This week, the main focus of the unit Design for Animation, Narrative Structures & Film Language was to prepare for the research topic and understand what kind of critical work is expected. Instead of deciding a final topic immediately, the first week encouraged us to explore ideas, personal interests, and possible directions for research.
I began by thinking about my own background in animation. During my undergraduate studies, I focused mainly on character animation and visual development. In this course, I want to develop my understanding of lighting and environment design, and how these elements can support storytelling. I am especially interested in how lighting can shape mood, emotion, and meaning in animation and film.
Another important part of this week was considering how animation and film language can connect to wider social and cultural issues. Lighting is not only a technical choice, but also a narrative tool. Through colour, contrast, shadow, and composition, lighting can suggest conflict, isolation, hope, or transformation. This makes it a useful way to explore themes such as identity, social experience, or environmental change, without always relying on dialogue.
At this stage, my research topic is still open, but I am interested in questions such as:
- How does lighting influence audience emotion and interpretation in animation?
- In what ways can environment and lighting design support social or cultural themes?
- How have films or animations used lighting as part of their narrative language?
For the next stage, I plan to collect visual references from films and animated works where lighting plays a strong narrative role. I will also begin reading basic texts about film language and narrative structure, and reflect on them in my blog. This week helped me understand that research is a gradual process, and that developing clear questions is more important than having fixed answers at the beginning.