When I was younger, New Year’s Eve had to be spent out. Nowadays, I have better New Year’s Eve options than getting out in crowds.

My interest in animation started with my interest in photography. The reality is that storytelling and photography share a great deal. A photographer is faced with the same scene as everyone else, but the photographer sees the light, the shadow, the color, the angle. And, in timelapse photography, the photographer adds movement. Thus, the photographer may “see” the same view as everyone else, but he/she highlights pieces of the scene in a way to flush out the story.

A storyteller does the same. The scene is a recollection, an event, but the storyteller recounts the sights and sounds that highlight the story.

Laughing at one of my stories, a friend commented, “Wish I had been there.”

“But you were,” I protested.

“Yes,” she said, “but you just remember it better than I do.”

And that is storytelling. Makes for a lousy witness for the prosecution, but is entertaining. But, then again, any photographer knows that a picture is “a” truth, not “the” truth.”

The merger between photography and storytelling is animation. I have dabbled in it with the various “gif’s” used to illustrate the stories told. Today, however, I present a slightly longer form. Because a “gif” of this length would be way too large to play for most people, I have opted to evolve to the video format on YouTube. Since the artforms are similar in many ways, both my timelapse and animation will appear in this YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/dkwall/ .

The backstory should be quite obvious. I have hit an age where going out on New Year’s Eve is not high on my list of fun. In fact, for the past several years, I have not even been awake at midnight. Funny, I have not missed it at all.

And so I present my first “full-length” animation – New Year’s Eve Options.