Rationale

For this assignment I chose Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria, because I feel it is a rather epic testament to the communist regime that once dominated the country. The story in my animation shows the foundation of the monument, and its opening, through to its decay and disuse. Originally I had a much heavier story but due to time constraints on the video, I cut a lot back, and have just a basic narrative.

I used a mix of 2D and 3D elements for this assignment because I imagined how they would interact with each other in a small period of time, with the 3D being more static. For the 2D animated parts I wanted to use simple, flat colouring and shapes, so that they look reminiscent of soviet style artwork. I have also achieved this through using a cutout effect on the textures of my 3D shapes and backdrop, to reduce the more detailed shapes to simple textures.  I desaturated colours, and used ‘pastel’ colouring to further emulate this effect. I wanted to give a somber atmosphere throughout the animation, as would be the style in a communist regime, which is also why I used desaturated colours.

 I created a matte painting of the Balkan Mountains for the background, to give context to the kind of region that Buzludzha is in. I used Photoshop and Illustrator for the 2D objects.

I felt that focusing on the tower’s star was an important part of this animation as it is one of the defining features of this structure. I used a night style backdrop because that is when the star would’ve been lit, and it draws more attention towards the light. My animation also shows the monument’s light going out as the final scene, symbolizing the monument’s life is at an end.

For the cameras’ positioning I decided to focus on simple shots, like panning and front view shots. This is because my monument is primarily circular, so this made it easier to show the viewer a full view of both interior and exterior, while allowing it to time well with the 2D elements.

I asked Michael Wilson, the manager of Arrow FM in the Wairarapa, to do my narration, as he has trained as an actor and has a talent for accents. He used a Bulgarian accent for the narrative, to make it authentic to the animation.

I have made two versions of the animation, one with music and one without, because I was unsure about copyright issues with the music. However, I feel that the animation also works well with the narrative only.