This project was focused on abstract visual metaphors and expressing emotions in motion through mental symbols and cognitive definitions. The goals were to practice concept development, understand relationships between moving objects, and create realistic movement of objects. I had to choose 10 words of emotional expression or representation and create an animation for each word that would then come together into a final piece.

I decided to base my animation on the essay Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf. In this essay Woolf explains what it is like for her as a creative woman in the work force. She depicts a metaphorical angel (which is a creation of the patriarchy) that tells a woman to be proper and sweet and subservient. Woolf explains how she must kill the angel to be able to use her own mind. I wanted to use this animation to explore the emotional journey Woolf goes through with the angel.

I began by mapping out the emotions felt throughout the essay, and then narrowed them down to the ones that were the most relevant. The final words I selected were 'aimless', 'seeking', 'powerless', 'conflicted', 'exhausted', 'aware', 'angry', 'determined', 'defiant' and 'free'. From this list I used association + mind map techniques to come up with abstract actions to represent each word for the animation. The next step was storyboarding and developing a clear illustration style and then it was on to animating. I utilized frame by frame animation techniques and a vibrant color palette to bring the final piece to life.