I finished about one an a half Wacky Wavy animations yesterday. I am looking at live action reference to figure out how the arms wave but I am learning that I can make things up so long as there is some wave action happening. I don’t need to be 100 percent accurate in how the arms move the movement just needs to chaotic and believable.
Having made quite a few mistakes I am now getting abetter handle on what is believable. I have to take into account gravity and the force of the air billowing up the arm tubes. I hope to finish two more wacky wavy animations today.
While working on this scene I am listening to accounts of the final 100 days of WWII. My father was in Germany of the final 99 days of the war, so I am trying to figure out his movements. My father died in 1987 and her never spoke of the war, so I am researching to try and find out what happened “over there.” I figured out which cities in the Ruhr pocket her fought in and I now know he helped deport victims of a forced labor camp. Forced labor was common in Germany to fuel the war effort in the industrial pocket. I am trying to narrow down exactly which camp he would have liberated, but there are so many in the Ruhr area. This is an account from the other 1st Lieutenant in my fathers unit…
“In this capacity, we had a strange task that I have brooded about for years. There were many Displaced Persons (DP’s) that apparently, by treaty, were to be shipped home by the easiest rail line. I, of course, would have given my eyeteeth to be sent home and I therefor was very perplexed as many of these people did not want to go “east.” In fact, we had to nail the doors shut in the 40-8’s to keep them on board at least until they left the marshaling yard. I now realize that for many there was no “home” and that this act that I considered a good deal was often really a death sentence. I can still see the sad faces as they were boxed up to go “home.”
– Joe Colcord Lieutenant, Company C, 290th Infantry U.S. 75th Division