Podcast word summery and video

Hopefully I will be able to post my finished podcast on here, I have been trying to post the animation video on here for days but even if I leave it uploading for hours it still does not finish!

I did manage to get the animation onto youtube but it skips frames and rather than you seeing all 800 frames of animation you see about 20 different stages, if that, so as you can imagine it looks awful!

Anyway back to the podcast, I used the story that I posted earlier about robots taking over the world kind of thing, I have also printed out copies of the wording to hand out so that the class will know what the voice-over is saying, just in case some of it can't be made out, I will know exactly what is being said because I wrote it but they might not.

I thought that I could make the video in half a day to be honest, I had spent most of my time on the animation brief therefore leaving myself with only a few days to do this brief and the tales brief. I had all the images ready and the voice files which I got from AT&T.com where you can get 20 second clips of a chosen electronic voice over that will say whatever you type into the box! In all I had to get 15 clips to finish my story, so it is just over 3 minutes long, well it's 4 minutes long, I hope that is ok and I won't get penalized...

I started off in Final cut and didn't realize just how long the voice and sound elements were so I started by putting in images but I tried to get them to match up with the wording too much, so after a full day of adding images, I found I had only done a quarter of the film! because I was trying to match images to too many words, so I came in late and got the rest done, trying to leave longer pauses between images and not worrying so much about every word matching up, as long as the basic theme of the images went with what was being said.

I'm a little worried about my grade as I went off on one and didn't stick to the brief, but I have now seen other students doing this on other briefs to a larger extent than I have and they didn't get into any bother so I should be fine! anyway it did say to be as creative with it as you want! 

and as I am doing creative writing as an elective I thought I would make it into a story.

If I had given myself more time on this brief I would have created some short animations, more text and edited some more images for the podcast rather than just getting them all off the Internet, although I did put 3 magazine covers together, I didn't have time for anymore, I would also have experimented with editing a bit more and put some effects in, I did put one or two in at the end but would have liked to have had it more consistent. 

I'm happy with my result and find it interesting, I like my story and the way I have dragged digital media students into it! I also think I have done a good job at syncing the images to the wording, this was harder than it looks! I never thought about everything I had written for example, when the robot speaks about humans catching fewer infections, I'd not prepared any images so decided to show some close-ups of infections and blood cells. when the robot talks about controlling human diet, I had to find images to depict fat people then toned people then something that could represent a robot controlling diet! this wasn't easy! In the end I found pictures of robots serving food and a robot hand holding an egg! and so on and so forth!

If I could do this brief again I would do as I said with the images, spend more time on the story, I never edited it or used a thesaurus I just used the first draft so I would have spent more time adapting the story, the robot voice is ok if you spend alot of time putting in fullstops, spaces, commas, etc you will eventually get it to sound alot better, or I could have used a human voice, If I did it again I would give alot more thought into the voice, but given the time that I got this done in I feel I put alot of thought and effort into this and am happy with the result.

Not to mention I have been blogging and thinking about robots in the future and how they might affect out daily routines for the past few weeks, I had been doing another brief that required more of my attention so found it difficult to manage my time.

Story behind my podcast...

Well they said we could be as creative as we want... (I would have written more but I am using a digital voice-over which would only allow me to record 20 second clips, there are 15 clips so that should make the podcast just over 4 mins long! I decided go with the idea of a robot from the future, (terminator stlye but friendlier) comingback to the past to warn us of what was to come, following digital media students invention of a robot that could be used in Leeds city centre...)

"If you are listening to this message, then humankind has failed.

My name is Anjali 20tz10. I am an advanced artificial life form from the year 2036 and I have been sent back to warn you of things to come.

It started in the city of Leeds, in the United Kingdom in the year 2012 with the EVE 3.2.

 

2.

The Eve 3.2 was created by a group of Digital Media students from Leeds College of Art and Design who then went on to form Cybernex Industries.

Cybernex revolutionized the way in which humans used technology, if you needed to book an appointment Eve did it for you.

 

3.

If you wanted to order food, Eve did it for you, Eve would even tell humans when they needed to wash and would control their diet. In fact it wasn’t long before the Eve 3.2 was telling humans exactly how to live out their daily routines step by step.

 

4.

The humans found this worked, never again were they late for an appointment, they caught fewer infections as the eve 3.2 made sure their personal hygiene was always on top form, there was less road accidents as the eve 3.2 would always be on hand to make sure no mistakes were made.

 

5.

You could order clothes with eve, listen to music and watch films via eve’s interactive touch screen projector, Eve could calculate almost any outcome and made sure that everything ran smoothly amongst mankind.

 

6.

Of course it wasn’t long until the sex industry picked up on this technology,

Advanced cybernetic lovers were being marketed worldwide by the year 2016, selling out instantly to a population crying out for companionship in an increasingly cold and technological world.

 

7.

by 2016 “Svedka” had succeeded in selling almost every human being one of their robots. It was the perfect mate in a society where emotional ties were considered a “nuisance” and no human wanted to commit to another, the “svedka 2000” was the answer to this problem.

8.

 Many humans grew to love the svedka, this became natural in human society. The svedka was capable of expressing emotion, maintaining itself independently, and after various modifications eventually learned how to think for itself, this is where the problems really started…

 

9.

The Eve 3.2 and the Svedka 2000 began to communicate and it wasn’t long before the robots decided that they were not going to be slaves to humankind anymore. The robots with their advanced intellect, increased abilities and strength took over the earth… humans… became second rate….

 

10.

Again in July 2022, Another advancement was made, the Robots had formed “Bio-one Industries” promising to rid the humans of their feelings of failure…

Offering to reconstruct their DNA to make them into advanced beings capable of many great things.

 

11.

Trials began in August that year, and the first “Cyborgs” were born…

It began with upper class citizens, sports professionals and celebrities.

It soon became unacceptable amongst society for one to be simply…”human”…

 

12.

There was a media frenzy later that year… “touch-mag”   content was over-run with adverts on how to become cyber, celebrity interviews on being cyber and “life” stories on how being cybernetic had changed peoples lives.

People began to feel increasingly inadequate and depressed.

 

13.

After a mass-suicide attempt in January 2023, the Robots decided to modify people for free and by the end of that year every single human being in existence became a Cyborg, there was not one… natural human being …left.

 

14.

I have been sent back to warn digital media students at Leeds college of art and design NOT to create the EVE 3.2… it may seem like a good idea but trust me it is not, the technology you will use will go on to become the signifying factor in the END of mankind.

 

15.

BY 2036 all of humanity will be DEAD and only the robots will be left.

 

STUDENTS…YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!"

Microsoft surface

I quite like the idea behind this, of course it's in it's early stages now but I can see this being developed further so that one day we will have touch screen walls, chairs, tables, (yes this is what this is but I mean in different variety of styles and scale) can you imagine going into macdonalds and just touching your order on one of these touch screen walls? swiping your credit card over it and then your meal arriving within minutes via a conveyor belt thingy?

just a thought anyway. 

Just think how they could be utilized in the class-room/learning environment! with touch screen desks, online tutorials right at their desk and immediate access to a range of online services!

Maybe their could be a portable mini-version that users can carry around and store data on, have access to at any time? school kids could do their homework on it and bring it in, or just send it in direct via a network?

These could be used in post offices, supermarkets, retail outlets, phone shops, takeaways, the list goes on! or will everything become an online only event? will it become increasingly rare for one to actually venture out into the city and actually visit a shop and buy their own clothes? or will we do it online with an avatar built exactly to your body measurements? 

capable of showing you what the outfit would look like on you if you put on a few pounds or lost a few! capable of allowing you to see the outfit on your body and face from all angles?

anyway I'm straying a bit here, but just thought I'd write a bit about the surface and how it might affect our lives in the near future, and let's not forget virtual pets and how it will change those, such as the eye pet from sony? isn't that operated using something similar to the surface?

Update for 500 word animation summary

AT LAAAST!!!

My animation is finished! I managed to get into college today and got some help in getting it tweaked here and there, I got my issues fixed and now it's done! I totally re-did the scene with the girl in it cause it just didn't fit in, but I decided to make her slide into the initial background instead of just jumping into another background that didn't match.

So i'll leave off here cause I have to get on with my powerpoint presentation now!

and here is the uploaded final video, (let's hope it uploads quicker at college!)

500 word summery for Flash animation brief

For this brief we were given a choice of 3 companies to create a flash based animation for, that could be put onto a promotional website.

 of the 3 choices I chose Pylones gift shop because I wanted to do something different and figured half the class would pick marvel! besides I'm not particularly interested in marvel.

Anyway I started this project by brainstorming a few ideas in my sketchbook and then creating a storyboard for the idea I wanted to stick with. 

This was to vectorize the "gifts" using illustrator and then bringing those images into flash I planned on having them dance around the screen after bursting from a gift box, I decided to use Christmas as a theme and have the gifts coming from a present in someones living room, dancing around the room and also adding color as they went, I was going to follow this up with a slogan along the lines of pylones adding color at christmas.

To get the color element in there I used 2 backgrounds which I edited in photoshop, a black and white and a colored version of the same background and then altering the alpha faded the black and white background where necessary so that the colored background could shine through as the gifts danced around.

To get them to dance I decided to use guidelines and motion tweens, due to time constrictions I kept the items static, it would have been nice to have some of them moving individually as well but given the time and the sheer amount of hassle and frustration I went through with using flash decided it was not possible to do.

At the end of the film I planned on having another scene depicting a person arriving from the hallway, at this point the gifts were to dive back into the box, undiscovered... however due to the time limitations and technical ability I had to leave this out and instead just brought the girl into the current scene.

I would say the influence behind my work on this brief has definitely been a range of Anime movies that I have seen over the last few years or so, If I had to name one it would be paprika, or more specifically the marching scene in paprika, which encompasses a marching army of inanimate objects, I also took the music from the Intro of this film for my animation, however I could only get a small clip for free, so I had the choice of looping it or cutting it and adding more music, which is what I did, at the end of the scene a girl comes in and the music changes.

I feel I have tried my best on this brief, although am not 100% happy with the outcome, this is because I only have basic knowledge in flash, (a few introductory sessions) and found I didn't always get the help I needed when I needed it. 

of course there was only one tutor available for the duration of this brief who had to tend to the whole class alone, so it's understandable that I couldn't get all the tutorage I needed.

I found alot of problems and frustration with using flash, however after these things were explained to me and I knew how to resolve them I can now say I feel fairly confident in using flash, although clearly at a basic level, I feel there is still more that I need to learn and am sure I will with further briefs.

I feel I have done well given the circumstances and have definitely got a basic understanding of flash, there are still things I want to know and am sure in time I will find out! 

overall I am happy with the first half of my animation, but the 2nd part needs improvement.

(note: since writing this I have improved the second half and am alot happier with it!)

one other thing was that I was nervous about using thousands of frames, (I have learning problems with math and anything to do with numbers makes me freeze up basically) so as I'm not experienced in flash and to avoid confusion I kept them shorter thinking I could add frames and expand it later, of course I then found out that If i do this it will severely slow down the entire sequence, so I had to leave it as it was, otherwise delete it and start again! and I don't think I can do 3-4 weeks work again in a couple of days so it will have to be left as it is, which is around 825 frames, making the animation about 33 seconds long.

If I could do this brief again I would spend less time on vectorizing the images, I would have made an animatic, (and I really hope I don't lose marks for that because we were told we could do an animatic or a storyboard and it was not made clear that marks would be lost for not doing an animatic?) as this may have helped with realization, after the presentation of the storyboards I decided to just get on with my Flash as I knew what I wanted to happen, however it did not work that way! I would also plan my time alot better as you don't realize how precious it is until it's gone! Although I did dedicate almost all my time to this project for the past 2 weeks, I haven't worked on anything else because of it, I haven't even given my family the time of day because of it! so It's not an issue of not putting enough time into it, it's probably more about managing that time, which i'm sure if i had been confident in flash would have been easier!

here is the finished quicktime file, hopefully it will upload in college as I tried at home and it wouldn't upload!

(can't believe it, it's been an hour now and it STILL hasn't uploaded!)

(got it to upload at last but the quality is very very bad!!)

Podcast update...

For my podcast I am going to be using a robotic sounding voice-over and a variety of Images depicting a Dystopian future in which man-kind has collapsed under the creation of advanced artificial intelligence. The voice over is telling us the story of how mankind fell from his/her digital memory bank, describing how it all started in Leeds city centre with the creation of the zeebo 3000, a personal robot that would accompany you at all times and keep you in touch with the rest of the world as well as performing just about any task required of it, for example, if you wanted to book a doctors appointment- zeebo would take care of it, zeebo would check stock, help you with learning support and even take out the trash! Zeebo became the new I pod in Febuary 2012. It wasn't long before the sex Industry began to market advanced Cybernetic lovers, and by 2015 almost every human had one. It was the perfect mate in a society where emotional ties were considered a "nusiance" and no-body wanted to commit to another human being for fear of being hurt, however the majority of them longed for a partner in an increasingly cold and technological world.

 The Svedka cooperation heard humanities cries for companionship and answered them with the SVEDKA 6000 TI lover robot, which was officially launched in July 2014, Units sold out worldwide within days.

It wasn't long before humans began to feel "incomplete" and "insufficient" in a world of robots and technology that seemed to far go their basic abilities and intelligence as robots could now reproduce themselves and were capable of learning and thinking for themselves, mankind was second best, they were no longer on top.

Throoshka Cybernetics was launched in 2020 to answer these cries, dealing in advanced Cybernetics, Throoshka promised to make humans faster, stronger, smarter and most importantly to be able to put them in a position in which they would be seen as equal to the robots, maybe even put them back on top again. 

Trials began in March 2010 and Cyborgs were born...

I won't tell you any more yet, but here are some touch screen magazine designs to aid my podcast designed by me in photoshop.

Necora the robotic pet cat

Necora is omrons answer to "Aibo" for those who prefer the feline counterpart, Necora is a robotic pet cat with synthetic fur for a more realistic feel, she senses touch, sound, light, tone of voice- she even recognizes and becomes accustomed to your voice and her on name, she get's angry and hisses of she is handled badly and is capable of expressing satisfaction when stroked or cradled. Necora has the ability to express desires such as wanting to sleep or cuddle.

Necora becomes attached to her owner and her personality will adjust accordingly over time.

does not need food and can be left in the house all day without the worry of coming home to find poo and wee on the floor! 

also will not rip your furniture and wake you up in the middle of the night for food, oh and she won't die!

The future of pets is here, why bother with real ones? with expensive vetinary bills, fleas and the demand to take care of them that we just can't manage these days with work, children, studying etc. these are perfect and just think how much better they will be in the future! I want one!! 

Robots of today VS robots from the past...

Robots are being used today in medicine. A robot can be so precise that it would be a great tool for performing surgery with. Robots can do insisions that are so clean that a person would not be able to see the cut from a distance after it healed. Doctors wouldn't have to fear of making the wrong insision or cutting too far. A robot would be programmed to cut a certain depth and place. Robots have been real helpful in researching. They have helped doctors excel in new discoveries and information.

 

Robots are used in industrial factories. They help weld cars and parts together. Since their percission is so accurate when it comes to welding it looks like a proffesional did it. The nice thing is that robots aren't bothered by the bright light or heat. So these machines can do more work then humans can. The only thing required is the software.

 

Robots are used for home entertainment and leasure. There are several home robot kits that people buy. Some kits make the robot follow a line or trace a line. Other robot kits are made so the robot can determine if it is on the table or on the floor and how far to go before it runs into the wall or off the table. These robots have light sensors and switch sensors. There are some robots that do house cleaning such as vacum the floor or serve other people. Pet robots mimic actual pets which provide people with entertainment. These pet robots can bark, roll-over, sit, and play with you.

 

The production and uses for robots have increased rapidly since 1970s. Robots have become more and more popular. The size of the robot has also changed. Compared to a robot made in 1970s or 80s, the robots now can be smaller and much more portable too. The way technology is accelerating there could be a robot like the one in "The Bicentenial Man". 

“Despite being quintessentially useless, home robots such as the Evolution ER1, the Probotics Cye, and Sony's Aibo are beginning to gain popularity, and the next iteration of personal robots such as the vacuuming Roomba and the Solar Mower may actually prove to be useful. As robots coopt humanity's upright mode of transportation they may even become downright ubiquitous. Consider, however, the increasingly creepy implications of current robotics research - from the emotional Kismet, to the humanoid Asimo, robots are becoming both visually accute and dextrous, capable of recharging themselves, feeding themselves as well as hunting and devouring prey, and finally reproducing themselves. Indeed, with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles rapidly becoming Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles and beyond, there may be no place for humans at all in the impending robotic holocaust.”

 

 

http://memepool.com/Subject/Robotics/

Robotics

The first robot that can jump and roll over rough terrain has been created by a PhD student from bath, U.K, Rhodri Armour and his colleagues claim that they have been looking to nature for their inspiration, wanting to design a robot that can jump obstacles in it’s path like an insect would.

The robot is said to be ideal for space exploration due to the way in which it can handle rough terrain, the “jollbot” is shaped like a spherical cage which can roll in any direction, giving it manoeuvrability without the problem of overturning or getting stuck in potholes.

The robot is also small and flexible, weighing less than a kg, meaning it won’t get damaged after a jump.

Armour explains: “others in the past have made robots that can jump and robots that roll; but we’ve made the first robot that can do both”.

Cleaning robots are now being employed by companies such as Fuji heavy industries ltd and Sumitomo Corporation in Osaka city, Japan.

One in particular operated by Reibi has laser sensors so that it can avoid obstacles, it is also able to communicate with elevators so that It can go from floor to floor on it’s own.  As a final bonus it also is equipped with cameras that will record it’s entire shift! I don’t know why or what use this will be of? Maybe as crime prevention tool? Or so that the employers can see that it has been doing its job properly?

 

Another robotic invention, the microscopic wheel could save lives apparently, developed by two scientists from the universities of Sheffield and Barcelona, Ramin Golestanian and Pietro Tierno, The nanomachines will be able to travel around in your body and release small amounts of medicine directly into your system, this will be useful in treating aids and cancer victims as well as a host of other illness’s.

Here is the link with more information on this:

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026856.500-tiny-paddleboat-could-ship-drugs-around-the-body.html

And here is the present!

The Pylones Present that comes to life! 

Vectorized Images for my Flash Animation

I don't know why but some of them have changed color as they have been uploaded to here! and the outlines have gone grey on others. These are just what I have managed to get done so far, I am getting on with the animation now and hope to find the time to add some more later so that there is more variety! 

backgrounds for my flash animation

Here are the backgrounds I have made in photoshop for my flash animation, it starts with a black and white background that gradually becomes more and more colorful as the animation goes on.

THE AGE OF THE ROBOT digital cultures and technologies post

The age of the robot is here, officials predict that by 2015 every home in Japan will have their own personal robot, we already have an array of pet robots on the market ranging including fur real pets, pleo the dinosaur, robo-dogs, and the paro- a robotic baby harp seal, 200 units were manufactured initially with a retail price of $4,400- they sold out in less than 50 hours.

The paro was designed with the elderly in mind, pertaining to give them comfort and company as many of them suffer from loneliness and depression and are increasing finding themselves in care homes with little company from loved ones. The seals have proved to be a huge success as tests have shown that they decrease stress and loneliness in the elderly by giving them a companion with over 30 A.I sensors and the ability to recognise their masters voice and hand gestures.

The pleo dinosaur pet has over 38 sensors that feed information about cleo's environment to one of 8 processors that can handle a collective 60 million calculations per second! A complex computer programme determines what the dino does next, whether he sneezes, turns he neck 180' to see who's scratching his back or peers over the edge of a table! the possibilities go on.

 Alsok- the worlds second largest security company have even developed a line of robo-cops as a result of Japanese youth shying away from 3k jobs- referring to the Japanese words for labour that is dirty.

The guard robots, one version of which is being used by a client in southern Japan, can detect and thwart intruders using sensors and paint guns. They can also put out fires and spot water leaks.

It is perhaps no surprise that robots would find their first major foothold in Japan. Japanese dolls and toys, including a moving crab using clockwork technology dating to the 1800s, are considered by some to be among the first robots.

Rather than the monstrous Terminators of American movies, robots here are instead seen as gentle, even idealistic creatures epitomised by 'Astroboy', the 1960s Japanese cartoon about an electronic kid with a big heart.

Kazuya Abe, an official at Japans NEDO Institute which co-ordinates national science research and development on robots: 

"People are and will be living alongside robots, which are seen here as more than just machines. This is all about AI [artificial intelligence], this is about the creation of something that is not human, but can be a complement or companion to humans in society. That future is happening here now."

All the robot's I have ever dreamed about are already here! I have been waiting for the day that Robot babysitters become available to the general population, and although my kids will be grown up and married when such a thing happens it is still amazing to know that all these things are happening. The babysitter Robot is called: PaPeRo and can distinguish different children's faces and then has the facility to call their parents in case of emergency.

Just think it is predicted that by 2020 personal robots will no longer be a thing of anime, they'll be here! Imagine, people walking around the street with their robotic personal assistants, no need for a phone anymore, your robot can do all that, you may be able to video call friends just by telling the robot their names who will then find them in your address book or by using some sort of online network in which we may all be on- (every aspect of our lives could be on a sever somewhere- as started by the online software sites) and then as your walking with your robot you can see your friend in a touch screen panel on your robots stomach! (or should i say area that represents a stomach in the human form) your robot can also be equipped with some kind of payment chip so you don't have to have one and it will be more secure on the robot, this means the robot can be scanned when you want to pay for anything, be it food, clothes or train tickets! 

you will be able to store all of your music, photo's and files on the robot, so bye bye I pod! your robot will play music for you through a speaker or you can connect wireless headphones! and there's no need to worry about roads whilst listening to your music as your robot will be your eyes! 

So there is yet another use for him, imagine how handy he/she would come in for the health sector? assuming we will still have blind people in the future, (as there are already technologies in place to return sight using a camera attached to the optic nerve!) the robot can guide them safely over roads and protect them from crack-heads and the like, the same goes for the elderly and infirm, the robot can take them shopping, help them dress, hell they could even hop on the back of him for a ride on experience! the robot can also have a handy storage safe for putting all your valuables and shopping in!

With voice and face recognition your robot will only respond to you and follow your orders! so there's no need for housework, cooking, cleaning, picking the kids up from school, posting mail, etc.

But what does this mean for us? will we become the fat wobbly regressed beings depicted in Disney's Wall E? so absorbed in technology that they were not even aware of walking and dancing? swimming? talking to one another in the real world as a pose to a virtual one? this is more than a strong possibility, as technology advances are we taking a step back? maybe the future will epitomize a matrix style way of living? maybe we will willingly transgress into that virtual state becoming nothing more than a brain in a jar? 

who knows, but i for one can't wait to see robots everywhere and for them to become affordable and accessible for everyone! then the next phase is the question of morality, at what point do we draw the line on using robots as slaves? as they become more advanced and human looking, they can certainly be programmed to seem to think independently and make choices for themselves, Is this how we were created? If we create an uber race of robotic beings that can technically out-live us and rule the world does that make us gods? 

to be discussed further in my next post and how robots can be used in the city of Leeds.

Pylones Gifts Story Boards

Here are some story boards for the flash animation I am going to be making, (god help me I still can't use flash) for Pylones gifts. I thought of a Russian Doll effect, Dancing around the screen, Items being grouped into "gangs" and then competing to be the best, eating each other, diving into a basket and then the idea of them being a christmas present that explodes and adds color to the scene before hiding in the present again before being spotted by a human.

The slogan would be something along the lines of: "Pylones- Bringing Christmas to life" as I chose to look at this more from an advertising point of view.

(this is ridiculous, I have been uploading 3 small images for 20 minutes now, and this happened last time I tried to upload, it's an absolute joke, how I am supposed to keep up with my blog if I can't even upload? arrrrrrghhhhhh!!!!!curses curses curses!!!) (this is pathetic, i thought macs were better than pc's? I had this Bull**** with my pc, now the mac too!? it's been nearly half an hour now and i want to smash everything in my sight!) ah F*** this, I can't upload my F****** images, I give up! what a F***** waste of valuable time! I could have done loads of stuff instead of wasting my time on this piece of S***. I bet if i go out and leave this on like this they still won't have flippin up-loaded! I spent over a grand on this macbook WTF!!! arggggghhhh!!!!

OMG they just appeared! about F***** time!

Animation- New and Old

We were asked to look at some animation as part of our animation brief, something historical and something contemporary that has perhaps inspired us for our current brief? 

The first thing that comes to mind is Satoshi Kon's 2006 Paprika, I have blogged about this before, however thought I would mention it again as it was the first thing that sprang to mind when I got this brief. I have chosen to base my flash animation on Pylones gifts, which are quirky household items and more that have been personified to the point where it is not clear what they actually are. I decided to use this to my advantage and have the items as characters in a short animation, that way I  could give them more of a "story" as such, as there is not really alot you can do with toasters and umbrellas in terms of a narrative. well you could if you have some sick animation skills, I seem to recall pixar or one of those companies actually made a short movie about a toaster, but that's them and this is me! someone who can barely use flash! Anyway back to paprika, It is Satoshi Kon's 4th movie following in the success of perfect blue, millenium actress and tokyo godfathers and Is based on an invention known as the DC mini in which a user can penetrate another's dream as a result of a revolutionary new form of psychotherapy. Paprika is the alter ego of a doctor atsuko chiba, created to provide dream therapy illegally to her patients. I can't really explain the film in any more detail as it just goes completely crazy and it takes a couple of watches to fully "get" it, but visually the film is stunning as with all his works, and has a focus on the delicacy of the human mind as with all his features including the spectacular series paranoia agent.

The music for the film is what stuck in my head above all else accompanied by the crazy dream like imagery, particularly the parade scene which although colorful and child-like in essence has an underlying horror type feel that seems to stick in your head. The scene show's inanimate objects and cultural icons along with musical instroment playing animals marching in a parade.

For a historical piece I have chosen to look at Jan Svanmajer's ALICE which scared the S***

Out of me when I saw it as a child! I'd never seen stop motion animation before and just that alone freaked

me out, the awkward and un-natural way in which the rabbit moved alongside his and other objects in the

films hideous appearance was enough to scare me half to death! well it can't have scared me that much

as I still watched the whole thing, I think it just freaked me out a bit and I watched it for curiosity more than

anything else, It was a big step from the usual disney and cuddley teddys that I had to see this grotesque

rabbit and old antique furniture and knick knacks, It was like nothing i had seen before and It made me feel

cold.

It still does, I can't stand it in truth, but I can now appreciate what he has done for the world of animation,

some of his works are amazing such as one I watched the other day called dimensions of dialogue, although

gross and not one bit visually pleasing I found it very creative and resourceful and found myself admiring

the sheer volume of thought and effort that must have to go into his works.

so here is a clip from Alice as my historical piece below: