This is a week project I did in University, We had to make an animation which the theme had to be metamorphosis using sand or salt animation. Using the sand/salt we created characters and backgrounds in which we then animated in a stop motion style of animation. It works by having sand or salt on a piece of glass (or a few pieces of glass if you want a layered animation) and then putting a back light in so the sand or salt blocks the light creating dark figures. Below is the animation:
The project I decided to make was about the retro arcade game 'Pac-Man' as it is simple to make and works with sand/salt easily due to lack of movement. Pac-Man is a game known worldwide so people will easily recognize the animation, along with all the sound effects added, such as the death sound and movement sounds.
I found this project to be quite difficult as it was the first time I had ever done animation using sand or salt, (It was also the first I had ever heard of such an animation technique) The part that had proven most difficult was the fact that instead of sand I used entirely salt making the characters and backgrounds look alot lighter than it would in sand, if I had used sand then the animation would have looked alot more crisp. That aside I think the animation came out good considering that I only used salt.
I found this project to be quite difficult as it was the first time I had ever done animation using sand or salt, (It was also the first I had ever heard of such an animation technique) The part that had proven most difficult was the fact that instead of sand I used entirely salt making the characters and backgrounds look alot lighter than it would in sand, if I had used sand then the animation would have looked alot more crisp. That aside I think the animation came out good considering that I only used salt.
The animation is to show metamorphosis, to show this I used Pac-man as he is a character that morphs into something else when he moves; from a ball to a ball with a slice taken out of him. The character isn’t complicated to create in sand at all so I thought it would be the perfect choice to make using him. Although Pac-man is easy to create and move using sand, the animation doesn’t really use the technique of metamorphosis; he doesn’t really transform into another creature, although you could argue that Pac-man moving and turning into a ball with a slice taken out of him is metamorphosis.
I was influenced by the video game Pac-man, the game revolves around a small yellow creature called pac-man going around a maze collecting pac-balls where ghosts roam around trying to kill pac-man, one pac-man has been touched he dies by slowly imploding into himself. You could also say I was influenced by “The owl who married a goose” as it was the first ever sand animation I had ever seen. Because of this I learnt how the animation would look one completed.
The intention of the animation was to show and practise my skills at sand animation by creating a metamorphosis themed sand animation. It was also intended to show video games in a new style, such as sand, sand animation isn’t really popular in the animation industry so I thought it would be original to show a video game in that style as it may very well be the first or one of the first video game related sand animation.
The animation doesn’t follow the conventions of the actual game, instead of going around a maze the character continues in a line until dying at the end. I represented Pac-man like this because it is different from what the game is usually like having sprites to create the characters; using sand in my opinion is a unique outlook of Pac-man. Although the character is made of sand you are still able to recognise him as Pac-man, the sound effects used in the animation are Iconic symbols of the game Pac-man, and because of this we are able to easily read the ball of sand as a symbolic version of the character Pac-man.
As the shape of the character is like Pac-man, along with the sound effects from the game, we can agree that the character must represent Pac-man.
The next time I do sand/salt animation I will consider using both sand and salt, this will help create lighter and darker tones in the animation. I will also take each frame myself and not reuse frames; this will make the animation look alot less looped and more flowing. If I was to re-due the animation, I would re-think the main story; Pac-man isn’t the best way to represent metamorphosis due to it not being really metamorphosis related, unless he was to transform into another creature.
The animation doesn’t follow the conventions of the actual game, instead of going around a maze the character continues in a line until dying at the end. I represented Pac-man like this because it is different from what the game is usually like having sprites to create the characters; using sand in my opinion is a unique outlook of Pac-man. Although the character is made of sand you are still able to recognise him as Pac-man, the sound effects used in the animation are Iconic symbols of the game Pac-man, and because of this we are able to easily read the ball of sand as a symbolic version of the character Pac-man.
“A Symbolic symbol is a sign whose connection with its object is a matter of convention, agreement or rule.” (Fiske, J: (1989), p. 51)
As the shape of the character is like Pac-man, along with the sound effects from the game, we can agree that the character must represent Pac-man.
The next time I do sand/salt animation I will consider using both sand and salt, this will help create lighter and darker tones in the animation. I will also take each frame myself and not reuse frames; this will make the animation look alot less looped and more flowing. If I was to re-due the animation, I would re-think the main story; Pac-man isn’t the best way to represent metamorphosis due to it not being really metamorphosis related, unless he was to transform into another creature.
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