We are the Universe

A looping animation that I made for Leeds Light Night which took place in early October. It is based on the theme Elements. The element that I chose is air, and this animation is about the process of breathing in and breathing out. It is a never-ending process, which makes me think that it is a good concept for a looping animation. 

Why the swirls? We often overlook the most fundamental interaction between human and their surroundings, breathing. The swirls is a visual representation of this interaction which serves as a reminder that we cannot live without the element. 

The animation is a combination of animation techniques including pixilation and hand-drawn with ink, with a little bit of editting on Photoshop before they are compiled together in After Effects. It is an experimental process, which is currently what I feel passionate about because it gives a kind of aesthetic that cannot be achieved by solely relying on one medium.

PPP2 Collaborative Session

For PPP today, we are working with some Graphic Designers and Illustrators on a collaborative project. It is a fun and eye-opening session, which makes me feel really productive from the usual PPP session for last year. We had lots of laugh and there is no formality in this session. It was overall a good riddance. 

At the start of the lesson, we, the animators were separated into groups. My group was designated at the Graphic Design studio, in which we met the graphic designers and illustrators. It was a nerve-wrecking experience to just go to another studio that I don't usually work in and seeing new faces.

The first 5 minutes, we are instructed to list down our skills, interests and some things that we want to do in the future. Yes, I have not got a clue of what I want to do in the future as you can see from the photo below. Most of my interests revolve around feeding myself intellectually with new information and experiences. Well, I think, at the very least, it is good that I have an open-minded attitude to explore new things because it propels me to progress in my creative practice.

We work in pairs for the second task. I got Josh who is an illustrator as a partner, and we came up with the idea of an app called the Book Jukebox. This app serves as an instrumental backing tracks that enhances reading experience, and works in partnership with audible.com and kindle. For instance, if the reader is reading a horror themed book, the app will automatically generate a playlist of eerie and mysterious ambient music to set up the mood for the reader. We considered the subscription fees and offers for this app based on the price that have been set by spotify. (i.e: cost a tenner for monthly subscription fees, fiver for students and one month free trial) Josh and I think that this idea was brilliant and feasible, but sadly we did not win the vote. I enjoyed working with Josh because he makes really quick decisions and he has a friendly character, so it does not take a long time to break the ice and start to crack on working.  

Task 2 - Working in pair

The one that made it through the vote is this game show called Oink Jump made by Ollie and Joe. It is basically Takeshi Castle combined with Wipe Out with pigs participating in it. It came across as a joke, which is why we decided to proceed with this idea. The funnier it is, the better. I did not participate much in this one because Joe, who came up with the idea, clearly know where the idea is going, so he assigned tasks for each of the group members to make posters and present a summary of the challenges in the show for the one minute presentation. I got to make poster for the stage called Pig Soapbox, simply a soapbox racing competition in which contestants have to build a soapbox with some materials provided and race towards the finish line. Although Oink Jump is a crazy idea, people were more intrigued by the kinky Dog Latex project which won the class vote.

Poster for Oink Jump

The final task is to make a 30 seconds advertisement for the winning product, which is the Dog Latex, in the span of time of 2 and a half hours. This is where the animators play a big role because they need people who can edit videos and animate some assets. The technical skills that we learnt in class comes into use when we are grouped with people from different disciplines to make their idea comes to life. This seems like a simulation in a professional studio, in which we work based on our strengths with the sole purpose to resolve a brief given by the client within a limited time frame. I can feel the adrenaline rush, and I learn to be steadfast in responding to a given task and make quick decisions so that I will not hold back the other group members' work. We came up with a dodgy Television Shopping style advertisement with obscure elevator music, like those done by the company called Muzak, tacky sound effects and lots of Comic Sans and horrible colours. This whole experience made me learn some other thing: designers poke fun by intentionally fucking up their own designs and the design rules that we learnt meant to be broken.

P.S.: Video will be uploaded once it is up on YouTube