Animations (6)

Typewriter1

‘Injuries of Time’ trailer

 

Typewriter 1 was designed as an introduction to the animated visuals I had been working on but has yet to be added to any. The feedback I had received on the test animations was positive but it also made me aware that I had only been using imagery in my animations, when my printed narrative was also half text. The short typewriter video was an attempt to add something directly from the story, so logically, if I was treating the main animation as a trailer or teaser for the book, then the text used should be from the start of the book. There is no typewriter used or mentioned in the story but the use of one in this manner is a popular technique in films and television that represents storytelling and authors, journalism and is also a visual link to the past by the use of an outmoded piece of equipment. The piece was created quickly in InDesign, by simply typing out one letter (plus the spaces) at a time, and taking an uneven screenshot each time. Finally, I added the sound effect of an old typewriter to complete the illusion. 

 

Though it was not my intention at the start of this module to work on so many animation tests, the results are proof of how enjoyable it was to do so and it seemed only right that I should exceed the brief by making a what I thought of as a trailer for the work and hopefully for whatever is produced in the next module. To this end, I decided to use only images from the narrative, but allowed myself to use the numerous overlay effects in Photoshop that I had tested in the last module. The process used to create the final video involved the gradual layering of more and more images and textures in Photoshop, again taking screenshots, but this time being even less careful about the size and placement of the crop. This meant that the images in the video would be even more warped and would jump about. I knew that this video would be longer than the others and took it as an opportunity to experiment more and push what I was doing. Having between ten and twenty images (plus overlay effects) to mix together and repeat gave me a pretty broad canvas, though I tried to create mini loops within the main body where just one or two images were the hero. They might not be immediately obvious to the casual observer, but I was designing the piece to be a continual loop, with figures popping up throughout, changing shape, becoming inverted, distorted or blending in with each other.  Thanks to the effects t my disposal many of the images became abstract, but moved by so fast (at 8.5 frames per second) that the distortions were as much a part of the narrative as the images of the people (hopefully fitting for a narrative about versions of the world).

The key to not making it too fast paced or nauseating was to take screenshots that had continuity to the frame after and the frame before. I broke this rule more than once when I thought I was repeating myself too much, but generally there is a flow throughout that stops the piece from being too murky but still a good visual representation of memories and the past.

An early version of the trailer also featured the 'I hadn't seen my friend in a long time' text, this time incorporated into the imagery. This time it was not as successful, due to the pace of the images it was mixed in with and the even more jumpy nature of the frames and it was hard to follow the text properly. I will still try to bring in a text element to future versions but here it would have disrupted the flow of the loop too much had I started to alter the pace for the sake of a few seconds of type.

The final component was the music. The choice of soundtrack can radically alter the accompanying visuals in any number of ways, but for this animation, I did not want to have too many competing elements, and wanted something sympathetic. The music I chose for this version was a loop of the opening bars of 'Piano Mouth' by S. Maharba. I could have chosen any one his tracks as he specialises in dusty crackly loops, warped samples and old vocals that are the aural equivalent of found photography (to add to the vintage feel, the only physical format he releases his music on is cassette). I chose the opening of this track as it has a warped, failing sound to it that perfectly mirrors the distorted visuals, and reinforces the idea that these are images from the past, which have been lost or left to deteriorate. I would have loved to make a video for the entire track but have no idea how long it would take to produce a five minute piece or if the idea could be sustained for that long. In the case of his trailer the sound and video have been designed to loop back round seamlessly so that the piece can be viewed as part of the CGP hand in and critique.  Depending on the outcomes of the final module, I would ideally like to make a piece of music of my own and cut the video to the music or vice versa.

Animations (5)

Decay1

Decay 2

Decay 3

Decay 4

 

The four ‘decay’ videos utilized images created as part of the tests for the Developing Graphic Practice. The images were originally a series of variations, with the same image altered by different layers and textures in Photoshop. As a quick method of capturing the results, these images were all screen captures and were not captured with any regularity to the size of the image. This turned out to be hugely beneficial to the animations that I then created in Hue – none of the images were cropped in exactly the same way and as a result, the resulting moving image jumps around slightly.

This influence is most effective in ‘decay 2’ and ‘decay 3’ which resembled old or damaged film footage and feature more distortions and warping than ‘decay 1’ and ‘decay 4’. At certain points the main image disappears into the texture altogether, a technique that I would later use to great effect in the final ‘trailer’ video.

‘Decay 4’ is perhaps the least effective of the four but created an interesting visual that I had not intended – the overexposed whiteness of many of the frames creates a flashing effect that is slightly off-putting but at the same time resembles flashes of lightning that go well with the image of the tree.

 

Animations (4)

4x1  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3IE8Snf5k

09.02.16 3 - https://youtu.be/9jhTSi_ZYLk

09.02.16 - https://youtu.be/Pahpa7iB7xA

Tony c - https://youtu.be/ToDqt0DHf-M

 

Having discovered that I could import files into Hue (as well as using the camera to capture them), I went back to the files that I had used to create the ‘fade’ tests. With these animations the pace changed completely – in ‘4x1’, ‘tony c’ and ’09.02.16 3’, the people in the images rapidly fade in and out and the lines that form them seem much more alive.

’09.02.16’ is far more successful at this speed as the images fly by (especially when the video is placed on a repeating loop) at such a speed that the loop does not seem as short as it actually is. One of the ideas that came up as part of the workshop was the amount of information that the eye / brain can take in at any time, which I tried to explore here by increasing the number of frames per second. The video also has a kind of manic energy to it – while I liked playing the images in the ‘fade’ tests as slowly as I could, there was also something very appealing about this barrage of information, an energy that was different to some of the other tests.

Animations (3)

Mark002

Rip1

 

‘Mark 002’ was an animation created by hand during the animation workshop with Molly Okell. I had planned to create an animation using photographs of textures but as soon as I began ripping up images I just went with the flow of what I was doing. There is no obvious logic to the animation but the process that created it was quite instinctive and I found working this way very rewarding. As I have noted elsewhere, the Hue software we were introduced to was basic but we were able to get to grips with it immediately and produce results in the space of half a day. The workshop also introduced me to ideas of pacing and frame rate that would dictate the speed of the experiments that followed, as well as the use of rough framing that would become a vital part of my ‘trailer’ for my narrative (see later post).

‘Rip1’ was created at home with my own copy of the Hue software. It’s a bit of silly fun that suffers from poor lighting but is further proof that an idea can be produced quickly and that working with the physical objects will open up ideas that might not have been considered had the video been planned in any way.

Animations (2)

09.02.16x 4

Fadetest 2 Misc FX

Fadetest 6 pencil GS 2

Fadetest 6 pencil sketch

Fadetest 6 pencil sketch REV

 

 

 

‘09.02.16 x 4’ is one of a series of videos created while exploring the idea of animating photographs that had been transformed into illustrations. By applying the different effects in increasing or decreasing increments I was able to create an effect where the different figures emerge out of abstract shapes. They are still recognisable as people but I was interested in testing the speed at which the forms emerged, as it related to ideas of time and the age of the subject and photos.

‘Fade test 4 Art 1’ was a version of the first fade tests but with the illustrative effect added which is not shown here as the file would not export correctly to a movie. The version with the backgrounds is the more successful this time around as the effect renders the backgrounds more alike and creates different marks to those seen in the actual photos.

‘Fade test 2 Misc FX’ is a similar experiment but with a series of different effects applied to the same pair of images. The end result isn’t always subtle, but when certain effects are placed in the right order and one of the people in the photos ‘vanishes’, the animation achieves the effect I was aiming for.

The three ‘Fade test 6 pencil’ tests were a deliberate effort to create something as slow and subtle as possible. I was now thinking of how one of these animations might be shown in an exhibition setting and how to capture the attention of the viewer. If they viewer thought they were looking at a static image but then looked back and saw that something might have changed then they might be more likely to watch the barely perceptible changes. I also wanted to do something that was the complete opposite of almost every visual stimulus in the modern world, something that tested the attention and forced the viewer to watch something differently.  Again, these tests were inspired by ideas around aging, change, memory and perception.

The last two pencil test animations focused on transforming the images from actual photographs to illustrations (or vice versa) – from reality to fiction if you will. The ghost-like effects created as people’s features fade away would later appear in a version of the printed narrative.

 

Animations (1)

Please click on the links below to view the videos at Vimeo:

Fade test 2

Fade test 3 backgrounds

NOTE: At the time of writing, there appears to be an issue with the fade effect on these videos. New links will be posted when this has been fixed.

These ‘animations’ were initiated in PowerPoint, as at some point I had noticed that among the mostly cheesy ‘transition’ effects there was a ‘fade’ option. Following on from the failure of the polaroid tests, I still wanted to try and create a moving visual of some description that featured images fading in and out of the page and / or each other, to represent people fading from memory and the way that memories often blur together and are less than reliable. Using PowerPoint for this was probably not what it was intended for, but it allowed me the degree of control over the images and their movement that I needed and did not involve any steep learning curves that I normally experience with learning new software.

With ‘Fade test 2’ I chose to have two images side by side, so that one would fade out but start to appear in the frame opposite, potentially creating new or random associations and narratives. The video is designed to loop back around and continue on.

‘Fade test 3 backgrounds’ is the same set of images but with rough backgrounds added to attempt to distract / overload the viewer and further explore ideas memories and context. I don’t think this version is that successful, mainly due to the inconsistency of the background images. A better result might have been achieved if I had restricted the extra imagery to something simpler such as photo corners or variations of the same page.

Polaroid timelapse tests

Click here to view Polaroid timelapse test #1: 'Forwards' version

Click here to view Polaroid timelapse test #2: 'Backwards' version

These two short videos were an attempt to create a timelapse video of a polaroid image developing. As I was using modern Impossible film, the development would take 30-40 minutes and I thought it would be visually interesting to try and record the process of an image coming into being, and then potentially alter this 'narrative' digitally.

The tests weren't a complete failure but were not without their problems. my first issue came with taking a still shot of each of the two Polaroids at regular intervals as they developed. My inability to do this led to an uneven series of images, with one of the polaroids coming out so dark in every image that the series was unusable without adjusting the the contrast in for every one in Photoshop.
The next problem presented itself when I took the successful images into Photoshop and tried to create a consistent crop of each image. In the 'forwards' version, with the image cropped to show the Polaroid as an object rather than an image, the frame jumps around a little and detracts from the overall effect.

Following this attempt, I used a closer crop and just focussed on the image itself. This time I reversed the flow of images to make the subject 'disappear' - I think this result is slightly more successful, as with the loss of the white frame, the physical 'shift' created by the inconsistent cropping almost becomes an effect itself. The closer crop, however, only seeks to highlight the differences between each version of the image.

If I was to repeat this experiment, I would try and film the development of the Polaroid rather than capture a progression of still images. This would allow me to capture the entire process and still allow me to edit it down after to create a condensed version, either by speeding up the film, or experimenting with the frame rate. Hopefully this would create a more consistent outcome. The downside of all of the videos shown here to date is that they were created in iMovie, which fine for testing, but I look forward to testing ideas in Premiere.

Journey to college video #4

Click on this link to view the video in high quality on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/147736304

This fourth version of the 'journey to college' narrative was created in response to feedback from the first group crit. It was suggested that the sudden change in narrative (going away from the college) could be matched to a change in the music, and that the music could build up to that point.
With this in mind, I added an edited version of Breton's '15 Minutes' to the video. The normal version of the track runs to 4m08 seconds with a moment 2m45 seconds in where the track explodes. Working backwards, I edited the track so that the first of the post-collage images coincided with this change in tempo.
The build up to this moment is perhaps not as mellow or subdued as I would have liked, and the track now just fades in at the start of the video, but the effect of the music and the change of pace in both the visual and the music makes for a great effect.
The build up to the 'explosion' features minimal use of the Ken Burns effect, and a fairly slow pace; after the change this comes into play as the images come thick and fast, and the 'camera' pans down and across the images. By this stage I was becoming more confident at using the effect and even in this rough edit, feel there is a dynamic momentum present.
As I now had a longer piece of music, I added more images and this time added different takes of the same scene, which also added something extra to the narrative. The three shots of the horse were a happy accident but serve as a basic form of animation that could be extended and further experimented with in future iterations. I feel that the Ken Burns effect could be more consistent but each time I go back to this version, I find new mini-sequences within the overall structure that have their own rhythm, which coincided with the attempts to create new narratives out of existing visuals that I was exploring elsewhere in this module.
Finally, in retrospect, this version would benefit from having the contrast / vintage tone on just the images in the build up section, which would then change to the bright colours of the new images which were added to this version, and enhance the overall change in tone.

Journey to college video #3 - upbeat version

Click to view on Vimeo: Journey to college #3 - upbeat version

While the first two videos were fine, I also felt that they were limited by their length and limited amount of visuals, so during the attempt to make a third narrative, I also decided to expand the range of visuals.
Hoping to create an upbeat, moderately paced version I recalled that one of my favourite pieces of music to listen to on the way to or from college was Professor Longhair's 'Go To The Mardi Gras' from 1959, a great piece of New Orleans carnival music, and one that never fails to put a smile on my face.
I liked it so much in fact, that when the 12 images were done, I wanted to add more and changed
the story accordingly, to one where I walked to college but at the last moment decided to go for a walk around town instead, and the new version of the narrative shows the places I went, and the things I saw.
There was a brief gap at the start of the recording and rather than edit this from the track, I decided
to add a very rough countdown effect so that the visuals and the music kicked in at the same time. Having added this 'vintage' visual cue, I began to add a grainy film effect to each still and upped the exposure as well, created a slightly aged, washed out effect. Even if the listener is not familiar with the piece of music, it sounds old and authentic and adapting the imagery to match this seemed to be a logical step, even if said visuals where full of contemporary objects.
The track has an intro and a break (about 30 seconds in) and I matched these changes in rhythm to the tempo of the visuals to try and create a more consistent result. Given more time, I would happily expand this version beyond the first 30 seconds of the track, but the relatively fast tempo had already used up a number of photos from my personal archive.
With this new, wider range of visuals, the narrative felt more complete and expansive and also (vaguely) resembled the still images from the opening credits to HBO's 'Treme', which I had already looked at in my research, and was also the show that had introduced me to the Professor Longhair track and the Ken Burns effect before I knew what it was called.

Link to Treme opening credits on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaFD4S00mc

Journey to college - additional thoughts

While editing the different variations of the journey to college videos, I also considered other methods for capturing different versions of the 'narrative'.
What if, instead of taking a photo at every corner, I took a photo every minute, or just took pictures of everyone I met along the way (whether they like it or not)? What if I created some kind of typology instead and simply captured images of cars, cats, estate agent signs, road signs or graffiti?
All of these would create a different narrative and beyond that, if they were shown to people without any context or introduction, what would each story be, and how much would I be relying on there viewers interpretation of events?

Journey to college video #2 - slow version

Click here to view on Vimeo: Journey to college #2 - slow version

Following on from the 'fast version',  I attempted a 'slow' version, to represent a narrative where I left home with enough time to not be rushing and could therefore be a little more relaxed or contemplative. Still wanting to utilise a piece of my own music, I found that the soundtrack for this piece was more 'sad' than anything (an problem I have always encountered when trying to make slow or subtle pieces of music) and two of the responses I had to this version were that it was either building up to something unfortunate at the end of the journey or that it was similar to a sequence from a film or TV show that featured some kind of murder or crime.
Either way, the pace was slowed down and the narrative and tone were altered, though the images remained the same. The fact that the camera lingers on them for longer gives the viewer the chance to contemplate what has happened (or whichever tense they assign to the story), while the music sets the tone in the absence of any narrator. The slight movement in each image (created by the Ken Burns effect) is also well suited to the pace of this version.
While the four versions of this video are all accompanied by music, I would like to return to the idea at some point and add a voiceover of some kind (in the style of Patrick Keiller's London and Robinson In Space), and some field recordings of the background noise at  each point where a photo is taken.

Two clips from London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgHBACzfkI

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

Journey college video #1 - fast version

Click here to view the video on Vimeo: Journey To College - fast version

This is the first in a series of videos made at the start of the research period. The idea began with me photographing my journey from college to home - a fairly short journey and therefore one that would create a fairly simple narrative. To limit the number of images I took, I decided to stop and photograph the scene in front of me at every sharp turn along the way, which left me with 12 still images.
Having put these into a sequential narrative on paper, I wanted to experiment with sound as well as a 'moving' image. Music is an important part of my walk to and from college and can improve my mood and shape the journey. Sometimes I leave with just enough time to get there, but would feel rushed and so I chose a fast paced piece of music (of my own creation) to accompany this first test, which I will refer to as the 'fast' version.
Matching the pace of the images to the music resulted in a very short video. It was not meant to match the reality of the journey in any way, but at the same time, the images pass by too fast, as would any surroundings when a hurried journey is being made.

Welcome to Dungeness

Click here to view on Vimeo: Welcome To Dungeness

(The first 10 seconds are intentionally soundless...)

The ‘Welcome To Dungeness’ video was created in response to a two day project brief based around a trip to Dungeness. Given a day of preparation a week before the trip itself, our group (myself, Ellie Curtis, Jamie Spink, Rebecca Morris and Toby Hudson) decided that we would take a humourous approach and try to create something that was either a spoof family holiday or a guide to Dungeness as if it we were rebranding it as a cool new seaside holiday destination.

While we did not plan every last detail, there was a discussion of the tone of the piece – or how we would like it to be at least – and how we might go about achieving this. Once we had settled on the concept, we listed the locations that we might use on the day (power station, pub, shacks, boats and so on) and tried to think of other ways of portraying the area, such as wildlife, attractions and locals.

It was also decided that we would try and incorporate sound into the finished product, as one of the team had access to a portable recording device that could be used to capture field recordings. Sadly, the sound of the wind drowned out most of these and it was quickly decided that 5 minutes of distorted wind as a soundtrack might be a bit much (though one small recording survives at the start of the video). During planning, we had talked about using a piece of existing music associated with the seaside or holidays, but somehow degrading it to match the general run down feeling of Dungeness.

In the end, we found that Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ worked perfectly with the visuals and on the second day of the project (back at college) Jamie was able to work on the sound while the rest of the team worked on other aspects. It was a shame that the field recordings didn’t come out, but I don’t think the final outcome would have been half as impressive without the gradually degrading music played over the top (and timed to change slightly with each image / slide).

Knowing how the music would sound, we tested a couple of slides with some quickly written, ironic captions and then proceeded to select 20-30 images that would work as a sarcastic or ironic tourist guide to Dungeness. We had been able to consciously do some of these on the day (the sunbathing, the beachfront properties) but the majority were improvised on the day in the hope that they would work when we put it all together the following day. The blank sign and ‘Dungeness catchphrase’ were late additions at the end of the trip, when we thought we were done but by that point I had begun to look at everything as an opportunity to mock or undermine the area in some way, at least for comedy value. We had thought to use a boat as a location but it wasn’t until we got there that Ellie wisely suggested it should be an advert for a boat party. Other lucky finds were a football, an intact beer bottle, some bones and something with wheels that we could pretend was a Segway. Full credit to everyone for willing to be stupid on camera as well. I think once we got into it, we knew we had something good and this just spurred us on further. I hadn’t been sure how we would get a good photo of some ‘locals’ but as soon as I saw three of our classmates in the distance and got them to wave, I knew we had the ‘friendly locals’ page, with the added bonus being that they would be watching the slideshow later on.

Back at college the following day, the slideshow began to structure itself as we thought about which images would work as an introduction and then what the hierarchy of information would be: housing, facilities, attractions and so on. A few ideas for thrown out along the way simply because they did not fit and we worked as a group to choose the right words for each image and achieve the maximum impact.

Choosing a typeface for the captions was initially a problem until we found a version of ‘Cooper’ that looked suitably naff and added to the overall cheapness of the guide. We looked at the Pontins logo for colour inspiration and found the yellow with pink outlines to be suitably cheesy. Just to hammer home that Dungeness had a power station, we added our own radioactive glow to the type.

Despite having spent all day with the images and Cliff Richard, we still found it funny and hoped from that that everyone else would.

Creating a purely cynical narrative might have been too easy and probably less entertaining. Five minutes of Cliff Richard was probably also pushing it a bit but we got away with it as the images were well paced and consistently amusing. The music itself is so well known that Jamie’s broken version of it subverted any associations that people might have had, in the same way that the images and captions in the slideshow subverted each other and the idea of a seaside holiday.

While this was ultimately a silly, light hearted spoof, it was great to play around with images and their meanings and how these can be altered by the addition of words and tone. Most of the video is far from subtle but we were able to create a narrative from the images we took – and the places we found ourselves – that was a combination of planning and good fortune.

I had not planned to create anything like this for my main project but enjoyed the process and the results so much that some of my initial visual narrative experiments took a similar form. Hopefully these will be ongoing throughout the course of this year and will appear here to form their own narrative.