Animated Narrative - Week02 - Reflection

by Xile Qiu （Celine）

This week's topic discusses the Unique Capabilities of Animation. With the development of CGI technology, the gap between live-action animation and animated film is gradually narrowing. Despite the development of live-action, there are still many expressions of animation that can not be replaced by live-action film.

1.Metaphor and abstraction：Animation can use figurative images to easily express the emotional state of the protagonist. It takes strong acting skills to express emotions in live action movies. But in animation, the main character and other objects can be added or transformed to connect the two. It's vivid and imaginative.

2.Metamorphosis and transition：Animation can create worlds that you want to create. Because there is no limited form of picture expression, animation can easily connect different scenes and be clear at a glance. Audiences can understand what it wants to express without reading text explanation.

During the discussion, my classmates and I created and expanded some stories.  I chose the candle for fear of burning.

Bullet Treatment: Original Dot Points 

• The carpenter is mending his pipe
• The carpenter prepared to light the candle
• The candle covered her mouth. Next to the half-burned candle said, "You'll feel happy."
• A cigarette was inserted into the mouth of the candle.
• The candle felt the pleasure of 'smoking'
• The candle found its life expended. 
• The candle looked at the smoke in her hands and then at her body. 
• The candle chose to continue smoking.
•  Finally, the candle died on the candlestick with a satisfied face.  

I think this story is a metaphor for the fact that smoking is harmful to health.  This story is about a candle who is afraid of being lit, and I use the metaphor of fear of being lit as fear.  But when the carpenter lit it (put cigarette in its mouth) to make it feel happy, the candle chose to continue smoking. First of all, I didn't include the scene where the carpenter was repairing his pipe.  But I think it's a better metaphor. So I added this one. The metaphor of candle smoking as a carpenter smoking.  The passing of the candle life represents the burning of the carpenter's life who loves smoking.  Next to the burned out candle dying and excitedly said to the newly lit candle "you will feel happy" metaphor for those addicted to smoking.

In this week I very like this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlIlmGjaVec This story telling us vr is a tool for creating empathy. Most of us have been moved by novels or movies. Some stories can be empathic. We often say that one cannot feel the pain and joy of another. Because we haven't experienced it ourselves, it's hard to see things from someone else's point of view. Vr games, I think, are a very good medium for empathy. I haven't played a narrative game in VR. But last year I played a movie interactive game called Detroit: Become Human. The experience was very good. Although not vr immersive. Across a screen. As the protagonist to choose and experience those things, let me more moved. If it is VR, I believe it will be more emotional. But VR can't be used for too long, so it's not a great experience for me. Maybe with the development of technology VR will become more convenient for people to use. Technology is a big problem.