Bushie and Blair - Finished Animations

[Tim_Gibson]

These are the first 2 episodes of a series of political satires chronicling the 'War on Terror'. The project looked at adapting techniques from various mediums and using them to bridge the gap between the savagery of ‘still’ satire and the atmosphere of satirical film.

EPISODE1:
http://digitalmedia.massey.ac.nz/exposure/video.php?id=1&q=hi
EPISODE2:
http://digitalmedia.massey.ac.nz/exposure/video.php?id=19&q=hi

OR - FOR WMV, QUICKTIME AND DOWNLOAD OPTIONS:
http://digitalmedia.massey.ac.nz/exposure/student.php?id=2


Feel free to download and spread these videos around the web. Comments welcome. Cheers.

[RickStefani]

This is not for your demo reel is it?

[Cyrenn]

:(

Its a good animation.

But theres a fine line between Making fun of world leaders in a good and tastful mannor.

Blair humping Bush's leg.:(

[RickStefani]

Ya, We all know how well politics and people mix. How many times have we seen flame wars start on things like this. Now take your situation. A student of animation looking for a job. You have probably pissed of 30% of the possible employers with this and the remaining one probably would prefer someone who is more sensable.

if you were from the UK or US you would have more stretching room. Think of it this way, it is like a white person calling a black person the "N" word. :( :grr:

[Tim_Gibson]

ah, well... I don't want, or expect, people to have the same political views as me.

- "Think of it this way, it is like a white person calling a black person the "N" word." - seems a little excessive, and really relates to a different situation. I always thought the 'problem' was more Iraq's than the United State's or Britian's. Is criticising Bush like an average Joe calling an idiot an idiot?

But that aside, I wasn't planning on starting a forum fire... maybe i've just done it anyway... and only on my second post, wow.

Thanks for comments though :)

[RickStefani]

the modeling is good and so is most of the animation. You have some skills, no doubt about that. With this you have a lot of symbolism. Bush symbolizes America and Blare, Britain. It can be taken the wrong way. Watch it with that in mind and then you will see. I am sure you do not want to start a flame war but it will happen. I do not want to see it.

[Tim_Gibson]

Yeah, I appreciate this is a 3D site, not a political one, and your comment about putting it on a showreel is certainly valid.

It is definitely not intended as an attack on either Americans or the Brits, its more about creating caricatures of Bush and Blair. I tried to keep clear of any 'general' criticisms.

II dunno, I though the Blair humping stuff was kinda funny, just an extension of Steve Bells editorial cartooning work over at The Guardian. I just see those :( faces and I just have ta respond.

Thanks for the constructives.

[mr _homer]

This is not for your demo reel is it?...Originally posted by RickStefani
... This is not for your demo reel is it?...
...You have probably pissed of 30% of the possible employers with this and the remaining one probably would prefer someone who is more sensable.

if you were from the UK or US you would have more stretching room. Think of it this way, it is like a white person calling a black person the "N" word. :( :grr:

LOL.
man I dont even know where to start with that reply....
where is the support???
camparing it to the "N" word!!! and a :( :grr:

I think thats realy rough, and uncalled for, especially since Tim was looking for a job in NZ...
I say was looking because he is now working here (at Weta) with a team that saw the skills and humour in his reel.
Anyone that would dismiss him because of political reasons is a fool IMHO, He's doing a great job ;)

.j

[RickStefani]

I admit I was a bit out of line. I am sick of political debates more than anything else and I risked starting it myself.

[Tim_Gibson]

Yeah, I have to say, it was never designed exclusively to be a a 'showreel' peice. But I figured if i was gonna spend almost a year doing something, i may as well make it something i'll still be interested in in the later stages of the project.

[RickStefani]

I liked the style of the models. It was interesting seeing the facets of the polies when you can tell it was clean modeling. The film grain added a lot. Funny thing is the Bush model really looks like Reagan.

[Cyrenn]

Yes when I first saw the short. I was like ahhh snap a 3d model of Reagan:D :D :D :D

I also agree about the facet. I thought that gave it a unique twist to the animation. It almost had a dark atmosphere to it.

[tim.y]

Hi Tim..... hmmm..... dot co dot nz... I'm from nz aswell:)

[Tim_Gibson]

Yeah, i think theres a lot of kiwis floating around these forums.

Cyrenn: yeah, the 1st ones a lot darker than the 2nd - i think people have responded better to the 2nd one just because of the Tony Blair character - based on my little choc-lab, Coco :) I think the second one has the better animation also.

The lo-poly thing is something i always want to do with my models, but never normally go with. I did an Arnie caricature last year and as soon as it was smoothed, all the character went straight out of it.

[Aware]

This stuff Rocks Tim_Gibson! Dont mind those others...

Freedom of speech yada yada yada.

Did you **** some possible employees off? Likely, but who the hell want to work for a bush lover anyways? ;)

And if the employee is a really good one, then he wont care about how you express your opinions, as long as you got skills.

[RageCage]

Okay, I have to post on this topic. I'm all about free speech and I'm far from a bush supporter, but making anything controversial for a demo reel is just simply a bad idea.

Perhaps the comparison of calling a black man a ****** is a bad one, but it still has it's point and should not be over looked. I have some black friends who don't care if I refer to them as niggas, and then there are a lot of people who are probably offended by me even spelling it out in stead of saying "the N word". The point is that by even using the word, you just pissed half the audience off.

Even if an employer is anti-bush, he wont want anyone who is going to stir up controversy at work or make his company look bad. And lets be honest, if you got a good paying job, you woulden't care at all that your boss is a republican.

Sorry Tim.

As for the movies, I thought they were very good. The modeling job was very nice, but is there a reason why the polys aren't smoothed?

[hnbmilk]

i thought the unsmooth polys were really cool. I like your style. Animations were very smooth too. Good job!

[Tim_Gibson]

quote: "The point is that by even using the word, you just pissed half the audience off." - RageCage

First of all, not once, in my posts or in my animations have i refered to anybody with the 'n' word. That was introduced by another member, has no relavance to the animation in any way, and frankly - i thought - it had been laid to rest.

Second, it wasn't completed to go on a demo-reel, it was completed for me. It never even made it to a demo-reel.

Third, I don't give a' if my boss has a differing opinon - of course he would. Again, not soemthing I've mentioned.

Thanks for all the positives tho guys. Lo-poly was just a style decision - with satire why do a painting when u can do a sketch?

[RageCage]

OH, well then I'm very sorry. I didn't notice that you said it wasn't for a showreel. very good then.

although I would like to clear up that the N word discussion was an analogy and not to be taken so literally as claiming that you used the word in your animation. And it does have relevance in that it can be offensive in the same way a political cartoon can be.

that is all ^_^

[Shuggie]

I don't know about in the US, but in the UK there is a long history of satirical cartoons, even lampooning such hallowed figures as Sir Winston Churchill.

Also the current feeling in the UK isn't all that warm to our PM, over a million people took to the streets of London to protest against going to war in Iraq to no avail.

Despite Blairs assurances that he would get UN approval, the whole issue was fudged when we invaded based on a decade old mandate. I'm sure he'll get a third term as there is currently no credible opposition, pity we dont have the two terms then your out system, anyway I digress.

The quality of the animation was excellent, and the faceted modeling for me made for a really distinctive aesthetic, as far as I'm concerned I didn't really have a problem with the content, except for the the shots with the arm reaching into Bush, don't know why but it made me feel a bit sqeamish.

[RickStefani]

Originally posted by Shuggie
I'm sure he'll get a third term as there is currently no credible opposition, pity we dont have the two terms then your out system, anyway I digress.

I know the feeling. At least we have a two term limit.

[Tim_Gibson]

unfortunatly when u combine the terms of all the bushes it all turns to custard :(