The Animated Self - Brainstorming

For our final assignment, we are to produce a short 15-30 second animation that is 1920x1080, full HD in H264 .mov format, reflecting our emerging interest in animation and consider what we have enjoyed, where our strengths lie and what it is that we wish to push further in the future (The title sort of hints to that). 

Aside from that, we should also demonstrate an investigation into:

Context/Function: Narrative, Sequence, Satirical, Persuasive, Promote, Agitate, Subvert
Methodology: 2D Traditional, 2D Digital, Stop Motion
Visual Language: Line Quality, Shape, Texture, Composition, Color, Abstract, Realism

We also much take into account that this final piece of work will be presented in a coming show (So no half-butting it, eep) and so this piece of work must define us.

As always, I quickly drew up an outline for myself (It's just a habit that will allow the details to sink in better for me):

Studio Brief Outline

It wasn't that hard choosing which of the suggested animation functions to focus on when it came to brainstorming for ideas, and while I didn't feel comfortable in dabbling with something more satirical, I did up a little section just in case (For who knows, my end choice might have been something I wouldn't have actually expected) alongside the others that I favored the most.

First Idea Generation

The first draft was all over the place however, and so I decided to do a neater one that separated into smaller sections after (This is just the OCD talking here), revisiting the definitions of each function while throwing out a few topics that I could work with for each. 

Revised Idea Generation

Working on narrative works be they original or based on existing media has always been a passion of mine, I always find it fun to explore into various genres and create different sorts of settings and atmospheres that can draw the audience in (Aside from the obvious reason of wanting to tell one's own stories in an artistic manner), and so it was no surprise that this was the first context/function that got my attention and gathered the most ideas, I found myself burrowing deep into my folders of personal projects and listed them down into the idea section.

The first idea that game to mind was to do a promotional piece for one of my video game concepts (Since I was around 10 (That was around the time Silent Hill 3 came out I believe), I had found myself drafting down ideas for my own video games and comics that I still dream of getting produced or published in the future), and considering the duration and once again the amount of time I have left, I feel that a teaser trailer of sorts would work best if I was to focus on something narrative.

Aside from listing down old ideas, I had also listed out some elements in relation to that genre as well as what could possibly inspire me further (From video games, other artists and films) that could perhaps improve on those ideas.

Ideas for Fantasy Narrative

When it comes to the horror genre, I have always been a odd sort of fan, while I absolutely adored games from that genre, there are only a handful of films from that genre I actually enjoyed (Or maybe I'm not all that odd…).  Much like my idea generating for the fantasy narrative mind map, I followed the same process for this mind map (Actually to be honest, I did this one before the fantasy one).

Ideas for Horror Narrative

As a back up as always, I did one for sequence animations, that would perhaps focus more on the aspect of motion itself, which I honestly believe would take a lot more time especially since more complicated movements would have to be animated. While I found myself growing fond of most of the ideas, I once again believe that I would need more time that I presently have to properly animate any of them.

Ideas for Sequence Animation