I am still working to flesh out the ideas i want to experiment with during the semester, but have a general idea of the themes i want to work with this semester. Across all of them, I'm trying to think of ways i can use after effects to expand my animation repertoire and broaden the subjects and themes i work under.
1: Over the summer, I've really become interested in the potential of silhouettes in time-based media, focusing on shadow puppetry in particular. It has a unique way of presenting the world and lends itself towards a variety of styles. From detailed environments with plenty of color to distinct black silhouettes, there are so many iterations and cultural representations of the art form i could pull inspirations from.
I've been also looking for interpretations of its principles in modern media, and have found it used for movies as well as interactive applications, such as this one...
Flash Game: The Little Wheel
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2: I took digital cinema last semester, and loved the different ways one can manipulate the camera to express one's unique point of view I would like to expand my work in digital cinema a bit further, merging live action sequences with animations i create myself. I have not fully developed this idea yet, but am really attracted to the idea of live action, 3d rendered objects, and 2d illustrations interacting seamlessly on screen.
This kind of expresses the ideas i have (0:01 - 1:33): Aporver teaser
I think i would really enjoy trying to figure out ways to use those elements in tandem to create some very rich, vivid, very "out-there" environments.
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3: For a long time i truly believed that 3-D was the end-all and beat-all of animation. It was not until a few years ago when I saw Kung Fu Panda (the intro sequence in particular) that I realized the potential of 2-D animation was far from tapped. After Effects presents plenty of opportunities to create 2D sequences that capture the imagination just as great as any traditionally done masterpiece. I would love to find a way to integrate flash animations with textures from photoshop into After Effects and really push what i have seen done in 2-D animation. I don't know yet what the subject matter of my actual animations would be, but maybe I can integrate elements from my other two ideas into this.
Kung Fu Panda Intro Sequence
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Screening Response:
It can be said that each film uses the standard cinematic techniques to guide the eye of the viewer to different focal points of a still image. Pans, zooms, and even computer-assisted tilts strengthen the ideas expressed. However, the films possess unique qualities that meet the needs of the differing subjects.
"In the Realms of the Unreal" brings illustrations to life by cutting up each illustration, adding a voice track, and animating the subjects inside to pull the viewer into the very heart and spirit of the event depicted. These living illustrations take that which is left to the imagination and enhance it by providing a more in-depth interpretation of that which is going on.
"The Kid Stays In the Picture", on the other hand, uses multiple images at once to portray a given experience. Sometimes these old photos are given "atmospheric enhancements", such as an overlay of a water reflection on an outdoor pool scene. The images here are appropriated snapshots of real events, manipulated to tell the story as it unfolds.
Ken Burns' "Jazz" Excels in taking a single snapshot, then focusing on the various elements of a single image to tell a complex, weaving story. The narrations do help, but the movie's true ability to tell a story lies in how the parts of a photo are framed up to express each given event. Emphasis is added in this way to always guide the viewer to know what is most important.
