Creating animation is a process that is in constant motion. With the changes in technology and development of new techniques, there are many possibilities for many exciting concepts to be brought to life. Being in such a unique field has encouraged me to try diverse methods of storytelling and style in my animated films.
Each piece I create offers a snapshot of who I was at the time the film was made. It is this aspect of animation that I find to be the most compelling. At the start of each project I take a new approach my narrative and a style to match. My animations involve few characters and the focus is usually laid on a specific event through which the story unfolds. The characters in each piece are created to mirror the mood of each piece, whether comedic or unsettling, they are an extension of the atmosphere I am creating. The narrative varies from film to film but I avoid any type of linear progression to keep the audience from becoming disinterested.
It is vital for my work to be completely separate from anything I have done previous. I work completely in digital at times and other times I choose to do everything drawn on paper. This keeps me invested in what I am creating and raises my awareness of how style can affect narrative. Pounding the audience over the head with a message or meaning is something I stray away from. I do not over think my material when starting a new project and instead allow the process of creating the animation to fill up the screen. The meaning of a piece comes from what is in between the lines rather than setting out with a goal to make a film about one specific idea and driving that idea home.
Trying to encompass all my animation and label it as something specific is not possible. I would rather each piece exist independently to act as a marker for that specific time in my life. They can be viewed by others and enjoyed for their difference and variety. To me they tow the line from where I started to where I am heading and remind me to constantly look for new methods of animation.
Fanciful Character Ideas for Thesis
2 comments:
Reading your artist statement was quite refreshing. If you happen to see mine, you’ll notice that our approaches to our work are vastly different. While you try to avoid linear progression, infused meaning, or essentially one topic, these are the things that I strive for. I suppose you could consider your work post-modern, in that there is no overarching “grand narrative” or meaning you are trying to posit. You are just expressing yourself, and I greatly admire that. In the process of animating, though, do you ever stumble onto a meaning in your work? And if so, do you pursue it, or allow it to develop however your work develops, or do you consciously steer clear of it? At the end of the day, every work will be analyzed, and meaning--no matter how small it may be--will be abstracted from it. Still, your approach seems to allow that the audience take what they want away from it. As times change and people, inevitably these gathered meanings will as well.
Nice drawings! I can totally feel what you mean by "I would rather each piece exist independently to act as a marker for that specific time in my life." Animation is about time and space, it is marking and scupturing people's imagination within an unlimited space along a non-stop time.
This is so similar to our life. We all want to make "marks" in our life. It seems that you really focus on the process of making animation, which is what I always find the most interesting. And this is as well similar to our life too.
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