Some More Info

Some research continued from the animation group meetings with Christian.. they've really helped, it's good to know your research can be useful to others, and that others can suggest things that you're not as yet aware of. Here's some things Christian and the group have touch on that I've had a look further into  .... 

Phil Mulloy.

Christian approved of the Skydive animation, hooray! He suggested going bigger and bolder in the technique next time- And Mulloy couldn't be any more bolder in his animation style - and message - he is pretty odd. 
(Some people may find scenes of the following video offensive) (!!) ..... 

If you want to watch the rest of the story, Part 2 is available here --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YKuWnyZCCM

Taking Mulloy's, erm, imaginative story-line aside, the style he uses is a simple yet really effective one. It's very bold, clear and obvious in what he's drawing, in turn helps the story become very very clear, and creates a great animation.

The Quay Brothers



I'd never really heard of these guys, and I thought the animation was 
rather eerie to start with, and continued to get more weird - but the 
animation style again, I'm absolutely fascinated by. It's that use of a 
range of camera angles, treating the animation as a real film, as I 
guess that's what it is in short. The lighting, the costume, the 
materials, the set, the characters, the expressions... everything is 
absolutely down to a tee on setting that eerie mood and it's just 
amazing. 

There's a LOT of time and effort gone in there though... I can't 
possibly produce a small scene on a scale like this by the time line in 
a couple of weeks - shite. yes. a couple of weeks.... but it's 
something I'd consider for a later project to be able to completely 
commit to and get ridiculously involved in. 

Terry Gilliam 
 
This is yet another slightly different style of animation - it's clever as it's minimal - the scenes are simple and repeated to save time on an interesting back ground.. but that doesn't matter for the main animation happening in the foreground to the character. And the characters themselves are simple. Definitely great for taking short cuts, and skimming down what could be a lot more work when you're just trying something out.
I'd like to try cut out animation, perhaps to a small sound track/feature as I haven't really tackled the idea of sound and animation together yet. It's a simple set up for actually animating, compared to a complex animation on after effects, or loads of hand drawn characters, so more achievable in the time left available for me.