Week 2b

During this class we were given the assignment to create what is called a "Sequential Dreamscape". As I wrote about previously, my dream was about finding a kitten. Since we could only use abstract patterns and display one word at a time, I had to really think about how to approach this.

My idea so far is to start with it being dark and having the word "meow" flash on the screen a couple of times to represent the kitten calling out. Then, I would switch to the word "footstep" and have that flash a few times in the hopes that it could be seen as walking. To represent picking up and holding the cat, I would have the background change to a warm color. After that, I would repeat the footsteps going back to the car, have the door open and close, and then begin the driving sequence. To represent driving, I would have the word drive on the screen and then alternate the background between darkness and a blurry light image to show driving under streetlamps at night. Finally, I would have it show the car park, open and close the doors again, hold the kitten, and bring it inside. After that, it will end.

I will update my blog later with the finished video.

Week 2a

This week we were supposed to think about a dream we've had and then write about it. One time I had a dream about finding a kitten. I can't remember exactly where I found the kitten, it might have been in a parking lot or something similar. After finding the kitten, I drove it back to my house wrapped in a sweater I had in my car. I remember that I kept looking over at it in my dream to make sure it was okay, at one point I might have even held it in my lap while I drove. I might have even been speeding. When I got back to my house, I snuck in because in the dream I felt that my parents wouldn't want me bringing in a random stray. I went into our first floor half bathroom and closed the door. If I am remembering correctly, the kitten was like a grey tiger/tabby type and it was very small. It was dirty from being outside, so I decided to wash it off with a cloth. Then, the kitten perked up and it started to run around and play in the bathroom. My other cat, that I have in real life, Smudge, also came in and started acting motherly toward the kitten by grooming it. After that, I woke up. This dream I remember was kind of fuzzy overall, as in, none of the images were very clear. Some dreams I have are very real and memorable, but this one was almost like watching an old, fuzzy movie. I also remember the colors being muted and time seemed to work in a strange way. My dreams have a tendency to vary in terms of visuals, so this is by no means unusual, but since this next project will have to do with visuals, I felt that this would be important to include.

Week 1 Outside of Class: Completed Line Project

(https://youtu.be/kUz5oSygEqI)

Here is my final line project animation. It took many attempts to make something that I felt conveyed the emotion I picked, which I will list at the bottom of this post so as not to give it away. I decided to start with a heart breaking which then transitioned into a person who was crying. It was difficult to give off the idea of sobbing since I couldn't really give my "person" a face, so I tried to do some quick inhaling motions like someone who was sobbing would do. I then had them lie down, which was sort of supposed to represent being exhausted from the crying. I then transformed the line into a scene where a cross stood to the left. The "person" comes in from the right and sits down and cries a little again before both things simply disappear. I hope that I effectively conveyed this emotion, but I guess I will know when my fellow classmates either guess it right or wrong. I feel kind of confident they will know what it is. It is:









































Grief!

Week 1b

Today in class we picked emotions and then acted them out. This exercise was to prepare us for our first assignment, which is to animate a single black line to show whichever emotion we picked. I chose grief, which turned out to be more difficult than I though to depict through one line. My thinking for this project is that there are several stages to grief, specifically denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief/). I think I will try to incorporate all of these moments in some way to create a successful depiction of the emotion. I will update later this week with what I have done, as well as my finished project.

Week 1a

Today was the first day of this class, so most of the time was spent doing housekeeping type stuff. However, we did experiment with zoetropes and thumatropes. I found this to be interesting and tried two different ones for the thumatropes. I did one that was more complex and it didn't work as well and I would've liked it to. The other one was much simpler and obviously was more successful. I am excited to see what else we learn in this class, as the first day really piqued my interest.