APD - Week 2 - Play and Time

By Yuxuan Hu (Estella)

Theme： play and time

Context:

When I approached the theme, I first looked for words that could represent time. For example, day and night, life, video, clock, and so on. Among these words I chose to use life as the theme. By combining the metronome with images of the various stages of life, I express the repetition of life and the boring and unchanging rhythm of life.

Design the pendulum needle in the shape of a man.
When swinging from left to right, the pendulum hand changes its shape from old age - middle age - youth - middle age - old age, representing the cycle of life.
When the pendulum hand swings, it makes a fixed beat sound of "da da da da", representing the rules of the world's operation.
The rate of oscillation is a process from slow to fast, representing the accelerating rhythm of life. In the middle, the animation will be simulated by a short pause, expressing that the influence of individuals is too weak to stop the development of the times.
It is designed as a female image because society has a very serious stereotype of the female group. Women must have children before the age of 30 and take care of their families after marriage. They seem to have their whole life arranged from birth.
The video will end with a Möbius ring to explain the cycle of life.

Method:

I started by drawing a quarter of the clip with toon boom, then created the whole loop animation by flipping horizontally. Finally a simple post-production through PR.

A similar design concept can be found in Gawx × Clip Studio Paint (2021). In this short loop animation, there is a very interesting setting - each frame uses a different style. Watercolor, Ai, collage, color lead... Although this is a Clip advertisement, to show their software rich brush function. https://youtu.be/WAc_heLmtNU

Response:

When making characters at each stage from young to old, some representative features are deliberately sought. For example, holding a book when you are a student, or holding a flower in your hand when you get married in a white wedding dress. As the pace gets faster and faster, it is no longer possible to see the specific appearance of each character, just like in the fast-paced life we are all passing by one after another in a hurry.

Reflection：

After I made the video, I still felt that the play part was a bit missing. In talking with my classmates, some other ideas came up. For example, it can be turned into a dress-up game, at first let the player choose the favorite clothes and clothing of each age and match. Then at the end of the game, each character swings quickly to form a loop animation. This can make players realize that life is fleeting and beautiful is hard to keep, so they should cherish life and enjoy the moment.