Project 1 / Music For Public Consumption

My animation is a machine that whimsically depicts the digitalization of music. The inspiration came from my Music 216 class (audio recording). I wanted the animation not only to convey a process but to have a sense of absurdity as well. Once I had the idea, I looked for pictures on the internet that I could actually use in my animation, and then made my story board. Because I already had the pictures I wanted to use, I feel like my final animation is pretty close to my original story board. I wish I had had a better understanding of after effects, because as a result of “learning as I went” there are many small details that really bother me and that I would like to change. It would have been easier to do this, however, l BEFORE I had all 70 of my layers. I like the effects I did use, and I tried not to make them too repetitive. Some of the effects in the program were a little too complicated, so some repetition was unavoidable. For example, I tried too make the different stages of “electric signal” all look different, yet all of them involve color and “light” in some way. I was surprised how short the time restraint of 20 seconds was; it sounded like plenty of time, but in the end I could have used more.

Project 2 / Imitating Forms

In my animation I choose to explore deconstruction through architecture. I was originally inspired by an Ayn Rand quote: ''Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless its made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man.'' The Fountainhead Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 24.

This quote, like the rest of The Fountainhead, is a metaphor for life and creativity in general. What can be done with one set of tools, materials, technology, ect should not be imitated with a another or newer set of tools, materials, technology, ect. It limits creativity and produces only a bad imitation. I think this metaphor is very applicable to art and especially to computer animation, being that the technology opens completely new venues for exploration not available in traditional animation.

While this quote is a metaphor, it does a pretty good job at summing up the thought behind conventional Modernist architecture. The form fits the function and the means fit the ends. However when doing research I stumbled across a sect of Modernist architecture called ''deconstructivism.'' From Wikipedia: '' The attempt in deconstructivism throughout is to move architecture away from what its practitioners see as the constricting 'rules' of modernism such as ' 'form follows function,''purity of form,'' and '' truth to materials.''

I decided to play with these two ideas literally to construct the plot of my animation. The idea is that the first building the appears is a representation of a normal modernist building. It has clean lines and builds itself in a logical way with the structure appearing first and then the exterior covering the interior.

The second building is meant to be imitating the first, however instead of a smooth clean, functional form it has has slightly more abstract and curved form. The shape is not derived by function but rather by an attempt to be more ascetically appealing. It also appears in a very illogical way, popping up from the ground and then growing out of proportion. The windmills that appear to the right of the first building and the sculptures the appear behind the second building are also an extension of this ''imitating forms'' idea. While the windmills are useful (and I also wanted to touch on sustainability) the sculptures are purely ascetic.

The contrast of the two forms raised an interesting question for me, does the emphasis on the ascetic appearance and design make deconstructivism more of and 'art form' than conventional modernist architecture? True, in some art the sole purpose is ascetics but shouldn't the purpose come before the appearance? I see this idea translating into the fine arts, where the purpose should be communication of abstract ideas and form and aesthetic appeal are tools to do this.

I really struggled deciding wheatear or not to incorporate music. I finally choose a snippet from Rush's 2112.

Project 3 / A Highly Illogical Romance

Even though this project could be experimental, I choose to animate a fairly straight forward plot. Up too this point I had not created anything with characters, so I really wanted to explore more traditional character-plot based animation, as oppose to abstract conceptual animation. Though my theme is ordinary and slightly cliche, my characters, a cockroach and a spider, are not.

I chose to do sounds effects and music to fill the audio requirement of this assignment. Some of the sound effects (the wind and the creaking) were found on the internet, and some of them (the scream, the spiders scuttling) were made by me. The chirping of the cockroach (because really, what noise DO cockroaches make?) was originally a clip found on the internet, but then I manipulated the pitch and tempo to make a verity of chirps to make him more expressive.

There are three pieces of music in my animation. Two of them are oboe pieces played by me; Air, by Handel, and the waltz from Sleeping Beauty, by Tchaikovsky (originally from the ballet, though used in the Disney movie as well).

The piano at the beginning is also me playing, though it is just improvised chords. I choose to record myself playing because I thought the sound would fit better with the sort of homemade feel of the animation, as oppose to the fully orchestrated professional versions. And also because I could.

Project 4 / "And would you consider Pride to be a Fault or a Virtue?"

For this project I just wanted to do a simple text sequence. When I though about words and animation (class) the first thing that came to mind is pretentious. We all express a lot of opinion in this class, and I suppose its human nature to assume that your opinion and your taste is superior to others. Some are just louder about it. The concept of self esteem really interests me, especially that fact that clinically depressed people actually have a much more realistic self-image than the general population. It seems we are built to function with an inflated ego. In short I choose these words because they interested me, not because they related to the actual animation I wanted to do. This is a text sequence that would work with any words, in fact I wanted it too look somewhat like a title sequence. The animation is not a representation of the words. This is on purpose. The I choose some words with positive connotations and some words with negative connotations. The last, word, ego, has both, though it is generally look at in a negative light, I view it in a very positive way.

Final Project / 392 Pixels

Don’t be fooled by the Jellyfish’s seeming aloofness. In reality these Cnidarians have a complex sociological structure. View though the spectrum of 392 pixels we see the humble Jelly try unsuccessfully to acquire a mate. Note the jelly’s intricate thought process, as well as his preference for Brooklyn based electronic pop.