Animated Narratives- Week7

By Ashley (Chun-Yu Chen)

This work examines of sound. In the class, we learnt to analyze and come up with the idea of sound. Beyond dialogue, the use of sound such as background noise, sound effects and background music can help set the mood and provide subtext clues. We also learned that there are Diegetic and Non-diegetic voices, as the former are sounds whose sources are visible or suggest presence through the action of the screen, while the latter indicate that these voice characters cannot be noticed in the play.

I am using the precise ‘There is a person eating salad. With every bite, the vegetables scream in pain. The eater cannot hear it, but the audiences can’.

The story is about a rabbit's experience eating in a fine dining restaurant. The rabbit considered the tiger eating next to him was rude and cruel for consuming too much meat.The rabbit took himself as a gentleman, but the thing he didn’t know was that vegetables had feelings too. Every bite on them, even if the rabbit couldn’t notice, they suffered and cried for help. Audiences can easily find the seemingly peaceful and hidden bloody contrasts in the non-diegetic sound. Additionally, there are some dialogue and sound effects to illustrate the plot.

This story is going to sit in the field of 2D character animation. I think the contrast reaction between vegetables and rabbit will be really funny. People can enjoy the exaggerated performances of the characters. In addition, the picture can be stretched, distorted, and deformed arbitrarily to achieve an abstract and psychedelic expression. The picture can switch between elegant dining and painful hysteria, presenting a painful meal presented in black and white and heavy metal music, like an old-fashioned dark comedy movie.

This work is related to the week 7 reading and watching resources " Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy" . The film enumerates severals elements that make up comedy, and some of those matches my work such as #4 matching scene transitions, #5 the perfectly timed sound effect, and #6 action synchronized to the music. With these factors, it makes my work more than just people standing and talking, but with stage strategies for visual comedy.

By examining " Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy" , I reflected that comedies are more than dialogues and closeup shots that staging and sounds are also important. And there are many more elements that could go into comedy.

This can be used in my 3D animation project showing two enemies embarking on a journey back home, which helps to demonstrate a different taste for humor. And through the study of sound to improve the details of the work.