2 - Genre and Medium: To Animate, or Not to Animate

    Ever since the film intro was first announced, one question rang through my mind,

"should I animate this intro?"

    The answer a classmate who asked the same question and I made at first was no.

    There's too many pros and cons that would come up with even thinking about it, and deciding so would vastly change the outcome of the project down to the framework. Animation is something I want to major in though, and I've had a few experiences with making short ones. Below are two small examples of my experience. The left is from a flipbook of 50 frames I made for an animation class, and the right was my reaction to a show opening I liked a little too much.

    Since this type of decision felt almost beyond me, I looked to my friends and family for their input. Using their comments, recommendations, and support as well as my own for either side, we built a solid case for live filming and animation. This would likely be better to explain through a chart of pros and cons.

PROS

CONS

Animation is a medium I am passionate about, or look to do in the future. I will not have to find any actors nor physically act in the project myself. The project can be used as a good learning experience. I will have full control of the mise en scène (for example, instead of finding a large span of grass to film at, I can create it myself). I would have more creative freedom with visual style. This project would become more personal in its process to finished product.

I may lose steam from my own initial ambition, making the finished product look half-baked. The experience needed for this particular project can be beyond my expertise. Even if I were to not have any physical actors, I may need to have at least one voice actor. The effort I put might not be enough to finish until the deadline, mixing in with work I need to do for other classes. I have much more experience with illustration instead of animation.

    Following the encouragement of everyone that I have consulted, I came to the decision that the medium for this project will be 2D digital animation. I do have some reluctance, but I have more confidence falling on this decision than I do with filming in real life (I may even merge some visual elements of real life into this medium, if it came to that decision). This can be a first step in focusing less on what can go wrong and shift the focus to what I can do right!