Geri's Game: an Exercise in Dual Personalities

Hello Loyal Viewers! I won't lie when I say that Disney's Geri's Game is my favorite of their animated shorts. Something about an old man alone in a park playing chess with himself is simply charming and humorous. Reminds me of myself before I had friends. Putting aside my lonely middle school years, I still enjoy the overall style of this animated short. The two characters (personalities?) are each full personalities themselves. The old and slow Geri, and the lively and brutal man who might as well be his rival twin brother are an amazing juxtaposition, and by the end of the animation, you nearly forget they're the same person. Aside from this shot, this doesn't make sense given the circumstances.

Aside from this peculiar little shot, the continuity is preserved throughout the rest of the animation. The story is a fun one, and according to the animation, a high stakes duel for dentures. Geri sets up his chess board in an empty park and begins to play. The shots begin by showing his transition to each side of the table, but these transitions slowly become quicker and less obvious until there are two players in the game instead of one. The animation itself is well done and colorful, and the animators at Disney took great care to make the two players different and distinct. They each have obvious personality traits. Hence, the face of pure skepticism shown by Geri #2. (Fun Fact: That's the exact face I make when someone asks me a stupid question).

 The only complaint I have with Geri's Game is that single shot where continuity and human stretching abilities are thrown out the window. Other than that, the story is charming, and the characters are unique and delightful. I've always thought of this animation as someone making his own scenario or world in the absence of others. Either that or he's crazy, I really don't know which. at any rate, the animation is still a favorite of mine, and its story is told in an inspirational and amusing way.

The Heroic Gummy Bears of Candylandia

Hello Loyal Viewers! I'll say this now: when this project was assigned, I danced a little with joy. I've done stop motion projects for much of my life. Originally with a camcorder, then with my 3DS camera, and now with a very high quality piece of equipment provided by the e-Communication program. I always enjoy bringing inanimate objects to life, and it's one of my favorite forms of animation. So I was, to say the least, excited when we were presented with this assignment.

When we all started this project, we debated for a while on what we actually wanted to animate. The debate ended up being, in the end, between animating gummy bears, or Lego Bionicles. The idea for the project ended up being something of a compromise as we looked more at what story we wanted to tell. Fun Fact: it was originally supposed to be a hand attacking the gummy village, but we eventually figured that a Lego monster (later nicknamed Fido) would be easier to animate. Once we had our ideas in place, we set to work making it a reality.

The first step was making our set and background. Anna and Sierra did an amazing job putting the background together, and setting up our excellent candy houses. The rest of us set up the background, and made sure it was level. I assembled Fido at home, and brought in the gummy bears that my little sister won in a band fundraiser. I brought very few back (Sorry sis, they were delicious, and we were all hungry).

After that, it was time to animate. We set up in the center of the Animation room on one of the large tables. We animated for several days. I animated Fido, and Greta handled the daunting task of animating each of the bears while I held Fido in place after I posed him each time. We each did an excellent job, and the end result was rather impressive. As this happened over the course of several days, there were naturally some continuity errors, specifically in the lighting. Greta smoothed them over later, and now it's nearly impossible to tell they were there at all.

After the animation was done, Katylen handled the credits. Half the credits were inside jokes, and it was enjoyable naming all the gummy bears that we had just spent days killing off. Reminded me of naming food on the dinner table, and was just as ironic. The credits song was that insufferable song from the old Disney cartoon. Don't get me wrong, the show had its charms, but after the umpteenth time listening to it, I was very done with the music.

We finished the project by putting it all together in After Effects. I animated a title sequence in a candy theme, and Greta tweaked the video overall, and selected the music. I played a part in the finding of Fido's metallic screech. We originally were looking for an animal roar or screech, but thought the metallic screech a better fit when we uncovered it. Ironically enough, Fido's roar isn't a roar at all, but dry ice on metal.

After assembling it all, we sat back and admired our work. We put a lot of time and effort into this project, and we created something truly majestic. Fido is still my favorite character, but then again, I have a bias towards my own monsters. There's always that moment when you first see your creation animated, and you feel like Dr. Frankenstein. It's that moment of achievement when you create something that makes the entire difficult process worth the effort.

So, in conclusion, I had a blast with this project. I got to work with some talented and hilarious people, and created some amazing monsters in the process. We had our difficulties with the project, but we overcame them to make something great. Enjoy!