motion|sound

Another example of mixing rotoscoping and live-action, especially as it relates to daydreaming.

© Watch the Sun Come Up by Example

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♥ md

I wrote an article in Verso (YSDN Design Annual) last year about how juxtaposing two images, or an image with text can create different meanings. Our brains work hard to make sense of what we read, hear and watch so designers and film makers have to be very careful with the placement of various elements on a page, or within a timeline. This short interview with Hitchcock likewise talks about how juxtaposing pieces of film together can create different situations based on our brains need to link them together. We can’t really see the girl in the bikini and a close-up of Hitchcock’s face as two separate and disconnected pieces of film, because our brains reason that tey were placed together for a reason, so they must be connected. This leads us to imagine Hitchcock as a “dirty old man”.

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♥ md

Finally finished! (although I plan to revisit this and fix it up at a later date)

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My idea for this piece centered around the spontaneity of daydreams, and monotony of a scheduled routine. The idea of monotony seemed very relevant considering the project was to be based on a loop; although there are many exceptions, a loop by nature suggests the repetition of the same thing over and over again.

My biggest fixation is dreaming. I’m an avid dreamer, and i found that the contrast between the routine of my normal schedule and the exciting & unexpected breaks that come when i begin to daydream was good material to talk about in this project. On a larger sense, I wanted to talk about the importance of dreaming, especially to fellow creatives. We usually come up with our best ideas while asleep, and so it’s a shame that we’re not really taught how to dream, or how to make the most of our dreams.

The various shades of grey used in my rotoscoping helped to keep the loop consistent, and also provided greater contrast when the colourful drawings were added on top. I chose to begin the loop with seemingly “boring”, yet indescript sounds so the viewer could experience the emotion, without being told what is literally happening in the frame. A happier melody accompanies the playful drawings in the second part of the loop which i thinks works well to give the viewer a sense of easy-goingness.

Although I’ve had copious amounts of trouble with practically every stage of this project, i’m fairly happy with the way it turned out…especially the rotoscoped movie. I think the pride i feel when looking at the raw rotoscoped file is well worth the effort it took to produce it (in retrospect of course!)

more about “Project 3, Loop » Dreaming is Better“, posted with vodpod

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♥ md

Take On Me — A-ha
This was always one of my favourite songs/videos, even before we watched it in class. I love the combination of rotoscoped imagery and video. I found that it does a really great job of establishing eyeline, keeping continuity and breaking the axis from time to time.  In the shots where the man and woman are string at each other in the coffee shop (through the comic book), their eyes are always lined up when the camera switches between them. Also during the mirror scene, the guy is always on the right, whereas the girl is on the left, and eventhough the camera does move around them, it stays on the same side of the 180º axis. During the chase sequence, the runners all travel from the right side of the screen to the left, keeping the motion fluid. As well, as the woman is running home she keeps a constant speed and runs from the right side to the left side of the screen, thereby making the transition between running out of the coffee shop to running into her bedroom hardly noticeable. Considering how much planning went into everyshot, it still comes across as effortless and fun, and that makes me appreciate the video even more.

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Meshes of the Afternoon — Maya Deren
I really liked how the film played with the idea of a loop, but something changed each time. I planned to do something like this with my loop, where i’d be walking down a hallway and something would change each time. Using layering, i would be able to walk down the hallway with many instances of myself to add more dimension to the basic loop.

Although originally a silent film, the sound added to the emotion of the film and did not distract, or take away from what was happening on screen.
For many nights after i watched this, i kept dreaming about Mirror-Face

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The Girl from Moush — Garine Torossien
I felt the use of layering and looping worked really well in this piece to convey a sense of emotion. The soundtrack also worked well. The fluidity and colours were reminiscient of dancing which is of great importance in the Middle East. Being from the Middle East myself, a lot of the imagery and sound effects (especially about 1 minute in) brought back a lot of memories. The rich blues and purples that Garine used conflict with the traditional imagery of what one associates with that part of the world, but i think that helps to remove some of the familiarity of the scenes and instead focus on experiencing what is happening on screen with a sense of wonderment.

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She Puppet — Awesh
I didn’t really deel like this film was so effective as the narration consisted of many different voices, so instead of tying the voice to “Lara Croft”, it just seemed like outside narration. Also, i think our generation, having grown up on video games, was more concerned with the actual game footage than trying to link it to what was happening in the narration.

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♥ md

Unfortunately i didn’t get to rotoscope everything that i wanted due to lack of time. I only managed to get through 200 of the potential 657 frames, but as the project calls for a loop, I will still be able to put something together. I have kept all my printed frames because i still want to come back to it and rotoscope the whole thing. It’s a lot of work, but i think the outcome of rotoscoping by hand is really neat!

more about “rotoscoping test (sneak peak) on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

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♥ md

My idea for the fixation / loop project, my idea centered around my two conflicting personalities, specifically my dreamer and obsessive / organized personalities. With Elaine’s help, I shot a bunch of quick shorts on my ipod (all the cameras were signed out) and put them together in FinalCut Express, then exported the result as stills at 10 fps.

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After isolating the looped elements, I printed the remaining 657 images. I then began the long and laborious process of tracing each frame. I had to use the photo studio as a giant light table, but after about a few hours, i had drawn 32 frames. I’ve probably killed so many trees in the process of printing and rotoscoping my images, that i may go do some planting after i finish third year. Anyway, while rescanning in my images, the paper got crumpled around the bottom, but i didn’t bother rescanning since it was just a motion test. I actually ended up liking the result, so i may try to do something like that for the final video.

I’m kind of excited for the finished piece, but i’m also regretting all the time it’s going to take me, especially considering all the other projects i have due.

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♥ md