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.