Dane Watkins

Empty Days

Today Dane Watkins showed us his work he has been doing over the years as an animator. He has a linear style and works by mix matching objects that you wouldn't expect together: human torsos with basketball hoops for arms.

Many of his animations are on a continuous loop which smoothly link together playing over and over. Some are short animations, but ones like Empty Days would last quite a while. From watching this animation I've gathered that if I want a successful animation I'll have to think carefully how objects and people work together and how they move: like how the mannequin would go over the fences, how the blow dryer creates heat waves over the mannequin, and how the water being pumped into the mannequin would make it bigger. The objects are interacting with each other.

Another type of work Watkins has done is creating personal questionnaires where people can interact with and have their own outcome, which is made in a form of a drawing. I had a go at the 'arnolfini family audience' one and from answering the questions about my family's personality it generated this drawing. It suggests a visual language as you can roughly understand the links to the answers I gave: five people = five heads, aged between 16-25 = telephone with twisted cord, family interests = tv, outdoor hoobies = walking, what do I use for information = website, what creative thing do I like to do = painting/drawing.



From looking at his work it shows that in animation you can create anything, unlike film which you are limited unless you include animation.




http://www.danewatkins.com/
http://eatmydata.co.uk/