FINAL EDIT pt3!

Fixed some misspelled words in the credits and the final transition.

FINAL EDIT pt2!

This is it. I fixed a few things that were bugging me and increased the contrast in the background which I think makes it pop a little better. I hope you enjoy!

Final Edit!

I need to fix the transition in the beginning and a there are a couple of popping frames, but other than that, this is it! I'm including some higher res stills since the compression took out all the detail of the background.

Two more edits

The following are the two edits of the leaves and dirt to become part of the set of three (in conjunction with the previous post regarding the water droplets on a pond)

The first one is the film created with dirt. I wanted to represent basic geometric shapes in some way, so I decided to only use the circle. The music was chosen because it has a very technological feel to it which fit with the style I was going for. It still needs some color correcting and editing, but that will be done when I import the high res footage.

This next video is a new edit using only the leaves. I decided to keep the primary shapes organic in nature and introduced elements that seem to grow. I like these much better than some of my previous attempts and if I had more time, or could find the time, I would like to reanimate some footage to incorporate more of these ideas. Once again, this needs to be color corrected. All three films are intended to have the same hue/saturation to the elements throughout the entire length of the (individual) film. 

I'm not sure what the title(s) should be. So any suggestions would be great!

new music, new direction

First attempt at breaking out of the unified direction of the last edit, to create three separate shorts to create the whole. This music reminded me of rain drops so I ran with that idea. The result a zen like mood with crude representations of fish and plant life.

Rough Edit with Music

Sorry, I didn't check to make sure it uploaded with the music. Here it is.

Lookdev, new footage, and rough edit to music

Since the last time I posted I have come up with several developments. I found two other materials to work with besides the leaves. Seeds and Dirt, which creates a nice color palette, since the dirt is kinda orange and the seeds are a purplish blue color.

The following stills are the intended look development for the film.

The following is all of the footage I have shot so far. I have a list of new animation to shoot, which will fill in the holes and/or replace some of the elements that are not working in the film.

Rough edit of the film set to music. There are some holes, and mistakes, but I'm working on it.

New Direction for Visuals Based on content of research / paper

After spending a couple of weeks working on my paper, I have decided to change the direction of my visuals.

My research is concerned with several Land Artists and their practices. One particular element in their work, is they stick to creating basic geometric shapes, lines and patterns. I have found through my research that these works are more successful than others at catching the viewers attention and challenging perceptions of nature. It is an interesting juxtaposition that I would like to employ through my visuals.

Here are a couple of examples of the works I am referring to.

I took one of my main cues from David Nash, with the circle, triangle, and square. I found by keeping it simple, it is more successful. Also, his work reminds me of one of my first assignments in graphic design; to take black squares and come up with 50 or so ways to illustrate those black squares. Seems limited at first, but the possibilities for creating interesting compositions are actually limitless.

Another example of artists using basic shapes:
Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy

With these basics in mind I decided to get rid of the cityscape, which changed the meaning of the film, also I ditched the sand for a more graphic approach to find more contrast. This white is easily keyable so I could replace the background with anything I want; Also, I found that it is much easier to animate on a flat surface. I am able to move things around without the loose sand limiting the movement, which was just frustrating. Also I went walking around the neighborhood in search of other materials. I found this plant around the corner with really small leaves, that were easy to mold into the shapes I wanted. I really like the effect of these shapes being formed from a reservoir of leaves.

Before I show you my test shots, I found this film on motionographer.com that is a montage of artists creating visuals form basic geometric shapes. I have been pulling a great deal of inspiration from this: I like the motion graphics approach to my animation, keeping things moving and playful (Playfulness is another key aspect that I have pulled from my research into these artists)

http://cargocollective.com/resonance - at time code: 2:50 and 7:30 are my two favorites.

And here are my test shots: I also changed the music to something more playful (Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra). However, this song is over 4 minutes long so I'm going to have to cut it down. The intro is just one leaf at the moment, but I would like to reshoot with several leaves (that come after the first single leaf) to create the pile that goes into the animation. The change in the music works well with this type of intro.

VERY VERY ROUGH EDIT - 1st pass at animation

This is my first edit after animation. I obviously need to fix a lot of things, like reanimate a couple of things or edit the timing on the current shots. I'm missing a few filler shots that I need to animate this weekend. Color correction is out of whack but I'll get to that when I re-import the high res stills. The camera move at the end is doing weird things and I still need to edit the end to be a little more smooth. I could keep going with the list of things to do. . . . . but here it is.

animatic - revision

For some reason the animatic below did not upload the ending of the film which is one of the most important parts I was trying to show. So here is another shot.

animatic

So, I decided to take this animation back indoors because the other method wasn't giving me the results I wanted. I also decided to simplify, using only two materials for my animation, stone and leaves.

For the end I revisited an old idea of building a city from nature and creating an integration. I'm still working on the details on that part but I am open to opinions and suggestions.

new footage from Memorial Day weekend

So I shot this on Sunday and Monday; some of it is redundant b/c I shot it more than once in a different location. There are things I think are fun and things I don't really like, like the brown leaves forming the squares. Definitely throwing that one out. Anyway, I have some new ideas that I am going to explore tonight and tomorrow through some rough storyboards, and maybe time it to music. I'll upload those as soon as they are done.

One of the biggest issues with shooting on location is that I get really tired from being in the sun all day and then it becomes hard to stay focused; also, it is kind of windy in Ca right now so anytime I need something to stay put, like leaves for instance, it is next to impossible to get things to move the way I want. So, I'm thinking about setting up a sandbox and lights on my kitchen table and shooting that way. I think this will give me more control. However, for any lower camera angles, I will be loosing the background of nature and I will no longer have the direct sunlight effect from being outside. So, these are a couple of problems that need to be addressed. I welcome any advice on this matter.

new footage

nature stop motion animation

some tests I did a while back. This is raw, unedited footage. I like this idea of not sitting behind a computer to get this done and now that I have such little time to do so. .I could feasibly shoot a new version of this in a weekend. Edit it the next and then write my paper and be done. What do you think?

The reason I did this test in the first place was because of the artists I am writing about in my paper. Andy Goldsworthy, Patrick Dougherty, David Nash. . . and so on; they all go out into nature, find materials within nature and make their art that way. Why shouldn't I do the same? Especially if that is what I enjoy. 

List of Transitions

I've compiled a list of ideas for transitions to get my mind going:

rebuild
disintegrate
integrate
morph
rotate
warp
break apart
blow away
wash away
fly away
melt
fog
light changes
growing
wilting
drying
raining
floating
lava
lightning
fire
shrink
expand
crackle
particles
scale
flicker
bend/squash
twirl
fur/grass/leaves
seeds blowing
wind
blooming
seeds falling
seeds growing
animated/morphing texture
insects
peeling

I feel like I should watch Planet Earth again. . .

new inspiration

I just found this today on motionographer. Thanks Viv for reminding me to check it more often.

Really cool, organic structures at the macro level. http://vimeo.com/19764519

And another one: http://motionographer.com/2011/02/08/mato-atom-for-wwf-we-are-all-connected/
The simplicity of this piece speaks volumes.

Really cool metal flowers: http://vimeo.com/16186874

And something else along the same lines: http://www.vimeo.com/16590264

Current animations

This is my current visual development of the film portion of my thesis. This only encompasses the first section of the textures I am transitioning between. It still needs a lot of animation and visual development tweaks. Esp in light of consistency and fixing some comping errors. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Inspirations

The following are few of my favorite short films; centered around nature as a subject matter. I'm very inspired by these. Enjoy them!

Lilium Urbanus
http://www.thejoji.com/liliumurbanus/

Nature By Numbers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA

Volgens de Vogels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzq_8MCk2M

Das Rad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT13GuPZHMA

The Third & the Seventh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGx4bBU9Qc

Sixes Last
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VkMHsN8SoI

The Fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=His5LyZE6vY

List of Textures for the short film

Initially, I came up with several lists of textures that I could find that were similar to each other and would be easily recognizable. The following are organized into sections by similarity or possible capability to form into similar patterns especially with regards to

(cracked, segmented)
1. leaf veins
2. cracked mud
3. tree bark/ burnt tree bark
4. stone wall
5. vine that creeps up the wall and naturally takes the same shapes
6. lava flow from a distance (always iffy about this one, so far I've left it out)
7. same for the structure of rivers from a distance, or water flow.

(layered)
8. layered stone/earth
9. shelf fungus (has very distinct layers in it)
10. rings from the cross section of a tree
11. fern curls, vine spirals

(central formation structures)
12. Lily pads
13. flowers
14. dandelion seed pod
15. aerial view of a city (esp at night)
16. tree branches (can also take on the shape of cracked, segmented textures above)
17. tree roots
18. the larger vein structure of a leaf.

I have many lists of other materials in nature, but I didn't quite find a place to fit them in. I also want to make it clear that I am not focusing on the mathematical equations, like the fibonacci sequence, that ultimately drive the patterns and structure in nature (though it did cross my mind) especiall after seeing this film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA.  (though I did like the song used and will prob end up using it) I am more interested in the design and creating something beautiful and interesting to watch.

Summary

An investigation of nature inspired work. 

Summary:

For the research component of my thesis I have investigated land and environmental art, also known as earthworks. Artists from this movement include Robert Smithson, best known for his Spiral Jetty located in the Great Salt Lake, Utah; and Richard Long who created his work through the act of walking and rearranging stones into recognizable shapes. Michael Heizer, best known for “Double Negative”, created a large scale land sculpture in the Nevada desert, where two large trenches were dug using explosives and a bulldozer. The scale is so massive it can be seen from space.

More contemporary land artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, create their work within the landscape using only materials found within the vicinity to construct well designed, and in most cases, ephemeral sculptures. His only means of documentation is to use a camera before the work is reclaimed by nature. Goldsworthy uses all types of materials, from snow and ice, to pure earth, rocks, leaves, twigs, and water to name a few. The challenge is learning the properties of each material and what its capabilities. Another contemporary artist, Patrick Dougherty, is also presented with the challenge of learning the properties of his medium, however his primary materials are saplings and twigs that he finds within thick underbrush to create large scale structures. They too are integrated into the landscape and are ephemeral usually lasting a year or two before they naturally fall apart.

The key element these artists have in common is their desire to play with nature and let the natural elements create the work. The artist has simply become an enabler of the materials, allowing the work to become what it can only naturally be.

In order to complete the requirements for my visual component of my thesis, I am presented with a challenge of irony that cannot be overlooked: I am going to create an interpretation of these artists’ processes in the form of a computer generated animated film.

Through the development process I have gone through several ideas and thrown them out only to come full circle and find I liked the original idea better. At this point I am taking the work of these artists to a new level and examining the structure of patterns in nature and how they relate to each other. I have come up with a series of textures I am interested in, for example, the vein structure of a leaf. It is very similar to the pattern created as mud drys and cracks. Ironically this is also similar to the crevices created in a man-made wall built with irregularly shaped stones. And now I have come full circle and found a connection to my fascination with man’s tendency to mimic the patterns of nature in our structures. In doing so I have more or less bridged the gap in my thesis and found the legitimacy behind using computer generated imagery to convey my research and fascination with patterns in nature.

Furthermore, I have taken a rough list of patterns I’m interested in, picked some music and started animating. I have found that my outlined ideas for creating transitions from one pattern to the next have not necessarily been ideal; therefore I have been changing them on the fly. Through this process I have realized that this may end up being the best way to create the film, making it an experimental film. It has no definite end in mind, but as I continue the work, I know it will continue to evolve. In this process I am keeping true to the tendency of my favorite earthworks artists who go into nature and play with the materials at hand to create the work. By implementing this process within computer generated graphics I am able to convey concepts not possible within a completely natural, and somewhat limited environment.