APD 2021 Week 2

Theme: Play & Objects

Video link: https://vimeo.com/523164762 

Context:

  The theme of this week is the connection between play and objects. In the class, I saw many cases about objects around our daily lives, such as toys or musical instruments, which made me think about whether I can also use toys to do some creation. Because most of the cases in the classroom are made into stop-motion animation, if I want some different works, I should try to create in a new direction. After looking for many related works, I thought that it would be an interesting work to connect the real object with the two-dimensional scene.

Method:

  The first step in completing this work is to shoot a video and make the scene two-dimensional. Because the work needs a medium to connect real objects with 2D scenes, I chose a camera color changing lens as the medium. The camera motion of the scene is set by moving the color change lens in the video, and then the two scenes are merged through post production in AE. Then, a sphere motion is added to the two-dimensional scene to make the lens follow the sphere. The reason of the last step is to make the video more interesting. Finally, I select sound effects and background music to complete the work.

Response:

  In terms of the design of the scene, I want to create a scene regard to looking at the world from a child's perspective, so the scene with toys that children come into contact with every day is the most suitable. In fact, the pictures I shot are like the world in the eyes of adults, which is  often real and objective. On the contrary, children's thoughts tend to be more imaginative. If children look at one place, can they imagine another picture, which is more fantastic than reality? With this doubt, I have designed a special two-dimensional scene that only composed of some simple geometric figures and lines, irregularly painted with various colors. In this process, I refer to the paintings of Caitlin Forster as the reference of two-dimensional scenes, because some of his painting use Trompe I'Oeil so that his works are simple but not boring, with a certain rhythm. In addition, I also refer to some opening credits of ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ as the basis of two-dimensional scene drawing.

Reflection:

  The final product is a short video, which I think is an interesting experiment, showing the same scene from two perspectives. After the completion of this work, I have a better understanding of Trompe I'Oeil, but also increased the proficiency of post production.

References:

Burch, H., (2016). Free painting: 84 skills for illustrators. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House.