Power Animation #002: "OPERATION: TASTYDROP" (NYC Transit Strike)
What is Power Animation?
Power Animation is a term I use to describe the fast and manic process of creating an experimental, standalone animation... in one night only! Work typically starts sometime in the evening, and can often last into the wee hours of the night, until one of three things happens:
a) I come to a logical finishing point
b) I pass out
c) The National Film Board of Canada calls me up and offers to fund me
The only rule, which acts as the driving force behind the process, is that whatever gets done by the end of the night is the final product - no further work is allowed to be done beyond this one night! As the night goes on, the Power Animation process is often accompanied by a mounting sense of urgency and doom, since I usually have to be to work early the next morning... but this only adds to the experience!
The results of a Power Animation session may not be the most sophisticated and artful animation ever crafted, but it's a fun exercise and it flies in the face of the usual drawback of animation: the fact that it TAKES FOREVER!! Having a finished product in one night helps bring some attainable satisfaction to the life of a weary animator!