Visual Language: Form, Flow and Force Thought of You

As part of the Form, Flow and Force Visual language brief we had to look at other animations in which life drawing/the human form is explored. The animation Thought of You is a brilliant animation that does just this. It is basically a hand-drawn animation but I watched a fascinating short documentary about the making of the animation in which the director/animator Ryan Woodward talks about how the techniques he used were basically the same as traditional animation with layout paper, but the layers are on a program on the computer.

He spoke about how he had envisioned what the animation was going to look like but that he is not a dance choreographer so would not be able to direct an actual dance. That is when he received help from professional dancers, and watched dancers to figure out how to create realistic movements. Due to the fact he is not a dance choreographer, the animation combines other elements besides dance that are often supernatural but the flow remains the same in time ton the music.



What I love about this animation is that the actual dance moves look incredibly realistic and lifelike even though the characters are made up of only a few simple lines and have no facial expressions. This was entire intended according to Ryan and he stated in the documentary that he didn't want to have any fancy camera movements or angles, he just wanted the viewer to be immersed in the physicality of the two characters which I feel is very successfully done.