[Animation] HOME

Above is my final animation for university, HOME. This animation was made differently to my usual work as I wanted to add more variety in styles. The animation featured no voices, which meant I had to figure out how to tell the story through actions, rather than the characters simply narrating what happened. Because of this I feel I've improved body language in my animations, even with the simple character designs that the video used. I also used colour to tell the story, through things like the red warning lights clashing with a clear blue sky. 

I thought a bit more about the context and messages behind this animation when creating it too, and it has an environmentalist message behind it with the alien's character arc. In their story, they have escaped from an overheated, polluted planet to the calm, natural forest in which the scientist resides. When this area is in danger from their UFO, they decide to sacrifice it in order to protect the environment which they have fallen in love with. I also backed up this message with the screens in the lab, in which the aliens can see the beautiful outside world amidst the chaos in the lab.

The scientist/artist side of the story is intended to be a "don't judge a book by it's cover" type of theme. When the aliens crash land and are taken indoors, I built up an air of suspense through the way the characters interacted with each other. Dan also built up the sound to a climax at the point where the artist holds up a brush to the aliens. At this point the character is revealed to be harmless, and actually friendly to his new found visitors. In the end, he attempts to help the aliens out, and is repaid by them helping fix his lab, and staying with him so that he can paint them.
This animation was a lot of fun to make, the style was refreshing and allowed me to focus on areas I don't normally consider as much, and I feel I've learned more about storytelling and portraying characters through its creation.