Details are sketchy

Ok.. so a few days ago I was bored waiting to go back to Sheffield and decided to remember as many different animated tv series I watched when I was younger and name my favourite ones. Turns out, I watched a lot. It's not really surprising that I did when I'm an animation student now but I thought you guys might like to get a bit nostalgic or maybe even learn of a new series you could watch. It's been so hard to pick a top five to write here, but here they are:

6.(Yeah I said 5 but this had to be in here)

Digimon

This is one show that no matter how cheesy it seems when I look back at it, I will still remember watching it with some paper and a pencil infront of the tv drawing all of my favourite charaters and the endless Digimon that they met on their adventures. I absolutely HATE when people say that Digimon was copying Pokemon. I myself loved both shows and their storylines were completely different. This story much more depended on the friendships of the characters for them to get through their trobles in the "Digital World". There's a lot of cheesy moments with "friendship" and "love" and "belief" thrown in there but it wouldn't be a great nineties series without it. This series, much like Pokemon has been done to death with many seasons and different Digimon introduced and the first season is definitely the best. I have a lot of good memories watching this after school and got a lot of drawing practice from it too (I think I have some around at home somewhere actually..). Anyway, great show and had to be on the list.





5. Dexter's Laboratory

Ah, Dexter's Lab.. a great show by the brilliant Genndy Tartakovsky, the genius behind many nineties cartoons that could all be in this list, including The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. His unique art style always stuck with me as one of the greatest simplistic drawing methods around and through his writing he managed to bring a constant stream of situations, crazy and inspired that were put across by the mind of the genius that was Dexter. The diminutive intellectual would create an experiment in his secret lab in his room while his parents sat downstairs blissfully unaware. That is, until his sister Dee Dee come along to ruin it all for him. This sibling rivalry was the thing that made the show so great.
Another thing that I distinctly remember and loved is the segments about Dexter's pet, Monkey. Dial M for Monkey was a great little segment that followed his pet's adventures as a superhero while Dexter was ignorant to it all. These layers of misunderstandings and ignorance of aspects of the show by the characters living in the house were great examples of comedy, along with perfect traditional wacky animation which are what I think made it so well remembered.





4. Hercules

The tv series based on one of Disney's best animated movies of that time, Hercules is such a great extension of an equally great movie. Disney animated shows were always flawlessly animated by some of the greatest we've known in the last couple of decades and the huge mythology of Greece allowed for many, many different characters and plots to be brought into the show. It's a bit strange really because it contradicts the film somewhat so is not considered canon but it really can stand on its own. I can't really explain what was so great about this show, other than saying it really was. Voice acting talents such as James Woods made this a show I could watch over and over and never get bored of. The characters of Cassandra and Icarus always provided a great back and forth and the show again helped a lot with my development as an artist as I'd basically draw anything put infront of me.





3. Looney Tunes

One of the greats. I really wouldn't have been so enthusiastic about animation if it weren't for the legendary Warner Brothers animation studios. I really don't think I have to introduce the characters that are the Looney Tunes but here:
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Taz, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, and many more.

The animation will probably never be surpassed, with the greatest squashes and stretches and perfect timing. The characters are all so indivudually brillaint that any of them could and did have their own sections dedicated to them. Personally, Syvester and Tweety and Bugs were my favourites but then again, I liked Daffy with his irritable personality nearly as much.

Currently, the animation industry is really missing this great dynamic style and I really hope it returns soon. I was so influenced by this show and I could keep going on and on but it's not quite as nostalgic for me as the next two.



2. Pokemon

Yeah, I know, it seems childish now but I will always stand by my love of the original Pokemon series. The endless possibilities of stories revolving around a game I played at the time: what more could I ask for? As everyone knows, the show follows ten year old Ash with his friends Misty and Brock, all Pokemon trainers who go on an adventure together. There really wasn't a lot more to the episodes than them trying to get to the Pokemon trainer's ultimate test: the Elite Four.

I think what was so great about this show was that every kid who watched it wanted to BE Ask. They wanted to explore and it really evoked that sense of adventure in kids. Each pokemon was different and although it has (in my opinion) gone downhill since, I will always have fond memories of getting in from school and following their quest, guessing the pokemon in the break, then going to play on my own game. I don't think anything will steal more years of my life in total than this franchise, not to mention that "Pokemon: The Movie" was one of the first cinema going experiences I can remember and has really stuck with me. So I think this show really deserves to be in the top few.




1.
Dragon Ball Z

This show was originally broadcast in Japan starting in the late eighties and continuing through the nineties, ending its run in 1996, but I started watching itaround 1998 when it first aired on Toonami (RIP), one of the best channels of my childhood. I was amazed by it, a show about aliens that weren't the typical little grey/green things that abducted people, but instead kicked ass! The story arcs were interesting and although they were drawn out, you'd never find someone getting bored and leaving. This show was like nothing else and until then, anime was a really rare thing to see in the UK and I loved every minute of the fast-paced fighting, interesting characters, menacing villains and to be honest I though the comedy mixed with the violence was awesome. Another thing is, it was actually a sequel series to "Dragonball" but I much preferred this one. If any of you don't know of this series (and I'd be really surprised if you haven't) then this is the plot of the show (All via TV.com):

Many years have passed since Goku first searched for the Dragon Balls. He is a grown man, with a wife and son. He and his friends have settled into their own lives and, for the most part, things are rather peaceful. Then one day, Goku learns he is really a Saiyan and comes from another planet. Now… More begins new adventures for Goku and his friends as they defend their home against new, more powerful threats.

As you can tell, it has a very Superman vibe to it and that's a lot of what it was about; a guy who always thought he was normal but finds out he's not. You'll see it a lot in 80's/90's tv and even today.

But just to get to the point of this choice, it had every element that a show needed to be brilliant; great characters, strong plots in every story arc and flawless, fast and some of the most dynamic animation ever produced. Great show all round.


So that's them all, I'd like to hear what your favourites are so feel free to comment!
Thanks for reading, I might add some more soon so keep an eye out for an update :)

Ever have one of those moments when you realise just how little free time you really have. Lately I've been having a lot of these. Looking through my 3rd year Univeristy timetable, I have a total of 12 hours in lectures and semesters each week, which really doesn't sound like a lot but I can assure you it's exhausting. They say that you are meant to do two hours of work outside of Uni for every hour in so that's 36 hours in total. Yeah, a lot, but i'm probably (well definitey) not doing this much and I really should be.

I don't mean to say this isn't fun in any way because I'm enjoying every minute of it but honestly, with my leap into the industry only two years away and my level of knowledge in Animation still so limited, it's a little daunting.

Alongside this, I'm currently studying French, which is going great. I'm starting to be able to understand whole chunks of writing and listen to tv shows and films and good grip on what's happening. I've honestly been slacking a bit when it comes to this though, with my inteded amount being an hour of French exercises a day, but lately i've been too swamped to do this. So I make do with listening to Smallville or a movie in French language in the background or with English subtitles when I'm having a break. It's a really fun way to do it and has helped the speed of my comprehension, to say I can understand things that before were much too fast to follow.
This blog seems really rushed and I'll probably hate how it sounds in the morning but it's gone midnight and I'm tired, been to see The Social Network (which by the way is a great movie) with my friends after class and I just want to sleep. Another thing I've been going crazy for lately is the Animation Podcast, which everyone who's a fan of aniamtion should check out. Animators for Disney and other great studios talking about their experiences in some of the best animated films of all time. Great listen. Ok, I'm going to listen to some more of these and go to sleep, up early for more work (on my day off) wooo!

This past couple of weeks I've been swamped with work at Uni and looking for a job to get some extra money in, but no luck at the moment. My final University project has begun and it's pretty great if I do say so myself.
The basic idea behind it is that a man is sitting in a coffee shop looking around him. He spots a guy sitting across from him who it staring at the waitress working in the shop. He is besotted and can't take his eyes off her. But she barely notices him. Taking out a sketchpad, he draws the two, the guy first, signing the picture at the bottom. Then the girl, also signing this picture. As he does, the girl looks up, finally noticing the guy and their eyes meet.
He goes home and takes the pictures, pinning them side by side on a wall. The camera begins to zoom out, revealing many drawings of couples on a huge wall. Back at the coffee shop, the couple are holding hands. He smiles and walks off past the
shop.

My main character, I decided, would be based off Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mainly due to the similarities in character and look. Without being blatant, I hope it's clear that he is Eros, or Cupid, bringing people together with his drawings.



My second character, the waitress, will be based on one of my favourite actresses, Felicia Day. The character is beautiful but unaware of it, here's a few more drawings..



I haven't got the third character designed yet but as soon as I do, I'll upload to here.

Another part of this project that I did simply for myself, to try to get my head around the characters and who they really are was to write a short narrative about them. It's not finished but this is what I have so far. Enjoy, and I'll post another blog soon:

Sitting alone at a table in the most typical of coffee shops in the most ordinary town was a man. This man waited for nothing but knew something would eventually turn up, not for him but for someone else. Everywhere stood elements of the classic Italian coffee house; canvases with picturesque little shops with old Italian men buying their daily espresso, beautiful young women riding Vespas down the winding cobble-stone streets of Rome or Milan. All in black and white of course, it wouldn’t look nostalgic in the normal vivid colours of these places, despite the fact most of the customers were business men and women driving through or the locals who had never left the country. Contemporary glass ornaments sat in shelving units, filled with coffee beans that gave off such a rich aroma he could not help but take a moment to enjoy it. The deep brown wooden chairs and tables, along with the soft oversized armchairs that sunk almost to the floor when even the lightest person sat on them, gave the place a warm welcome feel. The clean, shining coffee maker resembled something you would find in a diner of the nineteen-fifties and although it should have seemed out of place it only added to the character of this quaint little coffee shop. Despite all the manufactured elements that made up this wonderful place, a place he could have stayed all day, there was one thing that caused not a break but a minor crack in the illusion. The coffee. Ever since his first visit to Italy, quite a few years back now, a cup of freshly brewed coffee never tasted quite the same. He was quite the connoisseur when it came to good coffee and had always found there was no better bean than the Columbian, straight from the plant and made as fresh as any coffee could be. Nonetheless, this cup of coffee was absolutely fine. It was the best in this part of the world in fact and so he found any chance to work in the area. Working was what he was doing today, but as it often was, work was scarce so he did what he always did, waited. He often got compliments from the women he met and twice already had been approached by women, both beautiful, who wanted his phone number. He had politely declined. They were attracted to his boyish good looks that while young-looking were also chiselled. He had long brown hair that he brushed to one side. The words most people described him as were “classically handsome” which had always made him laugh.
Once he had finished his first coffee, he placed the cup back to the saucer gently and called over the waitress. Long red hair tied back into a ponytail and a black blouse and trousers with a green apron tied around her waist, she looked stunning. In fact, maybe stunning wasn’t quite the word he would use. She was beautiful indeed but there was something about her that made her invisible to most men who visited the coffee shop. She would spend every day exchanging pleasantries with her customers and always get a nice amount of tips, but never for her beauty. This had led to a shyness developing within the girl that was all the more endearing to him and clearly to the man sitting across from him. As she walked over to him, she smiled sweetly and took his empty cup away with her, quickly returning with another hot coffee. All the while, the man across from him followed her with his eyes, love-struck and completely enchanted. Her pale flawless skin glowed in the soft lights of the coffee shop that seemed to reflect and bounce so perfectly off the countertops. He knew very little of her other then she worked incredibly hard and on her breaks sat at a table in the corner of the cafe studying.
Rooting through the inside pocket of the coat placed across the back of his chair, he took out a black book, around the same size as the average novel. It was leather bound and held closed with a piece of well-worn elastic, a piece of ribbon sticking out of the bottom of its pages, keeping his place. He took a pencil from the same pocket and, stretching the elastic over the book he began drawing the man that sat across from him. This man, so infatuated, was the perfect subject. In the twenty minutes or so that he was drawing the man he moved only to try to catch the gaze of the young waitress. It was done. Both pride and happiness escaped the man in the form of a small grin and once he had finished up some last bits of detail, he signed the drawing.

So I have just watched the season six premier of Supernatural and I have to say, although I was initially a little concerned that the show would plummet downhill after the epic season five finale (come on, epic's pretty much the only word to descrbe the apocalypse), I'm really happy with what they've done with the show. The only successful way they could have done it was to return to the shows origins; those themes of guilt, family, the real American mythology and gritty, realistic tone of it all. This is exactly what they've done. Last season left Sam dead as far as Dean knew and him carrying out Sam's final wish of getting a normal family. The show has never given any allusions to the idea of being able to have a "normal" life with the knowledge that the evil of the world is out there. Dean could not stay this way, with the wife and kid and house in the suburbs. Ignorance is truly bliss in this world and the episode begins with a comparison of clips from everyday life with clips from the past while they were fighting demons and this immediately puts that point across; you cannot separate the two. Dean's suspicions are always present and rightly so; Evil has once again tracked him down and, disrupted his life, much like Sam's in the Pilot episode.



The show's new show runner, the brilliant Sera Gamble, who has been there since the very start has taken the reins from Erik Kripke who has left the show this year and she has made clear that the boys are going back to their roots, fighting the monsters of the world they were in the beginning, but to a greater extent. She wrote this episode herself, which is probably why this point comes across so well. Instantly you see classic iconic horror imagery that was so typical of the first and second season. From the scratches on wall that have been indicators in television and cinema for years of werewolves and other creatures of the night to the more technical use of long corridors with extreme high and low camera angles, also staples of horror in cinema and games. Not to mention that classic use of limited lighting and the only lightsource a bright torch aimed at Dean's face. I was looking for these sorts of things but they're so subtlely done that they seem to quietly give the audience the feeling of the first seasons. Strange way to describe it I know but it's the technical genius of the team working on it and Sera's great writing.



It wasn't all so subtle though, and not in a bad way at all but much more blatantly bringing back the first season’s “Big Bad” Azazel, allowed for that ever-present guilt to resurface (which we all know is one key theme, the guilt of not being able to save everyone and especially trying to make up for past mistakes, often involving family). This episode's plot draws from Dean’s guilt of not being able to save his mother, then his father and now his brother. This is mirrored completely in the hallucinations he suffers from that show his new girlfriend being killed in the same way his mother was. I could talk forever about the idea of guilt but as I would never reveal a spoiler (i'm not evil) the idea of family is also reintroduced in the introduction of characters we both haven't seen for a while and some we've never seen before.

Well everything I've wrote seems a bit vague but watch this episode and you'l see exactly what I mean by it. I think the team have done a brilliant job at rebooting the series and bringing everything back down to a less apocalyptic level. Can't wait for the next episode and what ideas the writing team can dream up for one of the greatest shows currently airing.

This week I start back for my third year, actually starting my Integrated Masters degree this year and really looking forward to starting it. After asking about doing some more theory work on top of my other work my theory teacher from last year asked me if I want to be one of the editors on a university journal which is great news and I think i'll be taking her up on the offer. Should be fun and can't wait to get started on both that and working out a new essay to try to get published in the journal too.

I've been doing as much stuff as possible in the few days I have left before we start back. Been watching the season premiers of the tv shows returning and reading a lot. Not to mention practicing writing a bit. I was watching the first season of Alias the other day and realised I'd never written something in that secret agent sot of genre before so I decided to do that. Here's what I wrote for the beginning of a story that I've got no idea how to develop, Comments would be great :)

Bullets and blades riding the air like whispered secrets of the deadliest nature. They travelled with such a silence and with such speed that passersby could neither hear nor see the things that picked them off one by one. Each of them fell so gracefully with little more than a moan. Within the time it took them to take their last few steps, twelve men, women and children lay there dead.

Dust still unsettled around the fallen residents of this part of the city, a man approached one of the victims. He was dressed in a simple suit, frayed here and there and not the typical Armani attire you would see many of his co-workers wearing. He reached down towards the young woman at his feet, gently brushing aside her fair brown locks to reveal delicate features stained with a splash of crimson from the deep and evidently fatal wound to her chest. Lifting up her chin, he looking deep into her cold, dead eyes and realising she was not the individual he was searching for, he callously threw her to the pavement, breaking her neck and letting out a deafening crunch.

A sick smile spread across his face and stretching his arms above his head, he shrugged off the botched bloodbath before him. He raised his head, his face blank and sinister, pointing to the next bustling street of unsuspecting pedestrians. He spoke into the microphone attached to his collar and the smile reappeared as he gave the same signal that had started the silent massacre and walked calmly towards his next victims.

This blog post is about the show that everyone’s talking about with it being renewed for a fifth season; Eureka.

The team of writers at Eureka have yet again surprised us with this latest turn of events; a rewritten future. In a sense, it has taken the series and again proved that there are no limits with what direction it can take. After spending the morning reading an essay by Scott Westerfeld on alternate worlds in science fiction television (in this case Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I felt I needed to write a blog on the subject as I found that his ideas really applied to Eureka and their most recent season in particular. This is not the first time that the writers at Eureka have used time or interdimensional travel and the characters have wrestles with the moral implications of it, but I believe it is the one that has affected the show the most. Of course, anyone reading this is probably a fan of sci-fi and so I don’t really have to explain the ideas behind time travel and chaos theory etc. So I’ll just go ahead with a recap of what has been happening so far this past season.
Last season left us with Carter’s life in disarray; his daughter had left for Harvard (another great character development from struggling teen to someone who realises their capabilities), his girlfriend Tess Fontana has left for Australia for work and the love of his life, Alison has given birth the late Nathan Stark’s baby. Things are shaky for him to say the least. As for Jo, her relationship with Zane has finally taken shape and things are looking up, helping her so soften as a character from the angry, strong woman she has been so far. Fargo, typically is jealous of this but continuing his normal life, he decides to date a fellow scientist (who is sadly for her second choice). As for Henry, his feelings for Kim have again resurfaced and do in the beginning of the fourth season with an unexpected arrival. Other than that, he is named mayor of Eureka and continues saving the day with his superior knowledge as always.

But onto the next season there are some drastic changes in this little town. The season opens with Jack, Alison, Fargo, Jo and Henry going back in time on founder’s day to the original opening of Eureka as a town sometime in the 1930’s. After a while trying to get back to their own time they manage to, but things aren’t as they left them. Characters were getting set in their ways and although I haven’t seen it happen yet, there was a real danger of storyline getting repetitive as many shows have done. This is why I believe the writers decided to shake things up a bit. And shake things up they did. Bet they’re just happy bending the space-time continuum isn’t so farfetched in this town.

By doing this, I think that Eureka has successfully made the transition from being a short-lived show with a cult following to what will be a long-running show remembered by many. Some shows (some great shows actually) have been cancelled way before their time for many different reasons but I am so happy this one survived and now, after being renewed for its fifth season, I think it’s definitely in the running for a couple more yet. Each season opening and finale have had gripping twists and revelations that have kept us coming back for more and this one is no exception. I was a bit hesitant of it at first, mainly because, as a general rule I’m weary of time-travel arcs as the can be easily confusing or messed up, but there is nothing wrong with this one. It’s dead on and there isn’t a problem in sight.
Coming back to the first thing I said about reading Scott Westerfeld this morning and it making me think, he says of science fiction that there are two distinct types of stories; “Trespass” and “Alternate World” stories. This first thing I should probably mention is that if you’re watching a TV show, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’re watching a Trespass story. Eureka is no exception. A Trespass story is one in which a stranger comes to town and they must be dealt with and all evidence of them ever being their removed before the characters can go on with their normal lives. In short; strange things can happen, but only if they’re dealt with and resolved at the end of the episode. In Eureka’s case, it is not so much a person that comes to town (although that has been known to happen) who has to be dealt with but instead, an idea that someone has dreamt up in a lab and experimented with, often resulting in it reacting badly with some unforeseen problem, thus leading to often deadly consequences. These problems are systematically solved by a combination of Carter’s logical thinking, the main character’s expertise in their fields and with the help of the person at fault (who are very rarely doing anything maliciously). The nature of these universes is that they return to normal at the end of every episode, which makes them perfect for television.

So this decision to switch timelines in the season premier and following episodes was one that everyone immediately expected to be resolved quickly. And so when they were returned to their own time, we believed this was the resolution we were expecting, so you can imagine how great a twist it was when those truly awesome writers decided to change the future they returned to. This was again, another thing that we expected to resolve itself, but it didn’t. The nature of this show had been changed to what Westerfeld describes as the “Alternate World” story. It is “...the reader going on a journey to another era, another planet, a world that follows different rules”.

Not many things in this world are visibly different, but things more personal to each character were altered hugely. For the most part, things appear to have been changed for the better, Tess never moving to Australia, Henry married again to a fellow scientist and most heart-warmingly of all, Alison’s son Kevin no longer is autistic. Of course, not everything is perfect, how could it be? Zane and Jo’s relationship does not exist, as does Fargo and his girlfriend’s. It’s a sad turn of events but they are given different chances in life; Jo is the head of security at Global Dynamics working under the new head, Fargo. These differences, caused by a scientist from the original Eureka camp making his way through time with them to the 21st century has brought a fresh feeling to the show. We now have the constant struggle that these characters go through having to keep from everyone the fact that they are from an alternate timeline, this shared secret bringing the characters together much closer than before. This decision by the characters to not tell anyone for fear of repercussions has thus made this timeline the main one, allowing the show to revert back to the “Trespass” story it once was, giving us great stories that can conclude in an episode in a new world.

This storyline is sheer genius; a perfect plot device to strengthen character relationships and breathe fresh life into the show. With season five confirmed and only part of season four having aired, I have to say that this is one show that has gone from strength to strength, improving with time and I would like to congratulate the writers and everyone who worked on it. Great actors and a well made show that clearly has a dedicated team working on it. Can’t wait for the next episode and bring on season five!

So for the past few days I've been ill. I had gastric flu, not pleasant. Other than it being physically painful, it's been such a pain because although I've been off work, I've not been well enough at any point to get anything done. This cycle of days and days at my part time job at a time and being distracted by things; illness or otherwise, has left me with little time for anything else, particularly 3DS Max. This is getting to be a big problem as next year's final project is looming. French was going well until this week, but starting tomorrow I will be forcing myself to get back into it, which shouldn't be do hard with how much I've been enjoying it. On a plus side, I got don't great news this week; through my mums contacts at work, I have been commissioned to do an art piece. It's such a good thing that I've been waiting for for so long, actually being paid for doing the thing I love most: drawing. I'm not quite sure of how much to charge but my mum suggested somewhere around 30 pounds per realistic A4 portrait, which is nowhere near professional prices but my work could do with being improved so it's worth the practice alone. Anyway, that was definitely the ego boost I needed haha, it's always nice to hear your work is appreciated. On top of this request I've been told there will probably be a lot more where that came from, so hopefully a steady flow if them should help me through next year if Uni. Not to forget, while I'm mentioning Uni, I'm happy to say that I was accepted onto the extended Masters program fir animation. But even better than that news, it's exactly 5 weeks until I return to Sheffield! Can't wait.