Dan Hodgson has been interested in animation from an early age – both from watching it and animating things himself. He is one of the students on the Visual Storytelling module led by Oksana Fedotova, and as part of the module assessment is developing his storyboard concept of ways to promote the learning centre in induction.

I asked Dan to tell me a little more about himself and his interest in study:

“I chose Sheffield Hallam because it encourages students to get involved in all areas of animation, including traditional 2D, stop-motion, digital, and 3D animation, whereas other universities tend to favor one or the other. My main area of interest is traditional 2D animation, which is the method I intend to use when animating my promotional piece for the learning centre, with some digital compositing mixed in”.

httpv://youtu.be/cBtbwC3AR1k

So how did Dan create his idea to promote the learning centre? 

“My idea to promote the Learning Centre features a stomach named ‘Giles’ – a SHU student nearing the end of his course – in an interview about his experiences with the Learning Centre, and how it helped develop him as both a student and a stomach.”

Dan did a lot of research into how other libraries and learning centres market themselves – in his design he’s used a combination of student and staff interview formats, and inspiration from things that would appeal to the target audience, such as Adventure Time, the cartoon idea that went viral after it was launched, and Compare the Meerkat which has become a popular recognized brand.  The metaphor of a stomach absorbing facilities, services and skills has a really creative appeal.

“The idea initially came from a sketch I produced featuring a heart demanding that a stomach go disco dancing with him, and in trying to think of a protagonist for my Learning Centre animation concept the stomach immediately jumped out as a good candidate in that a basic art style and character premise was already there, and it gave me the idea of using ‘Hungry for Knowledge?’ as the theme and tagline for my animation.”

We’re incredibly impressed with the amount of detail and progress being made by Dan, and all of the students on this module. Hungry for knowledge? Sheffield Hallam students have got the appetite!