The Simpsons et al
The first episode of the full series of the Simpsons was broadcast the Christmas of 1989. The series gained popularity and is now one of the most famous cartoon series in the world. It is best known for it's adult humor which makes it appeal to teens and older - actually, that's a lie: it's best known for it's yellow skinned characters which were coloured so as they would be easily identified when seen on-screen. In 2007 a feature length movie was produced and coaxed the production of the series into using digitally drawn cells instead of the scanned plastic cells they had insisted on using prior, when most other cartoon series had moved onto digital such as Futurama and Family Guy, which were also produced by Fox and both were aimed at an adult audience.
Family Guy was aimed at a much older audience. It started as a couple of pilots called Life of Larry and Larry and Steve which were broadcast on Cartoon Network in the mid 90s. Family Guy was first shown on TV in 1999 and has since been one of the most successful shows made by Fox - in the UK, it is constantly the most watched programme on BBC3. Unlike the Simpsons, it focused mainly on adult themes and references, though the plot-line often remained simple and light - often evident in it's somewhat childish characters.
Futurama was produced by Rough Draft Studios, one of the first major computer based cell animation companies to produce a long running series. Futurama began in 1999, the most notable aspect of the show is it's use of 3D animation which is used in such a way as to replicate 2D animation. The original run was cancelled but a number of straight to DVD and eventually broadcast movies were produced and it still has a strong audience, with it's final season having aired in 2013 - the final episode: 'Meanwhile' has received critical acclaim.
Family Guy was aimed at a much older audience. It started as a couple of pilots called Life of Larry and Larry and Steve which were broadcast on Cartoon Network in the mid 90s. Family Guy was first shown on TV in 1999 and has since been one of the most successful shows made by Fox - in the UK, it is constantly the most watched programme on BBC3. Unlike the Simpsons, it focused mainly on adult themes and references, though the plot-line often remained simple and light - often evident in it's somewhat childish characters.
Futurama was produced by Rough Draft Studios, one of the first major computer based cell animation companies to produce a long running series. Futurama began in 1999, the most notable aspect of the show is it's use of 3D animation which is used in such a way as to replicate 2D animation. The original run was cancelled but a number of straight to DVD and eventually broadcast movies were produced and it still has a strong audience, with it's final season having aired in 2013 - the final episode: 'Meanwhile' has received critical acclaim.
Aardman Animations
Cartoon Network Studios
Cartoon Network launched in 1992, after 4 years of development following the success of Nickelodeon in the late 70s and 80s. To start, the network mainly broadcast repeats of old Time & Warner cartoons and MGM cartoons, having bought out Hanna-Barbera. It started out producing it's own shows when Nickelodeon began commissioning series like Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy.
By the mid to late 90s, shows like Ed, Edd and Eddy and Dexter's Laboratory - some of their most successful series. These (among others) used a very surreal, contemporary style of drawing in it's animations which made them quicker and easier to produce.
As well as it's typical child orientated content, the network is famous for making animations which have an adult audience. Cartoon Network often released programmes for adults in it's late night slots where previously would be black and white movies; this would eventually spawn the Adult Swim channel - which was entirely devoted to cartoons for an older audience, like Family Guy and Futurama which featured when Fox cancelled their original run, along with it's own content like Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Cartoon Network is best known for producing cartoons aimed at both adults and children: more recently - Adventure Time, Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball (produced by Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe, based in London). All these shows have humor shared by both adults and children; while they may not have inappropriate language or themes, they are redundant of the need to directly educate or baffle children with action and suspense. The style of these three shows are very different to each other; Regular Show uses dull colours and a hand drawn, 2D quality where the characters have long, thin limbs and the series features countless references to the 1980s. Adventure Time has a brighter, more naive and child-friendly design which sometimes contradicts it's themes and caracters which are often dark and twisted in a comedic and often ironically childish manor. The Animation, although digital, still remains traditional cell (or layer) animation, aside from the famous guest episode by David OReilly. The Amazing World of Gumball uses a miss-mash of animatic styles to create it's 'amazing world,' the environment which surrounds the characters is 2D yet consists mainly of crudely photoshopped 3D stock imagery to give it a unique fabricated landscape. The use of colour is more boldly used than Adventure Time, with the main character: a cat, having bright blue fur - something reminiscent of Henry's Cat and the Pink Panther. Other, tertiary and minor characters are animated using a variety of styles to complement the cartoon world - 3D characters, such as a banana, a T-Rex and a Monkey wearing a dress (voiced by Sandra Dickinson) as well as conventional 2D characters which are animated digitally in a similar way to cut-out animation, with layers of pre-drawn templates mixed traditional tweening methods.
By the mid to late 90s, shows like Ed, Edd and Eddy and Dexter's Laboratory - some of their most successful series. These (among others) used a very surreal, contemporary style of drawing in it's animations which made them quicker and easier to produce.
As well as it's typical child orientated content, the network is famous for making animations which have an adult audience. Cartoon Network often released programmes for adults in it's late night slots where previously would be black and white movies; this would eventually spawn the Adult Swim channel - which was entirely devoted to cartoons for an older audience, like Family Guy and Futurama which featured when Fox cancelled their original run, along with it's own content like Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Cartoon Network is best known for producing cartoons aimed at both adults and children: more recently - Adventure Time, Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball (produced by Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe, based in London). All these shows have humor shared by both adults and children; while they may not have inappropriate language or themes, they are redundant of the need to directly educate or baffle children with action and suspense. The style of these three shows are very different to each other; Regular Show uses dull colours and a hand drawn, 2D quality where the characters have long, thin limbs and the series features countless references to the 1980s. Adventure Time has a brighter, more naive and child-friendly design which sometimes contradicts it's themes and caracters which are often dark and twisted in a comedic and often ironically childish manor. The Animation, although digital, still remains traditional cell (or layer) animation, aside from the famous guest episode by David OReilly. The Amazing World of Gumball uses a miss-mash of animatic styles to create it's 'amazing world,' the environment which surrounds the characters is 2D yet consists mainly of crudely photoshopped 3D stock imagery to give it a unique fabricated landscape. The use of colour is more boldly used than Adventure Time, with the main character: a cat, having bright blue fur - something reminiscent of Henry's Cat and the Pink Panther. Other, tertiary and minor characters are animated using a variety of styles to complement the cartoon world - 3D characters, such as a banana, a T-Rex and a Monkey wearing a dress (voiced by Sandra Dickinson) as well as conventional 2D characters which are animated digitally in a similar way to cut-out animation, with layers of pre-drawn templates mixed traditional tweening methods.
The Internet
With the rise of computers in the last 20-30 years and the introduction of the internet (nice isn't it?) - the number of independent animators and animation companies has grew rapidly. Animation is no-longer just for children and on sites like YouTube and Vimeo, users can subscribe and watch all their favourite animations from their favourite creators for free.
David Oreilly (who animated the latter Adventur Time clip) is perhaps best known for his internet short: The External World; wherein, the animator has a stripped back, basic use of 3D animation in order to cause the characters and the film itself feel generally quite creepy - given also that a lot of the themes are of a very grim nature, including suicide, sex and abuse (making it a truly dark comedy). The film also features a number of vocal talents such as Julian Barratt and Adam Buxton.
Tom Ridgewell: not an animator, but a writer. He manages 'Eddsworld' after it's main contributor: Edd Gould, died. Gould had been making animated shorts since 2003 using Flash on his computer and uploading them to NewGrounds - eventually forming the Eddsworld series which followed him and his friends as they have childish and outrageous adventures and manage to drain the atmosphere with their key characteristics, whether it be anger, violence or vanity. After Gould's death in 2012, the series has been taken over by friends and fellow animators - the current series is animated by Paul Ter Voorde (who often makes cameos as a sarcastic army-type who sometimes only subtly appears in the background). Although there is a distinctive difference between Gould and Voorde's drawing style, the animation remains the same. Voorde has adopted some of Gould's drawing style (leaving in overlapping lines and keeping the look of characters sloppy and hand-drawn) even to the extent of the 'Rhubarb and Custard effect.'
Ridgewell has worked with a number of animators on various projects - the most famous of which is asdfmovie. asdfmovie began in 2008 as an animated version of a comic he had drawn, featuring the voices of him and his friend Christopher Bingham (in the above Aardman documentary). The short gained popularity, especially with the release of asdfmovie2 (animated by Gould) and the series kicked off; it is now in it's 7th sequel with 7 additional supplementary shorts. The style of asdfmovie is difficult to pinpoint as it is very similar to the pre-existing Cyanid and Happiness cartoons while also being true to Ridgewell's own drawing style (search for Bing and Spamcat) - their most distinguishing characteristic is their lack of colour which itself makes colours stand out on screen. The humour is somewhat childish and 'random' meaning that it can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages for the unexpected turn of events each sketch takes.
Another (of the hundreds) animator is Harry Partridge, who uses a very hand-drawn classic cell animation style, like Disney or Warner Bros. but, again, with adult content often featuring anti-climaxes which avoid the expectation of the audience while also bringing them often to a more realistic ending (though this is not the case with Dr. Bees).
In addition there's Oli Putland, twho typically uses claymation in his cartoons. The characters in these stand out because of their shapes and sizes - this being that they are always animated with thin 2D plasticine shapes and are superimposed into the shot, allowing for surrealistically contorted creatures you would usually find in cell animations. The animator also produces a number of cell animations - the video for Steal This Song by Mitch Benn, for example, in which he adopts the style of certain 60s cartoons, particularly the Beatles.
Cyriak uses a combination of video clips and photos in his animations. Much like Terry Gilliam, he uses a similar cut-out animation style - only they are animated using Adobe After Effects, which means they can be more complicated and outlandish. Most famous for his distortions of animals and body parts, he also produces more traditional looking animations like Adam Buxton's Counting Song - which is animated much like the rest of his work but with a different style. The most famous of Cyriac's cartoons are actually the most simple - 2010's 'Because' featured thousand of 3D renditions of his face forming different patterns and shapes which all revolved around each other and eventually formed a rocket which propelled itself out of the animator's computer, whereas Cows & Cows & Cows only had cows morphing into other cows and rearranging their size and shape.
In addition there's Oli Putland, twho typically uses claymation in his cartoons. The characters in these stand out because of their shapes and sizes - this being that they are always animated with thin 2D plasticine shapes and are superimposed into the shot, allowing for surrealistically contorted creatures you would usually find in cell animations. The animator also produces a number of cell animations - the video for Steal This Song by Mitch Benn, for example, in which he adopts the style of certain 60s cartoons, particularly the Beatles.
No comments:
Post a Comment