Synopsis for Assignment 2

After looking at Oscar Fischinger, I was inspired to do a completely abstract piece. I filmed ink spills on paper to create organic forms. At first, I was going to make a juxtaposition between organic and mechanical forms, but after making the ink spill videos, I felt that the mechanical part would take away from the organic. Instead, I wanted to play with color and layering making the beginning fairly calm and black and white and the end highly layered and highly saturated. I wanted to create an uneasy feeling, so I made the audio very odd by layering parts, of different songs I made, on top of each other. Overall, I wanted to create a piece that was somewhat mesmerizing and slightly disturbing at the same time.

Synopsis for Assignment 1

With this project, I was trying to make the viewer feel as if they were experiencing a short journey through these surreal, dreamlike landscapes. I used a slow pan across photographs for aesthetic qualities and to create the illusion that the viewer is looking around. The main inspiration for this project was the places I visit in my dreams. The places are never average places, they are usually completely made up or combinations of several places in one. This inspired me to combine parts of different photographs of different places and make them a landscape that seems like it is possible to move through.

To Do List for Final Project

* Lock down videos

* Take scenes into AE and use puppet tool, panning, zoom, and layering of pictures and videos.

* Take edited scenes back into Final Cut to make final edit combining scenes.

Final Ideas for Animation

I dont feel the need to make a storyboard since my animation will be purely abstract. I have a main idea of how to express the warping of reality and the dream world together. I plan on making reality full of hard edges, straight lines, mechanical movements, right angles, and desaturated color and making things appear somewhat how they should be, while making the dream world more organic shapes and movements, curved, saturated colors, and making things oppose gravity and perspective. I plan on cutting these together randomly to create the idea of confusing dream and reality. I also plan on making the "real world" grow more mechanical and making the "dream world" more organic as time progresses, eventually making the two extreme opposites. I want to make these two contrast so much by the end to the point where it easy to distinguish between them.

Assignment 8 write-up

I have completed my letter based animation. I used a line from a poem I wrote. It says, "I bleed frail dreams from the moon's skin, the kind that burn out like stars." I feel like my animation is too cluttered and too busy. I wish I had simplified things down more and I also wish I would have incorporated the photo of the moon more with the text.

Final Idea

A person becomes confused between what is reality and what is a dream. At first the two worlds will seem similar but as time progresses they grow more and more different until it is obvious which is which. After it becomes obvious the person realizes when they are dreaming and takes control of their dream, therefor experiencing a lucid dream. I plan on using mostly photographs to accomplish this.

Essay

Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger was born in 1900 and died in 1967. He started out pursuing a career in music and studying mathematical harmonic theory before age 14. He was unable to go to war, so he had to learn design and drafting. Not long after, he grew fond of abstract films and spent most of his life making them. He went on to win several awards for his work.
Fischinger was born in Gelnhausen, Germany on the summer solstice. Around 1920, Fischinger met a man named Dr. Bernhard Diebold, and showed him his abstract scroll sketches. When Diebold seen these he suggested that Fischinger should attempt to make abstract films. Not long after this, Fischinger quit his job and moved to Munich to pursue film making full time.
Fischinger's work started off very radical because he was trying to do something new and different than other abstract film makers. He used a lot of mandalas and circles to create hypnotic patterns which often went along with music. He used techniques and special effects that were fresh and before their time. He did conventional cartoons on the side which still had a radical quality, and did special effects for the movie Woman in the Moon in 1929. Soon after this he began to explore and experiment with the choreography of simple shapes. In 1935, his second color film Composition in Blue, won the King's prize at Brusslels World Fair, a foreign festival which he did not have permits for, so Paramount rushed him to Hollywood in 1936. There, he bought back rights to his film Allegretto, which is known as one of the most perfect pieces of visual music.
Fischinger's work is significant to our context because he was one of the pioneers of abstract film making and animation. He made interesting compositions and used smooth motion to create successful animations. He used layers of shapes and patterns to create hypnotic rhythms that often went along with music. All in all he showed a strong capability of handling his media.
I believe Oskar Fischinger was an interesting artist who was before his time. Many people used his techniques years after he began using them. He makes compelling work that puts me in a meditative state and has influenced me to make my animations and videos better.



LINKS

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5016650629572246228&q=Oscar+Fischinger&total=38&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Muntz-tv commercial

A Few Ideas for FINAL PROJECT

*A person's everyday issues in life are reflected in his or her dreams. Things that happen to the person are warnings and reminders.

*A person realizes that they are dreaming and takes control of his or her dream. This is called a lucid dream.

*Person becomes confused between what is reality and what is a dream.

*An artist or musician goes to sleep thinking about their artwork, and dreams about something new and creative. The person wakes up and remembers the creative thoughts and pursues it in reality.

Write Up

I have edited my animation and made it smoother. I took out the shadow figure and just made it a first person perspective. I think it is a big improvement from the last scenes and hopefully is more successful. I feel even more comfortable on After Effects now.

Notes

Write Up

I finished my rough version of my animation. I had a few problems at first, but I feel like I can use After Effects more comfortably now. I also feel like I can take a few of my scenes further to make them more interesting.

Revised Storyboard

Storyboard

Technical Review of 3 Videos

In the Realms of the Unreal used drawings, photographs, and real objects to create the story. They would zoom in out and pan across a photograph, to make the viewer feel more involved. They used multiple layers to animate the drawings, and they also combined drawings with real video in some parts. They paid close attention to transitions using fade ins and fade outs and other transition effects. They used overlays, collage, copying, tracing, and shadows. They combined all these effects to make a very interesting story by using mainly still images.
The Kid Stays in the Picture used a combination of mainly photgraphs and video clips. They would also zoom in on pictures and pan across them. They would do this slow or fast at times. They would cut out parts of pictures and paste them onto other backgrounds. These cut out pictures would then move foreward to create a foreground and background. They also used the blur effect to emphasize this at times. Sometimes they would cut the focal point out and rotate it slightly to make it seem more alive. They would use the brightness and darkness of clips to make a glistening effect. They would use several layers on top of one another playing with transparency and the direction each layer moves. They would make some parts of the pictures move like water glistening. They also used fade ins and fade outs to make everything dissolve together. They placed with the saturation and contrast of the layers in photographs to emphasize things. They also used flares and lighting effects to make things like sunlight and smoke move across the photo. They used shadows behind things, and made the shadows move as it appears that the camera is getting closer.
Ken Burns used pretty much all photographs. He would make them shake slightly to create an old film effect. He also used fade-ins and fade-outs between scenes. He would zoom in on the photographs and pan across them to make it feel like the viewer is moving through the photographs.

Proposal

I have chosen my topic to be dreams and the blur between dreams and reality. I realize that this is a very broad subject so I plan on breaking it down into sub-categories. These categories are ordinary dreams, lucid dreams, telepathic dreams, premonitory dreams, and nightmares. Ordinary dreams resemble waking life the most. Lucid dreams are where the dreamer has control, telepathic dreams are when the dreamer makes contact with the dead in the dream world. Premonitory dreams sometimes reveal the future. Nightmares are frightening dreams that are usually warnings to the dreamer.
I have chosen this topic because I have always been interested in dreams in general and my dreams. It is also interesting how we don't know many facts about dreams. I believe there are lots of directions I could go with the topic of dreams.

Write Up

My animation is done using photographs. I tried to show the randomness of dreams. I made one frame regular color and then the next inverted. Then, I made a frame in between the two that overlapped the regular and inverted. I think I am getting a little better with photoshop.

Contrasting Metaphors part 4 of Homework

In Class Freewrite

Are you dreaming or are you in reality? Where is your spirit when your sleeping? Several places combined into one familiar dream place that you have never been to in reality. Ever drove somewhere and all of a sudden your there and you don't even remember driving because you were dreaming? Can you dream while your awake? Why do nightmares have positive meanings? How do dreams feel so real, how do you smell and taste and hear? Dreams about death, dreams that you are dead. Dreams of people who died. Dreams of teeth falling out. They conceal words. Are you in control? Can you move? Are your dreams beautifully boring? Are you surrounded by nothing or everything? Lucid dreaming. Theres a fucking witch on your chest. Are you falling? Mental disorder. Remember details from dreams log them...

Metaphors Part 3 of Homework