Animation Project

Innovate Annimation

By Tyler, Alexander, and Adam

Summary

                  Our primary focus in this animation is the interrelationship between technology and humanity, particularly dealing with the advances in technology and its possible effects on humans. Here, we explore the possibility that, though technology will progress in such a way that things become vastly simpler and easier for people to accomplish, this will lead to an eventual reliance on this technology to provide us with more and more while we lose the innate physical ability to do these things ourselves. Becoming more sedentary as the hard work becomes managed by machines, we’d see a vast reliance on entertainment and instant gratification to keep ourselves occupied, creating what could nearly be a society of recluse individuals.

                  There is some visual metaphor used in our animation to further this point. We begin with a rather balanced background scene at the beginning, with some cityscape and some nature present. This background becomes overwhelmed by the growing technology and cityscape, eventually leading to its loss entirely. This transition not only reflects on the possibility of technology destroying nature, but also shows its overwhelming effect on humanity as we become more and more reliant. Though this is directly addressed by the figures displayed in the animation, I find it an important note to touch on. The irony of this change is that technology was, at least initially, meant to keep us interconnected. Yet, as it advances, we become more and more isolated, both from the world around us and from each other.

                  There were a number of animation techniques used to make this animation work. The methods used most often were the classic tween and motion tween options. One of our animators relied on the skeleton tool, but still kept to a method of creating simple movement. Second, another use of the classic tween to create a multitude of fade-in, fade-out graphics. This is seen in both the credits and in the animation itself. I personally found them to be simple but effective in creating the effect I desired. Speaking of which, the same technique was used to add changes to glow effects in a multitude of scenes. A final method utilized was the tedious but effective frame-by-frame method of animation. Though rarely used simply because of its tedious nature, there are a few scenes where simple shapes are used to create an effect of motion by appearing and disappearing from the screen. We can certainly see how effective it could be if utilized for an entire animated sequence.

                  Overall, I think we are very satisfied with how our animation turned out. A tedious and time-consuming process, to be sure, but the effects we’ve come to understand and utilize will be very helpful. Speaking personally, as a graphic designer, this could make for some very interesting implementation in future career opportunities and even in some of my hobbies. I doubt I’ll create a full-length feature, but some smaller animations may be in my future. As to our project this time around, I value the message we want to send, and I am satisfied with the final results.

Animation Storyboard

Mind Map