Sunday 1st Feb
Although my aim this week was to start animating, I have spent most of this week immersed in preparation for teaching, preparing briefs for students and organising timetables particularly for collaborative work. My original plans for specific MA production has been affected directly by my workload. My time this week has been utilised reflecting on the final project, practical outcomes and considerations for visual language of the work. My tasks today have included reviewing tutorials in after effects, one based on particle displacement and how to create grafitti style text. As a contrast to this I also looked at the making of metal type and the letterpress studios. The final topic of research was to examine the website ‘motionographer’, here I reviewed a stunning blend of tradition and modern work, a blend of handcrafted skills and after effects. This piece of work is inspiring in its execution, concept and production.
“The work was created for the title sequence to ‘Capitu’–a TV miniseries, based on a 19th century Brazilian literary masterpiece, Dom Casmurro, written by Machado de Assis. Told retrospectively from the point of view of the aging central character, it describes his obsession with finding all kinds of evidence that his wife had been unfaithful, and his own best friend is actually the father of their only son.
The creative team’s initial inspiration is Dadaism, specifically the decollage technique (creating an image by cutting, tearing or otherwise removing pieces of a picture to reveal parts of other images lying beneath). According to Lobo, ‘the chaotic and disjointed nature’ of Dada decollage pieces parallels the nonlinear, short-chaptered structure of the novel. Layering of images suggests the passage of time, memory, and accumulated life experience, and the tearing/ripping evokes the violence inherent in the central character’s tormenting doubts and desire for vengeance.
The animation was first created in After Effects, then each frame was printed on different paper stock. The printed frames were crumpled, re-stretched out and glued one on top of the other, and the entire stack was then placed under a stop-motion camera. Shots were taken at appropriate intervals as the layers were ripped and peeled. The photographs were taken back into after effects to create the final stop-motion sequence.
In 2008, Lobo was commissioned to create the opening sequence and interstitials for Capitu, a TV mini-series adaptation of Dom Casmurro, the masterpiece by 19th-century Brazilian novelist Machado de Assis. The story is narrated by the title character, an aging man who decides to write his memoirs in an attempt to “tie the two ends of life together”. But the true purpose of his endeavor is to search for proof justifying his undying obsession: that his childhood sweetheart, Capitu, whom he finally succeeded in marrying, had betrayed him with his best friend, the real father of their only son. What makes Machado’s novel unconventional is that he treats the traditional themes of marriage and adultery as a mere backdrop for an exploration of surprisingly modern literary concerns: the unreliability of the first-person narrator; a skeptical awareness of the novel’s structure; the failure of memory in recapturing past facts objectively, functioning instead as a means for self-justification and self-deceit.
Lobo sought to encapsulate these issues in the opening sequence, not just through the choice of imagery but also in a way that involved the animation technique itself. The preliminary research started with the early 20th-century art movement Dada, following a suggestion by the series’ director Luiz Fernando Carvalho. Since Dom Casmurro is considered a forerunner of Modernism, at least in Brazil, we thought it made sense to start with some of the most radical pioneers of the avant-garde. We focused mainly on Dada artists who used collage and photomontage as their media of choice. The chaotic and disjointed nature of their work paralleled the fragmented structure of Machado’s novel, with its short chapters, nonlinearity and constant interruptions as well as remarks by the narrator himself. This research on the evolution of collage eventually led us to discover the works of post-Dada European artists like Wolf Vostell, Mimmo Rotella and Jacques Villeglé. They developed what became known as decollage: instead of building up an image by adding parts of other images, they worked by cutting, tearing or otherwise removing pieces of a picture to reveal parts of other images lying beneath.
This approach seemed perfect for the task at hand. The superposition of images provided a fitting metaphor for the passage of time and the accumulation of experiences throughout one’s life. Ripping through these levels mirrored the process of peeling the layers of memory carried out by the narrator, in search for the final truth buried in his past. The act of ripping also suggests violence, representative of his tormenting doubt and desire for vengeance.
Visually, the distressed result of this procedure was also appropriate, since it connected in many ways with the art direction of the mini-series. The show was predominantly shot inside a run-down mansion, using recycled materials for settings and props. The theater and the opera are recurring elements in the novel, so the production relied on classic theatrical techniques for the recreation of the environments. This inspired us to base our layouts on old letterpress show posters – the same material largely employed by the decollage artists.
We wanted the aesthetic and the animation technique to be fully integrated in these pieces, which meant that the ripped paper should be more than just a graphic style: it should be the very mechanism that drove the animation forward. We started by preparing simple animations in After Effects, primarily featuring typography and collage-like graphics representing key concepts of the story. These animations were edited together with short live-action clips from the series, and the entire sequence was then printed sequentially, frame by frame, on different kinds of paper. These sheets were glued on top of each other, resulting in a stack of paper that had the first frame of the opening at the top and the last frame at the bottom. We mounted the stack below a table-top digital camera and proceeded to rip and tear the paper sheets one by one, slowly revealing each layer underneath. This process was photographed at regular intervals, and the pictures were imported back into After Effects as a sequence, where it received some slight color and time adjustments.
The result was the same animation and live-action sequence we started with, only fractured and reassembled in such a way that never allows for a single intact frame. Every image that begins to take shape never achieves its complete form; every ripped bit of paper reveals something that belongs to another point in time. The spot resolves itself only at the end, unveiling the word Capitu: the only person who holds the key to the mystery of the story.” http://motionographer.com/2009/02/01/capitu-titles-2/#more-9533 1.2.09 22.37pm
I can see how this discovery will be helpful, firstly Lobo researched a specific time and art movement and stayed as close as possible to the nature of production from that era, secondly the title sequence serves to ‘reveal’ and yet not reveal mysteries. Key concepts of the story are created as collages, this is similar to my idea of wallpaper showing the passage of time. I feel that more research into repetition as a key feature needs to be explored further. My next stage this week is to alter the original plan, redraft my learning agreement and consider a new timeframe altogether.
4.2.09
I created my own letterpress fonts from previous archives scanned in, live trace into illustrator and imported into after effects. A series of short tests followed to trial the work. More subtlety of effects is needed to produce more convincing work. A font exists but is not available to be implemented using one’s cursor the fonts are all tiff based and the set costs $329! A screen-grab shows 3 versions of a letterpress cap ‘G’ with the original scan, default live trace and a more accurate traced version. The lettering will be more effective on different varied stock and textures.
7.2.09
This week I have been plotting out Ken’s speech, instead of processing this is in a cold word-by-word, dope sheet, I have deliberately opted for a more visual approach. In After Effects I optimised the audio layer and made the wave line visible. After screen-grabbing this layer and printing it out, I started to scrub over the audio and match the words to the wave line.Initially I produced a version with Ken’s and the narrator’s speeches, this was too complex.
A more useful method has been producing the same outcome with just one speaker and then repeating the process separately. Interesting results came about. Ken’s monosyllabic response was clear to see, (these results are in sketchbook 6.) The narrator’s speech is full and constant, plenty of questions, fewer gaps and the voice pattern does not spike as much as Ken’s. The narrator’s speech pattern is mid pitch, less dense, more fluid with a lot of variety in the wave patterns but steady overall. Doing these exercises will help me determine the animation patterns with more clarity, for example, I can attempt to show Ken’s voice peaking and clashing typographically, especially for the word ‘white’ and ‘tea’. The words ‘one and a half’ appear visually like a bow tie. These findings would not be apparent without visualising the wave line.
Another useful element to working in this way revealed the strength of sound. In the audio table in After Effects a graph of decibels is shown and reacts to the voice strength. The system is similar to traffic lights, red denotes a booming voice, amber is medium range, green is average and so on. There are numeric decibel values next to these colours. I have noted down where Ken’s voice features on this system, so again I can plot this in the animation.
The outcome has been a good broad-brush stroke effect, and works particularly well for Ken’s voice where his pattern seems to spike in a cluster. I was able to match the word ‘Tea’ with the correct part of the wave line very easily.
In terms of the project direction, I have made some important decisions after much thought and deliberation. Originally I was keen to explore repetition using visual metaphor on the animation. Reflecting on previous animations whereby I had been more experimental and less selective, particularly on the first Beatles animation, I recognise that showing less visually, with more deliberation will help the communication values of the work. Having produced small tests, I have decided that my focus will be on communication and technology, predominantly represented through the selection of type. The choice of type will also reflect personality and qualities of the speaker’s voices. Letterpress fades, is worn, aged and restricted due to its physical form. Digital type is crisp, efficient and ever changing, but also ‘trapped’ in a default setting imposed by the programme.
I recognise that one of my fascinations with Ken is the way he lives. Even though we live in the same road, our interaction with the world is very different. Ken does not have a landline or phone, he still used old-fashioned tapes and vinyl records and VHS tapes. Texting and emails are not part of Ken’s vocabulary let alone part of his life. It is as if he is living in a different era to the rest of the world. If I concentrate on showing this to the viewer typographically I believe the animation will have contrast and demonstrate the importance and relevance of selecting type for purpose. Switching from digitally animated text to the rigidity but integrity of letterpress and changing the background textures or lighting will also emphasise these differences.
The interpretation of my voice will be less important than Ken’s, my aim is for the focus to be on Ken’s voice, to characterise his voice and underplay mine. I will however, explore email language and look at some of the restrictions and opportunities that either text messages or emails have to offer. My main ways of communicating are email primarily and texting secondary option.
The aspect of repetition will be more effectively expressed in a static 2d format. I anticipate producing an A2 print of the whole conversation in letterpress and digitally stylised type with repetition highlighted throughout.
To summarise:
Key focus: communication methods will be expressed in the animation.
Ken’s communication will be old fashioned, rigid, set, unaffected by technology
Will show intonation of voice and strength of pitch (in relation to decibel output)
Ken’s voice will be shown using
letterpress animations
video of person writing directly onto paper (letter writing)
typewriter animations
slide projector animation
Photocopier animations
Narrator’s communication will be crisp, modern, technology led
Will show pauses, pictograms, type cursor hovering, affected by technology
The work will not show intonation of voice and will underplay and remain more neutral to enhance and project Ken’s voice.
Narrator’s voice will be shown using
Email interface and relevant digital typography
Text messaging with the relevant interface and authentically produced digital typography,pictograms and text language (lol, etc).
Sunday 8.2.09
I created a short video of my father hand writing, Ken’s speech. I wanted to observe older hands creating lettering in a continuous sequence. Throughout recording the work my observation of voices and really listening to the subtleties has led me to believe that speech is akin to fingerprints, that each pitch and twist of the tongue is unique, in a similar way to the pressure and manipulation of the pen during writing. Even the pressure of letters produced gives away information about our general state of well being, for example light pressure can denote lightness of mood and heavy pressure could reflect anger, agitation etc. I am passionate about the differences between people and how this can be explored visually.
There were three attempts to record my father. Firstly we did a test run. Using scrap paper, I asked my father to copy out Ken’s speech. Because the words were not familiar and the situation seemed strange the first test seemed stilted, stiff and mechanical writing was produced. We switched to more textured paper for the second trial. Using the paper in a portrait orientation, I requested that the writing was continuous rather than short fragmented sentences with line breaks. In this instance, there were two issues that needed resolving. The angle of the shot meant that my father’s hands were taking ‘centre stage’ and that the writing emerged behind his hands mysteriously. The shots, focusing solely on the writing produced were more successful and were beginning to convey a sense of repetition.
The last recording was the most successful, we switched the orientation of the paper to landscape, used textured paper and the camera was placed upside down so that the view focussed on the writing being formed by the pen in a birds eye view. The camera scans the page as the text is formed. A more dynamic result was produced and the writing was produced more fluidly due to the first two tests. Another surprising result was the inclusion of sound. I was able to hear the pen nib scratching against the grain of the paper this will enhance the handmade qualities and authenticity of the work.
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