The end

These last days I have worked a lot on the final sequence, I got to say that I encountered some difficulties during the ending phase due to some technical problems regarding my personal computer. As I have dealt with a previous problem like this, having deleted a lot of work from my animated video equals long hours spent staring at the computer screen and recreating frame by frame again. What have I learned so far? Always, but always backup your work, save a copy on every disk you have and make sure you follow your plan accordingly.
As a whole, I believe that this course gave me good insights about the animation industry, therefore I gained more skills and technical dexterity that pushes me forward in following this path, in other words, my aim is to continue working on my technical development and aesthetics. Hopefully I will come up with fresh and innovative concepts and visuals.

Project development last phase

Today I am working on the last part of the animation , the last two verses from the chosen poem which I found pretty challenging to animate. Having only one day left until the deadline, I feel a little worried when I comes to the ending of my animation. I believe that the latter can rather let the audience impressed or leave a question mark about the aesthetics. I will not choose the "to define is to limit" conclusion but one that communicate a surrealistic concept that leave space also for the imaginary.
Here is a screenshot of my workspace where I tried to produce an infinite door animation by using only the tools from after effects.

Good morning, life!

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Since everything is advertising, people tend to think in representational identities and standardized and materialistic concepts that have become our priorities. Here is an epic and rebellious critique of the culture we live in.

Learning

Some months ago a media tutor asked me what is an aspiration for an artist. At that time I didn't acknowledge this side of a person, the side of begin-progress-end  and the point hard slogging. When the courses had started to push us to a demanding  field, the one that includes animated video, my artistic curiosity   pumped up and lined my priorities in a manner that since then I have started to not only watch a piece of work by great animators but also perceive what a difference does it make within my personal stimulation regarding creativity. Hence I sort of received a mindful mind that nothing will take the place of persistence throughout the process of my work.

Creativity consumes us.Let it out and to something with it.

I have started to "consume" my ideas 4 days ago, therefore my animation project is going slowly but also surely. I worked on my techniques with masks manipulation and 3d camera mapping so now I can easily and pleasantly spend my time working hard on my project.

Inspire

Animation can have different forms, different vibes and rhythms. What is important is how you perceive it.

STOPCYCLE from ducroz on Vimeo.

Thought of You

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Thought of You LYRICAL CHOREOGRAPHY, GORGEOUS ANIMATION, AND A TALE OF LOVE AND LOSS FROM ANIMATOR RYAN WOODWARD.

 This mesmerizing animated short, which I called the most spellbinding short film of 2010, was born out of animator Ryan Woodward‘s fascination with the motion of the human body in dance and his nostalgic soft spot for the 2D animation styles of his childhood. The confluence of these two infatuations is the breathtakingly beautiful blend of figurative work, visual Fx, animation and choreography. The film embodies the cross-pollination of disciplines that is often at the root of the richest forms of creativity. Equal parts tender visual poetry about love and bold creative experiment in animation techniques, Thought of You is the kind of film that grabs you by the heartstrings with quiet visual simplicity and unfolds into incredible emotional range.


Here is the making-of:

  
Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.


Source material: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/03/13/thought-of-you/

Sounds

Sounds, emotions, and vibes for a better understanding of the real meaning, the one that I aim to exhibit through my animation:

Shine your little heart out!

When you finally realize that part of the reason you chose to do this, to work hard on a project, even if it was meant to be for everybody in your course of study, was to progress and change and not to success from the first try. Therefore, having to cope with a bad situation concerning my animation project which I had to have it finished at this moment, I came to the conclusion that there can be a plan B. As a result, after my computer crashed and all the work i have done so far is completely unrecovered, I took the 7 days extension which my uni allows me to have when you don't finish in time for the deadline your assignment. 
So, here we start again! On the good side, I am looking forward to creating something better than I did before, something fresh even if I am experiencing a real challenge here. I will keep you updated as soon I get back on track and manage to stop myself worrying about the bad consequences regarding the final mark :( .

I AM INSPIRED!

"A SHADOW OF BLUE" from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

"A touching story in which fantasy and reality merge to make dreams come true. How determining can reality be, and how can fantasy unleash an unexpected freedom? Can a fragile world of lights and shadows show us more than a silhouette drawn against the sunlight? A mixed-technique animated short film, by Director Carlos Lascano"



What happens to things when we aren't looking at them? They evolve, they follow a trajectory and become a shade of a shape, they follow you even if your consciousness does not pay any interest to be awake and sensible to the wonder of those invisible things. There is no existence without perception and hence, objects disappear and come  into beings again with more powerful manifestation. That is how the artist of the "A Shadow of Blue" animation has planned to expose. It is a touching and captivating story, made out of several techniques that altogether create 12 minutes of complete illusion . If you watch it, you will end up hoping that everything around us is a playing field. 

The first action to achieve results: start doing, stop thinking!

The proper time for putting my plan in action has arrived for me as well. Here is a screenshot of the intro part of my animation. I tried to keep it simple but effective. 
For the Title and credits I chose an online free font called DENNE SHUFFLE which caught my attention while I was surfing on the internet for inspiration. Hope it works with the intended animation as well.

Expressing the contemporary art through animation

      How to get the inspiration you new from the creative minds in our contemporary world:



Have you ever sensed that feeling of artistic pleasure when you get trapped in one's imaginary sphere of continuous expression through colours and surrealistic shapes? That is called animation in today's cultural society, the word that compresses the beauty of human mind with the surprising technique of showing the emotion within art. Two days ago, when i was stuck in one spot behind all the inspiration I received, when I could not find a motif behind my ability to create something for the animation course, I came across a superb spirit of an artist, Carlos Lascano that has been surprising my expectations ever since.
The first short film of his that I watched with continuos wonderment was LILA, a thrilling video and animation brought together in one piece of art that Carlos Lascano have created in the continuation of an aesthetic trilogy.
Have a look, be the spectator for the gifted imagination of an artist that aims for the best fantasy of a teenage girl, the one trapped between a world of colours and a world of continuous sorrow.

http://vimeo.com/carloslascano/lilafinal




"LILA" from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Practice, learn, create

Playing with shapes and vector is like playing with words and manipulating what your mind tells you what you should do. I believe that my shortcomings when it comes to being the actual artist, to creating something for your own goal and ambition, is the fact that i experiment more. While i am writing this, a moment from one of my animation seminars comes to attention: one of the first things that my tutor advised us to do or not to do is "stop from experimenting too much". I tend to go against what is rational so that is what I sometimes find myself lying still in front of my monitor while my attention is being kept alert by different video tutorials, online review or long article about animation techniques. This is why I have started this post, just to express what I believe it is wrong for self-efficacy regarding the process of the intended project. Here are some examples of experimentations, tutorials or just simple techniques that caught my attention: