The introduction to my essay question

The draft for the introduction of my individual essay is focused on how an anthropomorphic character can imitate human characteristics without dialogue can appeal and relate to the audience.
How does the 3D feature film Ice age’s character Scrat use anthropomorphism to appeal and relate to the audience?

Ice age Scrat also appeals to the audience as we can understand the characters body language and facial expression which create empathy for the character. The animals face has been morphed in to a more human face to relate to the younger audience. As most 3D feature films are aimed at children, but appeal to older viewers as well, this makes it more of a family film.
I will attempt to answer this question using keywords such as body language, facial expressions and realism within 3D feature films. I will research within anthropomorphism to discover how 3D feature films imitate human characteristics to appeal to the audience using animation principles such as exaggeration to also create an interesting character. Another animation principle that is used mostly with anthropomorphism is squash and stretch to create a certain amount of realism in the animation. This is one of several of the Ice age Scrat short films showing the techniques used within animation principles such as exaggeration to appeal to the audience. From the facial expressions and body language we can relate to the emotions of the character without speech and is still interesting.

Within 3D feature films animals with dialogue has been used more frequently such as shark tale and Madagascar. Ice age Scrat is different to the other characters and doesn’t have dialogue and the audience can only relate to character from the body language and facial expression, which can create a sense of realism with the character, unlike the other characters. This can create a debate that even without dialogue the character can still appeal to the audience. Even though, to appeal to younger viewers animals with dialogue may make the animation easier for the child to understand.

Bristol Encounters

The 15th-18th November I went to the Bristol International film festival to research about animation techniques and how animators work. One thing that I found interesting was the cartoon saloon which was 1hour30mins with Tomm Moore, creative director of Cartoon Saloon, presented an insight into the award winning studio, one of Ireland's leading animation companies.
Cartoon Saloon currently develops and produced feature film and TV series projects while also producing short films, television commercials, graphic novels and children's books.

One of the animations I enjoyed was Tomm Moore's The secret of Kells 2009. This animation had been influenced by the the book of kells using celtic art within the animation. As he explained that the animation film title would be more appealing to the audience as The Secret of Kells, instead of The Book of Kells. He also expressed about the character designs and how development was taken place such as colours that would stand out more. The scenery was also developed as it was originally abstract trees. This may not appeal to the audience so it was changed to seem more celtic keeping a little realism within the animation.

Another animation was Damned which was 8mins-director, animator Richard Phelan. Animated an over- ambitious beaver who goes too far, when he gets the chance to realise his ultimate dream. I enjoyed this animation because it uses anthropomorphism showing a cute beaver with human characteristics suggesting emotions through facial expressions and body language. As the beaver got the chance to build the ultimate damn. Soon realised he had to sacrifice his dream to save others. This allowed an audience relationship with the character because everyone has dreams, but some dreams are just too big.

Presentations

During Presentations
One thing that should happen during a presentation is to engage the audience with relevate information using interesting examples showing enthusiasm about the topic.
One thing that should not happen during a presentation is to read constantly from notes. This prevents audience interactivity as there is no eye contact with the audience. This also suggests that the reader is not well prepared for the presentation.
One interesting thing I have learned about anthropomorphism that I found out about in the presentations given on Wednesday was how frequently anthropomorphism is used in the media to appeal to a demographic audience. Anthropomorphic characters seem like they are used to appeal to children. But this is not the case anthropomorphism may appeal to an older viewer as well, depending on the personality and life storie of the character. This allows an audience relationship, knowing the characters emotions using body language and facial expressions; to advertise, entertain and educate.

3D Feature Films

The assignment was to choose a particular genre; 3D Feature Films for a group presentation. The group consists of Jamie, James, Jack, Megan, Emma Richard and Rachel(Me).
We named ourselves MERGE; using our initals, this actually spelt MERRJJJ. As we brainstormed we thought it would be best to use the traditional spelling.

We have set up a blog so we can share any research and discuss ideas
http://merge3d.blogspot.com/

The focus of our presentation is based on how technology has developed to capture the actors movement to create an anthropomorphic character. So we researched in to past, present and future. This allowed us to discover how technology has advanced; whether it is used improve or just make 3D feature films different.