Applied Animation

Documentary animation

There are lots of things to consider with documentary animation such as what your demographic is, who it could help and how it could have the desired effect. and there are different ways in which the message that the animation is trying to create is presented. An important part of documentary animations is the display or portrayal of the facts supporting the animations. A very common way of displaying these facts is that of graphic design, simple shapes and text that visualises these facts, for example:

This animation is exactly what I am describing, the display of information accompanied by simple animations (in aesthetics and movement) this helps visualise the information to help understand it all if it a difficult subject matter like this animation about the history and future of everything.

But there are also a few other ways in which different animations approach the visualisation of the facts involved, this is that of comedy! it is an easy way to keep the audience interested whilst still relaying the facts. as the main problem with certain documentary animation is that its easy to fall into the trap of 'boring' the audience by displaying too much information without visualising it in an engaging way. but comedy is a way of lightening the subject matter but in turn evoking the sympathy of the audience, here is an example:

This very old animation is a prime example of this, the references to the film The Matrix makes everyone who has seen it instantly relate to the comedic relation to the facts, but then it makes the audience come to a natural conclusion of the underlying message which can impact the audience more so due to the natural realisation rather than being force fed information, which creates a barrier in the mind that makes it harder for the information to settle.

But my favourite method of portraying factual information is the incorporation of narrative. this may seem contradictory or trivial but I think that the effect is even stronger than the comedic one. one can get attached to characters, feel feelings towards them and perceive the animation in a strong emotional way! let me avert your attention to this incredible animation:

a short narrative but effective! due to the situations and hurdles the characters face creates a strong connection the audience has to the characters. this destroys that barrier that helps information settle into the minds of the audience. the only risk in this method is that there could be too much effort involved in the narrative that the information or underlying message could be lost in the thick coating of the narrative.

This method is how I apprached the module, and making it quite a dark animation I thought that it would stick in the audiences mind and make more of an impact compared to something quite 'PG' and I think it paid off due to the subtle idea that I have planted into the audiences mind.