Applied Animation: Starting a New Project

As part of our Applied Animation module, we have been asked to work in groups to produce an animated documentary that ties into one of four themes; Mental Health, The Environment, Sport or Family. Immediately family stood out to me, as I am very much family orientated and they are a massive inspiration/influence. I also thought this would be the easiest theme for me to generate ideas for as I have a lot of memories - both fond and unhappy - with my family and have always liked the idea of incorporating some of these into animations.

To start off today's studio session, we took it in turns to voice our opinions on what themes we wanted to look at and in what media, from here we were able to form suitable work groups. I have been paired with Oscar and Wing, and I couldn't be happier with my team. We all seem to have a good range of skills and strengths in different areas, so assigning tasks seems as though it is going to be relatively straight-forward, which will definitely make work flow a lot better. We have also been able to sit down and develop a pretty solid initial idea.

Notes From Our First Brainstorm Session

We are thinking of producing an animation that deals with how different family members perceive events. We have had many different variations/ideas that sit under this main idea, but the one that stands out the most is a child's account of an event compared to their parent's, or a document of how a parent may twist the truth to help explain something that might be hard on the child, for example death of a pet or family member. We are also wanting to use a variety of different media to complete the animation, which I think will be very fitting to show the contrast between the different perspectives/the difference between reality and imagination. I think this is also going to be a good opportunity to experiment with styles and potentially expand my skill set.

When I heard that Applied Animation was going to be another collaboration I was initially quite worried but now I'm actually excited to get working, and see whether I have a better experience this time around compared to my last collaboration and whether I can improve on some of the issues I first encountered (for example, lack of communication, taking over some jobs that were initially intended for my partner). I definitely think it will be a challenge to make our different art styles work, but my partners seem to be very dedicated people so I'm not at all worried.