BMA142 Digital Media, 3-Poster Series, Creature Research 2, 29 April

I want my symbiont to be organic and based on something that already exists on Earth, so my research starts with deep sea creatures.  I love the single eyeball on this top fella, and the looping tentacles of his friend on the bottom.
Luminous creatures: Glowing deep sea creatures photographed by Joshua Lambus

BMA142, 3-poster series, Creature research, 29 April

You can't make this stuff up, so why try?  These deep sea creatures are reference and inspiration for the symbionts of "Harmony".  The discs at the center of the second creatures body make me think of teeth.  On the cameo symbiont, the oval filled with rows of "teeth" is based on this.

https://thetruthbehindthescenes.wordpress.com/weird-deep-sea-creatures-60-images/

BDM126 flash animation practice, happy face bouncing ball, 29 April

BDM126 principles of animation the head turn

 as head turns to look at each finger, looking left first, head dips before middle of arc, then dips again before looking right.  and eyes blink.
5 frames to turn the head

BDM126, flash practice, bouncing ball, 29 April

BDM126, flash practice, flying front, 29 April

BDM126, Flash animation practice, flying, 29 April

BDM125 Storyboarding notes, week 8, 20 April

Storyboard Pro software, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro 4.1
foreshortening: brandish the brush like a sword, towards the camera.
put the monkey in boots, then pan up his body.  the reveal of his face will be a surprise
no straight lines, always use an arc to show interest in a scene
use grid lines to show that the figure is standing on something.
When moving from two person shot to one person, the figure on left should stay slightly left in subsequent shots.  The figure on the right in the two shot should be offset to the right when it goes into a shot by himself.

storyboard resources on the web:
storyboardsecrets.com/blog/

•http://www.floobynooby.com

BDM125 Storyboarding: museum ideas

pop culture cubism


Jackson Pollock's The Blue Poles

Monkey changes to match the style or interact with the paintings he swings through.  What works of art are public domain and can be used as is, and which can only be referred to through style?


Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe

Roy Lichtenstein and pop art

BMA142 Digital Media, poster series, research 3, 25 April

http://aliensandchildren.org/images/front-cover.png
Child's drawing of aliens in a spaceship.

BMA142 Digital Media, poster series, research 2, 24 April

alien invasion hypothesis  The National Geographic Channel's show Alien Invasion has extraterrestrial invasion conquering humanity in a matter of days with a rebellion amongst the survivors taking shape in the following 9 months.  Humanity's final hope?  A balloon assault armed with high explosives and scavenged bombs.  Up, up and away!!!




"Harmony" premise:  But what if the aliens were already here?  What if they'd been here for centuries, millennia even, developing in symbiosis with humans?  How could the Roman empire have fought off an invading army from outer space?  A rebellion of humans takes place in present time but the poster series hints at what the aliens have been doing with us since their arrival.  

BMA115 Drawing, comic book research, refugees, 23 April

Tempus Agent Mary Marie Macintosh tries to recruit Geo-Ambulator?Peregringineer? F. Scott McMurdo, who is the third generation of a family of climate and political refugees.


 afghani refugees

Afghani Refugees

BMA115 Drawing class: Comic book research: oldest living women 23 April

I want to write about a woman who has outlived everyone and everything she's ever know and is given new purpose.  How does she use her life knowledge?  Can she try new things, or does she constantly and stubbornly resist change?

Was she really 132? World's 'oldest ever person' Antisa Khvichava dies in remote Georgian village 

116 year old woman

127 year old woman

BDM125, BDM126, Animation Reviews: Shadow puppets and stop motion animation, 4 April

Ha!  I actually laughed out loud at a 90 year old joke.  Stuffing the Ugly Stepsisters shirt front with everything but the kitchen sink is a joke that still lands.  The birds Cinderella dress her with the leaves of the trees.
Beautiful shadow puppets filmed on glass.   A sense of gravity- the birds and leaves float through the air, the cellar trapdoor is heavy and takes effort to pull open.

Lotte Reiniger's stop-motion animation work is still beautiful and inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvU55CUw5Ck  The Art of Lotte Reiniger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SP4ftxklg  The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kku75vGDD_0  Cinderella (Aschenputtel) by Lotte Reiniger (1922) by Primrose Productions, British Film Institute

Shadow puppetry in 3D animation can be seen in The Tale of the Three Brothers from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
contemporary work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN1_h_eGitE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fmsVDFpTE  Richard Bradshaw- Jim Henson's World

BMA142: Cinemagraphs

We're working on cinemagraphs: animated gifs that usually feature a static background with a few moving elements.

 The image is created by erasing parts of a static layer over the frames of a short video.  The moving parts keep playing in a loop.


step by step tutorial of making cinemagraphs with photoshop:
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-make-a-cool-cinemagraph-image-in-photoshop


Cyborg woman, and more, can be found at:
http://iapdesign.com/inspiration/30-inspirational-cinemagraphs-image-effects-collection/

BMA142 Digital Media, poster series, research 2, 22 April

series of film posters for the movie "Harmony".  Aliens have been on Earth for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, openly, and have been part of every historical epoch.  It wasn't an invasion as much as an integration, like the absorption of neanderthal genes into homo sapiens DNA.  Has this symbiosis been helpful or harmful?

"They've been here all along" "We Are One"  "Harmony"
A series of posters with human art, history, fashion as worn by aliens.  An 18th century cameo with the silhouette of an alien or robot, a Greek vase with aliens in battle, a historical painting with the American Founding Fathers and representatives of the alien race. A fashion magazine cover with a human woman in a dress with a symbiotic alien sticking out of her stomach wearing a matching hat. Fashion spread with alien wearing sweater with picture of humans on it, like animal sweaters that are popular now, human heads mounted as trophies in rustic cabins.  What would it be like if Aliens treated us the way we treat pets, farm, and other animals?

http://www.trashmutant.com/book-review---silhouettes-from-popular-culture-by-olly-moss.html

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156354917/2015-trends-african-cameo-black-history

Another thought based on a poster by Olly Moss for the play Harvey that I saw:  Elwood Dodd's brogue-clad footprints and Harvey's giant rabbit paw footprints walking through snow.

BMA142 Digital Media: series of posters, research 1, 22 April

http://cargocollective.com/stevenstecklerjr/Smithsonian-Poster-Series

http://www.option-g.com/art_prints/veggieseries.php

http://collider.com/mondo-star-wars-posters-olly-moss/

"PLANT! GROW! EAT!"  The image of a hand clenching an object is simple, the word powerful.  The combination of the two makes the series more than the sum of it's parts and more powerful when seen as a group.  

"American Folk Art for the Nation"  A single figure standing supported by a warm white.  An object that would normally be one of dozens on display is put on display.  Even grouped as  a trio of posters, each figure still holds center stage and attention.  

"Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi"  In contemporary "vintage" posters, this series of films is represented by it's mechanical or enhanced characters more often than it's human cast.  The mechanical figures never age, their silhouettes are instantly recognizable, and they are unique to this fictional universe.  This series utilizes that instant brand recognition and cleverly adds scenery from each film to fill in facial details:  C3PO's eyes are the twin suns of Tatooine.   These posters differ from traditional film posters because their intended audience is fans who are already familiar with the movie, not potential customers who need to be shown why they need to see it.  The fan experiences a frisson of nostalgic excitement when they put together the silhouette of  Boba Fett and the tiny Tie Fighter approaching Cloud City in the poster for "The Empire Strikes Back".  

BDM125 Storyboarding homework 14 April

Back to work after two weeks off.  The first week was spent interning and goofing off for Easter and the second week was spent making a male muscle suit for a female burlesque dancer to strip off.  Huzzah!

I'm catching up with Storyboarding:  Our assignment while I was gone was to go back and revise on shot types (not sure what this means)
Thumbnail out the first two scenes of the script, paying careful attention to the topics covered in the powerpoint presentations.  (I've gone through the powerpoints and now I'm watching youtube videos on storyboarding.  Very helpful.)
upload them onto blog for feedback and critique.  (I'm aiming for Thursday so I can keep to the spirit of the original timeline my classmates worked under.)

Very lengthy and informative you tube tutorial on storyboarding that I stumbled upon.  SpongeBob SquarePants features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpmkV5b5qM


The tutorials and powerpoints on perspective have reminded me that most of my story involves buildings, so here is some preliminary research.   The Arkell Museum has the kind of facade that I want: it's imposing, modern, and mostly glass.  The metal struts look like the bars of a prison cell which is a great bonus.  And the big sign up top!  Love it.  It would be flanked by 19th century buildings that would flow on to a mish mash of oldy-timey european buildings surrounding a small garden square.  I'm going to look through my photos of Europe to select buildings that I can put together to create and everywhere and nowhere on earth kind of place.  

Stuff to get done during Easter recess

Finish second Frida Kahlo-doscope (finished 1 June.  Ha, ha!  Better late than never.)
sketch characters for "Monkey Saves the DayPaint!" (week of May 20th.  Again, better late than never)
Finish second travel Poster for "Get Out!" (I may not get around to that one...)
3 views of a building for drawing class (done by deadline)
Watch 2 episodes of film history documentary I missed last week (there was some light napping, but I did get this done and it turns out that they didn't watch it until I got back to class, anyway)
colour turning Mad Mozart (halfway through that as of 20/4)
read up on what I missed in class folders at SIT (finished 14 April)

Real World Applications March 30 to April 1

I got permission to turn my assignments in early and take off the week before Easter recess to assist the pre-production department of Disney's remake of "Pete's Dragon".  As my friend Ruby explained it, pre-production "lays the tracks before the train".  All the little details like stocking the toilets, arranging housing, collecting brochures and take-away menus happens before the cast and crew arrive so they can get on with their jobs.  It's the hospitality and nurturing side of the production, and it felt nice to take care of people.  With some third-year SIT students doing internships, I stuffed Welcome packs, made photocopies, and ran errands.  I've worked backstage in theatres, and a series of tv sketch comedies but this is the physically and financially largest production I've ever worked on.  It was a good experience.