Animation in relation to audience

We’ve got a new brief set… hooray…! This is a Flash-based project, however, so we’re batting at home on this one.

The goal is to create an animation in Flash that lasts from 1-2 minutes and has some sort of interaction in it that can affect the narrative. It doesn’t have to be character-based, per se, but that’s always the more entertaining route to take, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So where do you start with this sort of thing? Well, you need to do some background research (as always, I’m guessing). You need to identify an audience and aim to please them. But what different kinds of audiences are there?

Hitting all the bases – World Class Commissioning

This animation aims to educate the population on World Class Commissioning – that is, the way the NHS commission their health and care services.

It raises issues that would effect relatively any group of people within the UK, so it aims in its style to involve everyone through use of simple animation and use of simple language to convey the message.

When released, it received criticism for “dumbing down” the situation, when if it’s seen from the point of view of someone who isn’t clued in on the issue, the simplicity is more likely to appeal to more audiences and spread the message further.

The nerds – Animator vs. Animation

Okay, alright. This animation would appeal to other people as well as nerds, but it’s got the basis of some of the jokes based around whether you’ve used Flash before. People who haven’t aren’t going to understand him dragging instances of himself onto the timeline, are they? Ahah, clever little animation…

It’s a nice, simple animation which could easily be replicated in style. It’s clever in its use of common screen elements, so the people can relate to using them. Keeping the scene set inside just the one program keeps it a nice, short animation which doesn’t get boring.

It has fast pace and high variety to keep it fresh throughout the short scene. Ideal for a web animation.

Pressure groups – Thought Bubble

The company that makes these particular motion graphic videos – Smart Bubble Society – create them for NGOs and other people who have a message to get across. Their philosophy is that these sorts of message encourage discussion and therefore change within the subject matter.

Similar in the way the NHS one above deals with a particular issue, these Thought Bubbles are designed to simplify a quite complex issue into a more manageable way to be consumed by a wider demographic. The clear, simple diagrams are attractive and informative.

I quite like the simplistic style as it looks very clean and professional. It seems like there’s nothing to distract from the facts and the message it’s trying to convey. Unlike the NHS one, however, it doesn’t resort to childish imagery to convey a serious message. This just uses plain English and analogy to show you the ideas behind it.

Young adults – Weebl’s Stuff

It’s no secret that young adults like random, crude humour. Just look at South Park. But what I love about the Weebl’s Stuff creation is their simplicity and sometimes bluntness with their humour.

The Weebl and Bob series – seen above – are two egg shaped creatures who in the cartoons generally stand there and insult each other after long comedic pauses. Its simplicity and execution work in parallel to create a cartoon that’s unique every time.

It’s presented in a cartoon-like way for the “young at heart” and takes spins on recent events for comedic effect; using these situations to provide sometimes risque humour directed at, say, a person in the news. This mix of childlike and adultlike is something I’d like to explore further in my creations.

There’s another series done by the Weebl’s Stuff people called Cat Face where a floating, accentuated head of a cat does generally human things out and about in this cartoon world. I really like the style of bringing a completely surreal entity into the quote-unquote “real” world within a cartoon. It’s something I’ll have to give a go. :)