Love

        For the final task in the Animation skills module, we have been given free rein to use any of the skills learnt in the other tasks to create a short animation. The only guidance given is that it should concern one of the following words: longing, hate, love, lateness, surprise, happiness or fear. Initially, no particular word stood out to me so I began by sketching ideas for all of them.

 

        Having only a couple of weeks for this project from start to finish, I realised that I would be pushed to draw the required 60-120 frames required for a 5-10 second animation, on op of all the planning and preparation. Instead I have opted to do the pixilation option, which should be between 20-30 seconds and would give me a chance to improve upon my earlier pixilation attempt. This then narrowed down the number of my ideas which would be practical to work with (i.e. eliminating any which involved animals). I finally made the choice to go with my idea for 'love'.

        This idea involves depicting a romantic, perhaps idealised version of love, but using just hands and allowing their movements to communicate the story. As reference, I looked at the movements of the omnipotent hand of the state in Jiri Trnka's The Hand (which wheedles, flirts and intimidates equally well), and the more eccentric 'Thing' in The Addams Family. Both characters manage to embody strong characteristics without uttering a word. This is what I wanted from the hands in my pixilation, and so it is essential that I take great care with the animation and make each movement clear and relevant.