IN THE BEGINNING........ SPECIAL THANKS TO GENEROUS SUPPORTES OF CREATIVITY LIKE YOU!!!

My "In the Beginning" animation is finished and up on video but only for private viewers like you who were so generous in supporting our Calgary Animated Objects Society conflict/resolution invest YYC campaign.

 

Thank you!!

Ashley Bristowe, David Quiichini, Kate Monaghan, James Murphy, Isabelle Kadyn, Marilyn Field, Angela Inglis, Jake Mulyk, Emiko Muraki, Karen Ball, Colin Jackson, Patricia Glenn, Brenda Lieberman, Sharon Stevens, Gina Georgousis, Michal Lavi, Alane Smith, Carol Beecher, Charlie Johnson, David Nicholls, Jim Button, Jessica Barker, Sharon Watkins, Gina Georgousis, Charlie Johnson, Xstine Cook, Jana Lait, Shawna Quinn and Janet Perlman. 

ink trees

Mostly I'm spending hours on this laptop putting the many pieces of my animation together.

I painted my main intro title frame by frame on this black and then fit it into my timeline.

 I wanted some trees to grow as they zoom past the camera in the foreground. I intended to shoot them a variety of ways in black on white and drop out the bright. Since it is frame by frame it will appear to grow organically.

 I made an elaborate set up consisting of a fish tank with a glass bottom being shot up toward so that I can paint with ink onto the back of wet paper towel, allowing it to soak thru and bleed.

I also decided to do a few trees as top down progressive animations. I based some of my trees off of bonsais from my book collection.

Here is one done in ink on animation paper. They turned out alright, the experimenting allowed me to come up with a variety of things for my animation that I would never have thought up to do. This opportunity has been an incredible opportunity for experimentation.

Hiding away working / painting myself into a corner

It should be no surprise that there hasn't been much noise from my end. If you haven't seen or heard from me, I've been hiding away working.

 Here is a ground shot of plasticine growing for my flick.

And a bit more as it progresses across the screen. Later I will drop in a background where the white is and put my animated wooden snake slithering by on top.

But first I have to scrape and clean. The plasticine. Will not fit back into the bucket from which it came.

Look at how full the bucket is. It took longer to clean it up then to make the animation.

I also decided to get rid of my animation table to create a bit more room so I can add another regular table. It made this much more space beside the bookshelf. Enough for my chair and....

 a wire shelf full of painting products, airbrush, canvas etc.

I have been working a tonne with After Effects. Here is a lens flare type thing I am working on for the intro.

Here is a shot of the space during the closing reception.

I had to move out of the +15 space during the Easter long week-end. It took some time but the traffic and parking were not bad since it was a holiday.

 I painted myself into a corner as I exited the space, leaving it feeling brand new.

 I took down the Epcor painting show(above) and the Calgary 2012 publication came out with my Skyline painting on the cover.
Also: My arts collective (Full Spectrum) got into Wreck. We will be doing an undersea kingdom installation in the basement of 807.

More to come, stay tooned.

The sound of one hand clapping

Closing reception tonight 7 - 8 pm. 
For my UAS + 15 window exhibition. It has been a long haul trapped in the airless, hot little fishbowl of a window.

 am a week away from finishing the production portion of this project and then I'll move into two weeks of post production. I sent the rough cut off to render last night and it is a beast, my After Effects ended up crashing.

how do you like them apples?

In my studio I created some apples out of styro-foam balls from the dollarama. I coated them in a base coat of red acrylic paint and pierced them with a toothpick.

In order for them not to get suck to a surface while they dried I invented another use for dried up rice cakes.

I painted a second layer once they dried in a rough textural way to add more depth and colour. I then applied yet more reds and topped them off with some red sparkles.

Here is the plasticine tree I built as an animation on the spinning lazy susan.

Here is the general set up once the lights had been turned back on and after all the leaves (tiny drink umbrellas) had blossomed.

You can see the twists and turns of the trunk. It got so hot in the studio space under the lights the plasticine got soft and the entire thing slumped.

You can see in this close up the delicious looking fruit amongst the colourful umbrella foliage.

You can see Lindsay Sorrel doing some wacky stuff outside my window space while I shoot this scene.

This is the tree after the shoot and after it slumped. I had to use many bamboo skewers both inside the structure and on the outside to have it stay up. I think it turned out really pretty.

The shot from outside my space before going home for the week-end.

Volcanic growth

Before we begin,  a brief bit of inspiration.

http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/

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I took my handy dandy lazy Susan and fount eh center. I plotted out radial lines to break the circle into sections. This way I can rotate as I take frames giving the appearance of a circular camera move when I add it to the composition. It is a lot more work but it seems easier than building a rig to move the camera and background in this case.

Here is the view from outside the space, looking in. The volcano grew in 300+ frames out of the plasticine I made at home. Recipe here: http://artistavision.blogspot.ca/2013/02/plasticine-recipe.html

 Here is the comp of the volca with the chroma keyed out with the background and mist composited together.

Sneak peek - Toward Post production

You can get a sneak peek and even get a credit in my movie. Here's how....

Here is a quickly chroma keyed horse. I need to hand erase the posts in each and every frame then drop in my background effects, do editing and sound on my piece. If you read an earlier post you will have seen a bit of what I'm up to with backgrounds and special effects, this thing is going to be a monster in the edit suite. Come down and visit me in the UAS +15 Window Gallery and see how my stop-motion animation is made!

Click here to help!

More reason to support "In the Beginning...."

Calgary YYC will match funds we raise for the project, if you donate on our crown sourcing site you will not only help me to get my post production done, but you will also support three other great animation by 3 more artists.

Get your name as a credit for your support on my film here.

Do it now! 

=:D

Its hot in here

......this tiny little space has no fresh moving air and it really heats up during my animation sessions.

Epcor centre for the Performing Arts - UAS +15 Window Space Gallery

Here is the powerbar I've had from my dad since I was a young boy. I had to rig an ingenious set up in this small space. I used an old Ikea curtain rod attached to the ceiling as a bar for the green screen and lighting, as well I have this power box and the cables tucked neatly away near the ceiling space.

Here is the hanging when I first got into the space. Lots has changed as I progress after the first month of production on this project. Almost at the half way point already.

 Here you can see the horse I am working on in front of the green screen backdrop.

This moody pic I title: "Silence of the phant"

Here is a view from outside my fish bowl. The monitor in the middle shows a live feed from my laptop while I am working and shows my frame by frame process as well as the exposure sheet. I do this when the black curtain is closed and you cant see what is going on. I need the black curtain so that I don't get florescent light spilling in from the hallway compromising the image quality.

Shooting special effects

This was a fun but of experimentation.

If you can believe it I did this by squirting ink into a fish tank and then layering it in After Effects.

The devil is in the details. I layered it and darkened the blacks using curves. Then I added a luma key to drop out the black entirely. The ink was originally red and blue. I added a couple of keyframes using the change colour to effect to make it more dynamic. Near the end those effects are entirely playing with the light on set.

I borrowed and cleaned this cracked fish tank Ray had laying around. It needed a bit of love and a really good scrubbing. Then eventually I took multiple trips back and forth to the sink to fill it with super ice cold water and some bleach.

I made sure I had everything I needed close at hand. I set it up in front of the big black backdrop I previously painted. I put some buckets under the folding table to fortify it in case it collapsed under the weight of the water. I had extra towels ready since it leaks a bit. I set up my Canon DSLR to take HD video and got deeper than my elbows into the special effects photography.

To light particles in air or water you must have a hard light source coming from the rear. This is 3/4 cross lit from the back at a high angle. When I get my camera set up just right you cant tell it is a tank full of water. I'm not going to give away everything I shot or how it will be used yet until my project is further along. A guy's got to keep some mystery :)

Needless to say, I am very happy with how it turned out, it went better than I expected though it took a lot longer than I anticipated. This is the part that really slows down the process, filling and draining the big tank of water. I'm glad I selected the smaller tank. The bigger one would have taken forever to fill and drain. I still have to shoot another session with this set up in the next few weeks for some additional elements like smoke and fire. I cant wait.

Background prep for special effects

I spent my entire long week-end in the studio working on some new stuff. It was exciting to be trying this new technique out.

 I rolled out some Canvas for the backdrop.

 I stapled it tight to the wall and began painting it flat black.

I set up a table in front of the painted black drop to place a fish tank for some of the effects shots.

AT the far end of the canvas I shot the paint being applied to the surface. I set up time lapse photography on my computer and began having fun making a lot of drippy messiness. This is the end result of the messy process. On the screen it will look like a painting coming to life over a short period of time. I will use this as some texture on some of my layers.

Slap some paint on it

I worked in my studio slapping some paint on some of the props I will be using in my animation residency project.

You may remember the elephant from a previous post, well he got his tusks, toe nails and eyes treated with silver leaf for starters.

I rubbed some black all over him and then covered him in copper again but much more loosely.

Once you pour the ammonia over the copper not much seems to happen, it just looks wet.

A minute later it starts to patina and looks like this.

This patina is very fragile and I learned through trial and error you cant really put a protective coating over it without jeopardizing the integrity of the material sadly. it has to be brittle to stay beautiful. Hopefully it doesn't degrade too much while shooting.

I also brought in the pair of mannequin hands for a pink palm treatment. They will get another coat and detailing soon enough.

I also used the same colour on the bottom of the foot.

And did a first coat on the nails. The paint wears off nicely through movement making them look aged and chipped, just the look I am usually after.