((Under Cut))










So I can safely say I have finished this. What started as an over-ambitious project has turned into a 30 second fart. Nonetheless, I am proud with it. I did try my best with the skills I have. Keep in mind, I am not an animation student. My university here is very poor and my design teacher likes to think she can also run a pseudo-animation course through the magic of photoshop animations. The task at hand was to use photos and animate them. The examples she showed us made me a little sick. I guess it's because my perceptions when mentioned the word 'animation' in an art school are far above the bar set here.

ANYWAYS. THATS MY RANT. Onto my thanks.
A giant thanks to Misako. Thanks for asking the whys in this. (Which I mention in the crit)
Nuff said really. And now my crit statement thing:

Use this Wiki to house your project 3 summary. This is an essential task and is used when assessing this project. In the project summary respond to the following:

• write a description of your approach to the project

• list your intentions, methods and difficulties encountered

• describe compositional strategies used and considered

• provide references to the readings and any further theoretical research for the project (provide a bibliography – see notes on Referencing)

• provide insights into ideological framework used if any

• conclude with a brief reflection on the project’s overall outcome.



After realising just how complicated animating my first idea would be, I decided to simplify it. I asked myself a lot of why's with the first concept. Why is there a plane? Why do the trees fall over? Why are the bombs turning into dogs? Of course, a lot of this would be left to the viewer to decide, I felt there were far too many whys. I have decided to make it a lot shorter and animate in a loose, sketchy style. There is one background that exists throughout the entire animation which helps unify it in a way. I reduced a lot of the story elements down to three things. The deer (Rett), the dog-tag and the wolf/dog. Of course, one of the main reasons I have simplified everything is because I got over ambitious. My previous idea was far too difficult to animate in such a short time window; Im only a beginner. Im not even an animation student.

However, the basic themeatics and approach to the project remains the same. My animation explores an object of memory and a change of circumstance. The dog tags being my fathers (object of memory) and the change of circumstance being his gradual descent into post-traumatic stress dissorder (PTSD). Within the animation, I tried to convey the slow descent through the slight quivering of the tags to their more violent shakes and eventual change into a chaotic-scribbled mess. From the colour change, my aim was to hint that the scribbled, break down of the tags would change into the black dog. I am not sure how obvious this is to the audience. I think I should have added a few frames between the black scribbled sequence and the dog. Compsitionally, I realise I like to place a lot of things off center, aside from the dog and the tags which were the main story tools in question. I feel I handled the design and comosition of it well. For those that were with me in Printmaking in first semester, you may remember this animation concept as I made my book from it.

Sound-wise, I had a strong emphasis on the soundtrack for the previous idea. With the current story, I am not as sure. I decided to go music free and just have radio static and non-diagetic sounds in hopes to generate an uncomfortable feel. It also feels detatched.

The black dog is a symbol for depression. I first heard the word when a DVA (department of veterans afairs) counsellor mentioned it to me. It is often coined with PTSD sufferers. I felt the image of a wolf and deer was a poignant symbol of victim and attacker. It was also the most obvious; the audience can understand predator and prey. As for the deer with a human face, this is the portrayal of my character Rett (see below), who is remeniscent of Khalos The Little Deer.

Most of the difficulties encountered within this was realising my first idea was too difficult and the saving at the end. I rendered this video through Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum HD 11 (Long bloody title) as it allows multiple sound layers and video layers and is a lot more manual than the confusing and rigid imovie. Also trying to fathom how a dog moves made for difficult animating.

I feel overal satisfied with the outcome of this task. For me, this was me trying to prove to myself I am able to animate rather than tick any boxes. I still wish I could have finished my last idea, perhaps in a distant future I could attempt it again. Not all sure of the soundtrack, but I attempted it anyway. I wanted to use Royalty Free sounds so I could upload this online and display it, so a lot of the descent music I had planned could not be used. To cut a long statement short. I am statisfied with the outcome.



Because a lot of this animation is subjective, and I already had a straight-lined plan on what I wanted to do, I do not have a lot of research material.