3D animation and making a statement?

 

Ok so this is just a screen shot of an animation I started working on for fun but haven't had the chance to complete yet. For another class I am taking (Visual Sociology) we had an assignment where we needed to take a census statistic and represent it in a way that doesn't involve a graph or a power point. As we were discussing how we could do this I got really excited and realized I could possibly create something with Maya for the assignment. Michelle Esbin who is in 3D and Visual Sociology with me quickly reminded me what I would be getting myself into if I tried to take this project on in time to turn it in at our next class haha. So, in the end we used Photoshop to complete our assignment but on Friday in class I was determined to try and make this work too. 

I've only got a few of the houses put on the animation so far. Duplicating each house and moving it exactly where I want it on the board is a lot harder than it sounds (well at least for me it is). While adding movement to the scene is also intimidating I'm thinking the technique we learned in class to get the balls to fall into the bowl will probably suffice.  As you can probably tell in this picture the roofs of most of the houses don't exactly fall correctly on the body so I'll have to tweak that...I should probably do that sooner than later. Also I was wondering if anyone knows how to group two polygons into one so that when I duplicate it I don't have to constantly reselect both the roof and the body? Anyway I know this piece has a lot of work to be done on it. Hopefully I'll have a chance/remember to work on it before things start getting too busy.

Oh and in case you all were wondering what the statistics were for my other classes assignment it had to do with the change in the wealth gap between black and white Americans from 1984 to 2010. In 1984 the ratio was 1:12 (black:white), in 1995 it was 1:7, 2000 1:8,  and in 2010 it jumped to 1:20. I think that we can all agree that these statistics are both shocking and depressing. However, I think it's also important to remember what kind of power we can have as visual media creators. We can bring these facts to life in an interesting and sometimes provocative way that is much more likely to resonate and relate with the average person than a few numbers. Bellow is the picture Michelle, our other group member and I created. Not as cool as 3D animation, but it still says something.