Carry the Fire
An animation inspired by the phrase from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” in which a father encourages his son to keep “carrying the fire” by staying true to his sense of humanity and keeping hope alive in a seemingly hopeless world.
“We’re going to be okay, arent we Papa?”
“Yes. We are.”
“And nothing bad is going to happen to us.”
“That’s right. Because we’re carrying the fire.”
“Yes. Because we’re carrying the fire.”
Case Study
Earlier this year I saw a post on Instagram where an artist had created an animated logo comprised of a mosaic of constantly changing symbols and shapes. I figured out how they achieved the effect in After Effects and thought I could apply a similar effect to a frame-by-frame animation of a flame that I created in 2023 for another project.
The effect works by applying a grid of different shapes over an image and using the color value to determine which shape will be displayed. Since the animation of a flame that I created (right) was made of different shades of grey, I figured it would work well and make for an interesting animation where the different parts of the flame were made up of different symbols. Then, I could just add actual “fire” colors to the shapes before rendering.
For the symbols, I wanted something easily recognizable and that would also relate to the original inspiration for the piece, the phrase “carry the fire” from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”
In the story, the bond between the father and son keeps them going as they attempt to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. So I chose a heart to represent the love that surrounds and protects them from the danger and hopelessness represented by the other two symbols, the ‘no’ symbol (circle with a line through it) and the X.
I’m really happy with how it turned out since the hearts in the animation not only surround the other symbols, but also rise above them to show the power of love and passion to lift people up in dark times.
