Revised_final_animation and self critique

Self-Critique:

I did quite a few fixes on this revision. I added some more voice lines to the bullies and got a scene of them running away. I know the running looks pretty weak, like they're puppet dolls when moving, but I did the best I could. This may not be the best one, but I still think I did well on it.

Final project Post and self critique

Here is my Final project film.

I know this piece isn't perfect, but I still think I did well on it. I did better than I thought on the lip syncing. I know the choice of using my own voice may not have been the best idea, but I really wanted to try it and see if I could get myself to sound at least like a girly or flaky kind of guy. I know there are a few little mistakes too, but I still think I did a decent job.

Revised_final

New logline:

After getting stuffed in a locker by bullies, a high school girl leaps out with a vengeance and a stun gun in hand.

New and revised storyboard images.

Storyboard images for Final Project

Aesthetic choices

Here are three examples of the effects I'd like to use for my final animation.

Using the lightning effect to create the effect of the main character shooting lightning from her eyes.

Using the Scatterize effect to disintegrate an object, or even a character.

Using the beam effect to create lasers.

Final Project Intent and Structure Analysis

Intent

I would like to give the audience the ideas of two things. The first being that sometimes when dealing with tough stuff, it's nice to daydream once in a while and escape because that can help one relax. The second idea being that sometimes people can gain interesting ideas from daydreaming or just dreams in general.

Structure Analysis

First scene: The girl receives her homework from her teacher. The girl doesn't know what to do on it.

Second scene: As she's leaving school, a few bullies run into the girl. She tries to just talk her way out, but they start to mess with her, particularly throwing junk at her, like trash and even bits of food. She turns and just runs off for home.

Third scene: The girl finally makes it home, tired and frustrated, and sits at her desk in her room. She passes out on her desk and starts dreaming.

Fourth Scene: The girl is back at the scene with the bullies. This time though when they start throwing things at her, she shoots down the junk with laser shots from her fingers. Then she sends lightning shocks from her eyes to one of the bullies and shocks him stiff. Then she turns another one into dust by glaring at him really hard. This sends the last couple of bullies running for it, leaving the girl quite happy.

Fifth Scene: The girl wakes up from her dream and is smiling. She looks at her page and sees what she's required to write about for her homework and then starts writing about what she dreamed about.

Final Project Sentence and Synopsis

Using fantasy to deal with or escape a tough situation, then using it to come up with a good idea.

Synopsis

First we see a scene when the main character, a student in school is given homework from her teacher and at first glance, the girl isn't too sure what she'll do about it. Then we go to a scene where she's leaving school and runs into a couple of bullies who decide to give her a hard time. They throw things at her like trash and even bits of food. The girl just tries to avoid them and continues walking. We then cut to the scene where the girl is at home and reaches her desk and appears tired from what she just went through. She closes her eyes and starts daydreaming. In the dream we see her back at the same time and place of when the bullies started messing with her. But instead of leaving, the girl fights back. She uses lasers to shoot the objects the bullies throw at her, sends lightning to one to make them electrified and even causes one to disintegrate. This sends the bullies running for it, leaving the girl satisfied. Waking up the girl looks at her homework assignment sheet and sees that it says, "If you could go back in time and change any moment of your life in anyway you can, what would you do? Explain your answer in an essay and also include how you would do it and why. Include detail and description. The essay must be no less than 500 words. The girl smiles with an idea in mind and puts down the sheet takes a fresh sheet of paper out of her desk and a pencil and starts working.

Final reworked Midterm

Final project pitch

A girl is sitting in class and is given an essay assignment by her teacher. The girl after receiving the assignment sheet isn't too sure about what she should write about. On the way out from school, a group of bullies stop her and mess with her, throwing things(bits of food and trash) at her and knocking her things out of her hands. When the girl finally makes it home, she just crashes at her desk, bummed and frustrated. She starts daydreaming about what just happened with her and the bullies and starts thinking of ways she'd like to get back at them. She sees herself shocking them with lightning, using lasers to shoot the objects they throw at her and even vaporizing one of them. This leaves the bullies freaked out and running for it. After this the girl comes back to reality, she has a smile on her face and she looks at the assignment sheet from her teacher and sees that the instructions say "If you could go back and change something that's happened to you, what would you do? Explain how and why. Must be no less than 5oo words and must have details." She puts the sheet down, picks up a pencil and pulls out a sheet of paper and starts writing.

Mid_term animation Youtube style

Title:

Dream a Little

Description:

In this video, an employee is given a ton of paperwork from her boss and is left frustrated and bummed and starts daydreaming. She sees herself in a sword battle with her boss and just when he has her pinned, she comes back and takes him down in a very unlikely way. With that, she feels better and starts on her work.

Tags:

"Adobe After Effects" daydream "sword fighting" boss battle paperwork

Jack Myers Lecture Notes

• Worked in animation and motion graphics
• Moved to New York in 2000
• In 2001 he and his partner Matthew Robins launched "Art Fool"
• His main motivation is to provide inspiration to students
• He is from Hot Springs Arkansas.
• He worked on a lot of movies in high school.
• He was a former student of MCA
• He ended up switching his major to Illustration
• He didn't plan on being an animator when leaving school
• He got a job at Kinkos and was hired as a designer and he designed logos
• He later decided on working on an animated short
• He did often feel like his work wasn't any good.
• He sent in a piece called "Food" to a film festival and later got an email from PBS asking if they could show his film.
• He later got a studio job at Curious Pictures
• Today he is a freelance animator
• His partner Matthew Robbins worked with Martha Stewart magazines.
• Advises on taking risks because you never know who will see you work and who will discover you.

Creative Commons mini essay

"Creative Commons" is a organized website that allows more access of the internet while keeping it safely in the copyright standards. According to "Creative Commons", the internet is meant to allow access to programs easier, but the use of copyright and social systems limit that freedom as well as making it difficult to easily just "Cut and Paste". "Creative Commons" works with "stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation." This system has set up a set of copyright licenses that allow access to programs while keeping it in the "all rights reserved" bracket.

If this website is what it says it is,(not that I have any doubts or anything) it could make it easier to do searches on the internet. A few times before I've had worries of looking and using information that shouldn't be used in homework and that limited my choices in research. Hopefully this website would make it easier to do so and let me be able to do my work the way I would want to.

2nd Crit-on-crit for midterm

Lauren Willoughby

Project#5(midterm) 3/24/11

Major suggestions

• Add more action and drama to the sword fight scene
• The fantasy transition is bad.
• Adjust the movements of the girl reaching for the paper.

I agree that more action is needed and I will defiantly see to that. I will also figure out the movements and transitions as well.

List of revising plans for Midterm

Most needed adjustments

• Change the first fantasy transition. Lose the dissolve and try something more believable.

• Add MUCH more action and drama to the sword fighting. Particularly more movement in both warriors bodies and not just their arms and swords.

• Add a scene where the warrior girl looks like the boss warrior has her on the ropes.

• Fix the movements of the worker girl when she's moving across her desk to take the sheet of paper. Don't make it look like she's levitating.

• Don't make the scene where the employee is reaching for the paper sheet too long.

Other necessary or greatly suggested adjustments

• Give the boss warrior a happy, but evil expression and an embarrassed expression.
• Adjust the boss warrior with layers where his pants can fall down and reveal humorous undershorts.(White with big red hearts is the first choice.)
• Give the warrior girl a scared look again.
• Put the warrior girl into a position where she can launch a surprise attack. Perhaps behind the tree and let her leap out and attack
• Add a red apple to the employee's desk and let her poke at it with her letter opener.
• Let the employee play with the letter opener longer.
• Cut to black at the end of the animation.
• Add a title scene at the beginning of the animation.

Crit on Crits for mid-term

Lauren Willoughby

Project # 5(midterm) 3/24/11

Major suggestions

• Too slow. The pace needs to be faster.
• No arc in the sword fight scene.
• Needs more "oomph" to it.

I agree with the above.

I understand that my animation needed to be faster. I should've known better, same with the sword fight. So I defiantly worked on making it faster and I worked on making the fight scene.

Assignment Write up for Midterm animation

Lauren Willoughby

Project # 5 (Mid term)

Dream a Little. 3/21/11

Synopsis: An employee is given much paper work from her boss and feels overwhelmed. At her desk, she's still upset of the amount of work and starts daydreaming. She sees herself as a small warrior in armory and sees another warrior who resembles her boss in red armory approaching her and giving the en garde. She raises her sword, then suddenly confident she leaps and swipes the sword out of her opponent's hand and she gets him to surrender. The girl comes back to reality feeling better and confident and she takes the first page from the paper stack and starts working. The audience will also notice that the sword she had in her daydream is propped next to her desk.

Intent: I want my audience to get the idea that sometimes fantasizing and daydreaming at the appropriate moments can help a person relax and often people view themselves in situations where they always win and that can sometimes give one the confidence to accomplish their tasks.

Source: I daydream often myself and it sometimes helps me relax and calm myself in tough situations and I've often seen cartoon characters do the same.

Theme: Fantasizing can help people escape their troubles for awhile and sometimes can help them overcome them.

Problem areas: I really want to make my drawings of my characters better, but I'm not so sure how. Like I'm not sure if I should add more detail or if I just need to practice more. I would just like some specifics. Plus another problem was that some of my layers would have masks when I didn't even use the mask tool to create them and that became a frustration.

Film Strengths: I think I got my point and theme across and the effects I used also worked out.

Character_designs

Background_ideas

Mid-term Storyboard

Mid Term Pitch Presentation

I've decided to an animation on a daydreaming character who finds peace when stressed under work. The short starts, a female desk worker is given a lot of paperwork from her boss and she's frustrated and overwhelmed by the amount of work she is given. The scene cuts to when the girl has returned to her desk in her office and she's again, frustrated and holding her head in her hands. She looks up toward the ceiling and starts daydreaming. She sees herself as a medieval like warrior who is approached by an enemy warrior who resembles her boss. The two battle each other in a sword fight in a rain storm, with the girl coming out as the victor of the battle when she pins her enemy to the ground. The weather also changes from stormy to sunny as well. When the girl comes back to reality, she has a smile on her face and she feels relaxed and the animation closes with her taking the page on top of the stack of paperwork on her desk and she begins working.

What I'm trying to make clear is that sometimes people tend to fantasize to help them escape from their problems for awhile and it can sometimes help them overcome them. In a way I think that fantasizing can be a good thing because it can help one relax and sometimes help change a situation from a bad one to a good one.

I do intend to draw my backgrounds and characters whether on photoshop or on paper, then scanning them in. I do also have the idea of using the rain and lightning effects for the storm sword battle. Of course I'll also have the characters walking and actually sword fighting as well.

This whole thing also really relates to my research because fantasy and in a sense daydreaming and how it can benefit people in certain ways is what most of my research has been over.

Assignment 4 Write-up

Name: Lauren Willoughby

Project # 4

Title/Date: After Effects Experiments/ 2/28/11

Synopsis: There are seven compositions that display the effects that I experimented with for this assignment.

• A girl imaging that she's firing lightning from her eyes and making it rain in the forest poster.
• An arcade game like composition with a yellow ship firing lasers at two gray ships.
• A T.V with a snow forest image on screen that loses the signal then disintegrates.
• A yellow plane avoiding and teasing the search light at a prison.
• A bottle of a glowing and bubbling chemical.
• Three colorful chemical bottles seen from top view and the blue one is bubbling.

Main Idea: Most of the effects I used I tested out first to see how they work, then messing with them led to ideas of what to use them for.

Theme: Just experimenting can lead to some interesting ideas and doing this I've come up with a couple of good ideas for future projects.

Main tension: Some of the effects I messed with didn't really seem to do anything and a couple were a little troubling.

Problem areas: Same as above.

Journal notes: I thought this was going to be tricky and frustrating. While at some points it was, it was fun to try out these effects and then coming up with ideas for compositions on what to use them for. I did enjoy the project some.

Effects Fiasco Process

• I decided to experiment with effects on Adobe After Effects myself and I've made seven compositions with examples of effects I chose and enjoyed using.

Composition 1: Imagine creating rain

Effects used: Lightning-(used twice) and CC Rain

Settings:

Segments: 7 at 0.0 sec

10 at 2 sec

12 at 4 sec

15 at 6 sec

19 at 8 sec

25 at 10 sec

Amplitude- 13.300

Detail level- 8

Detail Amplitude-0.310

Branching- 1000

Rebranching- .210

Branching angle- 24.500

Set the start points at the characters eyes and the end points at the top of the forest image or poster.

CC Rain

Amount- 93.6 at 0.0 sec

146.1 at 2 sec

224.7 at 4 sec

307.1 at 6 sec

441.9 at 8 sec

677.9 at 10 sec

Used this effect to create the idea that the image of the forest is raining.

Composition 2- Space games

Effects used: CC Starburst, Generate Beam, CC Particles systems II and stroke effect

CC Starburst

Used a grey ellipse shape layer for the effect.

Scatter- 49.8
Speed to - 2.00
Phase - 0x+253.0
Grid spacing- 4
Size- 48.0

Used to create an outer space look like someone is flying through space.

Generate-Beam

Settings: Beam 1

Starting point at 381.0, 121.1 at 6 sec

Time- 100%

80.5% at 5 sec

Beam 2

Starting point at 383.0, 151.1 at 6.5 sec

Time- 52% (hold key frame)

100% right before 7 sec

Set the Opacity for both beams at

0% at 1 sec

100% at 3 sec- (hold keyframe)

0% at 7.5 sec

Used to create a laser beam effect for the yellow ship to and set it twice to hit the gray ships.

CC Particle systems II

Birth rate: 4.3 right before 7 sec

0.2 at 8.5 sec

0.0 at 9.5 sec

Longevity: 1.1

Also used twice to create the exploding after effect of the ships after they were hit with the laser beam.

Stroke effect

Used the text tool to create the word Winner

Font: Helvetica

Stats at: 71px, 22px, 7px, 80px

Duplicated the layer and set the stroke to be offset from the previous layer and used the alpha Inverted matte track and then linked the text layers together using alt/option and the layers text stop watch to link the text layers together with the pick whip. Then I duplicated the layers again and modified the strokes for these. Finally I set the text layers' opacity to create a flashing winner text.

Link to tutorial used: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/stroke_fx/

Used the word plane from my last project and created two more to serve as the targets for the yellow word plane.

Composition 3- No footage, no T.V

Effects used: CC snow and CC Scatterize

CC Snow

Settings

Amount: 119.9 at 0.0 sec

299.6 at 3.5 sec

509.4 at 5.0 sec (hold keyframe)

0.0 at 8.0 sec

Speed: .39 at 0.0 sec

.60 at 2.5 sec

.70 at 5.0 sec

Noise HLS

Noise- Grain

Hue- 0% (hold keyframe) at 0.00 sec

100% (hold keyframe) at 8 sec

Lightness 0.0% (hold keyframe) at 0.00 sec

50% (hold keyframe) at 8 sec

Noise Phase- raised it higher per keyframe for 8 secs

CC Scatterize-

Scatter: 0.00 at 15 sec

45.0 at 16 sec

94.0 at 17 sec

191.0 at 18 sec

398.0 at 19 sec

537.0 at 20 sec

I recycled one of the backgrounds I used in a previous assignment and turned it into a snowy version and placed it in a new photoshop document of the T.V, then used the noise effect for the lost signal image then used the scatterize effect to make the T.V scatter.

Composition 4 - Avoid the spotlight

Effects used: CC Spotlight

I set and moved the To position of the spotlight beam to make it look like a search light. I also used an ideal background of a stone wall to make it look like a scene from a prison with a search light and I have my word plane from another past project to serve as the subject of the composition. While the light was moving, I made it look like that while the plane was avoiding the light, it was also teasing with it before it escapes at the end.

Composition 5 - Puddles and Rain

Effects used: CC Drizzle and CC Rain

CC Drizzle

Settings: Drip rate set to 3.4

CC Rain

Settings: Increased the drop rate and speed to match the drip rate of the drizzle effect.

Again I used an old background of a forest and placed it in a new photoshop document and mad it the puddle layer for the drizzle effect to be used.

Composition 6 - Danger, Glowing Chemical Present

Effects Used: CC Bubbles and Stylize Glow

CC Bubbles

Settings:

Set amount: 96

Speed: 2.9

Wobble Amplitude: 19.3

Wobble Frequency: 3.1

Size : 4.4

Reflection Type: Liquid

Stylize- Glow

0.00 at 0.00 sec

29 at 1 sec

65 at 2 sec

29 at 3 sec

00 at 4 sec

Repeat for 16 sec

I created a chemical bottle document in Photoshop to serve as the subject and used the bubble effect to make it bubble, but I wanted to add more so I added a glowing effect to make it look mysterious and dangerous.

Composition 7- Bubbling Chemical Colors

Effects used: Foam and CC Drizzle

Created a blue solid layer and placed it on top of the blue chemical bottle to use the foam effect to create the bubbles. I also created a blue shape layer in photoshop with the document for the drizzle effect to be used to help make the chemical really look like it's bubbling.

Crit-on-critique

Name: Lauren Willoughby

2/22/11

Major Suggestions

• Text (if meant to be read) is hard to read. Needs to be smoother and slower.
• Is the character necessary? Craftsmanship is poor.
• Too slow.

I agree with the following:

• The text is hard to read.
• Character craftsmanship needs work.

After studying the critiques I learned the following:

More time is needed to be spent on this animation and I need to slow down the text paths and make them smoother and easier to read if they're suppose to be read.

I also need to do better in drawing characters in photoshop.

Design Studio Review

Design Studio choice: a52 Visual Effects

Background

a52 is a visual effects studios that was established in 1997 and has become the home of the industry's most innovative and talented artists. These artists have been part of the development and production of imagery for some of the world's best known commercials including Lexus, Nike and Motorela to name a few.

Description

a52 studio work with visual effects through the integration of 2D and photoreal CGI. Programs used by a52 include Autodesk Flame, Autodesk Softimage and Autodesk Maya. The work of the studio has earned AICP Show recognition for eleven straight years. Other awards they have received include a recently earned "Outstanding Commercial" Emmy as well as the same for an Andy, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction and London International Advertising and one show awards.

Analysis

The work done by a52 often revolves around commercials or their visual effects. Often they use them to enhance the commercial to make it more appealing and entertaining, a way to grab the attention of viewers. In a sense, they are projecting their "voice" and what they want to say through commercials to reach their audience.

Examples include the following:

Cadillac Turbulence

http://www.a52.com/index.php?f=deta&n=16

Infiniti/Dusk

http://www.a52.com/index.php?f=deta&n=132

Elastic Honda Boxes and Elastic Honda Accord Instruments

http://motionographer.com/tag/a52/

Adidas "Game Challenger"

http://vimeo.com/9234270

Conclusions

I never really noticed that studios like a52 did visual effects for commercials for car brands or other companies and products. Since I see commercial so often and since they're often just short, sweet and to the point, I never realized how much visual effects are used for them or that they are just as big of projects as films only on a smaller scale. Seeing the work that a52 studio has done with commercials and the awards they have to their credit has made me rethink that. Commercials may seem small and not much, but they are just as difficult and take just as much work and people to create them. As I said before they often use visual effects to enhance or promote the point or product of the commercial being advertised, often putting them in not so normal positions or environments in order to grab the attention of viewers. If the commercial isn't very appealing, it won't be noticed or viewers won't pay attention to it and that's where visual effects can help. It's like they are adding or modifying the "voice" of the commercial to make themselves heard.

Additional References

http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/a52-earns-first-aicp-visual-effect-honors-t5856.html

http://features.cgsociety.org/story.php?story_id=1928

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/31963

Crit on Crits

Lauren Willoughby

Project #2

The Disappearing Ninja

2/9/11

Major Suggestions

• Drawings look amateurish. Work on scanning drawings.
• Ninja's legs look stiff, could look more jointed.
• Needs to be pushed further.
• Animator's room looks too neat.

Agree/Disagree

I agree that my animation needs to be pushed. I wasn't trying to go for a childish look, but when I draw on photoshop, that's just how I do it. I do need to work on it more though.

What I've learned:

I was also intending for the ninja to look intangible when walking through the kunai knives, giving the idea of the stealth or speed of a ninja, but after this I can see why nobody got that impression. So I'll think of a new way to fix that.

Assignment 2 Write up

Lauren Willoughby

Project 2

The Disappearing Ninja/ 2/7/10

Synopsis: A ninja appears and becomes visible and starts walking. A swarm of kunai knives speeds toward the ninja, but right when the first comes near him, he because intangible and transparent and continues walking through the knives. The scene cuts to an artist imagining the ninja still walking and he disappears again and the dream bubble disappears.

Intent: I wanted again to create a fantasy and I thought a ninja would be something different and interesting. I made him able to disappear and become transparent since I know that while in dreams nothing makes since. Plus with the scene with the artist, I wanted to display a scene where sometimes fantasizing and dreaming can lead to new ideas for stories or art.

Main Idea: I wanted to come up with an interesting idea for a walking character and one that's common for a dream. My first thought was a superhero, but that sounded babyish so I settled on a ninja because that sounded more cooler, then I got the idea of him being able to disappear and other tricks. I just really wanted to use this character since I really enjoyed coming up with him and loved working on him.

Theme: I say I'd make the theme that dreams or fantasies can not only help someone escape for awhile, but they can often lead up to creative ideas and stories.

Main tension/strengths: One struggle was having to keep going back to fix-up and do touch-ups on my character before he was ready to be put into a walk cycle. Also I had trouble with using masks on the layers and it was hard to figure out how they work. I did enjoy making and coloring the character and putting him in a walk cycle and that turned out well, same with the effects that I used.

Problem areas: Mainly one problem was figuring out how to use the mask layers and it was really frustrating. I really want to learn how to do that properly.

Journal notes: I really wanted to figure how to use the mask tool for other things besides a blinking eye, but I ended up just leaving it at that. I just really want to figure out other ways to use it. Also I had to keep going back to do touch-ups for my character. That also was frustrating. Other than that, I did enjoy working on this animation. The walk cycle and the parenting layers went well though.

Crit on Crits

Name: Lauren Willoughby

Project: 1

Title: Daydream

Date: 2/1/11

Major Suggestions:

• Be careful on which images or situations you use.
• Use a different image. Doesn't fit the daydream.
• Intro scene is kind of slow.

I agree with the critiques discussed above.

After studying the critiques I learned the following:

I need to pay attention to which images I find or come up with and make sure they fit with the whole presentation. I also need to really think about what I want my audience to see and get out of the animation I make.

Assignment Write up/Self critique

Lauren Willoughby

Project #1

Title: Daydream

A boy is sitting at his desk and begins daydreaming about him in a boxing match. He manages to get the upper hand and win the match.

I wanted to give off the idea of how some kids like to daydream about being good at something they like, like a sport or activity and in daydreams, they most likely depict or see themselves as the winner or the best.

I know that some kids tend to get distracted while in class(one of my own many major flaws) so that's where I got this idea to use that scenario. Plus I think that sometimes escapism or daydreaming can be a good thing, at least being done at the right moments.

I think I really got down how kids often like to see themselves as the winners in things in life, and in their dreams that often happens.

I really wanted to make the idea or example of a daydream of a kid clear so I tried to keep it simple. I think I at least got the main parts of that goal down.

The tricky thing was noticing the small little things or details that I forgot in some scenes and I had to keep going back to fix them so I would like to work on that. I also had trouble importing the Photoshop pieces into After Effects as layers, but I managed to get help in figuring that out.

Once I was able to get into the animation process and work on it, I found that I really did enjoy working on it. There were a few frustrations, the getting the photoshop files imported as layers being the most particular, but once I figured them out, I was able to enjoy working on the project.

Research Topic Proposal

My topic is on fantasy as a way of escapism. The term fantasy is often referred to in psychology as a "mental apprehension of an object of perception, the faculty by which this is performed." This is often performed as a way of escapism. People often do this because it allows them to "escape" stressful situations by focusing on happier and exciting moments or things. In some ways it can be harmful to people when they escape themselves so much to the point where they reject reality completely and they don't approach and solve their problems in a realistic and practical way. However on the other hand, escapism into fantasy can be helpful to a person and even healthy, because it can help people relax and shake off stress and anxieties for a little while. It also can promote creativity, imagination and problem solving.

I believe fantasy through escapism is important because it can allow people to escape their problems for little bit and it allows creativity and imagination to grow. I also think imagination is important for people to make it through the difficulties of life and it can make life more interesting and exciting. It can lead to new possibilities and opportunities and if people work hard at it, they can make their fantasies part of reality.

A few more sketches

10 Resources Outline

Source 1: http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/fantasy.htm

Fantasy: Definition and relations/genre

1. Definition

• Most often referred to as a term in psychology as a "mental apprehension of an object of perception."
• The fact or habit of deluding oneself by imaginary perceptions.
• A daydream arising from conscious or unconscious wishes or attitudes.

2. Relations/genre

• Desire and fantasy seem to be closely related.
• Imagination with genius and fantasy with taste.
• Fantasy is it's own genre in film, television, theater and literature.
• Fantasy in cinema and theater must be viewed in conjunction with surrealism.

Source 2: http://www.answers.com/topic/fantasy-psychology

Forms of Fantasy

1. Conscious Fantasy

• A situation imagined by an individual or group that has no basis in reality
• Likely involves the impossible
• Can be considered a trait of Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Can have beneficial elements

2. Daydreams

• A similarity positive view of fantasy.
• Ex: The energetic man is one who succeeds by his efforts in turning his wishful phantasies into reality.
• Ex: The artist can transform his phantasies into artistic creations instead of symptoms.

3. Unconscious Fantasy

• The unconscious is made up of phantasies of relations with objects.
• Thought as primary and innate and as the mental representations of instincts.

4. Desire

• The subject situates himself as determined by the phantasy and on a single theme, minimizing the variations in meaning which might otherwise cause a problem.

Source 3: http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/reader/reader442.html

Escapism: The Good and the Bad

1. The Good

• A term employed by the psychological profession to denote an act of the intentional or unintentional removal of one's psyche from it's current reality.
• By this definition we can remove ourselves from our immediate surroundings to exchange it for something more pleasurable.
• Can give one a new self image.

2. The Bad

• Can leave a person thinking that he has everything and knows it, but thinks it says something about him and while it does, it may not be the same way to others.
• Leave someone unaware of oneself.
• More like a vacation and that you have to come back eventually.

Source 4: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Escapism?&id=897426

Escapism: Its causes and how it's important and/or unimportant

1. Causes:

• People want to get away from daily stresses of life.
• Depression or mental anxieties.
• Those who want to focus on happier times.

2. How it's important

• Can allow a person to realign themselves and approach reality with a more positive outlook.
• Can open doors and can surpass natural sciences in many ways.

3. How it's unimportant

• Some say it's important to the human experience to live in reality and face the consequences.
• Can cause a person to neglect reality and retreat from dealing with depression or similar mental anxiety in a tangible and practical way.

Source 5: "Escaping the Self" by Roy F. Baumeister, Ph.D

1. Why would people want to escape?

• Hardships. War, poverty, stress etc.
• Desire to maintain a certain image.
• Escape pressures and responsibilities.
• Low self-esteem
• Escapism is considered a panacea

2. How it's done?

• Escaping the self is thus not a matter of removing the self entirely, but rather of shrinking it down to its bare minimum.
• It's more like an escape from identity into body.
• It involves passivity.
• Apart from the body, the rest of the self is something that was made, and to escape the self, you must mentally unmake it.

Source 6: "Interpreting Personality Theories" by Ledford J. Bischaf

1. Psychological Basics of Human Behavior

• Common sense may be indeed common, or general, but its sense is surrounded by prejudice, superstition, and acres of wishful thinking.
• Studying the individual is in all the facets of a person and determining how these factors explain and predict his behavior.

2. Control

• To achieve such, one would require the need to formulate an explanation on every occurrence in the past and permit predictions
• Would need to make arrangements, manipulate environment, prepare for known action, and thus control outcome.

3. Subconscious

• The present treatment of the mental phenomenon.
• The activity of man with which he enters life completely equipped and has given to it the term subconscious: that which lies below or outside of consciousness, but not the opposite of the term conscious.

Source 7: "Surrealism and Dadaism" Marianne Oesterreicher Mollwo

The Movement of Surrealism

1. Aims and Methods

• Might be described as both the common denominator and the most extreme variants of irrational, fantastical phenomena.
• Surrealists were aware of the subject of dreams yet the interpretations of the latter wasn't of essential importance.
• Dreams interested them, along with many abnormal psychic reactions and conditions, because the interest in these things led beyond the "rational" everyday reality.

2. Visual image

• Surrealists were sometimes poets.
• In one respect, painting was especially close to semi-conscious or unconscious creative spontaneity.
• It is believed that with a painting manner less tied to its physical model, the unconcious can achieve a breakthrough with for less inhibitions.

Source 8: "Dada and Surrealist Art" by William S. Rubin

Artists started/influenced Surrealism

1. Andre Breton

• He was drawing attention to the works of poets, philosophers, psychologists, artists, and others that contained, to a greater or lesser degree, the features which would later be called Surrealists.
• He gave Surrealism its first formal definition in the manifesto of 1924.
• Defined it as a state of the creative mind and/or spirit which had existed in various individual throughout history.

2. de Chirico

• Influenced the style of illusionistic surrealists by the "poetic theater".
• While it was a crucial influence for many surrealist artist, his references to the inconography of the past were handled in such a way as not to be assimilable.

3. Max Ernst

• Began the series of oil painting in which this synthesis is embodied, and which constituted the sole direct link between Dada and Surrealism, late in 1921.
• His proto-surrealist style is generally realistic, but with the elimination of detail, the low-relief modeling, and with deep and stage like space.

Source 9: "The World of Picasso 1881-" by Lael Wertenbaker and the Editors of Time-Life Books

Picasso and Surrealism

1. A way of escape

• Frequent escape into the solitude of creativity was as essential as a fresh intake of air, and as bracing.
• Having embarked upon a quest for metamorphic forms, he followed it down a dozen different avenues.

2. Surrealist style

• He shared the Surrealist's conviction that large sources of subject matter waited to be tapped in art.
• The painting style represented far more than a salute to surrealist doctrine; it was the omen of a new style in Picasso's art, unleashing his inventive powers as never before.
• His surrealistic poetry was spontaneous and unselfconscious, unfettered by rules of grammar or form; yet it was full of original imagery.

Source 10: "Surrealists on Art" Edited by Lucy R. Lippard

Artists interpretations of Surrealism

1. Max Ernst

• One of Surrealism's first revolutionary act was to bring down its myths with impartial means and in the severest form, by insisting vigorously on the purely passive role of the "author" and by unmasking as adverse to inspiration all "active" control through intellect, morality, or aesthetic considerations.
• Since every normal person carries in his subconscious an inexhaustible supply of buried pictures, it is a matter of courage or of liberating methods to bring to light from expeditions into the unconscious objects.

2. Joan Miro

• It was difficult for him to talk about his painting since it was always born in a state of hallucination provoked by some shock, objective or subjective, for which he was entirely irresponsible.
• He increasingly forced himself to attain a maximum of clarity, power, and plastic aggressiveness, that is, to provoke first of all a physical sensation, and then to arrive at the soul.

20 Opposite Thumbnails

20 Related Thumbnails

Thoughts and feelings

I at first wasn't too sure on what to come up with for the brain search. Then I thought of the word fantasy. Since we were told to go nuts and free write, I thought that fantasy was a good way to let the mind go and I thought I could try that. It's actually an interesting topic and the more I thought about it, the more ideas and terms I came up with. All I had to do was not think about it some much and just go with it and let it flow. I also think that fantasy and imagination is important and also fun to me and that was what I'd like my focus to be on.

Direction and Opposite words and ideas

Direction: Fantasy/imagination- What is it and it's importance

Opposite Words and Ideas

• Sadness
• Childish
• Nonsense
• Loss/Slipped away
• Grow out of/Grow up
• Not thinking realistically
• Hallucinations
• Crazy/insane
• Leads to distractions
• Dull
• Colorless
• Empty
• Stiff/Uptight
• Judging others
• Mental disorders
• Nightmares
• Disbelief
• Black and White
• Same as everyone else
• Strange
• Boring
• Not normal
• Won't get one far in life
• Not real if no one's seen it
• Leads to naivety
• Hoax/fake
• Weird
• A problem
• Clouds the mind or one's judgement
• Sticking out
• Fear
• Rigid/unyielding
• Keeps one from seeing what's right in front of them
• Close-minded
• Uncaring
• Useless
• No such thing
• Give it up
• All work and no play
• Routine

Direction and Relate words and ideas

Direction: Fantasy/imagination What is it and it's importance?

Related words and ideas

• Happiness/joy
• Escapist/escape
• Creativity/creative
• Making something out of nothing
• Making something my own
• Magical
• Hopeful
• Dreaming/Daydreaming
• Making something real
• Ideas
• Stories/Fables
• Emotional/feelings
• Believing/having faith in something
• Keeping one's mind wide open
• Remembering/reminisce
• Journey
• Artistic/Art
• Reaching for dreams
• Fun/exciting/playful
• Games
• Fantasy world
• Friendship
• Safety/comforting
• Enjoyment
• Love
• Different
• Unique
• Genuine
• One of the best things about life
• Journaling
• Real to oneself
• Happy place/thinking place
• Feels like home
• Adventure
• Sharing
• Therapeutic/calming
• Sleeping
• Created from memory/one's mind
• Describing
• Colorful/beautiful
• Can broaden one's horizons

Brainsearch and Freewrite list

Fantasy

• What does it mean?
• Imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
• The forming of mental images, especially wondrous or strange fancies.
• Psychology- an imagined or conjured up sequence fulfilling a psychology need.
• Daydream
• Also fantasia literature- an imaginative or fanciful work, especially one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters.
• images, imagine, fantasize, imagination
• The best part of life.
• Dreams
• Fantasy can be like idealizing - creating ideas.
• mood or feelings: happy, excitement, fear, hopeful
• mind wandering, distracting
• useful tool in art or story making/writing.
• can lead to new things or stories.
• exciting
• escape/escapist
• Ivory tower
• Believing in
• Unrealistic
• crazy
• Create one's own world, things, people, etc.
• healing/ therapy/ calming
• colors, colorful
• Nightmares
• Brought to life, Bringing to life
• creative/creativity
• Curiosity/curious
• Making something out of nothing.
• Safety/security/sense of place/longing for
• This is home
• heart, soul, mind
• ingenuity/uniqueness/different/indifferent/not normal/abnormal
• Adventure
• Playful
• Enjoyment/fun
• memory/reminisce/recall/remember
• Just because you can't seen it or have never seen it, doesn't mean it's not real or doesn't exist.
• The most real things in the world are the things we can't see.
• Broaden horizons
• light/darkness
• Emotional/emotions/feelings
• Lies/fabrications/fake/hoax
• Judging others
• life lessons
• crazy/strange/different/weird
• Pleasure
• Wishing/longing/hope for
• run after/go after/finding/searching for
• Peaceful
• encouragement
• Why is it important? Gives one the chance to create or get more out of life
• No sense/odd
• Wonderful
• Whimsy

It Starts

Welcome to the Dynamic Imaging blog of Lauren Willoughby.