Artistic Choices

Although my initial letter animation was not super-complicated thus far, I feel like it still possessed some expressive capabilities.

I don't think the part where the Q is rolling is particularly expressive in itself. Rather, it is the part where Q encounters difficulties that it begins to be more expressive. Once stuck, it rocks back and forth a little, like a person fretting or a overturned turtle trying to right itself.

Failing in this endeavor, it hunches down, like a person's shoulders drooping or a sad animal, and lets a lone tear escape it.

As far as choosing its colour went, I mostly just went with what felt instinctive. I read somewhere that round shapes are associated with cool colours, such as blue and green, which is probably why it felt so right.

The font I chose according to how rounded the Q was and what shape the tail (which it would get stuck on) was.

In terms of other people's artistic choices, the two that stood out to me the most were someone's letter L and someone's letter V.

The L in question was an uppercase L, written in cursive. It appeared on the page as that particular student writes it, which I appreciated, as I too enjoy the way some letters feel to write, particularly if they have such twisting loops. It then morphed into a butterfly and flew away. It felt like it was drawing off of the letter's shape and its mental association very nicely.

I also liked the letter V, just because it was very different. It bounced around the screen and eventually grew to consume the whole thing until you couldn't tell what letter it was. I like the way it allowed one to feel as if a camera was zooming in on the letter.

I chose these two because they were both very distinct styles, and therefore provided me with two very different ways I could manipulate my own animations in the future.