APD Week2 Play and Time

Theme

Play and time

Context

This week, I found the relationship between the natural space I was focusing on and the personal work I was making as animation loops. I thought I could record the sounds of nature and put them together into an interesting mini-interactive animation.

Like Wies Vander Wal (2017) stated that even though time is not looping, we define time through loops. Our calendar is more like a spiraling forward motion than a perfect loop in our eyes. In my original plan, I was going to come up with a script for the trip, and then do a travelogue or something. However, I felt that this did not reflect the process of observation, so I wanted to use a brand new way, to interpret the sound, and express the picture with dynamic images like GIFs. The concept of splicing was inspired by the residual effect, and my goal was to realize the cycle of the journey to show a whimsical, multi-sided journey. The idea of this loop is to show that the protagonist could have chased the flaming spot without curiosity, triggering an endless cycle of travel.

Methods

I started this process by collecting footage from my travels. I started my photography on the balcony of the house, using this as a starting point, recording the various sounds happening around the house as I went, and then I separated several routes: Taking the long subway track and riding up the steep mountain, taking to the river in the countryside to catch the scenery and a walk in a popular spot nearby the river. I shot a few key shots and recorded audio for each side track. Then I started to edit the sequence to match the journey throughout. Then, I have drawn several animation motion loops, such as birds flying, horse walking, people walking & jumping, etc, also used Powerpoint to make the interactive work. After that, I edited the audio together so I could feel the rhythm and what parts were worth using, animating the components and placing events into a story loop. In the last part, to make the adventure interesting, I added a crisis factor like dinosaurs at the end.

Reflection

Overall, I'm pleased with my work. It was also an interesting trial. However, I didn't run several times for each branch line, so I didn't think I was logical enough. I think this is a place where I can create more interaction. I need more motions from the character along the loops, especially running and body movement. However, the recording process was much looser than expected, because I couldn't present the sound and images in the same way. Instead, I split them up and recorded scenes and tracks separately, mainly to create an atmosphere. I am learning to simulate the original sound effect, which scenes are suitable for a quiet environment and which ones are noisy. As a result, the presentation format does not do a good job of presenting sound triggers properly, obtaining sound cuts in many cases, and the lack of text cues may make the audience feel a bit confuse.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/TWgEJFbkE28

Downloads:

Download File: 1659924436_traveler.pptx