APD - Week 3

Theme 

Play & Time

Context

OK GO – End Love music video https://youtu.be/V2fpgpanZAw was my first initial thought when reading about the theme. (how they play with stop motion and the sunrise / sunset sequences) Playing with stop motion, along with some animation that acts as a ‘shadow’ that lags a few frames behind avert my focus to a short animation made by Satoshi Kon:

Ohayo – Satoshi Kon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYUFBnAmK28

These gestures of subjects (/objects) leaving traces behind reminds me of the painting that Marcel Duchamp once used during his exploration with Cubism. In particular, the painting Nude Descending the Staircase (No. 2). With an almost abstract figure, the nude, the lines represent the trails that it leaves while it moves, as described in the title, down the stairs. 

These ideas led me to the animation SiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSi (2011) by Juan Camilo González https://vimeo.com/31942602

Method

Take photos while jumping to make the illusion of walking on air. Then imported photos using After effects to create stop motion, and TvPaint to create animation for the shadow or traces of the shoes, that goes along with the music beat that I made using LaunchPad App in iPad.

Response

Watching a lot of OK GO large music video projects, I decided to create a stop motion video that includes photographing my legs jumping to create the illusion of walking in the air. While I was compiling the photos to make a short video, I was reminded by the late Satoshi Kon’s work, a short animation called Ohayo and also Pablo’s project when he did AIM.

Fascinated by the idea of the shadow lagging behind, it reminded me of Duchamp’s work for Nude Descending the Staircase (No. 2). Instead of trying to create an exact shadow of the subjects, I did a hand drawn animation on top of the frames, while also filled in the gaps to create a more fluid animation.

While editing the video, however, I thought it would also be fun to try playing with some music and beats, and I went to Launchpad app on iPad to create my own beats and decided to try combining these shadow lags to the beat of the music.

Reflection

I had a lot of fun while doing this project. Mostly because I managed to come across Juan Camilo González’s works.  SiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSi (2011) was an animation that I came across when researching about conveying motions through painting. The animation was made with hand drawn animated cycles on 4 sets of 11 pieces of paper. Every time the ‘main body’ moves, it leaves traces that are lagging a few frames behind following the movements of the subject. It became a mesmerising piece of animation cycle that’s hypnotic and down right terrifying with the background music that just suck you in and immersed you in the never-ending cycle of these ‘polite gestures’ that he’s conveying.

He dealt with this idea of creating motion through drawings, and his animations are just simply mesmerising with the play of his intense sound effects. When I work with my projects, sound is usually the last thing on my mind (in which I’d realized is not the best method on creating animations). However, I decided to tackle the idea of working with the music as a base. I’m quite pleased with the result of the stop motion / animation / video, as I think it conveys the sense of time through the timing of the beat and the shadow lag that follows the shoes behind.