Friday 27 November 2009

Animating examples: Techniques I would like to practice on

In this post I will be researching and collating graphics and animated image techniques/Styles I would like to potentially achieve with my own material....[for practice purpose, identifying and developing my own visual research]... This is in its early stages so far.. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Cm7-puXA8&feature=related



I will be adding links to tutorials that I intend to practice via using my material I will be generating...



http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/    [just a possible video tutoring space I may use - to be further researched]

Artist research: Pia Borg - Animator


RCA - Pia's practice brief:
My films collage a synthesis of stop-motion, animated found objects, photos, mirrors and puppets with live action into non-linear fairytale narratives. Often drawing inspiration from arcane inventions, automatons, and the early special effects of cinema and theatre.


Palimpsest, Pia Borg, Film still

Friday 20 November 2009

Influence & inspiration: World cinema



International Award Winning Film 'Memories of Matsuko' 

I watched this a couple of days back and thoroughly enjoyed it. This film is brilliant in in so many ways. I hadn't planned to watch TV at the viewing time but I caught a glimpse for a few minutes of interest and I was completely indulging from there on.

It was the 'visuals' that got and kept my attention throughout the film. The film language very fascinating and eclectic. Amazing cinematography, editing, animation and sets... The narrative was very captive, thought provocative, quite fragmented and non-sequential in system of story revelation. It brings together many interests I have tried to explore throughout my research practice on course here at UEL. It tackles and explores issues such as identity, alienation, hardship, survival, love, confidence, moral importance, communication as well as languages in different forms of translation within the film and to the audience. It also questions fortune, choice and repercussion exhaling imaginative notions throughout the context.


 To view movie trailer: 

Synopsis:

The story begins with Sho cleaning out the remaining belongings of his recently deceased aunt Matsuko. Sho gradually learns many details of his aunt's life, and it is through his investigations that the audience learns the story of Matsuko's past.

In the early 1970s, Matsuko was a popular school teacher. However, when one of her students (Ryu) committed a theft, and Matsuko took the blame for him, this had terrible consequences for her life.

The film also reveals some details of Matsuko's earlier life, including troubled childhood, when she struggled to gain the attention of her father. Matsuko's father's affection was mostly dominated by her chronically ill sister, which created an imbalanced rivalry where Matsuko's needs were less likely to be met.

Matsuko's relationships with men were generally troubled as well. She moved from relationship to relationship with men who gave her some inkling of affection, though it was often accompanied by abuse. She often found herself abandoned by the men she loved, who couldn't cope with her neediness. She continued to pursue her dreams of perfect love, even as her life spiraled down, and she found herself working as a prostitute, and even imprisoned.

When Matsuko met later in life with Ryu, whom she saved from the charges relating to his theft, she found that he held affection and admiration for her. She saw in him another chance for true love. But Ryu, by this time, was deeply entrenched in a criminal life. He decided that it would be best for him to disappear from her life, to protect her from the risks of life with a gangster. This final abandonment was disastrous for Matsuko, who never knew to what extent she impacted the lives of the men who loved her.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Animation piece: Drawing Motion '09

This is an animation piece composed and drawn through a combination of media and idea through a generation of visual and audio research, recording and creative reflection:
stop motion/cel animation/ cel layering - photography & video stills, digital painting, pencil & pen sketching on paper.

Also captured and stored through my new video media profile via 'Vimeo':

"Drawing Motion" Experimental Generation from Johnny Wilson on Vimeo.

Experimental Generation - A 30 [or so....] animation piece that continues to evolve through drawing. The visual and audio language continues to provoke an idea that unfolds impressionable emotion.



Saturday 24 October 2009

Practice: Photo montage

Here is a short photo montage I sequenced in Final cut Pro. I started out just to take a snap or two of my young nephew. I realised I like the light I was getting from the close-up shots, so I continued snapping for a very short episode. The pictures give quite a nice intimacy I feel. I have developed A few still images from one or two. Although maybe there is still more I should do with this sequence.
Note: I have an Idea to re-sketch the images creating another series of new 'translated' images. Then, where I see clashing motion from the original sequence I should re-invent new filler (bridging) images that would in turn be informed from the intended new image translation. This would also extend the length of work (which is very brief as it is)