The Process

The Concept:

At first "Eye Spy" was created specifically for the 16th and Arapahoe screen for the Supernova Outdoor digital animation festival here in Denver, CO. It was also a test in 2D to visualize what my second project in my 3D Motion Design class would look like. At first, there was very little story to the animation, I played around with the things I love to create using motion: eyeballs. As I formed the animation to reflect Downtown Denver where it showing, I realized that I could incorporate the story of gentrification of the Downtown and North Denver area through the loss of color in the animation.

This story became much clearer in the 3D recreation with the addition of headlines detailing the gentrification of North Denver leaving the cityscape the eyeball sees blank and colorless and the eyeball alone.

Moodboard and Treatment:

As Denver takes in new residents, long-time Denver natives, have witnessed an expansion of the city that has created new and sometimes unrecognizable portions of the Denver Metro area. In recent years this phenomenon was taken to the point that the new additions of the city come at the expense and the destruction of old/historic areas of the Denver community.

The eye character from the Supernova motion test experiences the vibrancy of the city and also theloss of the city for the first time. In the 3D animation, I mimic the view that the original wandering eye character has on Denver, but I expand on it by recreating the sense of disorientation that long-time and displaced Denver residents may feel from the everchanging world around them. To increase this emotion, the skyline, central to historic Denver is featured in the piece and then is stripped of its color and placement similar to how the city and mountains disappear in motion test.

To maintain a cohesive look between the motion test and the 3D short the color palette, for the most part, stayed the same. The instances where the color palette deviates is when the city becomes more muted colors to signify the areas of Denver that have become topsy turvy or “white-washed” since the rise in gentrification. Finally, an audio track that featured the above-mentioned feeling of disorientation, chaotic, and draining nature that gentrification produces is featured within the video.