Create an animation using 3D or 2D techniques such as rotoscoping, stop motion, claymation, puppetry or frame by frame illustration. With your chosen medium, create a short narrative (less than one minute) around a current world issue.
The unnamed protagonist escapes into his VR set, living in blissful ignorance encapsulated in his perfect filtered world. Whilst frolicking in his safe haven, his VR set filters out a construction pipe in his walking path. He trips over the pipe, and the VR headset cracks. While inspecting the damage, the facade of his perfect life dies and he's thrust into the ugly truth of reality that surrounds him (thievery, police patrolling, public heartbreak and piercing construction noises). Overwhelmed, he races home. There he frantically rummages through his cupboard, finds a previous model of his VR headset and dives back into the comfort of his escapist reality, fulfilling his temporary fix. This narrative explores the morals of humanity being dependent on technology to free oneself rather than facing their fears and adapting or accepting them. Viewing life in a rose coloured lens is an unhealthy habit that festers in pockets of today’s society.
The narrative is set in the present day, yet utilises futuristic technology to foretell how society will digress if it continues on the path that it is currently at—being over reliant on technology. It comments on current society where it is considered the norm to curate a refined perception of one’s lifestyle rather than accept each other’s flaws and show a more authentic presence online. Individuals are comfortable with this state of virtual self as seen in the protagonist, who worries that his vulnerabilities—the good and the bad, would repel the uninvited spectators who critically analyse his every move. Hence why the narrative is set in a dystopian landscape where he filters himself and the world around him to shelter rather than tackle his issues at hand.
To communicate this narrative, 2D and 3D streams were blended. With 2D being the character interactions, including the protagonist interacting with the pipe and VR headset, it differentiated from the 3D which focused on building the surrounding environment of the city and the house in which the protagonist lives in. The refined and carefully sculpted environment created in 3D was chosen to intentionally juxtapose the organically hand drawn characters, who are ironically humanly flawed yet beautiful in their uniqueness.
The animation team consisted of myself, Sarah Monaghan, Arti Oza and Jacob Sadler. We planned out the sequence of events which took place in the narrative, acted them out on campus, rotoscoped them and then transferred the scenes into the 3D landscape.
When rotoscoping the protagonist and background characters and interactions, which were acted out by Sarah and I, we illustrated upon a drawing layer. We then deleted the reference video layer, leaving only the motion of the illustrated characters. This improved the accuracy of the keyframes and fluidity of motion in the characters, whilst also benefiting us in time efficiency of following video motion rather than drawing from scratch.
Once that was completed, all that was left to address was the lighting, shadows and sourcing sound designers (Jacob Hedges and Luis Rumbolo) who aided in the main melody, creating the soundscape of the city atmosphere, the visceral chaotic noises the main protagonist is inflicted with and the little hints of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds. Finally the mixers (Serena Lam and Emily Hogan) fine tuned all the audio bytes so that they were crisp and in harmony with each other in order to carry the narrative.
