Blog 8B

Below are 3 links to the people's blogs on which I critiquing their animations:

Stephen Hicken's Blog

Sissi Xiao's Blog

Adam Martinelli's Blog

Stephen Hicken's Blog Critique
In creating this pair of characters Stephen and his partner employed several tactics.  First thing that is noticeable about the two animations is the difference in Lighting. In the Swordfish video the scene is very bright which gives off the feeling that it isn't really that unsafe of an environment.  The Octopus animation on the other hand is much darker and employs the usage of shadows, specifically in the cave lair of the Octopus.  This suggests that this is a much more unsafe environment and that the Octopus must be up to no good from the begininning.  The lighter the scene the more relaxed the mood and the darker the more tense the mood gets.  It is somewhat hard to examine the way in which the hero Swordfish is lit, seeing as how he is simply black outlines and no color was added to him after he was drawn.  However, the Octopus is a very dark blue, easily the darkest thing in the scene.  This is symbolic right away of the fact  that he is the bad guy in the instance.  Had the Swordfish been colored in it would have been logical for him to have been a much lighter colored blue than that of the Octopus.

When it comes to contrast and affinity there are a few examples of both terms that can be found in this Hero/Villain pairing.  To state the obvious, the two affine in the fact that they are both sea creatures.  Aside from that feature there are some obvious differences.  The Octopus moves in a creepy slithering like fashion while the Swordfish seems to fly into the scene to save the day. The Swordfish is adorned with a chest emblem denoting his super abilities, while the Octopus possesses no costume and appears to simply be an evil octopus. The Swordfish is smiling throughout the scene, while the Octopus possesses an obvious scowl.  Also the colors of the two, contrast as I earlier stated. Tension and release is also used in the Swordfish animation as the fish hold up takes place and is tense, and then the tension is released as Swordfish scares the criminals away.

Sissi Xiao's Blog
The pair of characters that Sissi posted are interesting when it comes to examining them as a Hero and Villain pair.  What I find to be the most interesting aspect is the use of color.  The hue of the two characters and how they compare is what I found most intriguing.  First of all, the villain is a greenish color.  The green is more of a dark value being not very bright, which is helpful in creating the perception of him as being the villain.  However, for a good portion of the animation the villain has a smile as well as a pleasant expression of his face.  This is counter productive because these characteristics are usually attributed to a character that is good.  The hue of the hero on the other hand is a saturated dark red.  Red is an interesting color because it can be associated with good and bad attributes.  It can mean anger and aggression as well as it can mean courageousness and ambition. The hero arrives on the scene with a happy facial expression that makes it clear he has good intentions. However, after he engages the apparent villain the hero's facial expression changes to a rather unpleasant grimace that remains on his face for the remainder of the animation.  This is another contradictory of symbols within the animation.

The use of contrast and affinity is also apparent in this animation.  The Villain is more skinny and possesses a triangular face that shows he can't be trusted, while the Hero has a more rounded figure as well as a rounded face which shows he is trustworthy.  Also it can be said that tension and release are present as well.  The tension builds as the villain kicks the creature initially and continues in an implied hunt for more destruction and is released as the hero swoops in and knocks him out.

Adam Martinelli's Blog
The contrast in characters within Adam's animation is very good and easy to critique.  Sticking with the aspect of color, this group did a great job using it to effectively create a contrast between the two colors.  The lumberjack hero in this instance is wearing vibrant bright colors including hues of red and two different shades of lighter blue. The villain ghost thing makes his intentions clear through his wardrobe which consists of black and two shades of grey, one being more saturated than the other.  Also, there really are no other physical characteristics of the hero and villain that conflict with the message that their color schemes send out. Another interesting aspect of the color choices for these two characters is the way in which they chose to use the color red.  It is the primary color of the Lumberjack's costume and is quite apparent the color is supposed to be viewed in a positive light.  However, when the same exact color is used to fill in the eyes of the ghostly villain it is apparent right away that this character must be evil.  This is because it is nearly impossible to not associate red eyes with evil.

Contrast and affinity is more apparent in these two characters than any of the previous pairings I've examined in this blog.  The Lumberjack is brightly colored and stands stationary for much of the animation with a big smile on his face. The villain contrasts from this by being a dark,  jagged, and hovering around menacingly for the entire animation.  Perhaps the only characteristic that I can see as being affine between the two is that they share the color red. The Lumberjack wearing it on his chest while the Ghostly villain possesses red eyes. Tension and Release is also very present in this animation.  The tension begins to build the moment you see the menacing villain hovering and increases as the Lumberjack's axe initially fails to take him down.  However the tension is soon released as the Lumberjack approaches the villain and vanquishes him with a mighty bang from his axe.