letters!!

I went back to look through Norman's drawings again to check on one or two pieces and found this! I had not really had it mind at all when the idea came to do the stop motion of his letters but this, amazingly, looks like Norman's own version of letters piling up!! For the future it will be a great reference point to link these ideas together..and to attempt to animate his own drawing!!The real letters dissolving into the animation...

I have so many ideas now that I know I will not be able to explore even a fraction of them for my masters show but it is really exciting to be so inspired by Norman and to be so engrossed in the process. One day, if I can gather a team of people to work with me, I would love to make an extended version of this film!!
Right now I have so much to achieve by August that much of my work will be presented in draft form or as part of an acompanying show reel. If I had a team of animators I would be able to delegate...but now that I have experienced just how long traditional 2D takes I am realistic about what I can achieve alone.

This has not however discouraged me in any way as I still love the look of hand drawn work and the organic nature of drawing versus computer generated work.Give me five years or so...

archive test

I have completed a test for lighting and camera angles, background etc for the possible animation of a group of letters in the McLaren Archive. Cannon camera, focus I am pleased with and generally lighting good. I will include this in my film plan but may have to leave it out at the last step.The plan is to make a stop motion sequence of the letters piling up over the years...

motion graphics collaboration

DROPLETS from Simon Fiedler on Vimeo.


 see at... 00.42seconds... clip of shell appearing

Today Link and I have been discussing the transformation of the dancer to a swan and ways that we might achieve this. I have asked him to generate particles in a helix form moving upwards. I visualised that feathers or snow would be covering the dancer and then begin to rise.As they do the dancer would disappear and the swan appear from the snowstorm/feathers and fly into the sky. Link showed me one version of this he has worked on. The motion graphic does indeed look like snow and I suggested experimenting with the density ...termed birthrate... in the programme. There are definitely possibilities here.

This is different from my original idea where the dancer would fly...but I see possibility for that version too.
He has also showed me his development of motion graphic on the dancers arms...looking a lot like wings.

While discussing this Link also showed me two clips from vimeo tutor programmes. One is 'underwater particles float' which resembles clouds of fish and the other was this one above. Droplets. Both are connected to water and this has obvious links with my ideas. water, ice, snow etc. Link explained that the shell here is hidden till the end and I wondered if we could reverse this process thereby hiding the dancer. We agreed that this would be really exciting but probably unrealistic in the time left.
However, brilliantly Link has said he would want to work on this beyond the masters show so even if it can not be included there will be a future place for it.

archive animation

Yesterday I visited Karl at the McLaren Archive in Stirling. I wanted to check in with him on how plans are going for the centenary in 2014 and to let him know how I am getting on with filming etc.
It has been in my mind to animate some of the archive material from my research and placement and Sharon has suggested I should try to find a place for it within the final film. The discussion with Karl was about which pieces might be available and where and when I would be able to use these. We have come up with a good plan... and I will be working on this over the next two weeks along with all the other aspects of my film.

Such a shame he did not get a chance to visit us!

prep for animation

I have been looking at the swan and how it will look...I have a good amount of images to compare now so am continuously working at how to put these into animation within my film. I am really enjoying the traditional 2D animation technique and although I have also experimented with charcoal and pastel in direct methods, I will probably not use this method but stick to 2d frame by frame. It is hugely time consuming but I like the control it means I have over the final effect. Since I will have to use the transparent animation paper for this I have been exploring ways to get the effect I am looking for. I had a session booked to see this done but all the computers and scanners were between our old and new studios so I was faced with a choice...either wait or try to work it out myself. So I chose the latter. I really had to work on reversing all the colour in my predominantly white swan. I started with the original drawing I did in pastel and inverted it in photoshop. This produced a rather lovely image but with a lot of blue.

                                                     




                                                                                                           

 












 I then looked at the drawing below...a later pastel sketch...and have had a go at drawing it again on animation paper to see how the pastel would look. I then merged the style of this drawing with the first image from my swan animation but drew it all in reverse colouring, highlighting in black pastel and sketching the outline also in black. The beak in black and face lighter. I was quite excited taking it to scan...only the scanner was behaving badly!! Technical intervention and some time later I scanned and then inverted the sketch in photoshop. I paid a lot of attention to the detail of the head and I am pleased with the result. It will be a lot of days and nights work to get this to become animation but I am looking forward to seeing it.

second swan pastel

                                                       swan sketch on animation paper

                                                             swan sketch inverted

Filming

The last few weeks have been taken up filming again...another session with Mya this time in the Dundee Rep Theatre (with great lighting)...and more recently Leila in the dance studio at Dundee Rep with 2 lights on stands.( She left for Germany on Monday). Both sessions provided very different results. The theatre space was great to work in and I felt very at home here reminding me of creating work for stage. I used a different camera here but one I know really well. There seemed to be a little problem with focus and I could not adjust this camera cleanly so left it on automatic focus which meant it was sometimes a little fuzzy however I like the result and think it will really work with the animation. There is an abstract quality to it which is emotive even tho not perfect. It seems ironic, having worked so hard to have perfection...in camera technique and lighting...to find the most emotive piece is the one which has faults. Why should that surprise me? Life is not perfect and we feel numbed at times by perfection...it can be a little boring!


 But as write I am reminded that when I performed as a dancer, the moments the audience appeared to be moved most were when, because I knew the dance piece so well, I could let my self...spirit...whatever you want to call it...go, and release something beyond the technical into the performance. This is the quality I know Nuryev achieved...an otherness which really moved audiences.( although he was also the most technically perfect dancer!!) So in a way it does not surprise me that the most emotive film is one which I shot very instinctively.

I talked to a few people about this. One suggested that the big powerful cameras create very clean lines...maybe too perfect?Another raised the possibility that I was no longer thinking about the camera and just reacting more naturally. Whatever the reasons, I like this piece best out of all my films.
These are a few rough stills as the film is still a final cut project!!

The footage with Leila is to record her movements. I am not sure this will find its way into my final film, but I was always drawn to her dance style most when drawing at Scottish Dance Theatre class. I was pleased that for this session the film process happened so much faster. Finding and booking space, procuring camera and lights, organising timetable for the dancer, then running through the material to film.


Staging where in the space to work and film. Rigging lighting and setting up camera. All this went really smoothly and we managed to film some great clips. Leila responded brilliantly to the themes I set her and I will use the footage to practice edit and effects. When the degree show is over I will send her an edit of the footage with her dancing.

cut clip edit

I arranged a tutorial session with Nilla who as a lecturer in Time Based Art but who also has dance background and understanding of what I am attempting here. I meet her in the edit room and we discuss our projects. She is working on some film footsge too of a performance she did some time ago. we talk a little about filming performance as record versus as art form.

She helps through some problems I have encountered and shows me how to find filters she though t might be useful. I amtrying to get a slightly more abstract look on some clips so we look at the luma key. I certainly see great possibility and will try it out on some of my footage. By now I ma making copious notes on all I am learning.
Both Malcolm and Nilla have also talked me through some of the shortcuts on the keyboard but in the end I choose to do it the long way round!!