Now that I have completed the research for my chosen topic of taxing the rich, I will begin to develop a story for my animation. To do this I will delve into possible animation styles, create a storyboard and experiment with possible conceptual design transitions that will be included in the final animation.
Style
When researching which animation style to work with for the subject of taxing the rich, I am questioning how I want to convey the message. Should I show statistics through interactive bar charts and graphs like below:
Would it be best to capture the audience using storytelling silhouettes, in the style of Saul Bass?
Should the inclusion of political satire be used to raise awareness of the movement without causing people with certain political views to feel alienated?
The above are all interesting ways of conveying the message, however I have found inspiration in the use of simple illustrations that tell a story. Please see below an array of inspirational animations which match my personal design style.
With the level of skills I have, I should be able to execute this animation style whilst connecting with my broad target audience using a light-hearted way to share an important message.
Storyboard
As discussed in post 1 my initial idea was to have a silhouette of a big greedy rich man stomping on little ordinary people and taking their money with a magnet, leaving them dazed and confused. I created a quick storyboard for this idea which can be seen below:
However, due to the purpose of my animation being to educate and unite the audience my plans changed.
For the ideas included within my storyboard I had various inspirations from animations found on pinterest, these will be included in the relevant design history post.
Conceptual Transitions
To ensure conceptual transitions are included within the tax the rich animation I have carefully planned the storyboard to move from scene to scene in a seamless way.
The coin from panel 1 switches to the head in panel 2, there will be an extreme zoom on the head in panel 2 to show the extreme close up on the face in panel 3, the sweat drop from panel 3 will make a drop in the ocean from panel 4, when zoomed out the scene will be from panel 5.
The letter ‘O’ from the word alone in panel 6 becomes the rolling ball in panel 7, the full stop in panel 7 becomes the visualization of a thousand pounds to demonstrate extreme wealth in panel 8.
Within post 3 I will be discussing how these design choices relate to Edward Tufte’s design theories.
References
Curran, J. (2025) Animated loop [Video]. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/795026140494251727/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2025].
Downes, C. sourced from The Gurdian (2023) The power of satire: Australia’s best political cartoons of 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2023/oct/31/the-power-of-satire-australias-best-political-cartoons-of-2023 [Accessed 24 Apr 2025].
Iglesias, A. (2018) Saul Bass: the art of the title sequence [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IoVLB1shwI [Accessed 24 Apr 2025].
MakeSumo (2025) Illustration design with animated video [Video]. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/4081455906582510/ [Accessed 27 Mar 2025].
McHugh, C. (2025) Doomscrolling [Video]. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/41165784089735340/ [Accessed 27 Mar 2025].
Nuvolanevicata (2025) Crumbs for the people. https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-crumbs-people-wonderful-lunch-crowd-poor-picks-few-image69046962 [Accessed 24 Apr 2025].
Pinterest (2025) Running doodle animation [Video]. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/5981411999766264/ [Accessed 25 Apr 2025].
Prand (2025) Delivery man [Video]. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/70437486781386/ [Accessed 27 Mar 2025].
Vox (2024) Why US elections only give you two choices [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqWwV3xk9Qk&t=79s [Accessed 27 Mar 2025].