Notes on the drawing sessions...

In my last post I got a bit side tracked with the sound thing.

I actually wanted to talk about the drawing experience and lay down some notes about it.

The wacom pen and tablet worked a treat. I also found drawing in photoshop alot faster and cleaner than on a white board. Another huge advantage is that when you create the files digitally in the first place you are afforded the luxury of a "second passing" - you can come back to a drawing and work over it, unlike the whiteboard where once erased it is forever lost.

I have to attach a new tip to my brand new pen!! I'm amazed that only after a few days of use I have already worn down the plastic tip (as if it were lead to paper)...damn

Conceptual shifting:
As I worked through the drawings I was more deeply engaged with my project than I was when storyboarding it. As I drew I found I was really thinking 'what do I want this short cartoon to say?' I decided to change a few things. The begginings I made much more dynamic by completely redrawing every frame. This gave it quite an energetic pulsating feel. For me, it serves as a metaphor for the dynamic evolving processes that must have occured until nature found a balance that could support life on earth as we know it. At some point I wanted this pulsating effect to wind back, coming to a peaceful kinda orderly aesthetic...I found a way, by using layers and repeatedly retracing the last frame with increasing acuracy, until eventually a cut paste phase/transition was used that saw the image 'lock' into place. I think my attempt to do this was partially successful, however I may have done it in to fewer frames 40-50 where it probably needed 80ish, giving the viewer more time for anticipation. Next time aye.

The bird (meant to be a dove, but I had trouble making it distinctive - it turned out more bird-ambiguous) flutters down bringing peacce to the scene. Soon an ant hill begins to grow. The ant inside serve as a metaphor for human beings, and the shape shifting of the anthill, from organic to geometric forms served as a metaphor for the rapidly changing character of Western/European ways of living. The apple may have been making some sort of biblical reference about the consequences of temptation/greed/gluttony. Soon the ants stream out, covering the tree - symbolic of human beings immersion and control of the natural environment. Eventually when the tree is over saturated with the hungry ant mass, the dove becomes suffocated in the swarm. Soon the dove takes off - the peace has been disrupted.

Here is where the concept really changed. I was originally going to have it as a loop. The dove flys away --> gets shot --> withers back into a seed ---> and the whole thing starts again. In the end I didn't feel the loop matched the intended narrative. One friend in particular saw the loop thing as a symbol for birth, death, rebirth. It kinda retracts from my intending statement. Want I really wanted to say was that our environment is a dynamic and unique entity, that has evolved over gazzilions of years to the point where it is balanced and able to support large human populations. With a healthy and supportive environment and adequate resources there is peace among people. If we abuse our environment soon the situation willl become so bad that we will turn on eachother. The peace will be disrupted and this really will be the end. The situation is real and we probably don't have the luxury of second chances. This is why when the dove is shot it is the end. No rebirth. Just death.

All in all i think 90% of people will read something else out of the short narrative. I like the idea that the viewer can make it what they want, but I also want to create art that can be understood. If the animation is misunderstood it is surely my own shortcoming and not the viewers. I like animation. I want to keep at it, and over time, with more practice, I will be more successful and effective in the delivery of my intended message. I see the major project for AART3462 as a significant stepping stone and starting point for future 4D works.

Drawings Done!

The sequence of drawings for my major project are pretty much done. Many many hours spent in photoshop using a new wacom tablet I bought (will come in handy for future projects). There are currently 380 hand drawn jpegs. As I get to the editing stage I will probably have to create a few extras. Right now I'm trying to sort out sound. I found that the Huxley Library has a great ranging sound library. I spent an hour or so sorting through the catalogues (getting very excited about all the relevant sound listing available)...only problem was that when I put every sound library CD in the computer (at library or home) reacts like i've just put sand and pebbles in the disk drive. Most of the time the computer will freeze.

The couple times I have got it to work it will automatically open in Windows Media Player. I'm not much of a computer wizz, but I see that the files are .cda type. A little research tells me that I need to convert these to .mp3 or .wav ... How, I don't know yet?? A little more research just now will do the trick.

My hand and eyes are very sore. Extensive computer drawing is bad for your health. However, I do have 380 images to work with :)

Major project: Story board jpegs

Here is a simple story board for the final idea I'm going to go with (major project):

Final idea: I am going with this one...hammers & tongs

Had a reaaally big day at uni yesterday. On the way home I was talking with my partner about the final project. She had originally agreed to come along to Culburra with me and help me execute a time lapse of the black sand drawings. With alot of work on both our plates, and the mix of variables involved in that idea for the major project (car: will it make it? weather: what if it pours all weekend like it has been?) we were beggining to feel nervous about the idea. I really felt that it could all go to shit, without much time for plan Bs.

Throughout the middle of the semester I was quite excited about the idea of a drawing based stop motion...but felt flustered that I had no narrative to accompany it. The positive of doing a drawing based stop motion is that it can occur in a controlled environment with fewer variables (much safer at this time in the semester), however it is time consuming...as I had learnt from the first two white board stop motions I made. But really, I did not want to make a meaningless film...without a narrative what the point (i thought)?

Just so happens that I have had a narrative brewing in my head that I quite like. It uses the key figures of a seed, a growing tree, a swarm of ant and a dove (each of which can be drawn in a relatively simple manner). It plays out in a linear-narrative way, though it lends itself to the intervention of a seamless loop (for possible exhibit purposes). I won't bother explaining it in words. The next post (above) has some images of the story board I've sketch out, for what will be my major project...I'm so excited that I have a solid direction. Defo going for this!!

A few ideas?

Just had a trickle of conceptual development leak from the dry and crusty creativity vessel that has been my mind over the past few weeks.

My first thought tells me to revisit a little project I worked on during the christmas break. I came across this black sand haphazardly and drew skulls with it. I could time lapse this process. Make a little video. 1-2 minutes.Some sound mixed in too. Hmm, would be cool if I could get the sound sorted first then perform the sand drawing. A few little avenues to explore with this one. Definitely something to consider.
 

 

My next thought was having these two images overlayed (moving images of course) in a time/physical change based theme. The first image is simply a shadow caste by a railing near the VA block. The second image is an isobar map. Isobar maps/charts measure the atmospheric change that occurs over time within a specific geography. Overlaying the two images, perhaps with the isobars very soft/faint could work as a kind of play on the seemingly obvious character of the urban environment against the passive and elusive character of natural physical phenomena and change. Kinda of boring yes. Visually a little abstract and obscure. Illustrative through visual metaphor tho.

Freaking amazing...

Video by animator/street muralist Blu I suspect. I stumbled across this whilst rumaging thru youtube and was amazed that I had not seen it before being an avid fan of this artist. What's really interesting is that it has been on the web for 4 years and has only had 700ish views. Compare this to Blu's massively popular Muto with over six and a half million views in just 2 years on youtube alone. hmmm....i wonder why its posted on youtube without a connection to blublu's profile. I'm sure its his work. Wierd. Awesome. Freakin Amazing.

Back to the drawing board...

Hmmm, my head has not been in a solid conceptual space this semester and I've been struggling to come up with a sound and interesting artistic concept for my major project. I think this attributes a little to the other 4 courses I'm currently doing that are all teaching practice & theory core courses. The little creative monster in my head has been neglected and is now a little shy. What do I do?

My concepts/narratives are all crap. This will be limiting if I take the same approach as my last 2 animations. Without a story I think it will be boring/trivial/pointless. I don't wanna make another pointless animation. What to do?

Flash: frustration?? naahhh....

Over the last few weeks the class has been dealing primarily with flash. At first I felt a little overwhelmed, and had doubts that I really understood what was going on. It's really just one of those things you need to pay attention in demo's and spend some time familiarizing with the functions. Today I was able to program a little interactivity into my animation. Using flash, I've created a basic swf. that when opened automatically goes to fullscreen, and has a few funky little buttons. The buttons allow you to play, stop/pause and exit and were each designed by me. Its simple but works so I am happy. Feeling like I'm some very basic but fundamental flash things understanding things :)

2nd animation: first visit in a little while..

Hey nobody thats actually reading.

I haven't been on in a couple of weeks to contribute to my onlineblog/journal for AART3462. I'm updating it with my 2nd stop motion animation attempt. I was fairly happy with the result. Its super simple which made it a bit more successful than my last one...i think???



I kept it very simple for this one. I did this because I found with my last experience the more moving detail I tried to create the more frustrating and arduous the whole thing became. In this animation you can see that movements are very simple. blinking, isolated elements popping up etc. I also made a deliberate choice not to colour/fill the space in black. This took ages with the last animation (even though it only goes for ten seconds!!) and I wasted alot of texta.