Vamp and Tramp

I attended the vamp and tramp "lecture" earlier this semester. They are a small business that caters to handmade artist book. I really enjoy bookmaking and letterpress printing, so I found the lecture particularly interesting. It was mostly a sort of show and tell. The man showed us tons of the books they sell. They were amazing. They were really not your average bound book. Each of them really pushed the concept of book, much farther than I've ever seen. There were intricate cut outs and folds. I was really inspired by this showing, especially Julie Chen's work.

I have to admit that I haven't accomplished much over the past two days. I have been sitting in front of the computer attempting to make headway but I seem to be wasting a lot of time. I have gone back through my project and edited things that were mentioned in class like the "noisy trees" and the timing of the zooms etc. I have a separate file for the opening scenes that I haven't rendered out yet and replaced but they have been fixed. I'm having a hard time with the parts where the scenery changes from behind the door. I need to the scene and the camera to change smoothly with the fading of the door. This is not an easy transition to make. I have spent hours trying to figure it out. Bottom line is that I have a lot of work to do over the weekend.

Working Again.....

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

So this is part of the work I got rendered for class today. I'm disappointed in the amount I have done. The animation is going fairly quickly, however Im getting caught up in render time. What I have today is fairly glitchy and the movement is not smoothed and refined but it shows whats going on. Im curious as to whether or not the camera angles are working how I'm swithcing them now. I havent explored multiple camera viewpoints in this class thus far.

Working

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

So I have been working over the weekend to change up what was discussed in class last thursday and then have gotten started on the animation of my project. So far things have gone fairly smoothly. I feel like after tackling the last midterm project I have really established a solid knowledge of the program and how to work efficiently. I did encounter some issues last night with the server and after effects so I just went ahead and rendered what I had done and called it a night. I still have a large chunk to go but I'm confident that I will have a complete rough draft by next Tuesday. I will be in town over the weekend and should have plenty of time to come up here.

Still need to work on timing and little glitches. I am going to go through and make the foliage move and create a really dynamic scene.

Critique Notes

Redesign of bed_need more delicate posts, consider color (not enough contrast on black), also perspective is skewed. A lot of attention needs to be put on this because it is essentially a character. Snowy scene...bed covered in snow?

Winter_hill too stark, don't like line that make the shape. Change to paper texture in very slight grey tones. Consider including some dead foliage, stumps, etc.

Canopy_generally successful

Doesn't look like shes in bed in the waking up scene...looks like shes standing in front of a gate. Pan out more from that scene to see her in bed.

Character design_think about making changes in hair, etc. Bow also, should it be outlined?

To Do:

Make all above changes.

Begin to animate. Would really really like to have a good chunk done for review.

working

So over the past two days I have spent time staging all of my different scenes.

1. Canopy

2. Waking up

3. Summer

-getting out of bed

4. Fall

5. Winter

-going to bed

I have gone in and restaged all of my assets from last project to consolidate my information. For instance before each tree, hill, flower were all separate. They are now broken down into different layers that may have a flower, tree and hill all included in one. This took a bit of time but in the long run should be beneficial.

Assets in Scenes

So here are my assets. I was able reuse many of my previous assets but still had a significant amount to make, adjust, etc. I had really hard time trying to make the girl look the way I want her too. I think most of the scenes that show her will be rather quick and just close ups of her face and following her from behind. I would like to adjust her some for sure.

Final Project Plans

After critique the other day I feel pretty good about were I'm going with this. I know that i need to change up how I'm handling the camera, and keeping though transitions more smoothly. I also know that I need to include more shots of the girl, the class seemed interested in that.

Asset List:

bed

front

side

trees

Various flowers

Girl

front

back

jackelope

doors

key

leaves

snowy landscape

all previous landscape assets lightened, snow covered

leafy landscape

leaves all over the ground

Various emotions for Girls face

Calendar:

week 1:

Tuesday, 17th_Have assets built over the weekend, begun to arrange assets

Thursday, 19th_Have set up all of my assets, arrange them in z-space

week 2:

Tuesday, 24th_ Have a rough, rough run through for a critique

Thursday, 26th_ TURKEYYYY, traveling so most likely wont have a super amount done over break, will do my best

week 3:

Tuesday, 1st_ More revisions, new comp due

Thursday, 3rd_ More revisions due, Should be done with most animation...solid understanding of scenes, plot, feeling.

Have a court date thurs, trying to get it changed, so will have my work turned in to server and will come to office hours for personal critique, maybe class can help and post comments to blog

week 4:

Tuesday, 8th_Done...critique

Thursday, 10th_ Complete

Revised Concept

A young girl is awoken from her sleep to find herself deep inside a wooded area. The landscape is lush with greenery and flowers (summertime). She gets out of bed and her attention is struck by the only living thing in sight, a jackelope. When their eyes meet, the jackelope takes off running through the woods, she curiously begins to follow it. As she is following the jackalope she begins to see doors placed randomly throughout the landscape. The jackelope runs through the first door, she follows with the intention of going through as well. The door shuts right before she can pass through. As she stands at the closed door, it disappears before her eyes. When the landscape is revealed again the season has changed from summer time to Fall. Leaves have fallen and continue to fall. She then spots a deer in the forest, like the jackelope she follows it until it goes through the door. Once again it shuts before she can enter. She stands at the door for a few moments until the door opens itself to reveal a snowy landscape, and her bed.

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

More Ideas

Creating an animatic was so much harder than I had imagined and did not allow for very much time. Thus, its really crappy. I also had a hard time conveying movement in my piece because I needed top move through z-space yet didn't want to actually set up my layers in space. Im pretty embarassed by the outcome, but I did try.

Bill Plympton Master Class

I must say, I had absolutely no idea who he was upon going to class on Tuesday. I was pleasantly surprised to see that MCA brought in a big time guy. Wow, oscar nominated, thats hardcore. I felt very privileged to have been able to see him speak. I loved his films. I especially liked the "dog" shorts. I'm a sucker for anything dog related but these were really special. I thought the comedy aspect of it was spot on. I think that his knack for incorporating a sick sort of dark humor is really amazing. I also think that his style of drawing is really nice. Since going through school to be a designer, its amazing how much my attitude has shifted from thinking vector/computer based imagery is whats best, to really hating it. I am so much more attracted to simple, hand drawn animation and design as well. I think its really inspirational to hear him speak about ow he stays true to his values as far as his work goes. Turned down Disney? brilliant! I am really interested in seeing more of his film and am really glad that I was exposed to his work.

Rough Ideas for Final

Genre:

Drama (surrealistic)

Logline:

An awoken girl wanders sleepily through a surreal landscape.

Synopsis:

Wandering through a foreign landscape, the protagonist (camera) is met with unusual wildlife. It begins with her chasing a rabbit. As soon as she loses the rabbit she, her attention is struck by some creepy, unusual happenings. Trees become anthropomorphic and grab at her and leaves swirl around her. She is met by other animals: birds and deer. Like the rabbit, they are frightened by her and run at the sight of her. She continues to wander aimlessly, searching for anything that she can connect with. She eventually makes it to the end of the forest and sees a clearing. Within that open area she sees her bed, and climbs in to finally find comfort.

Overall, this video is about loneliness and the inability to connect.

For this project I am expanding upon my previous project with the rabbit. I really have the urge to make that story longer and more developed. I would like for the camera to eventually make it outside of the forest. The girl will be met by strange encounters that don't necessarily make sense in the waking world, but are more than possible within a dream. I want the scene to appear much more surreal and developed. The scene is a dream, so I intend for things to appear out of nowhere, etc. to push the idea of surreality.

I want the mood to be similar as it was previously. To me it felt very somber and muted as it was, conveyed strongly by the limited color palette. The beginning (existing rabbit video) the tone is really dark, literally and figuratively. It is mostly black. I would like for the scene where she find the bad to be a pristine snowy scene. I want this to provide stark contrast to the darkness of the earlier scenes as well as conveying a strong sense of peacefulness.

I also want to stay with the first person narrative, the camera being the protagonist. I am considering adding a prelude to what I have already established, as well as extending the end. I may just end up continuing the story...depending on the input from the class.

I am really struggling with whether or not I want to introduce the audience to the girl. I can not decide if it would help or hurt my idea. On one hand the audience can connect with her and see her emotions. It would also open up my options for camera angle, which would be really nice. Perhaps, you can switch between the camera being her and seeing her? If that is a possibility I may go with that.

Final edit, Midterm

I would say that this was rather painless. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to once again revise this. Working on this was great because it wasn't a rush to get finished with something and instead was really focusing in on the tiny glitches that were already there. I took out the first part of the animation after realizing that it isn't needed. I also tried to make it appear to chase more. If the rabbit goes left, I go left. I dont think this was clear in my initial edit. Hopefully it is more clear this time. Lastly, I went through and made sure none of my layers were popping and no alpha channel becomes exposed. So there were definitely changes to be made but no overwhelmingly so. I wish that it was a bit longer, and that I could have gotten my motion/speed down super well. Overall, i'm pleased with the outcome. I must say that I am really itching to add to this project and am strongly considering it for the final project.

T

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Revised Midterm

I had much more success working in a smaller resolution in order to speed up my workflow. I would have liked to refine this a bit further. The speed seems off and there are tiny little glitches here and there. Overall, I am pleased. I am having issues with rendering however. I rendered last night and came to view it this morning and unknowingly the file only rendered part of my work.

I'm not really sure what happened, I'm hoping I'm not going to have to drop the class because of this. I definitely don't have my whole project rendered so I'm worried.

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Midterm Working

I really like that look of this one. I had intended on using mostly ink drawn imagery and, in fact, did take the time to create all my assets. When I got them scanned it, everything seemed muddy and it was hard to distinguish shapes. So I am using both ink and vector. I like the limited color palette and the creepy mood it sets. I wish I could have gotten further. I spent so much staging my scenes in AE. Since my comp is essentially made up of moving through z space I had to meticulously place each of my assets in z space as well so that I could weave through them. This really messed with my brain and took me a good full day just to get them all in place. As far as the animation goes. Theres a lot to be done! I feel terrible that I didn't get more accomplished. I have worked on this a lot more than is probably apparent. Looking forward to finishing it though!

Visiting Artist_Julia Walker

I attended the artist lecture last tuesday. I was impressed by Julia, she seemed intelligent and clearly explained her topic. She focused on the idea of Sustainable Chic as a style of architecture that have become popular. She describes this style by showing us ultra modern housing in the American Southwest that are supposedly "sustainable". We see huge homes that are catering to the area in that they use Southwestern vernacular, appeal to a modernist aesthetic and must overcome the harsh desert climate. She talked a bit about Frank Lloyd Wright and how he "brought modernism to the desert". She also showed us his famous Taliesin West. Many of the home she showed were architecturally spectacular. Very beautiful and modern, many of them were huge. They were sustainable by using recycled materials, solar panels, heat resistant glass, special hvac systems, etc. After viewing all of these homes and sort of convincing us of their sustainability she explains that these are not truly sustainable. She makes the point that just using recycled materials does not mean sustainable. Some of these homes are like oxymorons in that they are massive, yet sustainable? That doesn't make sense. Homes that are sustainable should not have 17 rooms, that just unnecessary and excessive. She describes this new sustainable chic trend as just that, a trend. She argues that sustainability is much more than a style, it should be a method. There should be standards to which sustainable housing should be held to. I was disappointed that she never really explained what truly green housing is like, she only showed this "sustainable chic" style. I would have liked her to contrast the negative with a positive. Overall, I found her talk interesting and engaging. She also seemed enthusiastic and genuine when answering questions.

Midterm Project

I am going to convey a dream of frustration I have had. It involves chasing after something and never being able to catch it. This dream involves me chasing a rabbit through a wooded area.

I want to limit my color palette to black and white. I want to hand draw all of my assets using india ink. I think that this will help create a dark moodiness to the animation.

I want the camera to be from my point of view. There will be a lot of panning from side to side, as well as an unsteady camera to mimic walking or running.

Narrative:

Starts out blurry vision. Quickly comes into focus. I'm in a heavily wooded area. I look from side to side surveying the unknown area.

There no one around and there is no clear path out of the area.

I spot a rabbit grazing in the distance.

We lock eyes.

It immediately gets scared and runs.

I decide to follow it...initially at a walking pace which picks up to a run.

What began as curiosity become an obsession. I have to catch that rabbit. I follow it through the forest hastily.

The scenery changes to create more obstacles like rain and snow.

Ends on a snowy scene. I trip over a tree root and the rabbit hops away into the distance.

_______

A lot of what I want to convey is emotional. So its kind of hard to storyboard that. I want the emotion to go from confusion>curiosity>obsession>frustration>dissapoinment.

The overall story is really simple but I think with the manipulation of space, constant motion, and gestural assets that it could be a lot nicer.

Ideas for Larger Project

As far as my more involved assignment goes, I'm thinking about creating a scene that animates a dream of frustration. I think that a larger project is going to be a good platform for a more emotionally developed scene. Carrying the audience through that frustration is going to be key. The scene will either be a feeling of being lost and not being able to find my way, or chasing something that I can never catch. Visually, I can't decide whether or not I want to use photography or hand drawn elements. I'm leaning towards photos. However, with animations the possibilities are limitless. I really want to utilize cameras and exploring a space more thoroughly than head on. I really like the limited color palette that I have used in a few of my animations. Also, I like the sort of cold, lonely feeling that I had in my "falling" video with the cold blue sky and b/w photography. I feel like it really captures the somberness of a dream. The way I have been thinking of the projects so far is that the camera is my perspective. I would like to exploit that more in things like looking side to side, and the motion captured by walking or running (how the camera moves up and down slightly)

Matte Project

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

I felt a little overwhelmed with mattes at first because I didn't get a good grasp on mattes in class on Tuesday. When I went back and looked at the matte examples I decided that I wanted to utilize the split-screen effect. When I began working it was pretty much a trial and error type situation. I just played with the arrangement of layers and then tried the different types of mattes. So i just clicked away until something struck me. I like the way the eyes look with the night sky looks behind the eyes. I like that it is peaceful looking. I initially wanted to look like I was running through the forest but I ended up making the scene fit the peacefulness of the bottom part. Im not sure of the moon moves too fast but I was weary of making to too slow because I made the timing way too slow on my type project. I like the overall coldness of the comp. I would have liked if I had conveyed moon phases with the moon rather than it staying the same shape the whole time.

Puppet

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

I think that the puppet tool was a lot easier to use than the rotation tool to make the blades of grass move around. The comp is pretty simple and straight forward. I had a hard time trying to come up with imagery that could utilize the puppet tool. So this comp is similar to another of mine because I wanted to do a landscape to best utilize the new tool.

Try at Tutorial

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Video CoPilot Failure

So I went through the tutorial for the text that explodes. I followed the directions very strictly, and walked through each of the steps along side the tutorial. It was hard to complete the tutorial because I wasn't able to preview any of my work and make adjustments. In fact I never previewed it. I just got sick of waiting for it to load and just decided to render and see what i got. I walked through all the steps closely and I didn't end up with what I'm supposed to have. I couldnt figure out what was wrong because I couldn't preview. Perhaps I can get advice for this type of thing in class because I'm really frustrated at the fact that I can never seem to complete my assignments without something going completely wrong. I just want to be able to work easily without problems so badly.

Type Video

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Text Assignment response

I actually liked working on this one quite a bit. Its really hard to limit yourself to type only. I knew that I want to create texture and imagery with the text but I wanted the text to be legible at some point to convey the concept. The concept revolves around this desire to eat a cupcake. I have a dream where all I an do is think about eating cupcakes and doughnuts and its all a manifestation of repression in my waking life. I know the sweets are bad for me so I avoid them, but they are so tempting that I give in in the dream and then end up feeling guilty.

Artist Essay

JOHN MAEDA

It is hard to put John Maeda in a box with a label. It seems as if the amount of things he does goes far beyond the title of simply a designer. If we must try to define what Maeda does, we could say that he is an artist, a graphic designer, as well as a computer scientist. He was born on Seattle Washington in 1966. He was originally a software engineering student at MIT. It was there that he became fascinated with the work of Paul Rand and Muriel Cooper, both influential designers. He continued on at MIT to get his Bachelor's and Master's degree. He concluded his education by completing his doctorate in design from Tskuba University in Japan. Needless to say, with and education like the one he has achieved, Maeda is absolutely brilliant not only intellectually but creatively as well. Maeda is currently the president of Rhode Island School of Design, one of the leading art and design schools in the country.

After graduating Maeda worked as a designer, developing projects for brands such as Cartier, Google, Phillips, Reebok and Samsung. Also, in 1996 he became the Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab. There he was responsible for managing multiple research relationships with industrial organizations. Some of his accomplishments include having his early digital media work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 2001, he has shown in galleries all around the world and they have all been guarded with high esteem. Maeda has also published multiple books, his most recent being called Laws of Simplicity, a book that discusses the theme of simplicity as it relates to the digital world. He has also been recognized a one of Esquire magazines 21 most important people of the 21st century.

It is hard to describe much of John Maeda's work. Much of it is highly intellectually driven and incorporates his vast knowledge of computer technology rather than just the use of design. It is easy to look at his work and appreciate it for the beauty and concept, but it is hard to get a good grasp on how exactly he went about doing it. Much of his work is typography driven. Upon visiting his website, I saw that he has tons of examples of his work. Some of it is interactive. One example tells you to move the curser around the page and a snowflake appears and transforms as you continue to move. I later realize that this is an interactive calendar.

Much of Maeda's work is like this, seemingly inconsequential little explorations. However, they are beautiful and well composed. His work is certainly relevant to this class because he exploring the digital media platform. The uses a lot of kinetic type to convey concepts. He completed a whole motion calendar series for Shisheido that utilizes moving letters and numbers, which serves as great inspiration for our current project. He also has more whimsical work. For Reebok, he designed a colorful sneaker with hand writing as a graphic. He really pushes the concept of type and how it can be used in motion. His work is very sleek and beautiful. That is what attracted me to his work initially. I find his work extremely compelling and think he has a lot offer the digital media world. He is really utilizing his computer science knowledge and marrying well with a design aesthetic.





Links:
www.maedastudio.com/

Masking Experiment

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Week 5 Making Experiment Response

I absolutely hate this animation. I lost nearly 5 hours of work because all of my layers didn't get saved even though I saved them. So I basically had to start from scratch around 1:45 am, thus the crapiness. Yes, I know blaming the computer sounds like a cop out but I really was saving frequently. As far as masking goes, this animation doesn't utilize a lot of variations on masking that I would have like to use. I think that I am capable of doing a much better comp that uses the new techniques we learned. The concept I was going with is dreams of intrusion. I have dream that feature having my house broken into while I'm sleeping. The idea is that you don't really know what's going on because you are half asleep and can only pick up on bits and pieces. Hopefully that kind of makes sense. I'm hoping to make up for this sad comp next time.

Week 5 Camera Experiment

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

I had a hard time getting used to the whole camera thing. I guess its more beneficial when you use it to capture many angles and comprise the footage that way, unlike how i used it which was basically to zoom past stuff. It seems like I could have done that with scaling things up and down. This assignment too me forever and I only have 6 seconds. I began to realize that I could only go so far into z space before the camera inverts thus not much time to create my scene. I think I should have extended my poi more than I did. I don't know if this video really captures what I would like for it to. I don't know if the passing through the clouds aspect is successful.

Artist Lecture Response

I attended the lecture last week, The WORK or Art. Janet did a good job of showing a large volume of work and exposing us to the great efforts that artists go to to create artwork. She explained that art is not always about the end product, but can be more concerned with process. She focused some on process as concept. She featured many artists that blow your mind with the intense amount of time that they have spent creating their work. I was really intrigued by the initial video we saw. It seemed absurd to see these beautiful and well crafted sculptures crash to the ground. Once she began speaking it became apparent that that video was demonstrating that the process is what is important, not the longevity of the product. I was amazed by the dedication and stamina that many of the artists shown have. I saw a lot of gorgeous and inspiring work. It was also cool to hear an explaination of tara donovan's work because I find her work really amazing.

Response Project 3

I feel pretty good about the look of this one. I used all scanned in paper and images. I thing I'm more drawn to that look than using photos. I wanted to do more animation with the fly and create more of a feeling of anxiety. I don't think that is conveyed at this point. I think the motion in general could be tweaked quite a bit. Perhaps the patterns are too busy, but I actually like them. I spent a ridiculous amount of time just getting the basic photoshop file compiled. I need to manage my time a lot better.

Week 4, Project 3

Trapped from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Week 4_3d enabled layers project

Unable from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Response_Week 4_9.15.09

I feel like this excercise was successful in getting me accustomed to the 3D aspects of After effects. The imagery certainly needs to be more refined. Also the motion could be cleaned up quite a bit. I'm going to so quite a lot of revising to this but I felt like I got a good grasp on parenting, nulls, and 3d motion. I think the chioce of doors could be better. Also, I would like there to be more of a moodiness to the atmosphere to convey more of an emotion. The basis of the imagery is a dream that I have where there are tons of doors and I'm trying to shut them and open them and there is a huge sense of frustration. I dont think that is necessarily conveyed.

Week 3, Response

I think that I had good input from the class. I like the suggestion of keeping a journal. I have done that in the past but do not currently do it. I also hadn't considered writing the emotion that I had experienced. I really need to sit down and write down dreams I've had and begin to connect the dots as to common themes and symbols. I think it will be interesting to have a visual portfolio of dreams I have had to look back on for years. Also, the possibilities are endless for imagery and they don't necessarily have to make sense because of the nature of the concept.

1st Animation

Untitled from Taylor Wamble on Vimeo.

Week 3, Proposal

During this semester I would like to focus on the concept of dreams. In the more recent years I have been experiencing vivid dreams nearly every night, sometimes they are enjoyable and other times they are terrifying. I feel very connected to the experience of dreaming because it is a direct expression of my subconscious, and the dreams are usually very personal and intuitive. Dreams, for me, can be extremely realistic and emotional, they can be good and bad, as well as full of important metaphors. I would like to explore themes of repressed desire, as well as symbolism and reoccurring themes that exist within my own dreams. I also would like to capture the intense emotion that I sometimes experience, whether it be intense anxiety and fear or peacefulness. I'm hoping to tap into my own subconscious and try to better understand why I have become a portal for epic dreams.

Week 2_ List and Sketches

Similar:

1. dream
2. subconscious
3. Sigmund Freud
4. interpret
5. escape
6. emotion
7. sensation
8. sleep
9. unexplained
10. mystery
11. perception
12. intuition
13. surreal
14. personal
15. mind reading
16. decoding dreams
17. dream diary
18. inspiration
19. nightmares
20. night terrors
21. psychology
22. spirituality
23. prediction of the future
24. prophecy
25. dream incubation-practice of cultivating dreams that were prophetic
26. Rapid Eye Movement- REM
27. fantasy
28. Carl Jung
29. anxiety dreams
30. sexuality
31. reoccurring dreams
32. ability to fly
33. running from something
34. inability to communicate
35. frustration
36. lucid dreaming-ability to control the characters
37. deja vu
38. daydream
39. sleep walking
40. metaphor
41. reenactment
42. childhood
43. repression
44. fluidity
45. Sandman
46. clouds
47. being hurt
48. trying to run
49. unable to gather materials
50. snakes
51. violence against others
52. holding grudges
53. unable to let go
54. relaxed
55. closed eyes
56. lifeless body
57. circle

Opposite:

1. control
2. consciousness
3. awake
4. tangible
5. blind
6. voluntary
7. reality
8. truth
9. existence
10. fact
11. pipe dream
12. wish
13. unable
14. stifled
15. relief
16. tension
17. relationships
18. open eyes
19. ignorant
20. closed minded
21. shut door
22. responsible
23. responsive
24. rigid
25. square
26. emotionless
27. cut off
28. simple
29. psychologist
30. capture
31. aware
32. cognitive thought
33. intention
34. human behavior
35. intellectual
36. verbal
37. mobile
38. understanding
39. clogged artery
40. a dam in water
41. prohibit
42. insomnia

Working Concept

I would like to explore the idea of escape. Not like running from something necessarily, but rather, being taken away from the constraints of our daily lives. Like dreams, for instance, they are an escape from reality. Within them almost anything is possible. Its amazing what our minds come up with and allow when we are not controlling it through cognitive thinking. Even when we consider an actual physical escape, there is a period of time filled with panic and worry that is then taken over by relief and peacefulness for having gotten away or alluded whatever was plaguing you. I would like to recreating scenes and explore the concept of escape through dream-like sequences and the emotional recapturing of what escape is like.

Initial Thoughts

I will start by saying that i feel completely overwhelmed by the thought of choosing a topic. I don't know how to describe how I want them to look technically because I don't really know enough about the programs, but I do have general concepts:

1. I have vivid dreams nearly every night. Oddly enough my dreams are often times about me being immersed in a fantastical scene full of pastries, mostly cupcakes and donuts. Im convinced that I have these dreams because in my real life I wont allow myself to indulge in those things because I know that they are bad for me. So really this dream that appears so whimsical is really about temptation and oppression. It reminds me of the Bosch painting Garden of Earthly Delights. From a distance the painting appears so happy but when you really study it, its pretty messed up. Its warning us that if we indulge in earthly pleasures then we are damned to hell. So basically, I would like to explore the concept of temptation and the effects it has on the psyche when oppressed.

2. Also, I would like to explore moving typography. I guess it would be like moving signage or advertisements. It could be a narration of a story or lyrics to a song. They type could be used to animate what the story/song is saying.

3. I really like the collage look to some of the videos I've seen. Ones that use actual photographs, drawings and other 2-D art to comprise a scene. I think it might be interesting to use some older materials, like a set of paper dolls or illustrations in an old book. I like the idea of using dolls a metaphor for confinement.

Screenings

In In the Realms of the Unreal  most of the scenes are comprised of the drawings and illustrations of Henry Darger himself.  The film has been comprised of these still 2-D illustrations that begin to come to life. The figures begin moving their arms and blinking their eyes, as if they are interacting with the viewer. Some of the scenes seem to be a visual collage comprised of photographs, drawings and vector images. There is an interesting contrast between the innocence and antiquity of these illustrations with the modern concept of motion graphics. The scenes remind me of pages in a coloring book or illustrations in books meant for small children. The film pans slowly over the illustrations, and many of the animated elements are hard to catch. There is a calmness and subtlety to the way in which the motion is being introduced to the 2-D medium.  

The Kid Stays in the Picture is similar to the previous film in that it uses previously shot imagery and adds animation on top of that. In this film photographs are mostly being used, as well as stills from movies that Robert Evan's directed. The manipulation of the photographs is done by adding what appears to be vector animation. One example was a photograph of a man smoking a cigarette. Animation of an ignition and orange burning tip of the cigarette was added as well as an overlay of smoke. Some of the stills themselves have been altered. The people will be cut out and reoriented in the scene. There is a lot more type seen in this film. There are lots of newspaper stories that get shown as a collage of information. There is also a lot of panning from side to side and zooming in and out.  

In the Ken Burns films, all of the imagery is still. The way that he manipulates the stills is to chose how the audience is able to view them. He slowly pans across the images so that you can see all of the detail. He then zooms out so that you can see the whole thing. Photos transition with a soft fade into the next. Though all of the imagery is still, he evokes a lot of motion through his cinematic techniques.