Cold Hard Flash - Guy Collins

          I really enjoyed Collins' latest animation titled "Rage". I love the whole concept of how someone's reaction to frustration can lead to someone else's misery, which can then lead to another person's reaction to frustration, and then again lead to someone else's misery. In essence, a big domino effect. The ending was definitely my favorite part. Everything in this animation was drawn and the drawing of President Obama was on point. I like the animator's choice of colors by only providing colors to the object(s) that causes havoc and chaos around the city. This highlighted the main focuses of the animation. On the other hand, the characters were simply black and white which i thought worked out fine. Overall, i thought this was a very clever animation that really relates the world at large, particularly, in my opinion, people in New York City.

Mark Fiore's Animated Cartoon

          Fiore's animation is an alternative way to create political satire for all ages. Particularly with cartoons, I would imagine it would be suitable for children, except there are some R-rated content. Yet, its something everyone can watch and easily understand. The style of animations definitely works for his topics of works. And this form of medium should be used more often in raising awareness on current issues. It would probably be more effective in terms of reaching a larger audience. Fiore's style of animation is common and seen in popular cartoon shows. Most of the actions or animations simply come from the eyes, arms and mouth. All which create the gestures or emotions that the creators are trying to tell. Whether there are big eyeballs to show shock or slanted eyebrows to represent anger, a majority of the expressions derive particularly from the eyes.

I Met the Walrus

           The animations in the video was very neat. It reminded me a lot of what you would see in documentaries when they bring up statistics and mention important facts from different studies. The use of those form of animation supports the message in the video with very clear and simple images. It included many drawn figures, actual footage, and possibly images from photographs. The background color definitely went hand-in-hand with the old recording that's being played in the video. Overall, I enjoyed the images and different styles of animation in the video, but other than that I thought it was very dull, probably only due to the poor quality of the recording and the overall sound.

"Creep" Animation by Low Morale

           This animation video was definitely an eyeopener to the possibilities in Adobe Flash. I enjoyed it. The characters fit very well with the emotion and meaning of the song. The use of an unusual, odd-looking, "creepy"  man helped emphasize the separation and loneliness in the message of the song. The techniques used in the video went well with the overall mood of the song. The gradual changes and creations in the video was a great technique to show the time lapse in the video. It portrayed how the main character in the animation seemed to be bored and misplaced in an environment he later escapes from. This was done very well through the use of the masking technique.