Animation: “Day Shift”

Here are five points about the animation:

1. After Effects is amazing. Creating an user-friendly interface for animation had to be incredibly difficult. But after just 30 minutes of using it, I was able to do what I wanted with the program. Of course, there are little tricks and tools I’m still not familiar with. And there are incredibly frustrating moments. But otherwise, I think it’s a brilliant program.

2. Our story is an allegory. At first, it may seem incredibly sad. But if you think about what this represents, I think it’s a little cheerier than it seems. Also, I think we created an emotional connection between the viewer and our stick figure, using a variety of methods — not just the narrative, but also camera work, music and the actual animation style.

3. I hand-drew the illustrations with permanent marker and acrylic paint. I’m not an artist, but I think that overly hand-drawn look makes the animation feel more magical.

4. This was the first project in which I worked solely with a different partner in Comm Lab. The different working style of different became very apparent after this experience. I can truly say that one isn’t better than the other. I’ve worked in collaborative environments a lot in my life, but this ITP experience takes this to the extreme. At work, it’s about getting things done; it’s easy to take the heart out of it. But, here, it’s all about emotional investment in the pieces. So that might be what makes ITP collaboration more difficult, but also more rewarding.

5. Again, I composed some music. It’s funny what kind of skills come into use at ITP.

OK, now here’s the film — “Day Shift”: