My Intro to Animation Final

Our final project assignment for our first semester frosh animation class was to create 3 books that used 2 or 3 of our assigned objects differently, giving them different contexts or meanings. Can you guess what my assigned two reoccurring objects were? Some of my classmates couldn't. (Answer at end of post.)

A walk cycle experiment made difficult because I noticed too late the model I used had scoliosis.

What's happening here, because I know it goes pretty fast: A girl in rags gets a fairy godmother, she gets a dress, the fairy talks to her about the midnight clause, then with a lecherous smile and wink makes a line of princes she can choose from poof into appearance, the girl looks turned on, she inspects the line, she chooses the ugliest one possible and attacks his face with her mouth, which he somehow doesn't want.

My animations seem to flip back and forth bipolarly from Disney-inspired to nightmare scrawl.


(My reoccurring objects are hearts and dresses!)

Week 9 Color Exploration to "My Body is a Cage"

(Please listen with audio, as the music enhances the meaning of the film.)

So the theme this week was color, and the color I was assigned was yellow. While people typically associate yellow with its positive connotations--such as sunshine, energy, happiness, youth, and enlightenment--there is actually a darker side to the meaning behind the color. Yellow can also represent loudness, decay, cowardice, age, waste, and sickness. I was very interested in the fact that yellow means both youth and old age/decay/sickness. I also wanted to incorporate the loudness of yellow, making it feel like my character was screaming or moaning. Enlightenment and cowardice were also contrasts I wanted to work with. I thought following the life span of someone who could not come to terms with their aging process, body, or mortality--and who faced both their birth and death with gracelessness and fear--would be an effective means of exploring each of yellow's connotations through my character's facial evolution and expressions.

Miscellaneous symbolism: Upon their death my character reluctantly receives enlightenment as signified by the growth of long hair that halos their face. When you see the character at 30 with a mohawk, the orange tears he cries are actually the male sign (O-->). This represents his inability to accept his adult form or the gender roles society imposes upon him. The opening and closing doors illustrate the rapid speed at which life passes him by. Doors of opportunity open for him, but he is too caught up in his imminent death to notice. The doors then close for him forever.

This is probably my favorite animation so far. In this short film I am telling a story that is actually important to me, in a style that is very much my own. I hope I can continue to tap into the source I used for this in the future. I think it actually helped that I did not use any pencil work in this animation, so my lines were bolder and more free. I enjoyed this loose, flexible style.

Week 3 Tone Exploration: Kafka in Wonderland

My third week animation assignment to work with tone and shade, neglecting lines. The original idea was Alice in Wonderland, but then I went Kafka, because Franz Kafka is THE MAN.

These are the events intended to be seen in this animation: Alice comes closer and we see that she is actually a giant, her apron becomes the backdrop, a mushroom grows under the mystic orchestration of the smoking caterpillar, who is consumed by smoke and darkness, becoming the Kafka-esque caterpillar who as he puffs on his cigarette has his face become transformed into a skull.

I still need to work on walking cycles--the one I created on my own here makes her look like a stomping demon. I think I should plan these books better, making less pages with better art.