Conceptual Design Idea (metamorphosis) and Research

Metamorphosis defined by Oxford Dictionaries means “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.” (Oxford Dictionary, 2023). For this task we were given the option of three subjects and asked to design a metamorphosis style 3D animation using software such as Maya, Adobe Premiere Pro and Substance 3D Painter. The options for subject matter were:

a.) Create a flyby of Stonehenge that is made of Swiss cheese. Feel free to develop this basic idea into an engaging animation with a distinct purpose.

b.) Create a moving planetary or atomic animation based upon the work of Alexander Calder.

c.) Create and animate an industrial machine (real or imaginary) that has been designed for a specific purpose.

Initial Concept:

My first idea for this task was to create an origin story for option a. I planned for someone to be stood with a block of cheese and a mouse come out when they are not looking and unintentionally create a cheese model of Stonehenge. This would then cause the person originally stood with the cheese to create the real Stonehenge.

After thinking about this idea and learning the software with Dan, I soon realised that this idea was going to be very difficult to accomplish effectively in the time scale we had. Rather than rush this idea and have the quality be of a low standard, I decided to brain storm other ideas.

Final Concept:

After brain storming ideas in class, I came up with the idea of starting with a planetary animation and attempt to have it change into something unexpected. Inspired by the clip from finding nemo of the young girl tapping on the fish tank, I decided to show the planetary animation and have it zoom out to show tanks of solar systems in a pet shop style environment. This is to represent the vastness of the universe and how little we actually know about other galaxies.

Video 1. The scene in Finding Nemo of the young girl tapping on the fish tank (Finding Nemo, 2003).

Why I chose my final concept:

For my animation, I really wanted to get the message across about the vastness and the unknown of the universe, and I also found a quote that would match my concept by Alexander Calder “The universe is real but you can’t see it. You have to imagine it. Then you can be realistic about reproducing it.” (Calder A., 1962). I decided it would be most effective if I produced my animation in a way that is unexpected. I planned to start the animation in documentary style, and have it zoom out for the big reveal that our solar system is one of many being sold in a pet shop style place, likely in another galaxy.