Soundscape Inspired Mood-board
Having four unique yet chilling soundscapes to select from, we needed to choose an emotion to do a 10 second animation on, inspired by the audios. With careful consideration, I settled on the audio of calming ocean waves with seagulls squawking in the background. The waves of the ocean stirred up an inexpressible ache within my heart, so I was inspired to create a mood board to translate my complex feelings into pictures. The relaxed ambiance gave me a quiet space in my mental state to be at peace with my emotions, where my thoughts were loud and clear. I conjured up a little story. The soothing sounds reminded me of a beach with an exquisite sunset- if only you had somebody to share the scene with you. As the gentle waves crawl toward you, you think of all your loved ones and the dear memories you created with them. Adrift in a turbulent sea of emotions, you get lost in the crimson colors of the settling sun as the warm sensations of being loved start to flood you. As the waves softly drench the sand, it reminds you that nothing stays the same, neither the ocean waves, yet there’s beauty to that. As the night comes with a blanket of stars, you only get lonelier. You miss and reminisce about your loved ones. I crave to explore the true feelings of nostalgia that tug at your heartstrings. That’s why I chose “nostalgia” as the featured emotion of my project initially.
Idea Development
I included old-school technologies like mixtapes and record players to the mood board above to convey the recollections of culture, representation, and memories. I had the weird notion of merging mixtapes with chocolate bars when brainstorming how the animation plot would play out. Mixtapes and chocolate bars are both rectangular and have a certain “sweetness” about them. The idea is that everyone who eats it will go on an emotional trip in which all of their memories will play out in slow motion in front of them, allowing them to see every hidden detail. What would your reaction be? Perhaps some bittersweetness? You may rewind and repeat select sounds or visuals that dig up and reproduce old events in your head, similar to real-life mixtapes/VHS tapes. Along with the highly addicting chocolate components, you may want to go back for seconds simply to recapture that fleeting pleasant sensation.
For the third draft/sketch, I let my imagination go wild and drew a bear. It’s not a typical bear. It has a large stomach and a rudimentary rotary dial telephone wheel is imprinted on it. The bear could dial whomever it missed whenever it wanted by turning the wheel. My intention is to demonstrate that the technology used by the bear is already in the past; cellphones are the new black. How are you meant to call someone using an outmoded piece of technology when all of your “friends” have smartphones? The message implies that the bear’s links with his long-gone buddies are past.When nobody is there to pick up on the other line, the indescribable pain gets more unbearable as it is unable to move on.
Character Design
I wasn’t satisfied with my primary concepts, so even after the first few drafts were finished, I was still eager for more brainstorming. I wanted to add a new twist to my narrative. As a result, a cat with syrupy tastes, simulating colorings, and enticing gooey cake bits was formed! I’d like to introduce you to Miss Birthday! She has the DNA of a cat mixed with cake. Yum.
Don’t let her sickly-sweet smile deceive you. Miss Birthday is full of bewildering thoughts, and her head brims with unspeakable secrets yet to be uncovered.
Like a regular cake, you won’t be able to comprehend where her mind is wandering off to unless you cut it open, literally!
Concept Art
Who are you thinking of, Miss Birthday?
As mentioned, Miss Birthday would have to be brutally sliced open, to reveal the secrets she possesses in her chiffon-cake-filled head. I drew out a variety of ways to how we could see the innards of her brain. My main goal was to disclose the special yet dear “somebody” she misses all the time that resides in her head. Care for a piece of cake with a strong taste of sentimentality to it?
Miss you s’more than you think!
Although good ol’ S’mores won’t have a lot of screen time in the final animation, I still wanted to dedicate some time to designing the appearance of Miss Birthday’s beloved friend.
She has the eccentric fusion of an ice cream sandwich as her body and a head composed of irresistibly sticky toasted marshmallows.
S’mores being her ever-so-adorkable bulky squared self, how could Miss Birthday not love and miss someone as sweet as her? ^ ^
Background Design
There are various ways to shake off unpleasant feelings of despair Or loneliness. One of the unhealthy ones is comfort-eating. The background exploding with sugary sweet foods symbolizes a type of destructive coping mechanism. As one attempts to indulge themselves in wolfing down a tremendous amount of sugary goodies, they wish to suppress the overwhelming feelings of sadness. In this context of missing someone, we desperately yearn to find something else for substitution to make ourselves feel better. Comfort-eating boosts one’s mood and fills that emptiness in their chest temporarily, rather than to satisfy their hunger. The distorted and unfinished desserts also represent the concealed feelings of incompleteness without your loved one. The background may not be as sweet as it seems.
The Final Product-“Missing You :(“
After learning the 12 Principles of animation, I tried to implement some of them into my final animation work. They include:
- Squash and stretch
- Anticipation
- Straight ahead action
- Follow through & overlapping action
- Ease in & out
- Secondary action
- Exaggeration
- Appeal
The animation starts off with an ever-so-melancholic Miss Birthday. Her right hand holding a birthday knife covered in pink frosting, while the other hand starts to wind back a little bit. In a heartbeat, her left hand then strikes her own head vigorously and manages to withdraw a chunk of cake. The empty space where the piece of cake belonged reveals her dearest friend- S’mores. The background becomes a shade of gray, correlating with Miss Birthday’s pained expression. She recalls the past memories created with her friend while being fully aware that those times have passed by already. She resents as the memories flood her head. Unable to bear the throbbing in both her head and chest, she gets a bit dizzy as the awful feeling slowly consumes her. The added glitchy effects exaggerate the turbulent emotional roller-coaster Miss Birthday is on. The video ends with her putting back the cake into her head, forcing herself to stop thinking about her loved one. The pain shot up to her eyes like spreading fire in a forest. Miss Birthday can’t help but let a single tear shed down, it burns as it travels down her cheek. It was definitely very satisfying to see the end product of this!