My Free Speech video has gone through a lot of permutations to get to its final form. Originally, it was going to be about people protesting against a Muslim Mosque being built in my local area. The idea was hard to illustrate with film, though, so I used an animation software to create three brightly colored characters to illustrate my point. The original topic fizzled out, but the animation remained and took over, gaining its own plot . The plot I decided on is not based on any real world events, because I don’t like political satire that is designed to make its point with a sledgehammer. I wanted something that could stand on its own.
The technique I used to make the animation is an original method of creating computer generated animation on a very low budget. It works by creating the set and characters with a three dimensional rendering software (the one I use is a now-discontinued software called Cosmic Blobs). Then, using a process akin to stop motion, I move the rendering while saving images of every minute movement. Then, I string together all the pictures and play them back at four frames per second. The result is a moving animation.
All the voices in the video are my own, and the animation is my own idea. The extent of help I have received with this video from anyone else was constructive criticism and suggestions for character names from my family.
