Nose Job is an rotoscope/hand-drawn animation mix made completely in Photoshop. In my methods in creating this piece I used both straight ahead and pose-to-pose animation along with the rotoscope to create a more vibrant lively feel to the animation.
A trapeze artist sits at her vanity backstage admiring herself in the mirror. When she begins to look closer and starts considering cutting her hair her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching her room. As she waits for this unknown person to enter her room her eyes wander around the clutter on her table. She shifts from newspapers to magazines to contracts to gifts to fan mail to hate mail just for her to notice herself again in the mirror and decide not to cut her hair. “Nose Job” refers to black people who supposed wannabe white folk. A “Nose Job” attempts to smooth their black edges and try to fit in, their fear is that their putative “blackness” may cause a fuss or draw undue attention. They may even use it [blackness] to self-deprecate.
[Unfortunately this piece is unfinished]
Table Clutter
All of the clutter on her dressing room table was a part of some light world building and environmental storytelling that was supposed to give Co-co some inner conflict about cutting off her hair. On one hand she was part of a failing circus act that seemed to be doing poorly because of her hair was not enough to draw a crowd anymore. While on the other hand she had been part of this act for roughly 25 years and doing a decent job with people looking up to her because her hair stood out. Each item is an attempt to sway her one way or the other.
