Thesis Intent & Significance

What is the intent of your study? What significance does your study have for a particular audience?

I’m going to stick my neck out here…I’m a little nervous in sharing this, but I’m compelled to share my strongest feeling/reason for the intent of this study. Some of it will be included in my thesis, but I know that eventually it has to be presented in such a way that one will be able to see the greater good. It sounds selfish at first, but as I read this again, its not that bad. I’m considering this as a form of catharsis…let the healing begin.

I want to get better! I have been teaching classes in the Media Arts and Animation Department in our school for over a year since I requested that I switch groups from being a graphic designer to an animator. I thought it was better fit and it is. In teaching animation students however, I don’t have the experience of working in an animation studio or small animation production house to be able to instruct my students in the way I would like, but I do my best. Being in this program has made my classes better, and with the development of this thesis, I hope to make a greater impact.

I want this study to not only give me the experience and samples needed to be a better animation instructor, but to also enrich my understanding of how animation could be used to effectively convey character emotion and understanding (intersubjectivity). It creates connectedness between the character and the audience, which is key as it inevitably drives stories produced for feature film, video game and television.

As an instructor, I want to develop curriculum that would help students develop these marketable skills not only for the students’ benefit, but to improve the industry by providing a solid accessible foundation for animating characters’ emotion and understanding by the viewer.

The audience who would benefit from this would be intermediate to advanced level animators and instructors who want to improve their skills in animating emotion, animation students, independent animators and newly hired animators.