http://www.bensound.com/slow-motion )

1980's computer animation

Yoichiro Kawaguchi was a computer programmer and animator and also a pioneer of a computer software that grows images (similar to vapor wave). He used algorithms to create psychedelic worlds. Dragons lair (1983) was a video game that was popular. It had animated sequences made by an ex-Disney animator. For the time, the graphics were very impressive. Commodore 64 was one of the first affordable home computers, released in 1983. A year earlier the Sinclair Spectrum was released. The Commodore 64 allowed for more people to get interested in computers and programming. Wavefront technologies formed in 1984. They developed the software for the movie Tron. In 1995 Alias Research merged with them and they produced an advanced computer animation software Alias/Wavefront. Maya was later developed and is still and animation program used today. John Lasseter worked for Disney, after this he worked at Lucasfilm and helped create The Adventures of Andre and Wally B (1984). He then produced