https://vimeo.com/149259871

Using custom made rigs and models to create a weird, surreal world for a little narrative. Had many troubles with the models and rigs themselves, so floating, clipping, chain breaking, etc. Were all a problem. Attempts to mitigate those issues were hit or miss, but adds a bit to the cartoony aspect in some cases. I feel somewhat satisfied with the end results as far as general movement goes, especially considering the characters I was using. Mostly fluid and somewhat believable movements with deliberate cartoony actions as well. Rigid, slow, or odd movements exist, but were kept to an acceptable. minimum.

For this project I created a Public Service Announcement for Vancouver community access television. I chose to address the issue of littering. It may seem like a trivial subject but it is something that has always bothered me. When I was 18 I was able to visit Switzerland. When I saw how clean the streets were in their country, I wondered why our streets at home couldn’t look as nice.

I created most of the figures and backgrounds with Adobe Illustrator, which I then imported to After Effects. I used a combination of vector graphics and digital collage. This use of collage was influenced by Terry Gilliam’s illustrations for Monty Python.

For the background music I used a piece called “Perfect Corporate” by MagikStudio. It is a moderate paced electronic song with a contemplative feel. The soft sound works as a backdrop for the animation while providing an upbeat rhythm that propels the action.

There are a few things that I would like to add to this video in the future. I had originally envisioned more animations in the background and more use of collage in the latter half of the video. In addition, I would like to rerecord the voice over and possibly add more lines of dialogue. Overall, I am still happy with this version for the time being.