Julia Potts - Belly

Belly from Julia Pott on Vimeo.

This animation is beautifully illustrated with these sketchy, line shaded, patterned designed characters which tell a narrative that follows a boy and his friend as they go to rescue Alex who has been engulfed by a whale at the bottom of the sea. In my opinion, I feel that the piece emits an atmosphere of comfort and a child like state of mind, the boy's friend being one that is imaginary and as the boy loses his friend, it is a symbolisation of him growing up.

I was inspired by Pott's use of line, and how the characters moved smoothly and jagged in places but I felt that these jagged movements were needed to help portray the animation and the narrative. I was also inspired through the use of water and how it was depicted with in the short.

The way that she animates the water is clever as it overlaps different movements of the waves which are drawn with a simple line but become effective when merged together and give the illusion of tidal waves.
I was thinking of how to incorporate this or recreate this into my own work if I was to go with the water element theme; I would use Premiere and Photoshop as in both programs I would be able to use blending modes and lower opacity's between layers, and in Premiere I would be able to add footage which she has used near the end of the short as the water moves on to the sand.

development

character design