Poetry

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/uwm/hirsch.html

The first animation that I watched was based on the poem "Branch Library" by Edward Hirsch. This one I really liked because of the smooth and professional looking animation. I really liked how the "long-beaked" boy was made out too look like a bird because of his long nose. His long sleeves were turned into wings and he really looked like a bird from a distance.
One of the techniques from this animation that I'd probably use is horizontal panning. As the boy was flying through the library from left to right, we saw the background moving from right to left. What I would do when showing a moving object is that I would have the object be stationary in the center of the screen while the background is really what's moving. This would give the viewer the illusion of movement.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/uwm/wilbur.html

The second animation I watched was based on "Some Words Inside of Words" by Richard Wilbur. What I liked most about this animation was how the words of the poem were constantly displayed and then animated in a certain way that made some letters become detached from others, and then rejoin a different word a few seconds later to finish the poem.
From this animation, I would again use the same panning technique. But in this animation at one point there was a landscape in the background that was faded out a little bit. This made the background seem further away and focused the attention on the characters in the foreground that were brighter. This is a useful technique I'd like to use to make it obvious what the focus of my animation is.