The Process

Research:

This project came about from my frustration with Latinx representation in American media. American media does not reflect the population of Latinx people in the United States numerically or culturally. The Latinx community makes up about 18% of the U.S. population and 29.9% of Denver's population, yet only comprises 5.8 to 6% of the speaking roles on television. Generally, this percentage is dominated by stereotypes. In reality, the Latinx community does not fit into these narrow stereotypes. It is a vast and diverse set of experiences. Scholars in the field on media representation and influence stress that if we continuously tell the same story about a particular race or people, then people outside the community who have never met a Latino will have an easier time believing that the group can be nothing else. Stereotypes are dangerous not only for outsiders of the Latinx community but, also for those within, as they can correlate with a negative self-image. If we only see ourselves in stereotyped roles or are absent from the media we consume, it becomes hard to see ourselves as functioning members of society. After fleshing out the scope of my project, my question throughout my thesis project became: “how can motion design and storytelling techniques be used to create animations that accurately represent the culture and contributions of the diverse Latinx community in Colorado?”

The concept:

To create a project that met my goals of portraying authentic Latinx stories that defy stereotypes through motion design, I interviewed and surveyed Latinx from the Denver community to learn their stories and the stories they wanted to see in the media. After the interview process, I chose one individual's story to turn into a compelling motion design piece about their identity and culture. That individual was Rosa Gutierrez.

During pre-production, I also looked into the Latinx media already attempting accurate portrayals of Latinx people to inform the visual aesthetic of the motion piece.

The animation process:

To start, I set the length of the video by editing Rosa’s interview audio to tell a short story about her identity. Then I created storyboards to match the interview audio and did some character and background sketching of thet assets I needed to create the final animation. After the sketching process, I digitized all characters and background pieces and prepped the files for animation in Adobe After Effects. This included rigging Rosa's character and gathering footage provided by Rosa of her family home. Finally, I animated scene by scene to the interview audio, adding any final stylistic choices I thought necessary, such as the Boil-It effect, to create a wobbly animation style.