the animating

This initial animatic uses the storyboard idea surrounding the worn out character at their work desk getting angry at their coworker. I adapted this idea to my workplace related character designs. This animation will involve the vibrant pink sticky note character getting burnout until they can’t help but lose it to their coworker, a takeaway coffee cup character. It finishes off with a simple message conveying that burnout can make us treat people bad. Sound design has also been considered but still needs to be developed and refined.

Facial expressions are vital when animating characters if emotion is to be expressed and communicate the animation's message. Therefore, I gave extra thought when detailing the way the characters' faces moved with how they were supposed to be feeling at the time. Eyebrows were made to tilt inwards when a character was angry or frustrated (Carousel 1). They were also suddenly raised to convey the character being surprised or given a fright. The mouth was utilised to suddenly open up or drop, as if letting out frustration or a sigh (Carousel 2). Anxiety and worry was expressed through the combination of both the eyebrows tilting back outwards and the mouth dropping (Carousel 3). Worry was further shown through a frowning character looking distracted as their eyes were looking away in a direction, not focused on what they were doing (Carousel 4). Eyelids and eye bags were also incorporated to convey how tired a character looked and sometimes emphasise how unmotivated they were (Carousel 5).
A relaxed and calm mood was presented through a character's eyes closing as their mouth went into a wide smile (Carousel 6).

Despite many animations I researched having walk cycles made up of quite a few poses, I limited the walk animation in my project to just going between two poses. This not only conveyed walking sufficiently, but also suited the rest of the animations' simplistic style. Walking was sometimes sped up to add intensity to particular moments in the animations.

The passing of time was communicated through various elements changing or building up. This included the turning of a clock (Carousel 1&2), a digital alarm clock (Carousel 3) and a paper stack piling up overtime (Carousel 4). Successfully conveying time passing was vital to my animations as burnout is a problem that builds up and has its effects overtime.

Anger and frustration are promiment emotions seen in those suffering from burnout. Therefore it was important that I clearly express them in my animations. This was carried out through facial expressions involving a open frown shouting aggressively as well as tilted in eyebrows and eye veins (Carousel 1). It was heightened through additional features such as the character shaking and shouting speech marks (Carousel 1). The character's design was also made use of to indicate these emotions. For example, the mug character began to boil abruptly (Carousel 2).

As the topic of my animation series was burnout, it was essential to communicate it in a clear and engaging way. The process of visualising burnout was also difficult at times as it's often an invisible problem that goes unnoticed. As mentioned previously, burnout is a problem that builds up and has its effects overtime, therefore I aimed to convey this through my characters' animating. In a few of the animations, characters are gradually seen looking more worn out through the additions of tears, scratches and cracks (Carousel 1,2, 4). Some are even shown already worn out with these marks (Carousel 3). This design choice intends to emphasise how overworked, fatigued and drained these characters are, which are all experienced when burnt out. These feelings also aimed to be emphasised through facial features such as strained red eyes, a drooping mouth, sweat, eyelids and eye bags. Drooping and slouching body langauage was also incorporated to show exhaustion and a lack of motivation (Carousel 3). Mental fatigue and busyness was shown through making use of a character's design. For example, the sticky note character was covered up with scribble (Carousel 1) and the mug began cracking, boiled abruptly and broke apart - as if mentally breaking down (Carousel 4).