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My capstone project is an analysis and representation of my brain and how it works. Through storytelling and stop motion animation, I seek to...

Methods

Interviews with creative professionals

Research on the brain

Recording daily conversations

Listening to podcasts from creatives and writing analysis in response

Initial Project Outcomes

VFX Animation:

+Versatile

+I've done it before

--Hard to prototype

--Easy to get caught in perfectionism

Mechanical Installation

+I like the medium

--What would it be?

Stop-Motion

+Impossible to be perfect, I won't be able to waste time on details

+Linear work, spending hours on a single shot instead of jumping around

-Mistakes are very punishing

I intentionally chose a medium I'm inexperienced with, and also one with a destructive and punishing workflow. Hopefully, it will force me to just continue developing a scene even if I don't think it's ideal, because it's too much of a pain to start over. If I had chosen something like digital 3d animation, I most likely would be driven to try to make things perfect, because digital mediums allow you to do that. Even though I'm relatively experienced with programs like Blender, I would be shooting myself in the foot if I chose them as my medium for capstone.

Precedents

The View From Here is an example of an animated story from StoryCorps, about a woman who works as bridgetender in Florida. She describes her eight years on the job so far.

Precedents

In this precedent, the character is literally hallucinating, but it's interesting to me as a visual precedent for something from his imagination physically interacting with him. Specifically with this character, his hallucinations can also be interpreted in different ways to read into his mental state and history.

Precedents

The wire/steel armature is the base of most stop-motion projects. The armature on the right is a steel ball and socket armature, which is meant for foam and cloth characters. claymation characters are usually made with wire armatures.

Storyboard & Vision

Main Character Profile

• The creature is a representation of my brain bank — it sits on my desk space and observes and torments(?)
• The creature is an embodiment of my project process
• bold, lounging, jokester
• "slippery" jester and trickster
• little rascal
• scallywag

Questions

• I am still not sure about how to narrow down my final concept. What is the greater commentary I want to make with the creature?
• What does the creature represent?
• How does the creature interact with its surroundings?
• How does the creature make me feel in the scene?

Next Steps

• Finalize my lingering concept question
• Begin building scenes