Visuals Test
For this test, I was inspired by the magazines that I had taken pictures of during the Into the Woods assignment and wanted to create something that was influenced by graphic design elements. This test was done on animation paper and a light box that was used.
Materiality Test
For this test, we were told we could animate in any way we wanted as long as we began and ended with a square that was drawn onto the animation paper using a small metal square that we were given. Following making our animations, we would then combine it with the animations of two other classmates.
For my animation, the story I wanted to depict was that of an experience on public transportation and the feeling of being overwhelmed by the people you are on the train or bus with. The animation would begin with a square in the middle with a character of myself wearing headphones. Afterwards, other squares would emerge on the paper of different individuals on the bus or train that are making noises in some way and more of them would appear more frequently as the animation continued. Following this, the square with myself in the middle would grow larger to depict myself feeling frustrated with the people around me. The square would then grow to cover up all of the other smaller squares that had appeared before shrinking back down to the same size as it was at the beginning of the animation.
When combining my test with other classmates that I worked with, we were also tasked with coming up with a way to create transitions between our animations that would play with the materiality of the test. For this, I came up with folding my animation before unfolding it to reveal the next frame for the animation of the person after me.
I felt this test was quite a success because I feel I did very well to create an animation that worked well to transition seamlessly to the animation of the other people in my group and I feel I was able to create a test that was creative while still working within the bounds I was told to work in.
Flower Mask Test
For this test, I wanted to make an animation that was inspired by Indonesian culture, particularly Javanese shadow puppets and batik patterns. I planned on making a batik style flower that would spin in the centre of the frame and visually transform into a mask. Meanwhile, there would be rows of triangular patterns that would move vertically while the flower in the centre transforms.
This test was quite successful in playing around with visual elements, building off of the first test I had done which had tested moving around words and other graphic elements. With the success of this test, the next step was to find ways to take what I learned from these tests and transfer them to materials other than animation paper and light box for my final animation.