COP - Making something

I was briefed the other day on the second main element of the Context of Practice module. Rather than focusing on the lectures we were given this year, I decided to look further into the themes of my essay. I was interested in looking at narrative, and how it can effect children's perceptions of the world around them and the people they choose to use as role models in society; more specifically characters from Studio Ghibli's work.

As I am focusing on mainly the story, narrative and character traits, it was important in my mind to apply what I learnt from Ghibli's work into my own small (few seconds long) animation. This also allows me to create the animation in a style which I feel will enhance the story, and my own drawing style.

I decided to do a bit of research into short animations focusing on nature and the aesthetic and animation style I wish to use. As I only have a limited amount of time to create this piece, I decided that using After Effects to get a 2.5D animation, making the scenery deeper and more vibrant, and allowing me to repeat the drawings of nature and re-size and flip, saving time and letting me fill more space, similar to the 'Les pongs sur les iles' animation. For the character, I am more interested in their feelings and emotions, so rather than doing frame by frame hand drawn animation (which again takes up time), I will be aiming to animate the characters by parenting each body part together and animating almost if they're puppets, much like the 'Hem // Tourniquet // Official Video', so the positioning of each body part will be vital to the animation.

I will use a small female child as the main protagonist, showing her interaction with nature, playful spirit and her strength as a woman, which are key themes that Miyazaki holds an importance to. I would like my animation to start off in a bland living space with a young girl and possibly her parents watching tv, which then flicks onto a nature program, where the girl jumps through the TV and remembers what it's like to be at one with nature.

Hem // Tourniquet // Official Video from Jordan Bruner on Vimeo.

Les poings sur les iles from Sang hyun on Vimeo.