Waking Up - ANIMATION

The purpose of this workshop was to create an animation which showed the thinking process of our design. Within a week, all our ideas were to be presented on an A1 sheet of paper ONLY. We could use both sides of the sheet, and if ever we needed more space, we could rub things out and draw our new idea in. We were not to show any sketches, or developments on any other sheet of paper or sketch book. Everything we wanted to present, had to be drawn on that single A1 sheet of paper.

LIMIT: There was no limit to how long our animation could be. The important thing was to show your development process, through DRAWINGS. That meant no use of actual pictures, unless of course those pictures we planned to use in the animation were drawn onto that A1 sheet of paper.

PROGRAM: We were told to use Adobe After Effects, though some decided to use something which they were more comfortable with (which I don't think there was anything wrong with - especially if you don't have time to familiarize yourself with a completely new program) Tutorials for this program are available online.
Open up internet explorer >> media center >> tutorials >> adobe audio video (Or so I remember :) )

IDEA: My initial idea was to create a floating structure. It all came about when I was looking at a duck. I meditated on the fact that the duck must have felt safe just floating around in the pond. Being surrounded by water, I got the impression that the dark couldn't be harmed unless someone, or something crossed through the water to grab it. I also noticed that duck floated until it hit the ponds edge, then changed its direction. For me, I felt that the duck's path was unpredictable. It didn't know to change direction until it hit the pond's edge. I then thought about how interesting it would be to have a structure that floated while you sleep, and in the morning, you'd wake up to get a different view of the surrounding - just in a different spot in the pond. I wanted to design a structure that emphasized on the idea of 'freedom'.

After talking it over with the tutors, they made me think about a lot of things:

1) How you would access the pond - especially if it were just floating in the middle of the pond.

2) Sunlight access. How would sunlight enter the space.

3) How would I design the space so that it wasn't small enough to make someone feel claustrophobic. 

4) If the structure was floating, wouldn't it be vulnerable? Someone could just walk by and pick it up if it were close enough to the edge of the pond.

I couldn't think of a way to improve my initial idea. So I went back to the drawing board and tried to think of another idea related to "waking up".