4.) Relevant Animation History

Examples of Environmental Animation

The following examples highlight some of the ideas that focus on sustainability, morality and consumerism.

Figure 1; Environmental Pollution Animation, Steve Cutts, shared by Abdulla Rashid on YouTube.

This animation follows the main characters over-use and disrespect of the natural environment. The video aims to highlight the plight of the natural world, the blind consumerism of humans and their disregard for the plants and animals of the world. There are many examples of conceptual transitions in the animation, most notably would be the character stepping into the snakes and using them as boots. Also pumping the chicken full of chemicals and using it as a basketball is another great example of a conceptual transition. The video evokes feelings of guilt and shame for the treatment of the creatures in the video and highlights how selfish the person is being, as they kill and wear the animals, show industrial farming, chemical usage and ending the clip on mountains of waste with a throne to sit on top of as there is nothing left.

Figure 2; Adventures of Mark Twain, stop motion animation scene.

This scene is a fantastic example of stop motion animation. It shows some very skilful transitions which are moulded from clay models and reworked to form different expressions and scenes. The world of small people show that less detail and form can be used to tell a story, they are simple clay figures but the animation uses sound and movement to give them a whole life and character story, before they are inevitably crushed by their creator. This stop motion example highlights the possibilities of using frame by frame animation and the attention to detail needed to create a piece like this. In the final sustainability piece it will feature some frame by frame animated sequences.

Figure 3; Animated Tree Plantation, Sanjay Ghandi National Park

The last video is a short animation highlighting the benefits of the plantation of trees. It demonstrates the plight of the man without the shelter of trees, compared to the joy of the plantation, where the community has some together to plant the tree saplings. The time-lapse shows trees growing and flourishing to transform the landscape from barren and dry to lush and prosperous with the new plantation. The animation is simple and colourful but effective, it delivers the message and storyline with efficiency through the use of characters, storyline and the passing of time. This is a similar style of animation which will be used in the final sustainability piece.