Oscar Pulsford | Motion Graphics

The Brief

In groups of four we were tasked with creating a motion sequence that aligns with one of the themes set by Creative Conscience. My group and I settled on mental health as it’s something we all felt was important tackle.

Research Findings

Whilst researching self-esteem and body image I came across a study from the Mental Health Foundation commissioned during Mental Health Awareness Week in 2019. I've included a link to the study here. They surveyed a total of 1118 teenagers. Here are my key findings from this study. -It found that almost one-third (31%) of teenagers felt ashamed in relation to their body image. -Four in ten teenagers (40%) said images on social media had caused them to worry about body image. -More than a third of British teenagers (35 per cent) had stopped eating at some point or restricted their diets due to worrying about their body image.

Above: Self Acceptance Final Animation

Introduction To Motion

image description — Above: Stop Motion Test Animation

Initial Storyboarding

Our ideas moved around the topics of mental health and fitness. We also decided to include the influence of social media on this. I wrote the script based on my own experience of insecurity in comparison to online influencers. I wanted the insecurity of the character to be a universally relatable thing so opening the idea up to the group helped the idea grow. We decided to aim it towards self-acceptance with elements of humour to keep attention whilst still incorporating a serious message. After we had settled on the main thematical focus we moved on to character design.

Character Design

We felt simple characterisations would be the best way to go and the most fun and so we went for a flat design for the character. Alex Nessia came up with the overall character design and was responsible for the illustrations. I helped with the final colour choices for the characters.

Final Storyboard

The story went through a lot of changes before we were all happy with it. We felt that the initial story had too many elements to it, confusing the message we wanted to convey so we decided to scrap the clock scenes (see storyboard). We also realised that the bodybuilding element was dominating the story more than intended and obscuring the intended message. We recieved feedback from the peer review crit that we had made something geard towards a young men. This wasn’t our original intention but after some discussion we decided as a group to follow this path.

Storyboard Animatic

Above: Self Acceptance Animatic Test

For the sake of clarity we removed the time element and I then rewrote the script to be a conversation which made the internal struggle of insecurity more apparent. This time around we kept the influencer content to add humour to the story. The final animatic shown above depicts a young insecure man beaten down by self-comparison to influencers having a conversation with a positive version of himself that appears to him through his reflection.

Social Media Animation

The first animation I created for this project was a stop motion animation. Charlie and I decided to create the social media aspect of the project using paper cutouts. I went for a cut out of a popular influencer; Andrew Tate as I see him as the worst possible role model for men. I felt that it added humour whilst incorporating real world aspects to ground the story in reality. The process was very simplistic. First I cut out the head and mouth part and took 42 photos of his head and mouth moving. I then put this into After Effects and animated it. The final clip was then sent to Charlie who edited it into the opening scene. The main challenge of this was adding the audio in and syncing it up to a good level. The secondary challenge was having to listen to Andrew Tate speak.

Above: Social Media Animation

Dialogue Animation

When I came to animate to the voice I settled on using Adobe Character Animate. I then redrew the characters into individual parts and applied them to a puppet in Photoshop. After this I mapped the parts in Character Animate and rigged the puppet for the scene. Once the puppet was in the scene I modified the levels of expression to match the energy and nervousness of the negative character. Then added in the background for the scene, added the audio and synced the puppet up it.

Final Animation & My Contribution

Above: Final Animation

My Contribution

Self-Acceptance is a short animation that tells the story of what a lot of young men face in regard to the struggle of self-acceptance and toxic comparison. It is also a short commentary on the negativity social media can breed. This animation was created by Oscar Pulsford, Alex Nessia, Priya Ellis and Charlie Tootell. All 4 of us took up specific roles to make this project work. My contribution and responsibilities included: ideation, script writing, voice acting and animating the second social media clip and the entirety of the dialogue scene.

Reflection

When I first heard that we would be doing an animation-based project I was very nervous as I had no idea what to expect. During the first few weeks however I really enjoyed the ideation and challenges of script writing. Working in a group has always been very enjoyable for me as I love gaining new perspectives on things. I was very lucky to have such helpful and hardworking teammates as it really helped me to believe in myself enough to express my ideas and show my writing.

The initial Idea was birthed from a lot of insecurity, and I based the conversation on very toned-down internal conversations I’ve had with myself. The whole idea of seeing yourself in a positive way is a challenge I feel that most people can relate to and this all came from something a close friend said to me once which was “if only you could see yourself through my eyes”.

The main challenges of this project were learning animation through digital media and trying to understand the associated programs. I also had a lot of personal issues with hearing my own voice which made me very (ironically) insecure. However, I got to learn so much about motion graphics, teamwork, script writing and voice acting. If I had more time, I would re-record the audio and polish the timing up. I am very happy that I was able to work with such great people on this project as I feel that the collaboration made a positive difference to my work.