Ride The Fence

This week I chose to look at an animation that I had seen in the past through the flashforward2004 website. It is one of the past winners. I chose to look at it this week because it is similar to the assignment we were just given. This animation, called “Ride the Fence”, illustrates the lyrics to a hip-hop song. The lyrics express the author’s stance on many common issues, several of them having to do with black rights. The overall theme of the animation is to encourage people to take a side and go all the way with it. You’ll never change anything if you always just “Ride the Fence.” This animation differs slightly from our assignment because it is a fairly literal illustration of the statements made with the lyrics.

The animation is done using very simple characters. They are just shapes with black outline and a dark grey fill. As far as the actual animation techniques, there is nothing too far out of the ordinary there. The quality lies in how well the animation coincides with the song (both beat and lyrics).

I also paid closer attention to color palette while looking at this animation. Having discussed it in class last week while reviewing the student animations, I had color in mind. This animator used a lot of dark color and everything is outlined in black. There is a strong emphasis on shape. Having noticed these characteristics, I still find myself unsure of the reason for this color choice. I certainly would like to learn a lot more about color palette choice in order to make my own animations more effective and to gain a further understanding of other animators’ color choices. If anyone has any suggestions of good places to find such information, I would be glad to hear about it.