Final Project

Movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFkKyELUCKE



Idea: For my final project I knew I wanted to animate something with Flash. The last time I really animated anything was 2 years ago, because I haven't had the time or the correct software to do so. However, I decided this would be a good opportunity to get back into it.

Inspiration: Over winter break I wrote a song that had a very spacy out of this world feeling, and so I decided that it would be cool to animate a story to the song. I definitely tried to let the music flow with the story I was writing. I made many of the new scenes arrive on beat, and I think that helped add drama and excitement to the movie.

Story: The original song I wrote/am in the process of writing has words. I'm a Christian, and the song is about how Christians are supposed to understand that this world isn't really our home or all that their is. Our home is heaven, and we are only here temporarily. Sadly, in this temporary state bad things do happen, and many people won't like us because of what we stand for. However, it's alright. I guess my movie is an allegory for that.

The space man is a traveler from another world. He's gets to the new planet and makes a friend. The friend symbolizes a person who knows a Christian is a little different but isn't angry, dismissive, or confrontational in reaction to what they stand for. This person simply wants to know more.

So the spaceman and the alien begin to hang out. However, as they walk along, I show that the people who live on the planet are shocked by the space man. This is a metaphor for those who don't like Christians and the fact that Christians bring up the idea that this life (their planet) isn't all that exists.

Instead of getting to know the spaceman or hearing all that he could tell them about life beyond their planet, they decide to kill him.

I guess it is "A Sad End" because the movie shows that people, who could have been helped by what the spacemen told them or showed them, decided to hurt him instead.

Technique: Besides the song, which was made in Garage Band, I used Adobe Flash and a Pen Tablet to create this movie. I used motion and shape tweening for a lot of the movements.

When I first got into making the movie, I was disheartened by the number of walk cycles I would need to create to illustrate the story. However, once I got into it, it wasn't so bad. This was a fun experience. It has been a while since I've seen characters come to life, and I look forward to making more cartoons this summer.