If Love Were an Animal What Would it Be?
A 3D animation inspired by other's intrepretations of love
It was around Valentines Day when I was inspired by love. I was curious to know how other's interpret love. Love is universal while being everyone interprets, feels, and gives it differently. Love is abstract and intangible which makes it difficult to express through words. I needed to find a way to grasp this abstraction through specificity and concrete language because I wanted to create art that narrated their interpretations.
my process
This began as an animation assignment for my Art class. I had little to no experience using Adobe After Effects so I decided to challenge myself with animating using this Adobe software.
I started asking questions, beginning with:
How can I turn an abstraction concrete?
How can I use specificity to create concrete images?
I invited others to be a part of my process by asking my friends to answer questions about love. I requested that they could answer using an audio or video file that I would insert in Adobe Premiere Pro.
my curiosity:
what question would initiate a concrete, drawable answer?
Brainstorming Questions
I thought about how an animation is experienced through sight.
I began brainstorming questions:
What does love look like?
Where do you see love daily?
I moved into questions considering love as an object to make it more specific. Personifying love in this sense helped a lot.
I continued brainstorming questions:
What does love do?
How does love move?
Where does love live?
If was love was an object, what would it be?
How Do I animate in After Effects?
Starting from paper, to Adobe Photoshop, then Adobe After Effects
I drew the images on white paper with a black marker and took pictures
How do I put my still images in motion?
I thought about how to visually show the theme. The universal symbol for love is a heart, so I incorporated it in but made it unique with pairing it with concrete objects that people responded with in the interviews.
I chose to use the motion of remolding and transforming as my movements to visually shape "love" into a specific animal, following the audio narrative through drawn images.
How can I find meaning in my chosen motion?
The gradual changes of shape and colour create a sense of progression, transforming and evolving which embodies the main theme of love; our perception of love is always changing.
Do the elements of art and principles of design matter in moving images?
Yes, these are used in every art form since art needs emotion while these are tools to create visual emotion.
Here is what I had to focus on most when creating a 2D animation:
colour
-purples, pinks, reds = Valentines day colours that are bright and bold, changing with the animation
-used lighter values to represent the innocence of the elephant contrasting the darker values of the parent
-grey, bland colours juxtapose the bright pinks to reveal a contrast in tones
unity/harmony
-similar shapes, space, and colours to keep aesthetic cohesive
-hearts were repeated while animals changed throughout
emphasis/focus
-emphasized motion through lines for movement illusions (otters)
-emphasized focus on love through repeating hearts
-resizing to emphasize heartbeat motion
First, Photoshop
Adobe Software
Moved into Photoshop and used opacity background and wand tool to delete the white paper background and keep the harsh black lines.
Added colour with the selection and brush tool
Flatten each layer into one layer and copied the file into a black Photoshop composition, where I compiled every frame into one PSD file
Second, After Effects
Brought the PSD file into After Effects and started to play with keyframes and motion graphs
Tranformations in animation transform the still image into a moving image, these include:
Position, shape size, opacity, rotation
Third, Premiere Pro
Audio and visuals were put together in Premiere Pro where I could manipulate the timing of the animation to correlate with the audio