Remembrance - An Animated Short Film Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

In my short animated film Remembrance, I attempt to capture the feeling of Alzheimer’s through the power of 3D animation and the assistance of emerging AI image generation. The piece wrestles with the confusion, grief, and loss of identity that comes with the disease. At the same time, the film centers around the emotional journey of Hope as she finds herself thrown back into happy childhood memories of her father playing piano for her.

This thesis came from my personal experience with my Grandmother JoAnn who had dementia/Alzheimer’s. I chose the medium of 3D animation, along with experimental machine generated images, to tell the story as these art forms provide the most flexibility to subjectively portray the experience of Hope. I wrote, animated, directed, and edited the three minute long film. To my knowledge, it is the first ever 3D animated honors thesis at Emory University. Additionally, Remembrance aesthetically experiments in the medium of 3D animation with tactile textures portraying subjective reality. The film also marks one of the first narrative stories assisted by AI image generation.

In the following paper, I explore the process of developing the story and outline the creative and technical challenges of producing an animated film. Once I settled on my narrative, I researched psychological papers on Alzheimer's and took inspiration from experimental methods of showing thoughts in film. Throughout production, the film grew to fit my technological abilities and the new industry of artificial intelligence. This thesis is a testament to emerging technological forms of storytelling and foremost to the memory of my Grandmother and all who have experienced family members with dementia/Alzheimer’s.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Finding the Story 1

Part 2: Development of the Story 3

Part 3: 3D Animation 14

Part 4: AI "Animation" 18

Part 5: Other Aspects of Production 29

Part 6: Reflections 30

Works Cited 33

Appendix 35

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

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School	Emory College
Department	Film and Media Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Cinema
Stichwort	dementia ai animation blender short film alzheimer's 3d animation artificial intelligence ai art film
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Barba, David, Emory University
Committee Members	Kazama, Andrew, Emory University Silverman, Joel, Emory University

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