Applied Animation

        Our newest project, applied animation, requires that we produce an animation to be used either as film titles, television channel idents or a charity campaign film. Any one of these options provides the opportunity to build upon the skills we have already learned throughout the year, yet also poses a challenge. As these briefs require 30 or 40 seconds of animation, at a rate of 24 frames per second, the workload is far greater than for either of our previous modules, and will require far better organisational skills.

        Of the three options, the charity animation was the least appealing. This brief gave only two charities to chose between, Amnesty International and Child Line, neither of which particularly inspired me. Had I been able to choose a charity which I felt I had a connection with or was more passionate about, perhaps this option would have been more viable. The benefit of working on this project is that it would provide a chance to use animation as a persuasive tool, to show the charities' work and appeal for audience support. However, in order to motivate myself and maintain interest throughout the duration of the project, I felt it would be more sensible to choose a brief which I found more exciting.

        I was more drawn towards the ident animations. This option required the production of three 10 second idents from a selection of 4 TV channels, Cbeebies, The Discovery Channel, E4 or BBC4. The former two options immediately suggested several ideas to me, while the latter two would have required a little more research. Unlike the other two briefs, which have a relatively large timeframe in which to communicate their messages, each ident would require the tone, audience and content of the channel to be condensed into just 10 seconds, which would be equally as challenging as producing a lengthy animation.

        Yet the opportunity to create an animated title sequence for a book to film adaptation proved to be the most exciting of the three briefs. Being able to choose which book the project centres around also offers greater freedom than the other two options, allowing us to develop our animation skills around an idea we are passionate about, while still providing the chance to work to specific requirements, as will be the case in a professional career. As such, this is the brief that I have chosen to work with.