Reflection on Hero/Villain Assignment

      In Ryan Newell's animation, he uses movement to convey contrast between character motivation. While the skateboarder (the hero) uses parallel movements, riding smoothly through the screen from left to right, the jet pack man (the villain) moves freely and chaotically in the air, with the help of his jet pack. As the villain flies into the distance, he lands in front of a large moving building, creating overlapping movements. As the skateboarder attempts to ollie over the dog and lands on him, the viewer observes the weight of the dog as he moves across the screen. The video ends as the skateboarder performs a backflip over the jet pack man, who dies shortly thereafter. This creates tension and release as the hero prevails and the villain is destroyed.

      For Tony Hermane's animation, he and his partner create contrast between the hero and the villain utilzing color. The villain uses hues of predominantly black and grey, with a little bit of red. The black and grey are symbolic of the villain's evil qualities and his destructive motivation. The red may symbolize blood, because villains usually enjoy inflicting pain on others. This message is conveyed actively, because the viewer must interpret the meaning of the colors for this particular message to be conveyed. Conversely, the hero's hues consist of predominantly blue and yellow. These happier colors actively convey the heros positive, playful qualities and a more lighthearted motivation, which is most likely to deter the villain's motivation. There is also a contrast between the two characters using brightness; while the villain's colors are very dark, the hero's are very bright. Once again, this portrays the conflicting motivations of the characters (good vs. evil). In terms of saturation, the characters colors are about the same. However, this does not take away from the portrayal of contrast between the two characters.

      In Ashton Harrell's animation, he utilizes movement to send messages about the hero and the villain, as well as to introduce ancillary objects in the scene. The use of movement that stood out most to me occurred when a blue ball was shown on the screen. At this instance, Ashton uses obvious weight (specifically squash & stretch) as the ball's weight fluctuates, creating the appearance of squashing and stretching of the ball. At the beginning of the animation, the villain opens a door to a building and walks inside, creating overlapping movement between the hero and door. Much of the animation consists of a shootout scene between the hero and the villain. The bullets fired from their weapons move parallel to each other before they collide, portraying that the two character's motivations are in contrast. After their intense battle, the hero flies away which releases the tension that was created throughout their fight.