This lecture was about drawing and After Effects and there was many videos that were shown to us to show what we could do with drawing and After Effects. Personally, my most familiar way of working is physically and I especially enjoy drawing so this lecture instantly grabbed my attention.
Dryden Goodwin: Skill was the first example we were shown that really interested me. I like the fact the conversation between the people and the drawings are so heavily personal to each other and also illustrate the conversation so well by just capturing the essence of someone's appearance or an item that is involved in the conversation. It couldn't be reflected any better by using a different material. The looseness allowed it to be openly interpreted as well as move with the conversation.
Dryden Goodwin: Skill (2014) from Forma Arts on Vimeo.
I love this style of drawing and even composed a sketch of my own in his style to try and grasp this loose and incredibly textured way of drawing.
I really like the way the pen is used to allow the face to come alive with expression and I also like the way the video is composed.
The second video we were shown was by Johnny Kelly and it is called Forest: Just one day.
This was also all hand drawn, like Goodwin's pieces.
Forest: Just One Day from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.
I like the hand-made look of this video and how it reflects the music so well. I feel like the video brings a whole new element and experience to the song. It looks very minimal but probably takes a lot of work to do and is executed beautifully. The shapes and objects on this paper-looking background move to the tone of the music and what the song is doing. This simplistic style also works well with the simple tune over the back of the song that is played almost throughout. I like the style this is drawn in and the way it flows together also.
The next video we watched was Flow by Jane Cheadle. This video was recorded within her own studio which makes it a personal experience.
flow from jane cheadle on Vimeo .
This video is basically an experiment with materials alongside music which is what the previous video did but this is done in a very different way which appears to use stop motion, and uses it well. It is amazing how the white lines appear to circulate on this black circle along to the music. This is a very textured and ambiguous piece and is incredibly beautiful although looks very complex. I like the way the circle appears to be animated although it is only a series of pictures. It is a very dramatic piece in black and white.
The next video that I found very interesting was Little Boy by Jordan Baseman.
Little Boy from Animate Projects on Vimeo.
This video is deliberately difficult to watch and has an incredibly powerful extract of an interview that introduces it. Watching this video is a highly intense experience of noise and colour which could be interpreted in a number of ways. The powerful thing is, although you want to stop watching it, it is still making you feel emotion and reflect on the short speech about 'the flash' at the beginning. Out of context, you would wonder what this meant and why it is so distressing. Within context. it is even more powerful. This piece is about the disaster in Hiroshima in 1945. The chilling thing about explaining the bombing as 'the Darkness' is almost what the rest of the video is expressing. This unknown and powerful darkness that was probably so intense and terrifying that it can be reflected through a disturbing collection of sounds and ambiguous images that appear on the screen. Ms Setsuko Enya recalled the devastating memory of the Hiroshima tragedy and this is how Jordan Baseman interpreted it.
We then looked at a music video created by Drew Tyndell that was called General Elekriks: Angle Boogie.
General Elektriks: Angle Boogie from Drew Tyndell on Vimeo.
This is a very handmade and energetic piece that looks like it was made quickly and loosely but it was actually made through a process called Rotoscoping which is an incredibly time consuming, frame by frame process. However, this creates an entirely different illusion of it being created quickly and with a lot of energy. This is a clever way of creating animation.
We then looked at more of Tydell's work and the series of 'Loop' videos he made which use a similar process and have a very similar style and energy. This ones called Loop 4:
Loop 4 from Drew Tyndell on Vimeo.
He has made several of these videos and they look effective played one after another
My Mother's Coat was the next video we watched which was made by 'Moth' and is a highly emotive animation.
My Mother's Coat from Moth on Vimeo.
This again is a very loose and reductive style of working which tells a story. which is very rich in emotion, through very little lines and symbols to represent what was being said in the poem. The sullen tone of the poem compliments the style of the animation. It then switches to photograph and real film of the author and the child that the poem is addressed to which makes it more emotive and is really the opposite to the incredibly minimal style that was before. Its important that the artist has interpreted the poem themselves before creating this piece which makes it personal to the artist and reflects what they feel about the poem, adding another level of depth and emotion to the animation.
The final video we were shown was Le Meurtre teaser by Tom Haugomat and Bruno Mangyoku.
LE MEURTRE teaser from tom haugomat & bruno mangyoku on Vimeo.
This another reductive piece of work but uses more block colour as well as using negative space effectively. Although its colourful and simple style, it is very dramatic.
Overall, this lecture was very interesting and it demonstrated to me the different ways to use after effects and different ways to incorporate physical drawing into animation. I am very interested in doing this in my work.
