Visualising the Oboe (Illusion of Life: Week 10 Practice)

Based on the quick sketch exercise I did with other students in Week 5, I wanted to test animating bulging shapes and elongated lines for the oboe, as I feel like it has a very long "lead up" and "fade off" to its sound quality.

This was my process:

1. Started with a simple bulging shape, but thought it was too rigid.
2. Tried handdrawing the bulginess every two frames, to give the movement a bit more fluidity. Quite liked this.
3. Turned it 90 degrees to see how it plays out vertically. Reminds me of whispery smoke.
4. Tried some variations with opacity in the background.
5. This last one might work better if it was an oboe duet.

I didn't have much time to work on oboe this week, so things felt a bit rushed. Given this, I thought the handdrawn fluid bulges worked better. Would've liked to refine the timing and scale of the piece a bit more if I had more time.

Stop: Stop rushing? Difficult to do given limited time and heavy workloads.

Start: Think more about scale and its relation to the loudness of the sound. Be more playful.

Keep: Keep experimenting.