My current work explores the concept of environments, images, and composed experiences that can influence emotional response. I have been researching environmental factors that affect mood, and I used this research to create my Flash animation piece.

I chose to work with the word “happy” to create a short animation that would directly affect the viewer’s mood. I selected the Bauhaus font because its fat, round shape seemed playful. I used bright blue text set against a clean white background and made each letter into a button that would reveal an image upon roll over. These images represented things which have been shown to have a positive effect on mood.

Kittens and puppies, like most juvenile animals, inspire a positive emotional response. Waterfalls and ocean waves allude to the ability of moving water to elevate mood (largely due to the high levels of negatively charged ions). The flowers demonstrate how plant life in general and specific scents in particular can elicit pleasant emotions. I also selected images that would seem cliché for an overall humorous effect.

In the animation, the letter h falls first. It drops slowly as if sliding down an invisible slope. Then the a falls, and the other letters quickly follow. This sequence creates the impression that the h holds everything together; once it falls the other letters cannot stay in place. The letters bounce when they hit the bottom of the screen; this helps to dispel any negative connotations associated with the act of falling. When all the letters have fallen, they float back to their original location, and the sequence automatically restarts.