APD - Week 2 - Play and Time

Theme

In responds to this week's theme play and time, I have made a 3d animation of hourglass to show the passage of time. The free fall of the sphere in the hourglass represents the normal passage of time. However, at the end of the video I also show the time backwards scene through the special effects of the space-time distortion.

Context

Time is invisible and abstract, so how to make the audience perceive the change of time visually is a problem to be considered. One approach to represent time is to show its effects implicitly on processing rather than explicitly (Elmab and Jeffrey, 1990). This animation expresses that time passes normally but suddenly there is a malfunction in space-time, a time reversal occurs, and time begins to flow backwards. The related work is organized by Hyundai Blue Prize Design 2021 (https://ordinarypeople.info/work/dymtf). This exhibition creates a space for viewers to reconstruct the operation of time, reflecting the common anxiety about the dislocation of space and time in the current epidemic era. By presenting multiple perspectives on a clock scale, Ordinary People expresses how people perceive the transformation and decomposition of time in the era of pandemic.

Method

This is actually my first time using 3d modeling software c4d for modeling and animation design. Although this is a very simple model, it includes a lot of details. For example, how to put cloth surface in c4d to add thickness to glass, the collision motion of the sphere, the glitching effect in AE, etc.

Response

The Final animation is here:

https://youtu.be/Qt5F651RxzI

Reflection

I hope through this animation, me and even the audiences would think about time. What are we doing in the passing time? At the same time, if we turn back time, what would we do? What would we change? I will also try to make more 3d models and animations in my later studies. Model making and rendering will be a big challenge for me, but hopefully I can express the relevant theme better through these effeorts.