I just hope this comes to London…
The London MOMA closed in 1999 so I hope that there will be another venue or the BFI hosts a UK version of Tim Burton’s current Exhibition that is running at MOMA in New York.
(link to an unofficial website that shows London MOMA’s exhibitions – it has a terrible design but shows some interesting images that I remember viewing back in the early 90′s!)
click to view Tim Burton Interactive for MOMA Exhibition.
Interview:
‘Step into Tim Burton’s MOMA exhibition, courtesy of Big Spaceship.
Big Spaceship created this website for Tim Burton’s retrospective at the MOMA. The site offers a peek at Burton’s work throughout the various stages of his career as well as behind-the-scenes footage on how the exhibit came together.’
(quote and link from Creativity-online.com)
The Last of Its Kind
Posted by Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Film
MOMA inside/out page featuring Jenny He, MOMA’s curatorial Assistant talking about the exhibition and the time she went to Tim Burton’s London Studio to discuss his images to show in the exhibition (also shows an image of his studio!) (click the title to see the full story)
Click here tofind downloads, forums and news from the Tim Burton Collective website: Tim Burton Collection website
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Interactive Media Project
A PHP based interactive text game is the brief and the other option is to create a customised wordpress theme (on your own hosting site).
This blog is a customised blog so that part has been done – would like to create more changes which I will do at some point but the PHP text game and video are taking up all my time at present.
Where the initial idea came from. (php game)
A stencil that I added to a laundry bin kept catching my eye – it was never completed as there are two other parts to the stencil (click here to see old stencil) – but I kept seeing a landscape… then pictured some little bugs crawling over the ‘sprouts’ – this then reminded me of another dream I had many years ago of one legged bugs that only walked in circles meaning that they never went anywhere and no mouths meant they died… not a very successful tale of evolution.
3D game sketches & images
Another Class involved 3D max and I wanted to utilise both classes to create this game – see this blog post which shows the Animated landscape pan.
I had wanted to add the 3D bug animation into this game but I doubt this will be possible for two reasons:
1) my bootcamp on my iMac doesn’t work so I was only able to create a simple pan through the alien landscape (see previous blog post).
2) I seem to be incapable of basic PHP and database management – I did manage to get the database working but for some reason it has stopped!
I can manage basic html/css and flash script but I think I’ll be drawing the line at that point (for now that is)
I’m like a dog with a bone … I can’t seem to give up but yet I still get no where (*sob*)
Luckily I had wanted to set up a blog for my own website in order to show personal, study and work projects without having to re-do the main website pages and a blog seemed an easy way to achieve this and as I had already started this process it didn’t take long to ‘complete’ this assignment (*cough* ??!)
The WordPress files were downloaded and then uploaded to my own hosting server – this involved creating a database for WordPress to use.
Once installed I then manipulated a theme found free online (I didn’t have time to learn how to create a theme from scratch – a project I still plan to do for the 3rd term of year 2).
Plugins used: (I have used others but these are not currently in use on this particular blog)
Smooth scroll Plug in
- Add a footer link “Back to top” which will bring visitors to top area of your blog.
- Add special Smooth scrolling effect to such links
- You can add your own smooth scrolling links in your page
Page Links To
This plugin allows you to make a WordPress page or post link to a URL of your choosing, instead of its WordPress page or post URL. It also will redirect people who go to the old (or “normal”) URL to the new one you’ve chosen.
Blog Protector
Protect your valuable blog content as well as images from getting copied.
Cleaner WordPress Gallery Plugin
- Creates valid XHTML.
- Uses the image that you specify. It doesn’t just resize your very large images.
- Let’s you control the display of your images through CSS.
- Adds support for multiple Lightbox-type scripts.
jQuery Colourbox
When adding an image to a post or page, usually a thumbnail is inserted and linked to the image in original size.
All images in posts and pages can be displayed in a layer when the thumbnail is clicked.
I’m in the process of using WP Hive on a blog that I created over the Christmas Break and I’m hoping that I will be able to add this blog so that I can update each blog from one dashboard.
Related Reading:
Linear Media – Video Project
A Project that has not gone to plan and I’m rather disappointed with.
Eyeballs on string: A love story!
(working title)
DRAFT: Proposal:
The narrative for this video is about how loss affects a person and how the world still continues to move forward, sometimes leaving the person behind or lost.
I wanted to add an abstract quality as many people find watching films like this too painful but when a whimsical element is added, then the fact that it is slightly removed from reality makes it easier to watch.
The general storyline is that a young couple in love and happy together are walking around a park or cityscape with people behind them who are in a similar state of mind – all is well and the day is sunny and the sky is blue. The focus is mostly on this one couple and they laugh and look at each other.
Everyone is holding balloons – which is a metaphor for their souls/spirits (which ever term you want to use) which are always attached to us.
When one of the couple has taken ill/dies (which is not seen… only that the couple is now no more and something tragic has happened) this leaves the lone person with the lone balloon. The rest of the world continues only the bereaved partner’s world has come to a stop.
This person goes through the stages of loss and becomes depressed, they wonder alone and aimless, they eventually fall to the ground in despair. The others still bob along either unaware or ignoring the pain this lone eyeball suffers (perhaps they too only like to interfere with easier types of pain and can choose to ignore the greater types as they don’t know what to do?). Their balloon is released and floats off into the sky, and when the camera falls back to the ground the space where the person was lying is now empty. It is not known what has happened to them… have they transcended societies constraints and judgments (ie: fake sincerity, having to grieve a certain way within a set time), or have they committed suicide to join their partner or are they just missing and no one knows where or even cares?
(The eyeballs on string look like balloons and balloons tend to pop once they reach a certain point due to air pressure so does the eyeball know that it will pop?)
Where the initial idea came from.
I created a sketch some time ago of two eyeballs attached together with string. I then had a dream where these forms were grouped with others and they all floated uniformly around their space; Similar to the usual social grouping perhaps, with couples and families and then one of the balloons popped… it’s partner (and eyeballs do tend to come in pairs and lose the depth of field when vision is lost in it’s partner!) cries and then loses focus, drifting to the ground and floats aimlessly amongst the strings of the other eyeballs that carry-on regardless. Eventually the balloon/eyeball floats off up to the sky and I was left wondering on it’s means of escape. I scribbled the notes of my dream down and it’s been sat on a post-it note until this film… shame I haven’t done it justice but it really needs to be a flash animation and perhaps with better planning. (practice is needed and more research!)
Eyeballs on String Screenprint
storyboard:
storyboard
Animation or Live Action?
I would have liked to create this as an animation but due to my lack of drawing skills and time frame I decided to try live action coupled with basic animation using Final Cut Pro. I did consider making the eyeballs in Papier-mâché, which would have enabled me to film them with more control against a green screen.
Problems of Real Life People!
After finding a suitable couple to film we found that the only time to actually shoot was in a small timeframe and we had to do it locally. I knew that I wanted greenery and skyline in the video so a local park was chosen. (A thank you to Emily Wilson and Alex Newton for volunteering – you can find their blog here: HandMadeHandsome).
Unfortunately, the park was fairly empty as I had wanted more people milling around to signify the fact that the world continues even when a person feels that the world has stopped and lost its meaning to them. So I do feel that this aspect has now been lost from the initial proposal.
I am also unused to ‘directing’ people and I do not like to ‘put people out’ so when I came to editing the film and the change in context with no other people in the background I found it difficult to edit with these new changed in mind.
I missed taking a shot of the couple’s faces close up and the poor quality of the camcorder means that zooming in post filming is a poor option.
What would I do next time.
Work with another person and a better camcorder! This project was supposed to be group work but I had no group to work with. The only other person had already developed his ideas and I had mine – it’s difficult for people to just drop their projects and help somebody else with theirs.
I find that coming up with ideas is easy but trying to articulate them to others or even to get them down on to paper proves to be extremely difficult let alone then trying to form this into a video type platform. (but this is also why I’m on this course to try to learn how to combat these issues!)
A better quality camcorder/video would have helped, as when I tried to zoom in via Final Cut Pro the images became pixellated. This also caused issues with adding filters; instead of clear line art/posterising of the couple the imagery came out messy and not quite clean and clear as I wished so the line art/posterising had to be removed.
Other issues:
Trying to make the eyes and balloons match up in a way that aided the narrative of the storyline was incredibly tedious and they did not blend the way that I wanted.
I then tried importing the sequence into photoshop but this was not helpful in the timeframe that I had left.
Missing parts:
The balloons at the very beginning where the couple are getting closer and closer to the camera should show the eyes on the balloons slowly forming and opening; this acts as an introduction to the balloons being the souls of the couple. I also tried to blend the balloon/eye sequence into the couples close up faces in another segment, which is not very successful but wanted to re-enforce the notion of the balloon/eyes and the couple being connected.
As the quality was poor I found that I kept having to re-do the eye placements and style so that in the end I ran out of time. A segment of the balloon/eye animation is missing and the eyes are not suppose to be randomly floating around like butterflies (even if it does make me laugh!).
Also the segment where the balloon/eye/soul is shocked to be without its partner and becomes frantic then goes through the typical stages of grief, it’s suppose to then calm down and float aimlessly until finally becoming depressed. I found that the ‘frantic’ part is not manic enough and that it then jumps to calm in an instant. This is not what is I intended. Again this was to do with time and losing patience with the project.
Techniques used:
Green screening (chroma key) – I used green card with cut-out holes for the shooting of the eyes in various ‘moods’ and looking in different directions then in Final Cut Pro I used the chroma filter to make the eyes float on the layer above the balloon sequences – this wasn’t as clean as I liked and the edges seemed to move in each frame so I then exported these segments into single images which were then cleaned up in Photoshop – a total of 162 but only 136 were used – there was suppose to be more but as that took long enough I just re-used the previous eye sequences.
other techniques used: Frame by frame animation of eyes onto Balloon sequences, also re-scaling individual frames to zoom in and out for dramatic effects.
Cropping of frames in-order to remove a balloon so that the main balloon/character is viewed on their own – this meant that a sky sequence was needed on the layer below so that there were no ‘holes’ in the frame.
Colour/exposure had to be adjusted to try to blend the skies together. This worked on some sequences but not successful on each – plus the pixelisations became more apparent if the only way to get more sky was to zoom in. I did later shoot more sky footage but the quality and lighting was too different to incorporate into the film.
Still images of skies were used in the titles and these were animated by panning and zooming into the image using the motion settings.
The titles text were created in Final Cut Pro using the scrolling text option which is rather basic. I would have liked to redo these titles and credits but as the eyes / balloons have taken too long this idea was abandoned.
Overall I think this project was a disaster! It’s messy and the time it took just to place the eyeballs on to the balloons took forever and yet they are still jumpy and do not blend right. The Audio (created by Andrew Wilson) was just pinned on as I ran out of time and patience!
well… This is the video itself:
outtakes:
CD cover: I made a double sleeved CD cover – one for the playable DVD and one for the Quicktime .mov files as requested in the brief. A CD label with the same front images was attached to both CD’s and also a label to specify the DVD/Quicktime options.
CD cover for DVD - shows front image, back info and quicktime or DVD options (two layered CD sleeve)
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Project Proposal for Term 3 (year 2)
In the first term of the second year we had to prepare a project proposal which will be created in the last term of year 2.
I decided I wanted to create a stop motion animation using a puppet that I had started to create.
This first puppet was rather awful so as I was now serious in creating an animation with this puppet I decided to remake the whole thing using a ball & socket jointed armature.
I’ve been keeping a blog on the process which will eventually be attached to it’s own website – click Clara’s Animated World to visit my blog.
As Clara thinks she is a live (!?!) she has also started her own blog which you can find here: Clara’s Blog
How Digital Media can aid self-expression
Integrative Project Proposal by Lenny Carter
Introduction
In using Digital Media as a means of self-expression will raise awareness of how a person can bring their dreams and personal thoughts into reality. This can be educational as well as a possible aid to personal development. The process of creating such work can create skills that could be used in the future, for example: better job prospects and career choices. This could also bring a greater self-awareness towards personal goals, and desires.
Whilst Digital Media cannot itself solve the issue of stress or self-fulfillment of dreams etc, but it can be used as a tool, just like pens, paints and music can help towards stress relief and this has become much more accessible to people since Digital software and computer equipment has become less expensive especially to the young or who have limited budgets.
Aims
The project will consist of a stop motion animated film that features a young teenager character that shows how she escapes from her problems (or the attempt to understand and reconcile the effects of them) by using a personal item (a toy that becomes her friend and mentor) by dreaming imaginative scenarios. The characters will be seen in ‘real life’ and a partial sequence of her dream sequence. It will also have the main character re-create this dream world using digital media. The viewer of the animation will see the character teach her-self new skills, and could then try the same techniques themselves. The results of the animated film created by the character can be posted onto a social website, like youtube.com, Facebook, MySpace or flickr etc.
This project is educational in the development of new skills of Digital Media tools and also interplays with Art Therapy. John Harley and Kelly McWilliam’s book, Story Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World, write about how ‘people are taught to use digital media to create short audio-video stories, usually about their own lives. The idea is that this puts the universal human delight in narrative and self-expression into the hands of everyone’, again regardless of budget and skills this is a possibility in today’s technological environment.
Cheaper computers or using computer at libraries (for free) means that creating self-expression art works with digital media is now available to a lot of people. Most computers now come with a web camera, and software can be downloaded for free (especially open source software, i.e.: Gimp is a well known free alternative to Adobe PhotoShop Photo Editing Suite).
Objectives and Research Methodology
- Storyboarding of animated sequence.
- Primary Research and secondary research will feature questionnaires on Facebook to the general public and a poll on Deviant Arts aimed at similar types of self-expressionist work using Digital Media software and equipment. Relevant books and Magazines on the subject will also be researched.
- Research of costs of making an animated film (free versions of software, equipment etc) analysing and researching the techniques of stop motion and animation, including timing and to convincingly move a wired armature, building props and sets, sound techniques, storyboarding, and how to create mood and atmosphere with software and positioning of props and lights etc.
- Website Design – Platform creation for Animated Film. The site will contain links to useful sites that will aid viewers to make their own animated, alternative realities themselves and to stress the importance of accessibility and that this type of project can be created in the viewers home – specialist equipment or skills is not necessarily needed to create their own self-expressed ideas in animation.
- Art therapy similar organisations on how self-expression can deal with stress and personal development? Also to research similar websites that use Art therapy to aid self expression in the creative arts and to whether there are any current sites that cover these areas using stop motion animation.
Resources for Project
This project will be completed in a home environment using an iMac, Digital SLR (entry level), or Camcorder (depending on research and software used), and the website will stress the aspect.
The film will feature a homemade stop motion character that is glued and sewn (It will contain a wired body and the main character will feature a ball and socket joined doll (these are now within the amateurs budget – the wired version is the cheapest and more accessible type to use for those on a very limited budget), both options will be used and information given on ease of use.
Software which will either be PhotoShop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, SoundBooth, and a stop motion software package (i.e.: iStopMotionPro), PC or Mac.
Free options will be featured on the website so that viewers to the site can see that stop motion is accessible to the young and those who do not have the funds to explore what used to be a specialist or professionals hobby. Free options to include are Gimp (similar to Photoshop), Audacity (sound), and Window’s moviemaker or iMovie on a Mac.
just baked face on the scanner.
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3D Max class
These images are form a class on 3D Max… I had some issues with my iMac’s bootcamp so I was unable to use this software at home which I am gutted about… hopefully my Brother will be able to fix the problem so I can try this software again!
The idea for this peice was to have a pan across the landscape and either mist or plumes of smog are coming from the ‘sprouts’ (the weird long things!) and then streams of bugs come popping out.. cascading to the ground and most of them only have one leg… but sometimes (evolution?) a two legged variety pops out.. these ones are capable of traveling distances which means they can create nests in other sprouts.. the more likely two legged bugs are born if they are successful.
3D Max Landscape
I was going to use this scenario for a php text game that we have to do for another assignment but because I couldn’t use the software at home and I’m totally rubbish at PHP (not a surprise.. it’s something new they added to the course!) so this piece never got finished.
These images are were created in class:
Liquid pouring into bowl:
Pool Table – tutorial in class:
3D Max Pool Table
Robot
I didn’t create the character for this one – it’s just a practice of moving the neck, head, and eyes – followed class tutorial.
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