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

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Final project

The animation I composed uses two techniques: stop-motion photography and rotoscoping. To begin I scripted a scene that would fit into my storyline, shot a series of photos one directly after the other as fast as my camera could process, and then compiled them together in Adobe Flash to give an almost film-like composition. Using Adobe Illustrator I then traced each frame accordingly, some with more detail than others, depending on the feel I wished to portray. The most detailed of scenes required first tracing shapes in black with the pencil tool, then taking colors directly from the photograph and filling in the blacks to create a whole image. I then imported each individual frame back to Flash along with the film sequence. The end result is an abstract, somewhat eerie, but very accurate animation adhering nicely to the shapes and colors of the actual photographs. Using photography and rotoscoping allowed me to break boundaries that my limited abilities in drawing for animation restricted me to; I was able to create realistic depictions on the actions I wished to animate, and could also involve my own style, exaggerations and animations that I could not capture on film.

For this project I wanted to create something meaningful, unique, and captivating so that it meant something to me and also reached out to the audience. I chose to show a girl reading a book about a sort of utopia, and then becoming a part of that world, because I could then depict something imaginary and also give a feeling of optimism. I used John Lennon’s “Imagine” song to show a key part of the utopia; I feel this song is one who’s message should be emphasized. It gave inspiration for a part of the animation I find particularly interesting, when I show several people dancing across a map of the world. The scene is charming and gives a sense of free spirit, which makes me happy to see. Experimenting with a full-on rotoscoped scene also ended in fascinating results; I was surprised how much it resembled the style of Richard Lanklater’s Waking Life, from which I was first inspired to use rotoscoping techniques. Rotoscoping is a new field to be explored, as few animations have used it in the consistent manner of a movie such as Waking Life. I intend to further this exploration after my first experiment with rotoscoping, since it rendered such interesting results.