Analysis of Hitch Hiker Part 2 [IDD 301]

First off, I'd like to complain about how long it took me to do this due to the simple fact I spent 70% of my time waiting for each page and Flash video to load because the network here at Quinnipiac University is the equivalent to my old 33.6kb Dial-up Modem at the moment. I'd go as far as saying its the equivalent of an old 14.4kb dial-up modem, but its not that bad. For those of you on campus, you will understand what I mean. If not, I'm sure you remember our previous class waiting desperately for each video to load. With that said, I can go on to do what I'm supposed to.

For this week I chose the Flash Forward Film Festival NYC 2003 winner from the Cartoon category, Hitch Hiker Part 2. It is a two part series and I'm only going to talk about the second part.

It starts off with a young boy and older man with lots of hair and beard who looks like a typical scary hitch hiker. He states that his motorcycle is broken and that they have a better chance of getting a lift if they stick together. The hitch hiker has a unique way of attempting to get a vehicle to stop for them. The technique unsuccessfully uses through the film is to run out into the middle of the road, yelling and screaming with his arms in the air. When they are unsuccessful they keep on walking.

Every so often the boy has a vision of the hitch hiker hurting him in some way. His first vision involves the hitch hiker grabbing his face with his hand. The next one comes after they setup camp for the night and the hitch hiker puts his knife out. The boy dreams about the hitch hiker coming over and stabbing him to death in the middle of the night. The boy who is very scared packs his things and gets ready to leave.

As he is packing his things the hitch hiker wakes up. After he wakes up the boy starts running down the road in fear. The hitch hiker grabs his knife and starts running after him. When the hitch hiker finally gets to him and grabs him, the hitch hiker has a concerned look on his face and asks him who or what was there to scare him away. This is where the film ends. It seems that the hitch hiker is just trying to look out for the boy's safety.

This film is a little more complex and uses some techniques that I don't fully understand yet but plan to as the course progresses. One of the first things I noticed is the use of 3D vehicles and camera shots. To do some of these shots by hand would take a long time. Fortunately, there are a few links on the page that tell what the author used to create the 3D camera shots and animation. The author also has a link to the 3D models of the vehicles he uses. The use of the Swift 3D plug-in for Flash that the author uses greatly helps in the 3D techniques in this film.

Within this film contains a lot of one-point perspective shots. Each of these shots represent the time of day and the loneliness of the open road. The shots always have the two walking off into the distance or walking towards you from afar.

The colors in this film are very representative of the time of day (or night). Another interesting color trait I noticed was the color of the boy's eyes. The eyes were all green. Does this color suggest fear? Or perhaps the boy's insecurity?

These are just a handful of the things I noticed compared to the simpler animations I have previously talked about and are on a completely different skill level as far as the animation process is considered.