APD Week 1 - Play and Self

THEME

While I was contemplating on this week's theme 'Play and Self', I noticed that I was subconsciously flipping and playing with the notebook in front of me on my desk, and my hands were sweaty. I also noticed that I was biting my lips, shaking my legs at the same time. I have always had these kind of repetitive behaviours and online research shows that they are a type of coping mechanisms for stress or intense concentration. So I thought why not make use of the repetitive behaviours in my creation because they're part of me. Since I was flipping and scratching the notebook, I had the idea of making a flipbook that shows one of these behaviours.

CONTEXT

I have been following Andymation on Youtube where he makes all kinds of flipbooks. His dedication and creativity in making flipbooks has been a great inspiration and his videos have been very informative for me. I adapted his workflow in my own creation process.

https://www.youtube.com/c/andymation

METHOD

I made a 45-page mini flipbook showing one of my repetitive habits. I recorded a video of myself biting my lips and used that as a reference. I cut the paper into small pieces because a palm size flipbook is easier to play with and I drew only a mouth on each page. I also added a few more frames in between the pages after the first attempt to make the animation smoother.

I enjoyed making the flipbook because I decided to not align each frame perfectly and draw however I wanted. And flipping the book over and over also contributes to showing the repetitiveness of the habit in a playful way.

REFLECTION

There's definitely room for improvements, for example, I can add more pages of different habits and tie them together with smooth and abstract transitions. I could improve the quality of the book by using thicker paper so it gets less damaged from flipping. Lastly, I should've also measured and cut the paper without folding it, so that it would be easier to flip with sharper edges.

Overall, I think this is a fun way to show my 'flaws' and embrace them because they represent who I am.

LINK TO YOUTUBE

Flipbook demo video

https://youtu.be/VTER0QCYrkM