Artist Research - David O'Reilly

David O'Reilly is an artist known for creating primarily 3D animated films. Examples of his work include 'Please Say Something', 'Octocat Adventures', and my personal favourite of his, 'The External World'. As well as these films, O'Reilly has done commercial work creating films for U2, and an episode of the popular cartoon Adventure Time. Whilst his work does delve into other techniques and styles, his 3D work is generally low-poly, and has a very distinctive style.

'The External World' is a 17 minute comedy film, and is essentially made up of many little skits, which come together to create one film. The film draws upon dark humor a lot, using what would normally be tragic events or scenarios to create humorous results. The film is very surreal, and is in the very recognisable low-poly style usually seen in O'Reilly's work. I personally enjoy the film because of the way it uses dark humor and very abstract scenarios, such as the teacher trying to get the student to learn piano, which eventually culminates in the teacher smacking the student with the butt of a gun, and then the student shooting the teacher. In the final scene, a ghostly hand has been handcuffed, so that it cannot hit the boy whilst he is playing to the characters seen throughout the film. I also particularly like the range of colours used in the film, and the referential humor used, such as a homeless person trying to get coins by jumping into a brick block, imitating Mario. The use of bright colours is something I may choose to strive for in my animations, as this is something I particularly enjoy throughout the animation.

'Please Say Something', is set in the future, and follows the characters of a cat and mouse, who live together, and are in a troubled relationship. During the film, the two main characters have trouble getting along with one another, and go between being passive with one another and fighting several times. Occasionally in the film, the mouse will go to make a decision, and the film will carry on, but later rewind, as the mouse does not like the consequences. One such time is when the cat decides to leave, and the mouse does not try to stop it, and doesn't seem to care. However, the film progresses, with the mouse at his laptop, and as he goes to the TV, he realises the cat had the remote, so the film rewinds, and the mouse winks at the camera as the cat goes to leave him. The film tends to mainly use black and white imagery, while using dashes of colour, which does give it a nice effect, and is a useful tool for highlighting important pieces of the animation, such as characters and props (as seen with the scarf the cat is given).

Octocat is a very strange animation, based on the character of Octocat, trying to find his parents. A very large part of the animation is made using very, very basic drawing, similar to the style of very quick drawings made in MS Paint. I'm not overly fond of this portion of the animation, however I do like the way in which it is able to show movement and so on, while using basic imagery, and does have a certain humour to it. Octocat searches far and wide for his parents, meeting several character along the way, until he meets one particular character which makes fun of him for having no parents. At this point, Octocat transforms, and along with it, the animation style changes, now being in 3D, in O'Reilly's signature style. Octocat seemingly destroys the entire surrounding's, and the screens fades out. After this, Octocat is seen sadly walking through a forest, alone, when the camera pans up, and the audience see what is presumably Octocat's parents.