Animated Thoughts: No Dungeons, just Dragons!

Well the Sloan Museum of Discovery over in Flint had an exhibit that I just couldn't miss: "The Lost World of Dragons!" As I walked from display to display, I quickly realized that twelve year-old me would've been jumping out of his skin with excitement at seeing dragons and learning about them.

Fifty(ish) me was initially geeked about the animatronics. And then I saw how much the curators wanted the public to engage with this exhibit. The displays were very well constructed and geared for interactivity--lots of buttons and levers and video screens and hidden lights and sounds. But they also had taken a couple pages right out of Lotte Reiniger's book "Shadow Theaters and Shadow Films". Stationed within the displays was a station where you could film your own stop-motion video with dragons in Lotte's silhouette animation style.

Two animation workstations, one on each side

Multi-jointed winged dragon model

Additionally, there was a backlit stage with simple dragon puppets where you could put on a traditional shadow theater play.

There were also some other highly interactive displays, like a puppet show stage complete with simple sound-effects and puppets as well as a virtual-reality headset with this dragon rider game. There was also a station at the entrance where you could pick up a card and watch a video explaining the exhibit and the "Dragon Challenge" game. At various displays, there were symbols to find and copy to your card. At the end, you'd enter them into a display and receive a prize after watching a closing video.

The Dragon Challenge game

They did a really good job on the historical/educational information, not just with the info presented, but how they organized it regionally with dragons from Asia, the Mediterranean, Mesoamerica, and various parts of Europe.

Rating all the museum exhibits I've ever been to, this is definitely number two on that list.(1) It's highly interactive and each station has a lot of documentation with tons of historical information. There are puzzles to solve, artwork to enjoy, and lots and lots of giant dragons! 

It'll be around until September 13th, if you have a kid, or are a kid at heart yourself, I cannot recommend this exhibit highly enough.

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(1) Number one: the Musee d'Orsay's impressionist art collection, Number three: the 'Watch Me Move' animation exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art.

Animated People: Erik Timmerman

There are certain moments where, when you call them up from your memory, they arrive with such a measure of clarity it's as if you were right back there in that moment. The first meeting we had with Erik on our first day of grad school at R.I.T. was one such moment. I vividly remember him as he stood there at the front of the classroom while all seven of us sat at attention, taking in every word.

During his lecture about what the program entailed, Erik cleared his throat and stated matter-of-factly:

"Graduate school is not about how little you can do, it's about how much you can do."

Of all the wisdom Erik imparted upon me over the next three years, this is the statement that I still think about the most--the statement that meant the most to me if I'm being completely honest. During that first quarter at R.I.T., I had difficulty getting traction as I was thrust into such a new environment. I fell down far more than I ran. But by second quarter, I was learning how to apply his advice towards our classes, and specifically the Photo Core II class is where it really clicked. As Erik was teaching us about the principles of animation, and we were required to animate examples in order to illustrate our understanding, I started pushing the assignments further. Starting with simple animations that just showed the principle, I soon branched out into creating gag films and adding more complex stories and editing. By the end of my third year, I had translated Erik's advice into a five minute hybrid hand-drawn/CGI film that pushed my skills beyond their limits.

Life being what it is, it is not always easy to maintain that level of dedication and focus on projects and on life. But when I find myself lagging behind, Erik's words are still there encouraging me to do more and be more.

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Animated Thoughts: Pow! The Art of Comics

It's shaping up to be a good year for animation and animation-adjacent arts here in Michigan. Over in Muskegon, they had a special exhibit highlighting comic book art at the Muskegon Museum of Arts.

Titled "Pow! The Art of Comics", this exhibit was a good look at the experience running from comic strips to comic books, the memorabilia and props as well as their impact on popular culture.

Above and beyond the animation cels and model sheets, what I enjoyed the most was the frames upon frames of concept art and storyboards for feature films. They definitely hit some of my favorites including the Matrix films, the live-action Speed Racer, and a couple of the Marvel films.

'Nebuchadnezzer'
The Matrix, 1999

'Mach 5 and Racer X Trading Paint' by Warren Manser
Speed Racer, 2008

A classic painting by artist Julie Bell shows the far reaching nature of comic book art as inspirations stretch into the realm of fantasy.

Pegasus Befriends the Muses
2018, Julie Bell

And it wouldn't be a comic book exhibit without Batman!

The Batcave, complete with the Batmobile, circa 2015

The Super Friends cartoon from back in the 1970's. Boy does that take me back. Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, who remembers? I love looking at model sheets from animated films. Really shows the thought that went into developing the characters and ensuring consistency across a series.

Ah, Red Sonja, the 'She Devil with a Sword'. I'm only three issues from completing the 1977-1979 Marvel series and two issues away from having their 1983-1986 series completed in my collection. Below is a classic John Buscema panel from the first Marvel series, circa 1979.

Red Sonja Vol.1 #15 Page 7, 1979

Loved perusing their section on Vintage comic strips, especially the section on Terry and the Pirates. The skill that is displayed in the rendering of these images still leaves me breathless. I'm consistently in awe of the drafting skills that these men and women developed back in the days before computers.

Terry and the Pirates, George Wunder, 1951

For years, I've looked to the larger more well known museums for special exhibitions and rare film screenings. As of late, I have been learning to appreciate the smaller regional museums and keep their calendars on my radar for those exhibits that are closer to my interests.

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