Responsive: LoopDeLoop-'Six'

Having tried and failed to complete several of my modules before their respective deadlines, this final brief was undertaken towards the end of the module just over a week before the deadline as a way of making sure I had completed at least three of the briefs. While this brief was partially taken for convenience sake, I did feel a form of artistic drive when making it. I had been listening to the Molly Nilsson song ‘Hey Moon’ in the early hours of one morning and after hearing what the theme for this month’s LoopDeLoop was, the idea hit me.

I decided I wanted to create more of a mood piece, a sort of animated GIF set to music for the viewer to soak in and tune out to based off my mother’s experience of dealing with younger siblings at six in the morning. I approached this more as an illustration project, emphasizing detail and texture over movement, using real photographs as reference, paying particular attention to the patterns on the bed covers and cushions. I created the bulk of the illustration in Photoshop using frame-by-frame animation techniques. However I did use the puppet pin tool in After Effects on the bed covers in order to simulate the characters breathing under the covers. The distortion on the mesh of the bed covers is subtle, but I think it works well nevertheless.

Feedback I received on this was mixed, with some people praising the mood and atmosphere of the piece and others criticising the reliance on the music; while some saw the lack of motion as an intentional, adding to the piece, others saw it as motionless and lazily animated. Personally, while the lack of significant or sudden motion is intentional, there are a few small details I feel I could have added had I more time that would have improved the piece as a whole; details such as having the mother move her head slightly or take a drink from her mug. Some things that people pointed out as being continuity errors, such as the fact the clock doesn’t change at all over the 6 minute animation, but these were intentional; essential in establishing a sense of place outside of time, something I feel lends to the medium of looping animation in a profound way.