Animated POV: the final flash movie

In today’s age of technology, communication is more than just vocal words.  We are no longer constrained to only gaining and keeping attention merely by our own voice, but we are able to use visuals such as videos and images, as well as other sounds.  This project’s focus was on effectively using these other visual communication methods together to create one dynamic message.  Through all of the hybrid typography and visual communication assignments in relation to the word that was assigned at the beginning of the semester, we were able to get into more depth about our object.  Not only were we able to find a deeper meaning for that word, but also we focused all semester on developing a few different definition directions from our word.  And through this animation we were able to see all of those definitions in action.

I struggled with this assignment in technical aspects.  One of the things that I love about graphic design is that you can portray a message not only through images, but also through words.  What I struggled with this assignment was using moving words and images.  Normally the main roadblocks that I may hit when creating a design is what the image or text is emitting by itself, in different colors, or in relation to the distance between other objects.  With this animation, not only did I have to keep in mind colors, distance, and other objects, but I also needed to look at how fast or slow an object came on the screen and how it specifically interacted with the scene as a whole.

One of the main things that I learned in relation to this project was how to not only incorporate interesting scene transitions, but also use transitions that allowed the message to continue even if the main animation object wasn’t in motion.  I also had to keep in mind for this project, I was basically choosing what I wanted the viewer to see and when.  Where as with other graphic design that I normally do, we often are unable to guide the viewer’s eyes in the exact path that we’re hoping for.  It can be possible to guide the viewer normally through design, but often that is by overloading the viewer with what we want them to look at in a specific order.

In my piece I used motion to show a lawnmower cutting the grass to reveal garden tools.  I mainly used two transitions in my animation; those transitions were swap and zoom.   Zoom was incorporated in my animation to allow the garden tools and dandelion to increase and/or decrease in size.   I used swap when I let the black of the garden tools line up with the black of the dandelion to make the dandelion appear as if emerging from the garden tools.  Sequence was used in my animation in deciding what order all of the objects should be presented in.  I struggled with trying to figure out the best time to show the word “alternative” so that it completed the sentence and did not just reinforce a meaning that was already being portrayed by an image.  Time was very important in my animation.  I attempted to use timing to my advantage through the use of the music within the animation.  My hope was to make transition of the quieter guitar to when the singer started singing to be the turning point or climax in my statement.

(the music didn't quite sync all the way up with the animation when it saved as a .mov file, but it did with the swf)

*The music used in the animation is the song "Thomas" from A Perfect Circle's cd Mer de Noms.