HUM 203: The World in Motion, Animation in Theory and Practice

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Final project

Komuso is a Flash animation that promotes balance between the extremes of order and chaos. I created it as the final project of a class called The World in Motion, Animation in Theory and Practice. It is intended to explore and illustrate some of the themes of the class through the medium of animation itself. I have also come to have a deeper, more personal relationship with the piece, as I've found my own experiences frequently mirroring the development of the story. So with Komuso I hope to evolve my approach to consistently finding balance and growth in my own life, and possibly to bring this message to a wider audience through the web as well. I think that the Flash animation scene could benefit from seeing more of this optimistic view that order and chaos can be brought into a healthy balance.

My main tool for creating this animation was Flash 8, where I arranged the scenes, animated the characters, and wrote the code for environmental effects like ripples and rain. Komuso is the first animation I have made with Flash, though I have used it before for coding games. I also used Photoshop Elements 3 and a Wacom Graphire 4 tablet to paint the backgrounds. Before starting this project, I had never tried to paint or use a graphics tablet, so much of my time was spent learning these tools. Lastly, I used the free sound-editing program Audacity to record and edit the rain sounds and shakuhachi flute music, which I performed myself.