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.