After talking to Serra last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about a major decision that fundamentally changed the direction of my project.
At first, the film implied visible human presence: arms, hands, and and people interacting with the teddy bear. I wanted to show someone holding or hugging it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that animating people would weaken the abstraction I’m trying to achieve and make production way more complicated. I’d have to animate characters properly, which isn’t even my strength anyway. Plus, I just want to keep this as simple as possible.
So the project evolved into something I’m calling invisible affection.
Now the film has:
- No characters appear on screen.
- No literal acting or human performance
- No human animation to worry about
Instead, memory and affection are shown through:
- Compression – the physical deformation of the teddy from being held
- Material response – how the fabric and stuffing react to touch
- Traces – evidence of interaction without showing the interaction itself
- Atmosphere – mood created through lighting and environment
- Light – shifts that suggest presence and absence
- Sound – auditory cues that imply human presence without visual confirmation
Also, there isn’t really a narrative or script in the traditional sense, so we can forget about the script work from last week. What does stay is that there are 3 scenes, representing 3 stages of the teddy’s life. This structure gives me something to work with without needing dialogue or a full storyline.
This became much more sophisticated artistically, and honestly, it feels more honest to what I want to do. By removing the human element entirely, I’m forcing the audience to read emotion through object behaviour and environmental cues rather than facial expressions or body language. It’s a bigger challenge, but it’s the kind of challenge that fits my strengths in motion graphics and product-focused work rather than character animation.
This was a tough choice because I’d already started thinking about human figures, but letting go actually clarified the project’s conceptual focus. Now I need to focus on perfecting the material simulation and lighting to make sure the emotional weight lands without relying on human performance.
I’m still waiting for Serra to send me some books for deeper research on object-oriented storytelling and materiality in animation. Once I get those, I want to dig into the theoretical side more and see how other artists have approached showing emotion through objects rather than characters.
For evidence of this development, I should include screenshots comparing early ideas with human figures against current frames showing only the teddy, plus any test renders showing material response and compression.