Why Animation?

A question that all the animation students need to answer is: why is your project an animation? In other words, why does this need to be in an animated medium? Why not live action?

There are a few reasons why I chose to make an animation for this project. First of all, it would be difficult to create a prison environment in live action. The setting consists of cell doors, corridors, stairs and tunnels. In addition, the props would be a problem since my props are not any traditional weapons that one can find. I designed my own props and for them to be in an live action short, I would have to either make them physically, or somehow key them in. By that, an animation is much easier. There is also a fighting scene in my animation. As most people know, it is a rather tiring process to make a live action fight sequence look real and convincing. I would need very good actors, and there would be a risk of an accident happening. There are lots of running, climbing and other rigorous actions in this project. To film these in live action would be another problem. Tracking would be very difficult, especially tight spaces like a prison. These problems can be eliminated with animation. But I need lots of reference and careful planning.