Andie Aldridge

Currents

Currents is a short 3D animation surrounding the story of a small goldfish, who, in pursuit of mysteriousglowing fish, learns to become more confident in order to explore itsfascinating world. As a by-product of its confidence, the goldfish becomeslarger and faster as the story progresses. The central theme is that ofovercoming stressful situations through personal growth. This theme is playedupon by the goldfish’s physical growth throughout the film.

“Currents follows the story of a small goldfish, who, in pursuit of mysterious glowing fish, learns to become more confident in order to explore their fascinating world. As a by-product of its confidence, the goldfish becomes larger and stronger as the story progresses. It is forced to contend with learning to fly, vast landscapes, and the predators that lurk in its world.This narrative is about the anxiety of overcoming your challenges to achieve your desires. This piece is a single-channel work that is made entirely in 3D. All the models were created using Maya, and the texturing, rigging, animating, and scene design was all created in Cinema 4D. The title Currents comes from the idea that when faced with a problem, there is the possibility to simply move with the momentum of obstacles rather than resisting them. This theme is emphasized by the meditative quality of the work, as we are meant to observe the protagonist moving calmly through the obstacles on screen, with flow and momentum.In the current atmosphere of hyper realism in 3D pieces of art, I felt it necessary to attempt a piece that looks at a simplistic and calming aesthetic instead. The reason for this is that the work is supposed to appear meditative as you watch it. The models are made without much detail, or with textures that are abstracted. The world, too, is designed to have a certain degree of ambiguity, as it is aesthetically representing a world that appears both above, and under the water simultaneously. The viewer is never told if the fish is exactly underwater or not, as they are supposed to interpret this landscape of somewhere in-between those two states.In order to further communicate this theme, I used several forms of visual and auditory storytelling to aid the narrative. The first and most important factor here is the goldfish’s physical size and speed. As the story continues, the goldfish grows in size, and its movements slow with its confidence. This is used as a visual representation of its growth, and pulls in a contrast with the whitefish from the beginning. Only two fish are textured to appear as normal fish would; these characters are the protagonist goldfish, as well as the short appearance of a similar fish at the end. This last scene is supposed to imply that the journey of our protagonist continues on with a new fish as the subject. The rest of the character, including the shark, manta rays, and whales, all utilise a stylized noise-based texture. The glowing fish maintain their own separate appearance from the rest, as they are designed to be the guiding light to the protagonist goldfish. Soundtrack is also a large part of this piece as it echoes parts of the narrative through audio. A large part of my research this year went into non-verbal storytelling, and how soundtracks can tell perspective and character growth in their own way. ”