Animation 1

Blog Assignment #6

The animation of the popular television show, The Simpsons, has drastically changed since the show's first short airing in 1987. In the beginning, the characters were poorly drawn with very little detail and only a select few colors being used on them. As the show gradually gained more popularity and success, there started to be much more time and money available for the show to add more detail and interest to the animation. One of the first and most important advances in the show's animation was the use of digital coloring. Before that, the animation was done entirely by hand making it very difficult and time consuming to add any kind of shading or highlighting. The characters appeared completely flat and each character was only animated with three or four different colors at most, and never any variations of shade. However, after digital coloring started being used in every episode there was much more time available to spend on smaller details. The Simpsons started to appear less flat and the animation had considerably more more depth due to the added shadows and highlights. Homer's pants, for example, were previously animated using only a single shade of blue, making them appear two-dimentional. After digital coloring, Homer's pants received three layers of color; there is the primary blue color that was originally used followed by a small additional layer of a darker shade of blue for a shadow and also a lighter shade of blue as a highlight. This added use of color gives each episode much more visual interest as opposed to the previous flat boring animation. In the show's twentieth season, they began production in high definition. This made the animation extremely crisp and clear and is the most recent advancement in The Simpsons' animation style. The signature yellow hue of the Simpsons' skin is another feature that helped the show progress in animating. The more recent seasons use a brighter and more vivid skin tone for the characters so they stand out and pop more. The show's animation techniques and styles have come a long way since it's beginning.

Blog Assignment #4

Song 1 - My Name Is Skrillex

Listening Framework – Song 1

Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)

Tempo – Tempo of the first song is pretty fast and up beat.

Source – The primary source of the rhythm comes from the constant thumping of the bass.

Groove – The song is driven by a repetitive beat that makes the song seem trance- like.

Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation – Driven completely by synth with very little vocals.

Structure – The song is built like most other dub-step songs, a catchy verse followed by a massive drop and booming chorus.

Emotional Architecture – The intensity builds throughout the verse until all the instruments drop at once and then all come back at once even louder.

Listening Phase 3 (Sound Quality/Balance)

Height – Extremely low frequencies with wobbling, dirty bass. There are some high and mid-range frequencies of sound to help balance.

Width – Skrillex takes full advantage of panning is his songs. The song sounds much more dynamic due to the different sounds coming from each side.

Depth – It is impossible to pick up on every single layer of sound used in this song. Electronic music uses many different layers to create interest.

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 Song 2 - First of the Year

Listening Framework – Song 2

Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)

Tempo – Tempo of the song is slower than the first, but still pretty fast and up beat.

Source – The main source of rhythm comes from the deep synth tracks that establish a rhythm in the song.

Groove – The chopped and filtered vocals make the song feel very futuristic and different from most other music.

Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation – Driven mostly by synth with very little vocals and some piano.

Structure – The song is built like most other dub-step songs, a catchy verse followed by a massive drop and booming chorus.

Emotional Architecture – The intensity builds throughout the verse until all the instruments drop at once and then all come back at once even louder.

Listening Phase 3 (Sound Quality/Balance)

Height – Extremely high frequencies of synth that contrast with low frequencies of wobbling, dirty bass give the song a vast range of sound.

Width – Skrillex takes full advantage of panning in all of his songs. The song sounds much more dynamic due to the different sounds coming from each side.

Depth – It is impossible to pick up on every single layer of sound used in this song. Skrillex uses many different layers of sounds and synths to create interest.

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Skrillex (Sonny Moore) has been making music for nearly the past decade. He started off in a punk-rock band called From First To Last, who still exist as a band today only without their former lead vocalist, Sonny. His style of making music has changed drastically since then. Using the name, Skrillex, Sonny reinvented himself a few years ago to help define a genre of music that has come to be known as dubstep. I chose to discuss two different songs by Skrillex, one from when he first began making electronic music, and the other from after he started to gain more success and approval. The two songs are similar in style but also extremely different in detail. The first and earlier song, My Name Is Skrillex, was one of his first songs that gave Skrillex his distinct style. Driven by a booming bass drum, a fast tempo, and extremely unique synth sounds, Skrillex started to create a style of his own that would eventually become extremely popular. The second song, First of the Year, is one of the newest songs to be released by Skrillex. It is my opinion that this song features less characteristics of Skrillex's unique style, and was constructed more to give people exactly what they want. I think that the thing that has changed most with his sound is the emotional architecture. His older music did such a good job of building the intensity up and then  dropping it all at once and constantly switching things up, making the songs more interesting to listen to. The more recent song is less melodic and less fun to listen to. The structure of the song is exactly the same as every other popular dubstep song, and I can't help but feel like Skrillex has lost some of his individualism that gave him the success that he has now in the first place.