Household
fun
Household Fun is an on- going Interdisciplinary Computing of the Arts Major (ICAM) senior project at the University of California, San Diego that I have been working on since January 2019.
For this project I was inspired to do something that I knew I cared about and had a drive for. I first came up with an idea for a safety module for little kids and toddlers to avoid accidents with household items. I had learned that a majority of burn victims were younger children and thus I wanted to create something that would hopefully help them learn. However, I wanted to also create something more artistic and less didactic which would broaden up the audience for this piece.
And with that, I set off to create a work a bit more different but with a similar premise. When children interact with something hazardous, it is usually because they are attracted to the object and give in to the temptation of interaction. With that in mind, I set out to plan and create an animation project.
For my project I want to create a small set of characters that appear to be household items that are hazardous and any kids desire to play with . Five characters were developed: Points the Knife, Rounds the Boiling Pot, Pillsy the Pill Bottle, Spritz the Chemical, and Dubbs the Electric Socket. What I envision for this set of characters will be to have their own set of lines and appear innocent and sweet to entice the viewer to want to interact with the friendly character. However, because the viewer gave into their desire and temptation to interact with the character, they then would begin to descend into a gruesome menacing character hurt from their own characteristics.
And so it begins...
And so it begins...
For this project I was inspired to do something that I knew I cared about and had a drive for. I first came up with an idea for a safety module for little kids and toddlers to avoid accidents with household items. I had learned that a majority of burn victims were younger children and thus I wanted to create something that would hopefully help them learn. However, I wanted to also create something more artistic and less didactic which would broaden up the audience for this piece.
And with that, I set off to create a work a bit more different but with a similar premise. When children interact with something hazardous, it is usually because they are attracted to the object and give in to the temptation of interaction. With that in mind, I set out to plan and create an animation project.
For my project I want to create a small set of characters that appear to be household items that are hazardous and any kids desire to play with . Five characters were developed: Points the Knife, Rounds the Boiling Pot, Pillsy the Pill Bottle, Spritz the Chemical, and Dubbs the Electric Socket. What I envision for this set of characters will be to have their own set of lines and appear innocent and sweet to entice the viewer to want to interact with the friendly character. However, because the viewer gave into their desire and temptation to interact with the character, they then would begin to descend into a gruesome menacing character hurt from their own characteristics.
Inspiration and the concepts that come from it
I have always been a fan of the "Golden Era of Animation", the 1930's when Walt Disney and other animation studios were first getting a high buzz with their characters like Mickey Mouse, Oswald, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny and so many others. For this project I found myself being inspired by the 1930's aesthetic with the big shoes and gloves. I turned to many Disney Animations that played with the idea of desires and consequences, for example, Pinocchio's Paradise Island and Dumbo's drinking binge hallucinations .
Another inspiration came from the "Let's All Go to the Lobby" Intermission Clip that made its way around America theater to theater. the characters here were the first visual inspiration to incorporate the style into my own work.
Along with those, a new game which hit that market brought back to life the dying art of hand drawn animation. Cuphead, a 2D platformer game for the Xbox and PC made it's way onto the market and audiences loved it! the 1930's style and straight forward, but difficult, boss fights.
For the animation type, I came across a YouTube channel called BAM! Animation that created a looped still animation that appears to be moving. This is what I would like my animation to appear like on a small loop with the character moving and talking.
With all these inspirations in mind, my overall idea for this work began to come together. I decided to create a piece that would discuss the idea of temptation and the consequences that come from interacting with temptation. This is to come out in the form of innocent looking household items that just want to be your friend. This animation will talk and wave while saying something quirky, however if the viewer decided to interact with it, by mouse clicking or pressing a key, the character will start to turn into a menacing evil looking being. To add special characteristics to each cartoon, the consequences will show on their bodies depending on what their actual results are. For instance, Rounds the Boiling Pot will become red and form many blisters, among with deformed body parts in similarity with what would happen in that actual situation. I want to see how the audience reacts to this piece, do they avoid it since they see the hazardous images or do they give in and bypass their reasonableness for desire.
Read more about the Ideas involved in this project ....
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"'Let's All Go to the Lobby' Tells the History of the Movie Theater Experience." Film School Rejects. 21 June 2017. 20 Mar. 2019 <https://filmschoolrejects.com/lets-all-go-to-lobby-history/>.
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"Disturbing Disney #2: The truth of Pleasure Island in Pinocchio (1940)." Film Music Central. 20 Aug. 2018. 20 Mar. 2019 <https://filmmusiccentral.com/2017/03/09/disturbing-disney-2-the-truth-of-pleasure-island-in-pinocchio-1940/>.
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"Dumbo / Nightmare Fuel." TV Tropes. 20 Mar. 2019 <https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Dumbo>.
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Francisco, Eric. "Xbox's 'Cuphead' Was Made With Nearly Extinct Cartoon Techniques." Inverse. 2 Oct. 2017. 20 Mar. 2019 <https://www.inverse.com/article/36647-xbox-one-cuphead-animation>.
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Animation, BaM. “Making Animation for INSTAGRAM! Adobe Animate.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLgAYCWRF9g&t=353s.
Timeline &
technical
needs
-Present and begin Adobe Animate Tutorials
-Flesh out first character
-Sketches for characters
Week 6-8
-Begin thinking about paper
-Work on Website documentation
-Finalize storyboards for characters
Week 9
-Color Scheme and finalizing characters
-Gather ideas and examples for paper
-Have a character started in animate
Week 10
-Have animate projects for characters mainly drafted and done
SP19Week
1-5
-Finalize animate projects and fix anything not complete
-Begin processing or HTML for interaction
SP19Week6-8
-Finalize recordings and animations for whichever characters successfully done
-Prepare for showing and enjoy!
SP19Week 9-10
For this project, I will need the technical use of many of the Adobe Creative Cloud Apps :
Illustrator,
Photoshop,
and Adobe Animate
Animate will be a compeltely new software for me to use, and it will be the main form used for this project.
The previously listed inspirations will be needed to continue this project
as well as Youtube Tutorials on Animate
and other graphic tips
