So far I have also been working on creating a twenty second stop motion animation with the theme having to be linked with the topic of Identity. The animation can be done with any material we choose and the project is due after Christmas.
Material Choice
My choice of material for my twenty second animation is paper, since I planned to do a paper cutout film. I started off with doing the main character, a child in a yellow coat (I also thought it would be a nice aspect to have a yellow coat since bad things always happen to children with yellow coats in movies). Since my story for the animation would be quite bleak I thought it would be necessary to make my character look as hollow and empty as possible, almost like a doll with no eyes. I will admit my style of art I took up for this, was heavily inspired by Bandai Namco's Little Nightmares children's character designs along with the European urban legends of the Black Eyed Children. This was the start off of my character design.
After I did multiple cut out drawings for my first character I coloured him in and moved on to my next character and did the exact same thing. The only difference being that character two had no eyes due to hair covering it. I wanted the second character to have a very distant and emotionally unavailable appearance, and since eyes are the window to the soul I decided to have them covered. I think hidden eyes express a character as scared to get close to others and generally portray someone who is unwilling to have a bond with others, which is relevant for character two since they are the reason character one becomes who they are in the end; an empty child. With that being said here are both of my designs coloured in and complete. I might add in more cut outs but this is where I am so far.
Story Plan
Since the theme of the animation has to be Identity, I wanted to present a story that shows how people and their actions can shape a person, whether it be for the better or for the worst. In this case I will have character one with a clear red beating heart that covers the hole in their chest, showing that they are innocent, complete and full of love like most children in their early stages of life. (Don't bite my head off I still have not done the cutout heart.) As he looks around he spots character two from a distance, sitting alone with no heart but an empty hole where it should be. In an act of sympathy and naive care, character one gives his heart to the troubled character two when approaching her. In response she takes the heart and covers the hole in her chest with it. But instead the gifted heart begins to shrink in size, showing that she cannot be healed or maintain compassion given to her. When the heart is completely gone she walks away, leaving character one alone without a heart. Now he too has become empty, and like her a shell of a person, needing somebody with a heart to feed on for a temporary fix.
What Drove The Story Plan?
My idea for this story was driven by my interest in sociopaths and funnily enough, zombies. In terms of sociopaths I have always had a mild interest in how bad experiences with others shape who people are. In terms of zombies, I actually find them interesting too as they always target those with what they do not have; life. Zombies seem to be on a never ending search for something they do not have and in the process hurt others, similar to the living when we lack something. I also wanted to show how toxicity can easily spread as well. I thought it would be a good idea to show that with children; the most innocent version of a person, and to show positivity as a heart that can be easily destroyed by one naive act of kindness to those beyond saving.
It is easy to lose ones way when one loses themselves by giving too much; according to a West African Proverb 'When the music changes, so does the dance.' As so in life when you let too many people have your kindness. Your goals change when you have too many selfish people to tend to. And in some cases dealing with them too often can change your goal to the extent that you go on a mission to become the most emotionally unavailable and inconsiderate person ever (in other words you begin to stop caring).
Closing
This is my work done so far for my twenty second animation. I can't wait to start animating it and I will upload as soon as it is complete. Sorry if this turned out to be more of a life lesson and a rant of my thoughts and emotions rather than me explaining my work formally, but as usual, Thank you for your time, I really appreciate you and I will see you in my next upload.
Catch you all later, now you are free to click something else.
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