The Imaginauts Aesthetic

1. Simple
2. Flat colors, with simple textures (possibly created by stamps!)
3. Bright colors (usually) with white for contrast and minimal black
4. Obviously handmade, we are not machines!

Characters of the ImagiNATION

So our show has two main characters, a boy and girl duo, as of yet unnamed. We've decided that the girl should specialize in history and the boy in art. Within the show, their physical form changes, but their 3D puppets are their "true" selves. If they are in a certain painting, the aesthetics of the painting world they enter alters their physical appearance, but they still retain some obvious physical features that distinguish them as our beloved main characters. <3

There will be several other characters in the show too, like the artists they talk to, the characters in the paintings, and the individuals having creativity issues. Alongside them are other characters (imaginauts??) that help out our duo. 

One possible character:

Name: General Aesthetics

Age: 50s - 60s

Bio: Civil war general with an eye for visual cohesiveness! Mustache! White horse!

Imaginauts Manifesto

We are a group of people underneath the name of the Imaginauts, attempting to produce a show that we hope will influence our viewers in a positive way. But what does that mean? If someone looked at our About Us page, what would it say?

If we want to be successful in our mission, we should probably organize our goals and beliefs around some central themes, so that we're sure our show becomes what we want it to be.

Winnie the Pooh

Forget the Disney version--I'm talking about the original text by A. A. Milne and the illustrations by Ernest H. Shepherd. I recently found a copy of the complete stories in my house, and I think that it's a great resource for us.

More Excellent Color

Rice Boy by Evan Dahm is an epic webcomic, as is Tiny Kitten Teeth by Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson. Both use bright colors really well, particularly to emphasize the different moods of different locations/events/characters. (In Tiny Kitten teeth, I'm talking more about the storyline pages than the random single-panel paintings of Tigabuttah & co. You'll see what I mean if you follow the link :)

Examples after the jump.

Yo Gabba Gabba

So, until about three minutes ago, I had never seen Yo Gabba Gabba and only knew about it from you guys talking about it (so I guess everyone else has seen it, right?) From what I just looked at it is obviously really excellent, and there's some things they did that I think we could learn from. (You who know more about it could probably add to this list)

-Seamless incorporation of live video and animation (and several different kinds of animation at that)

-Simple but fun/colorful sets (looks just like what I was picturing when I commented on Ha's color post - our style could (should?) be simple, bright shapes made more interesting by adding texture, in our case via stamps.) http://yogabbagabba.com/#/come-out-and-play

-Having an online presence - okay so our whole thing is that we're gonna post these one youtube/vimeo, but we should make Imaginauts accounts on all those sites (facebook? vimeo? myspace? classmates.com?) if not an actual website (errrr too hard?) and design an Imaginauts logo / title that pops up at the beginning of the show (you know what I mean.)

-Maybe this is beyond our means, but should we have songs IN the show? maybe one song (besides opening/closing themes) per show about whatever that show's theme is? I think a lot of kids shows have that...

I love the way William Kentridge describes "finding" images in the studio. This is sort of an overview of his work, if you have an hour to kill.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/specials/anythingispossible/watch-now/

theme song brainstorming!

apparently you cant upload mp3 files to blogspot? so go to this link and download!

http://www.mediafire.com/?6mxrvmhxzqxufc9

So I wrote this the other night when a tune popped in my head, the lyrics are simple and generic because we don't know the specifics yet.

I daydream every day
Cuz pictures always have something to say
We're travelling far away
And all things change as time goes by
Let's open up our eyes
Imaginauts!

So this is just and idea. What do you think for the actual theme song? Lyrics or no lyrics? Should we wait until we can write more specific lyrics? Were you thinking a different kind of style/sound? Instruments?? Can you find theme songs from other tv shows that you like?

Surface/Texture/Color

Brendan Monroe:

Cynthia Camlin:

Notes on permissions:

My source in government says:

For art work, they need to see if it's in the collections of any museums and get permissions from the museums registrars office. I'd avoid anything that's not in collections because then you have to mess with estates and stuff. If they're talking about contemporary living artists, they may be able to approach the artist or their gallery also. For example, to use a Chuck Close, I would go through Pace in NY. Since they're looking for digital rights, it may be tricky as there are issues of downloading and perpetuity and stuff. But since this is for school, maybe they'll catch a break.

Also, check out:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/index.html
http://www.vlany.org/resources/index.php

And also:
http://creativecommons.org/

Once you read all about the issue, and then have a lis of artists/artwors you are considering using, then maybe call Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts to discuss your plan. Make sure they know its a school project.
http://www.vlany.org/legalservices/artlawline.php