I greatly admired this video when I first saw it during the past election season, but could never carve out time to write about it. Perhaps this will serve as a good way to finish off the holiday season and kick off the New Year, both creatively and spiritually.
This music video – a voiceless, text-based recitation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – was animated by Seth Brau using a combination of After Effects and Illustrator. Seth restricted himself to a two-tone palette and a flat text+pencil animation style that flows continuously from scene to scene, often ingeniously taking advantage of continuous rasterization inside After Effects to zoom up or back from one section to another. The result is quite powerful and moving. More on the piece can be found at Cool Hunting; a higher-quality half-HD version can be viewed on Human Rights Action Center‘s web site.
What I personally found most amazing (beyond the excellent animation job) was how this seemingly radical document was actually penned 60 years ago by – wait for it – Eleanor Roosevelt(!). There is a petition to have this declaration included in passports; it’s just a gesture, but a worthy one methinks. There were only 2000 signatures when I joined right after Christmas; add you name and help push the total up.
Then go watch the video again and be inspired to try something like this yourself in 2009!
(By the way, if “claymation” is more your style than Helvetica – and if you have 20 minutes to spare – you might try the Amnesty International animation below. It’s more educational, but in my humble opinion, does not have the same visceral impact as Seth’s animation.)