The art style in this animation is very effective. It uses a rough sketchy draft style, but some parts of the animation are detailed and in colour, meaning they stand out more in the composition. You can see this effect used to highlight all the items in the kitchen made using palm oil. This is a great way to add emphasis to smaller items which may be easy to lose in the frame.
The animation feels as though it is being drawn in real time, each new frame feels as though it is being sketched in and it leads the viewer through the story, holding their attention.
There is an interesting transition where the toast morphs into a topographical map. This is conceptual and draws a direct link between the food and the rainforest, showing viewers the origin of the ingredients.
Layers are also used to form a multiplaning effect, creating depth. This is something I want to emulate within my own animation piece.
I think this animation is more suited towards older people due it being more conceptually abstract, so children may not pick up on some of the nuances.
This is an animation which seems more suitable for children. It starts off in a child’s bedroom, where we see an orangutan swinging around. The art style is more stylistic and cutesy, with larger rounder shapes being used rather than realistic depictions.
The animation style is more imperfect, with a loose sketchy style. We can slightly see some of the pencil guides in the animation, which forms a more dynamic sense of motion, as seen in the swift, agile movements of the orangutan. The artist hasn’t strived for every frame to be perfect and this creates a nice texture and compliments the wild nature of the orangutan.
There is also a direct contrast between the scenes in the bedroom and the rainforest. The rainforest is desaturated and darker in tone, whereas the bedroom is more colourful and joyous with much more light being used. Heavier shading is used and the bulldozer is stylised so it looks like a living monster of sorts, rather than an inanimate machine. Even the movement of the orangutan switches from appearing as curious and excitable, to frantic and fearful. I would like to draw contrast within my own animation to create a heavy emotional impact on the viewer.
Compared to the previous animations, this one uses a more flat, vectorised style.
I believe their target audience is their consumer base. As a result, the animation feels more corporate, focusing more on fact and statistics than general storytelling to highlight their message. They have also used gradients for a sense of realism, where the previous two did not.
The animation features a lot of zooming and panning, fast transitions between scenes to engage the viewer and to help keep the interest whilst being presented with a lot of infographics and statistics. Presenting this information in such a way can keep viewers interested despite it being a lot of information. I would also like to use panning to form a parallax effect in my animation.
This animation feels a lot more factual than the previous two. It makes sense though, as the brand is pharmaceutical, so a fact-based approach feels more on-brand.
References:
Dr. Bronner’s (2012) Dr. Bronner’s Fair Trade Palm Oil: Animated [Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03Jm8xv4sg [Accessed: 03/02/2024]
GreenPeace International (2018) Rang-tan: the story of dirty palm oil [Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g [Accessed: 03/02/2024]
PanEcoSwitzerland (2016) Why palm oil kills orangutans – an animated short story [Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgqO7C4gRKY [Accessed: 03/02/2024]