Graphic Media & Final Research Project - Work discussion

The beginning few seconds of my animation - Animal cruelty & Children  

In this work discussion on my graphic media and Final Research project ‘Nature’ I will be talking about my thought process throughout it and my inspirations. I’ve divided it into two important parts. The first part being the topic and knowledge I got from my contextual studies seminars and my reading reports I have recently done, which will also talk about the meaning behind my animation. Part two will talk about where I got my inspiration from, for my design, aesthetics and why it all links to animal and children cruelty. 

Part One: The Topic 

Since this was an independent research project, I decided to make my project on children and animals specifically pets, showing their relationships together and exploring the abusive and affectionate relationships them have with one another. I chose this topic, because its something close to my heart, I adore animals and I’ve had many through out my life especially in my childhood and if I have the opportunity to figure out for on the physiological aspect of this I’ll take it. 

The topic of children and animals has many sub genres, however I wanted to focus on animal cruelty from children and why such innocence is creating such malevolent acts. After reading the three reading reports and examining them in detail I’ve concluded I enjoy finding out the psychology behind harmful and beneficial relationships between humans and other species. I wanted to look at the bad, good and the in between when it comes to our relationships with animals, that’s why I began with Jacques Derrida as a base to start. 

Firstly, Jacques Derrida helped me realise that animals will always be animals and not like us humans, because they are closer to nature. They do not communicate, act or think like us. Moving past this, helped me understand the relationship more between us animals and humans, do we sympathise with animals and care for them because we have the illusion that they are like us? And does abused children by humans, hate animals because they see humans in them? Maybe, because I found out from my visual research that childhood is filled with animals and most the time they humanise them, by clothes, talking, thinking and more. To include this in my animation, I’ve stayed away from accidentally humanising of animals in the animation. For example, we cannot hear their thoughts or see ridiculous expressions. 

In addition, I then looked into Donna Haraway, Companion Species Manifesto to truly understand the relationship with have with pets and what it means to people and reflecting that with children and animal cruelty. “The relationship is not especially nice; it is full of waste, cruelty, indifference, ignorance, and loss, as well as of joy, inventions, labour, intelligence, and play.”  (Haraway, D., Companion Species Manifesto. p.12). To reflect this in my animation, I started it with a girl showing her compassion for her pet, by hugging and simply playing together. 

The plot of my animation, is based on my own story, which started when I used to live in Madeira at around 10-13 years old, I heard my dog crying because he was being shot with a BB gun, however all I could do is bring my dog inside, because someone was shooting from up the hill and there was no way for me to know where it was coming from to press charges. Finally the feeling of being powerless comes back and keeps coming back because that is the case with most animal cruelty cases, they are neglected just like the attackers’ abuse cases were also neglected. The rest of the animation does not come from my own experiences, but it does come from real events. Some I’ve found from my reading report on Ascione, F., 2005. Children and animals. 

Continuously, there are these shots I’ve put in between the BB gun being shot throughout my animation. This is to show a glimpse of the young animal abusers. Manly boys, since they have the higher percentage of abusing animals. The animation will have a constant voiceover of children laughing as they show no remorse as they shoot the dog. Inspiration from Paul Bill Barritt, ‘White Morning’. 

Furthermore, I wanted to conclude what Ascione states, that kids often see “ pets as “transitional objects,” like a security blanket” (Ascione, F., Children and animals. p.21), because a lot of children see their pets as safety as they are such happy and gentle animals. Then, they see their beloved pet being hurt, their illusion of them being safe and protected is destroyed. Thus, as the girl is looking around to find the shooters, we see her fear manifest into and fearful creature lurking behind her, as we see her illusion break down. Could also represent the fact that the girl is coming to the realisation that she won’t be able to press charges on someone she can’t even find, thus the creature of fear is slowly making its way towards her. 

Towards the end, we will see things become much darker in context and literally too, as we see a bit of the the abuser past as the screen goes black. This is where my knowledge from the reading report from Ascione, F., 2005. Children and animals, will come handy, as I explicitly show the beating and torture in the boy’s life and see it slowly transition into abusing people as he’s older. 

Part Two: The Visual & Sound  

To begin with, children, abuse and animals are the main point of my graphic media and final research project, so they had to be projected well.

The inspiration for the style of my animation was from a mixture of my visual research, such as Paul Barritt’s eerie short film and from some traditional children books, which I discussed plenty in those previous posts. The colours are minimised to have a nicer visual, aesthetic and match a more childlike feel, instead of the colours being dark and gloomy. However is does take that turn towards the end of the animation, with the screen doing black as the topic gets serious and deeper.   

 The sound design was important as I wanted it to have strong and impactful sound effects. It took more of a horror feel with the sound, this is inspired by the sound in Barritt’s short film. I wanted to do this because I believe it fits more with my topic. Since, abuse is a scary topic as it is. Sound will always be on edge, dramatic and tense, to shock viewer with loud and horrible sounds to set the mood of the scenes and of the topic itself.

I created the animation on Procreate and After Effects, some scenes we can immediately notice what program I used, but altogether creates a unique variation. There were some things I could have done better such as the actual drawing element, perhaps If I had more time I could have added more texture and details to the drawing itself and also have cleaner animations. In general, I’m very happy with how it turned out and I believe it express more topic clearly. 

Overall, my animation can represent plenty of things and I wanted to leave it open to the viewers mind and not be completely explicit. However, the main importance is to spread awareness on the neglected animal and child abuse cases and how sometimes they can interlink, with other words its the cycle of violence. 

Final Full Animation - will be in next post