The animal of film ' Life of Pi '

<life of Pi > is a 3D film directed by Ang Lee, released in November 21, 2012 in the United States.

The film gained a good reputation and $608000000 in global box office; however, the film made the photographer Claudio Miranda won numerous Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography Award, also won the 85th Annual Academy Awards for best director, photography, music and visuals four awards.[1]

In fact, the film is not only have thought-provoking philosophy of life, the visual effects become the biggest highlight of the film. Especially Tigers(Richard Parker) debut as a second protagonist, have to say great performances in the film, like the real tiger. In order to create a heavy 450 pounds of Richard Parker, R & H specifically recalled the  successful experience of past film, for example "The Chronicles of Narnia"and" The Golden Compass "and other films. The special effects team collect lots of information,  spent hundreds of hours of reference videos to research four tigers, finally created a real Richard Parker in the film.  [2]

Synthetic image of the Bengal tiger 'Richard Parker'

 Richard Parker in the film

The most impressive was the process of Pi taming Richard Parker, the tiger from the original wild and intractable to hesitate to finaly obey Pi, the tiger's movements and facial expressions are very good making.

Pi taming Richard Parke

In the film also appeared the other animals, they are worthy to make us to  reference and learning, such as whales, orangutans, Crocuta crocuta. Let's appreciate it.

Whales

 Orange juice and Crocuta crocuta

Meerkat Scene 

Summary, 'Life of Pi' is one of my very favorite movies, the visual effects as well as animal production can be a good benchmark to motivate me to work harder on the animation study. 

References

[1] Life of Pi (2012)
Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi

(Accessed: 31 January 2014)

[2] NVIDIA GPU of Life Pi (2013) The visual effect of Life Pi.

Available at http://www.nvidia.com.tw/object/life-of-pi-tw.html (Accessed: 31 January 2014)

About the film "Frozen"

Frozen is a 2013 American computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged, thrill-seeking mountain man, his loyal pet reindeer, and a hapless snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. [1]

 

I saw this film in a few days after premiere. Although the characters did not change too much compared with the previous works of Disney, but I was deeply attracted by the movie; especially its magnificent snow scenes and the personality of characters .

This film released in the Christmas period, the objective to promote its box office hits. According to statistics, 'Frozen' at the box office has exceeded the 'Hobbit 2', has become the box office champion of North American in December. [2]

The main characters

Anna
She is a very lovely girl who wants to see sister Elsa to knock the door every year. Through observation is easy to find that the director is very carefully to design in Anna’s different age’s period. Here with a song "Do you want build a snowman?" to show Anna the process of growing up from childhood to young girl.

Frozen - Do You Want To Build A Snowman (Movie Scene)

Elsa

Elsa is a kind-hearted girl but very sensitive, she fear cannot control hands that can be turned everything into the ice. In order not to hurt her sister and others, she chose to leave and live in the distant snow mountain. She is also from a bound people transformed into a completely free snow queen. In this clip, change dress and construct the whole Ice Palace is the biggest bright spot in this film.

 

Disney's Frozen "Let It Go"

 

 

Snowman and Reindeer

During the film promotion period, the trailer of the snowman and reindeer attracted me. This trailer was brief but very creative. Snowman and reindeer in order to grab a carrot and launched a struggle, the conflict be just perfect, and also nice in the details of the design.

References

[1] Frozen (2013)
Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_%282013_film%29

(Accessed: 23 January 2014)

[2] The Hollywood Report (2014) ‘Frozen’ Passes ‘The Lion King’ With $810 Million at Global Box Office ‘Frozen’ Passes ‘The Lion King’ With $810 Million at Global Box Office Available at‘Frozen’ Passes ‘The Lion King’ With $810 Million at Global Box Office (Accessed: 23 January 2014)

Scene Analysis -- Ice Age: Continental Drift

 

Ice Age: Continental Drift 

"Ice Age 4" is about the adventure story of animal families who are still living in the Ice Age .

That always chase pineal squirrels made a bigger event this time, he inadvertently causes the break up of Pangaea. This making the mammoth Manny, the sloth Sid and the smilodon Diego and their families separated. 

  Movie clips

 

Scrat find a place to put an acorn in the midst of the ice fields, but because of this, a  crack was suddenly appearance in the ice fields, and he fell into the center of the earth through cracks……

 Exaggeration  

Scrat almost pressed nose close to the ground, and sniffing in front of the camera, Such an exaggerated close up not only shaping personalities of character, but also increase the film's interesting.

The last action is very exaggerated, Scrat backward fast movement, such exaggerated emphasis on the suddenness of the action.

Arcs  

In order to performance the dexterity of Scrat's body, it is often present the arc posture.

This posture is extended and good-looking, the arc application can make the action more vivid, more attractive and reflect personalities.

Anticipation & Follow Through and Overlapping Action

Squash and Stretch

Example 1.

Scrat's body is stretched very exaggerated in the process of suddenly drop.

Example 2.

This action reflects the squashed state when Scrat is falling, he tried to open hands to slow down the rate of decline.

 

 Staging & appeal  

In the process of decline, the lens has been followed by the Scrat, the background become blurred due to the quickly decline; however, Scrat‘s action is not panic disorder, make foreground and background become the visual contrast.

Scrat‘s actions are very expressive, like hands are burning and the crazy action after the body on fire, using a lot of squash and stretch actions and exaggerated movements; in addition, the facial expressions and body language are very well, which makes the character more appealing.

Timing

The series actions was very good control in timing, Scrat's action is very rhythmic, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, the level is very clear.

The film will elevated to a higher level if the timing control well.

 

conclusion 

•Through the analysis of the clips, I learned a lot.

•For me, this makes me more depth understanding the application of 12 animation principles in animation film.

•In addition, I found a lot of problems when I was doing animation, I hope to overcome these problems in the future study.