Animation

Relationships with Nature: with Bridget, Emily, and Ryleigh 

(The story of seven and their city experience)

The concept map for our group animation project. 

Summary:

Animation circles around the idea of human interaction with nature. We are achieving this through our character, Seven, an ambiguous figure hardened with anger. A sketchy black and white animation style with pops of color to emphasize different ideas.

Opens with display of a city, two (one?) beams of light. Camera zooms in to focus on an apartment. Seven walks out of the apartment door, slamming the door in a fit of rage. Camera follows Seven walking through the city, seemingly to a job (carrying a brief case). As Seven goes through the city streets, people are an obstacle, bumping into almost every one. A flower is seen in the cracks of the sidewalk, Seven pauses for a moment and stomps on the flower anyway. The walk continues. 

Construction on Seven's normal route forces a new path to be taken. Seven sighs, grumbles, decides the quickest way is through the park. 

As Seven moves through the park, people are seen joyously enjoying the open air and nature. Distracted by anger, Seven trips and falls into a puddle of mud. Seven turns his head to the side and sees a bee hovering over a flower, doing it's job, collecting pollen. A beautiful moment occurs (filled with color), this scene takes seven seconds. A tear drop clears a stream of mud off of Seven's face. Seven's colors gradually change from red to green. 

Seven gets up, moves to either sit on a bench or to rest on a tree.  Seven appears to be finally aware of his surroundings, the beauty of the world around him, and appreciating nature for what it is.

A scene of a time-lapse occurs either focusing on Seven with a sunset in the background (going around in a circle) or focusing on the city skyline with a sunset moving around it. A still image as the ending scene with Seven covered (submerged) in nature. Flowers, bees, butterflies, ect. 

WRITE UP:

Our animation circles around the idea of human interaction, and specifically with nature. Our group is achieving this through our character, Seven, an ambiguous figure hardened with anger. Our animation follows Seven on a journey through the city.

Our animation opens with a display of the vast city landscape. The camera pans across a few streets aiming to emphasize the hectic lifestyle this city perpetuates. The camera then pans to Seven’s house as the journey begins. Seven walks out of the apartment door, seemingly emotionless and hardened by the city life. As the camera follows Seven walking through the city, possibly to a job, a meeting, anywhere Seven does not want to be. A long walk along the city streets, Seven encounters a detour sign and is visually upset by the blockade.

As the construction on Seven's normal route forces a new path to be taken. Seven sighs, decides the next quickest route is through the park. 

As Seven moves through the park, the colors are incredibly bright, emphasizing the happiness that is brought by the presence of nature. Distracted by anger, and hit in the face with a butterfly Seven trips and falls into a puddle of mud. Seven turns his head to the side and sees a bee hovering over a flower, doing it's job, collecting pollen. This beautiful moment allows Seven to open up and shed a tear. This scene takes seven seconds. Seven’s attitude is changed, now enjoying the place he lives in, viewing the world a little different.

Seven gets up and moves to a bench with a large smile. Seven appears to be finally aware of the beauty of the wolrd, and begins appreciating nature for what it is.

We hope this short film will allow others to take a second look at the world around them and appreciate their surroundings. We left Seven as an ambiguous figure so others can easily place themselves in this scenario. Everyone has bad days, and bad weeks. Everyone allows themselves to be hardened and burdened by the world around them. This serves as a reminder that even in a hectic world with issues and negative situations, beauty still exists and can always be found.

Our group worked together really well, we each equally contributed to the ideas of the project as well as the animation. When one person struggled the rest jumped in to assist. As a group however we did struggle with a few minor details in the conclusion of the project. The music was a challenge, we were confused on how to switch from one song to the next, however through trial and error we were able to figure it out. We also struggled with the bone structure of Seven at the beginning, with such a simple figure it was difficult to figure out how to add bones and still make it simplistic yet believable.  We also had difficulties adding in color, trying to make it the style that we wanted to have. However, we figured it all out and we are all very pleased with our final product!