Advanced Play Design W10

Theme: Stillness

Context:

Metamorphosis~ Hand drawn animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Ixz1YI55Q

La Linea #156

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VWcqILJam4

Method: 

To define and examine the value of stillness in my practice, I took a look to several animation work that display with imagery metamorphosis remaining the same characters or objects; their similarity of animatic behavior is changing the outline, feature or size while maintaining the same quality with their position and movement. In other words, people can identify them even when their outer conditions have visually changed (eg. Shapes, indication of environment changes) This is the stillness I observed through this genre of the animation work.

The method I intend to imitate this conception is creating a short animation clip on TVPaint with hand-drawn illustration skills, separating the actions of the rabbit and the environment into different sections in one clip. Time is set to be the changed condition to make the stillness of the subject stand out.

Response: 

Analyze

The animation work Metamorphosis~ Hand drawn animation (GhostDancer16, 2010) illustrates how a drop of water changing into several different animals in a way that presents an object changes its feature and quality while it can be recognized as the main subject. The organization of the various subjects in unity is the quality of its stillness. One of an animation clips in The Great Space Coaster (1981) shows the influence of environment to the character in a linear animation; the character is affected by the linear background which is also the element of the character’s imagery structure.  Overall, the stillness in linear animation can play a role of identity of constancy with feature metamorphosis, and the capability animated by component fragmentation and combination.

Application  

The rabbit (character/main object) and the environment (container) are chosen to be the components of stillness, whereas time is designed to be the changed element. Thus, the method of time expression becomes the point in the first part of the scene. The action of rabbit hitting the wall suggests the solid identity of these two objects (they don’t change their main feature at this moment); after this event, sun and cloud are passing above to indicate the time flow in the same location. Finally, a carrot drops from the shy and join to the rabbit’s body, and then the inflation of the rabbit appears to be an unexpected result of the carrot on its head; this two events are applied to the qualities of feature metamorphosis and the animatic component combination.

Link back to my project

Since there is a main theme in my project is about imagery metamorphosis and animation transition, this practice would be beneficial to my conception development. I can obtain the experience and logic of remaining the main object/character in each theme to the audiences while the components of their outlines are changed and distorted. This experiment can be further expended to the investigation of the combination of narrative and linear animation designed by optical illusions.