September 14, 2023

Architecture 5420: Digital Animation And Storytelling
Due: In-class screening October 10, 2023

Exercise 2: what time is this place? *

Create a 1 to 2-minute animation featuring human, machine-like, or anthropomorphic characters. Explore different time dynamics, such as time lapses, real-time sequences, and frozen moments. You can also experiment with reconstructed events or revisited perspectives within the same time frame. Feel free to incorporate sound, including captured voices, synchronized sounds, or short musical passages if desired. To guide your approach:

1. Utilize "ergoman" or similar hierarchically linked objects in your animation.
2. Develop one or more separate sequences with consistent resolutions.
3. Focus on one or more objects as central elements.
4. Optionally, explore object instances using particles.
5. Render your work in medium raytrace quality for optimal visual appeal.
6. Save your animation as a sequence of JPEG images and assemble the final animation using editing software like OpenShot, MovieHD, Adobe Premiere, or an alternative of your choice.
7. Submit your completed work to the class's designated submission folder and provide a concise 1 to 2-paragraph written description to Earl Mark via email at ejmark@virginia.edu.Use ergoman (a hierchically linked human figure) or similarly hierarchically linked objects.

The references below contain links to short written passages by the Kevin Lynch and Rainer Maria Rilke that may be relevant to your interpretation of the exercise.

* The title of this exercise is taken from a book of the same name by Kevin Lynch (see below).

  1. excerpt from Lynch Kevin, "What Time is This Place", MIT Press, 1972.
  2. excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge", 1910, from Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sarte, Edited by Walter Kaufman, The World.
  3. Rube Goldberg inspired videos.