joeosheamipblog-blog

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First test of ‘inner demon’ character. The colours still need work, however I’m very pleased with the chaotic movement of this animation. 

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Optical loop test 

Song: Jai Paul - Jasmine (I do not own the rights to this music) 

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Walking cat animation experiment

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Last push with the edit. Long but very rewarding days of work! 

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Week 25

After having a break from my Moving Image Project to focus on other deadlines, I am very glad to be back animating again. This break has also allowed me to show my peers my progress with the project thus far as well as reflect on it myself. One thing that others have picked up on is the lack of consistency in regard to the grainy overlay which periodically layers over the footage. To combat this I marked over 40 sheets of a4 paper with different coloured crayons and scanned them into premiere pro, I then inverted the scans and made them a screen layer that now runs over the whole film. This helped to improve the consistency of the overlay and maintain a constant stimulation of colour and texture throughout the video. Overall this project has been hugely beneficial to my technical ability as a visual artist, it has been so rewarding to see my drawings come to life and it has helped me to realise that a career in animation and music video production is a path I want to pursue in the future.

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Week 24

One last visual test

Today I had a chance encounter with a friend and visual artist, Jamie House (https://www.endlessstudio.co.uk/) he told me about his recent experiments with creating optical loops. A visual effect that is created by linking a camera to a monitor and pointing the two at each other, creating endless reflections. Much like the illusion that is created when pointing two mirrors at each other. I thought this would be a poignant visual motif to incorporate in my Moving Image Project, in particular, for the lyric in the chorus ‘Life is just a loop’. I experimented with this technique today and distorted the results with multiple effects layers in premiere pro. I decided to show them to my supervisor John Edmonds, he said they shared similarities to the work of Norman Mclaren. This was an excellent pointer and since, Mclaren has been a source of inspiration, he is a master of creating a harmony between the visual and the aural. One of the Key aims for my project.

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Scan of erratic scribblings in my captains log (not a diary). Slowly making my way through my animation to-do list. 

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Week E1

Using water colour pencil for the ghoul like characters has been a particularly effective, especially in this animation, which ɪ have called ‘Dancing Queen’. The watery blurring of the hand drawn lines creates a smoky effect that suits these recurring ghost characters. Upon reflection I am pleased have opted to hand draw the animations, although the process is longer and more time consuming, it gives the animations a certain tangibility that can’t be replicated on a computer. When asking my course mate, Sean for his opinion on the animation so far he, said he could see the how my style had been influenced by the likes of ɢeragrd Scarf and Basquiat. ɪ was quite chuffed.

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35mm Photographs captured in Paris 

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Week 22

After a successful trip to visit Gus in Paris and finalise plans for the video, I’m feeling highly motivated. ɪ captured some good street photographs of Parisians going about their day to day lives, ɪ think these will work well in the chorus section of the song. ɪ plan to rapidly cut between the photos as the lyrics play ‘ɪ’m not crazy, you guys are crazy’ suggesting these anonymous faces are the other to ʟausse the Cat. To further this notion of anonymity ɪ will cut out their faces with the magicwand tool in Photoshop, this will also avoid causing any problems when posting any images of the subjects online.

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Gerard Scarf’s work for ‘The Wall’ 

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Week 19

Moving away from Squash and Stretch

 Gerald Scarf mentions how when working on ‘The Wall’ it was hard to get the animators he was working with to move away from the ‘Tom and Jerry house style - the whole “squash and stretch orthodoxy in animation”. I wanted them to realise that these are moving drawings not cute characters running around.’ (Wells p.30 2006)

This is how I wanted my animation to appear, I wanted it to have the same dark aesthetic which Scarfes work has. The movement should appear jagged and erratic, appearing as a living nightmare which Lausse the Cat discusses in the lyrics of his song. Below is my first test into the movement of the cat character, the backgrounds behind the skeletal cat will change without warning. This will reflect when in dreams we find ourselves in a new location without little explanation, yet it makes total sense and blends into the narrative of the dream. This rapid fire changing of setting was inspired by the work of Robert Breer, whose ‘collage films’ display ‘vast numbers of disparate images (which are) rushed past the viewer, causing a sort of visual orgasm’. (Renan p.129 1968) Renan goes on to say how the films undergo ‘constant change’ yet ‘lack continuity’, Breers work can sometimes move at a nauseating pace which can be disorienting to the viewer, this is why I plan to change from backgrounds on each beat of the song rather than every 24th of a second, hopefully giving the viewer time to register what's going on as well as weave a sense of musicality into the images. ɪ also plan to implement ʜockneys method of the photographic joiner in this section. As the backgrounds will be made up of a patchwork of 35mm film images.

Renan, S. (1968). The underground film: An introduction to its development in america Studio Vista.

Wells, P., 1961. (2006). The fundamentals of animation. Lausanne: AVA academia.

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Felix the Cat – Switches and Witches (Cat protagonist and a devilish moon character, very relevant to my project, and an excellent showcase of early animation. Although, highly conventional in regards to its use of squash and stretch animation)

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Week 13

Having had time to practice illustrating the skeletal cat protagonist I’m very pleased with the aesthetic and have begun drawing preliminary character animations. Through reading ‘The Fundamentals of Animation’ I became aware of the animator Gerald Scarfe, who was responsible for Pink Floyd's another Brick in the Wall Video.

 ‘Animation can encompass the grotesque and literally depict metaphoric ideas. Here Scarfe’s teacher is a manic and cruel figure, viciously and apparently literally mincing his pupils. This is a vivid and literal bitterly critical visual metaphor for the ways which children are processed through the education system.’ (Wells p.30 2006)

 Scarfe’s literal approach to animation is particularly insightful. From updates which I have heard from Gus thus far, a lot of the content in the Blue Bossa song is describing a series of outlandish dream sequences and conversations, using Scarfe’s approach I’ve concluded it would be more effective to metaphorically depict these aspects of the lyrics through my animation. For example in one segment the lyrics talk of ʟausse the cat having a nightmare where he ‘descends into the abyss’ and has ‘ʜades as a host’ for this ɪ thought I could use the animation of the cat falling through the bottom of his bed and then being consumed by a fiery god-like figure. After ɢus had sent me the track ɪ dissected all of the lyrics and wrote out animations which will match the narrative content of the song, firming the aforementioned symbiosis of the audio visual content of the film.

 (Wells, P., 1961. (2006). The fundamentals of animation. Lausanne: AVA academia.)

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Week 12

Today I had a phone call with Gus and discussed the project in more detail. We thought that the best way to create an effective video would be to collaborate on the content of the song together. This will allow for the audio and visual content to work symbiotically. Recently I have preferred the dark and gritty aesthetic of the animations I’ve been experimenting with, those which draw inspiration from the artist Basquiat. Therefore we agreed that the lyrical content of the song will be nightmarish and question notions of sanity in day-to-day life. There were some animations that ɪ had thought of such as having a main skeletal anthropomorphic cat character as the protagonist, and have him lead the narrative. Although I didn’t want to overload ɢus with too many ideas as ɪ wanted it to be a natural collaboration so I refrained from being to imposing. Regardless, due to previous set-backs, time was of the essence, so ɪ gave him a deadline to finish the lyrical content of the song for the 18th of February, this allowed for Gus to work on musical side of the project whilst I created mood boards and preliminary animations.

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More inspiration

Pedro Serrazina – Tale about the Cat and the Moon (1995) – A fantastic example of animation. Especially due to the incredibly clever use of light and shadow.