Final Animation

Rationale

My animation explores the theme of superstitions within the rhyme Ring-O-Rosies. Ring-O-Rosies is a traditional nursery rhyme written centuries ago, describing the symptoms and superstitions of posies used during the Great Plague of London. In order to reinterpret the rhyme to a modern audience, I decided to focus on present-day superstitions. Superstitions are defined as irrational beliefs often proceeded from fear. My animation focuses on the superstitions of crows, china breaking, ladders and most importantly- black cats. The black cat superstition is of relatively recent origin derived from folklore, which often depicts them as demons. My narration tells the story of a black cat walking down a city street, when all of a sudden unfortunate events start to occur within his presence. Similarly to the Ring-O-Rosies rhyme, I chose to finish my story with an ending that proves the superstition is wrong. Therefore once the cat feels unloved and sad I made it rain- revealing the cat is in fact white in colour and was just covered in dirt or sot.  

Having a strong interest in Japanese anime, I decided to base my visual aesthetic on particular anime’s and morph that with my own style. I also looked at a variation of video games in order to get a unique look for the characters in my animation. Overall I wanted to achieve a simplistic character style, whilst retaining definition through outlines. The setting uses a natural colour palette with a generic subtle gradient style displaying no major contrast. Helping with the overall simplicity, and relatable environment for the character.

My biggest focus in this brief was to have the cat convey misconception of superstition with a sense of personality. In order for the personality to succeed, the audience must form a connection with the cat. To achieve this I started with the cat exploring and interacting with certain elements in the story. After displaying her personality of a happy and oblivious cat, I then decided to have the audience emotionally connect with her by ending with her being misunderstood and feeling lonely.

Type for my animation was an integral part of the communication method. I decided to have the type integrated into the settings. This helped blend the text subtly with the environment it was displayed in. I chose to simplify the rhyme even further by only portraying only the key word from each sentence, and translated it into kanji to further reinforce my overall visual theme of Japanese anime. These words appear four times in the duration of my animation- in the concrete ground, on the grass covered wall, on a plaque and on a signpost. Overall I aimed to achieve a subtle and discrete integration of the type, as I wanted the focus to be on the character. To further enhance my anime theme I also added in katakana sounds often seen in Japanese manga to reinforce the sounds that each scene comprised.

I believe I have achieved a narrative where the main character and typography explores the misconception of superstition in rhyme Ring-O-Rosies.