We created an animation that describes the social media landscape using dark humor to show how people get attached to their technology to the point where it consumes them.

   A storyboard is a series of comicbook or frame-like drawings that are used to map out the cinematography for an animation or film. We did not get to animate all the ideas we had finalized on the storyboard, in order to try to finish in time.

   The use of color was very significant in the animation, as we decicided to make everything in black and white, save for a few exceptions. One of these exceptions was the main character, when he momentarily looked up from his phone. This is to signify how if people would just take a moment to look up from our phones and observe the world around them, they might find a litte color in their life. We also colored the feather in his hat throughout the animation, wanting to make it stand out as we had planned a scene for the end of the short that we did not get to, where the feather would be spat back out of the phone and drift delicately down back onto the phone.

   Both the main and backround characters only look up from their phones once each, and only for a very short period of time before darting their eyes back to their devices. Our team tried to make it seem like even with seeing the horrifying events lain before them, the passengers still cared more about their superficial technology. One way we were going to present this, was by having Harrison (our main character) bump into someone on the way to finding a seat on the train, and making the collision so massive that the person passing's arm falls off. (Instead, we only had enough time to have them just bump into each other, which still gets the point across.) We wanted to make a point that neither of the characters care, or even notice, because they are on their phones.

   We came up with the idea of staging the animation on a train because one of us noticed that often people will focus their attention on their phones on the subway to pass the time, and sometimes can get a bit too distracted by them.

Upon creating our animation, we were tasked with using Adobe Animate, as it contains useful features in order to help us. We primarily used two animation styles. One, was frame by frame animation, which means we drew a segment of the animation, one frame at a time. The other, being tween animation, which allows you to use the same image. You select point a, and point b, and the computer generates the frames in between. Finalization of the animation ultimately completed the film, as each member of our group worked on a separate section of the storyboard, within their own computer. A very important aspect of animation, is having a detailed, and relevant background to set the scene in which your film takes place. In our case, the background helped our film in many crucial ways. It allowed us to include other people, who appeared less important, as well as less detailed, than our main character, which allowed him to stand out. Lastly, and perhaps the most important factor of animation, is to have accurate weight and movements. Without such qualities, ones animation could look unprofessional and rushed. In our case, we were careful to include these, by giving our characters time-accurate walking motions, plus correctly timed emotions and scene shifts. All of these themes allowed for us to create an animation, which catches the interest of its viewers, and issues its meaningful message to the world.