Deeper Focus - FINAL compilation

Here it is! The final compilation of all of the works in the Deeper Focus series.

Final Experimental Composition from Thalia McWatt on Vimeo.

The final component of my piece was the sound design. I used audio files from Freesound.org to (hopefully) create a sense of time passing very slowly. I'm fairly happy with the end result and although I am doubtful that this project will become a major part of my Grad Film I enjoy it as a standalone piece of my work.

Deeper Focus - Oil Pastel Landscape

The final part of the experimental process was to get the landscape moving in the oil pastel medium.

In order to accomplish this I reserved a room for myself and set up a projector that connected to my laptop. I advanced my reference animation frame by frame and aimed the projector at a particular portion of the wall. I then set up a camera directly above the projector so that it was facing the same piece of wall. I set up lights on either side of the wall at (roughly) 45 degree angles. A layer or orange paper was taped down with a large acetate sheet taped over that.

The paper taped to the wall with oil pastel being applied.

The projection over the oil pastel layer.

I was originally using animation that was very light in colour but I found that I needed to re-render my reference animation so that all the blades of grass were high contast from each other. Leaving them yellow or green simply didn't work on the projector regardless of how much fiddling I did with the projector contrast levels.

Panorama of the workspace - 2 computers, 1 projector, 1 camera, etc.

The animation process itself was smooth but I will recommend that anyone trying a project-against-a-wall system should think carefully about how high they place their paper in relation to their height. I found that the paper was set up a bit too low for standing comfortably. 

Unfortunately I only managed to get 10 frames finished due to time constraints. Each frame took between 20 and 30 minutes to colour so the work was fairly tedious. I wish I had more time so that I could have finished the loop but at least this gives me an impression of how well this concept can be executed.

Pastel Grass from Thalia McWatt on Vimeo.







Deeper Focus - Board Revisions and Light Animation

So I decided that I wanted to take my work in a different direction for this piece. I've made a series of new boards and shot a new piece of animation to work with.

Storyboard Revisions from Youtube

The new boards aren't similar to what I had originally planned but I think the best thing about creative work is that your ideas can shift and change as you become inspired by particular parts of a project. I originally intended to represent both my grandfather and grandmother as characters but I limited my focus to just one character. There are also two strong themes emerging in my mind as being central to this piece - time and religion.

In the process of doing research for the Grad Film that I'm working on I've come across a few interesting cultural artifacts. One of the most interesting pieces was a gold icon/cross that my mother took with her when she left our religious extended family. I've been talking about animating with light for some time now so I thought that this would be a good opportunity.

Animating with the light was very difficult, and I think that's quickly evident by the way the light seems to 'pop' at the end of the cycle. I tried putting pieces of tape down on the floor to ensure the light was moving at an even pace around the object but I was unable to control for that factor on the far side of my setup. If I did this again I would either find a way to navigate around the object entirely, or composite two halves together after breaking up the initial shoot into 2 portions.

Cross from Thalia McWatt on Vimeo.







Deeper Focus - Oil Pastel Character Animation (Part 2)

Oil pastel character animation round 2!

I finally had a chance to animate an entire walk cycle using my character. My setup was similar to the first time that I tried but with a few key differences:

1. I expanded the size of the reference animation so that it would be easier to animate the details on the face.
     (helpful tip: don't print directly off of photoshop because it takes forever to load on the school printers)

2. Acquired a key for the shooting room. Locked doors means greater security for your work mid-shoot.

The animation process went well this time. The setup was mostly the same, with a glass pane separating the reference animation underneath and holding the acetate with the oil pastel layer on top. The most difficult part of the whole process was keeping the lighting consistent from frame to frame.

BABA Walks from Thalia McWatt on Vimeo.