Creating this animation has been a very fulfilling process. This animation BONDED means a lot to me because 1. is it about the bond between my niece and I, 2. this was the first time using AfterEffects, something that I always wanted to learn.

In my previous post, you can see a sketch of an idea for a sweater I made. This sweater was of a two person sweater that represented ones attachment to the other person in a physical manner. I thought it would be cool to animate this sweater and create a performance around it.

Using AfterEffects was much of a learning curve. My first encounters with AfterEffects were frustrating and overwhelming because there was so much to learn and the process was long. What helped me overcome this frustration was watching each tutorial Marianne made one by one and taking notes. It was very time consuming but helped me understand the process of creation in AfterEffects. It was so cool to see all of the possibilities one has the opportunity to create with.

I drew these characters using the app Sketch on my iPad, edited them in Photoshop, and animated them in AfterEffects. I would like to return to this concept and really refine this ideas because I think it is very strong a meaningful.

My good friend Kingsley Metelus let me use his music for this project.

A while ago, I sketched this idea for a 2 person sweater that would be worn by my 8 year old niece and I. The sweater was an attempt at visualizing my niece and I’s bond through the lens of fashion. Our blood ties and connections are made physical. Anywhere that I go, she follows and vise versa, which is to say I learn just as much from her as she learns from me.

For my After Effects Animation, I want to animate ourselves as cartoon characters wearing and presenting this sweater. The actions we will do doing will be walking, running, pulling, dragging, laughing, etc… almost to comment on the ups and down of everyday life. I think that it would be interesting to carry these actions out in harmony, but then slowly have these actions become out of sync to bring up the idea that family relationships can be hard and bumpy, but also something beautiful.

In our final cut of Goodmorning! Irene and I focused on tightening up the audio, camera angle transitions and quality. We used Adobe Premiere to edit the clips and audio together. We found all of our audio samples on freesound.org. One thing we will note in our next encounter with Stop Motion animation is making sure we have a consistent background. The windows in our scene show us working in the background and that distracts the viewer from the art and the story. Other than that, we are very pleased with our storytelling. I look forward to doing more stop motion projects in the future!

Good Morning! rough cut went very well. We have the entire storyline together and the audio selected. I am very pleased with this rough cut. The stop motion animation process is detail oriented and requires lots of patience. The hardest part was making sure the camera didn’t move and the clay figure did become deformed when moving it shot by shot. We handmade everything in this scene which was really fun, but time consuming. I wonder how perfected our animation would have looked if we had more time. The next time I do a stop motion animation, I want to make sure the set is in a stable and easy accessible position. I would like to be more equipped with better lighting and better camera quality. My partner and I intended to use a DSLR camera and LED lights but the equipment room we usually have access to was closed. The quality of this animation could have been a lot better, but regardless of these obstacles, I think we created a great story and portrayed it in an amazing way.

The things I want to focus on in the final cut are camera angle transitions. audio, and fixing the quality of some frames.

Out of the animations we watched in class, Gertie the Dinosaur was my favorite. I loved the interactive storytelling element to it. The animation at this time period was magical itself, but the addition of a stage act and interactive element elevated this animation 10x more. I noticed how simple this animation was. The background/ scene did not change much. The focus was on Gertie and simple action.

As Winsor McCay’s goal was to make Gertie come to life, he focused on making Gertie do actions that proved that she was alive. For example, the animator emphasized Gertie’s lungs expanding and collapsing as she breathed. This attention to detail made Gertie more real. Also, the animator thought about Gertie’s personality and developed characterization. There was a point in the film where Gertie became antsy and snapped at the animator, although this made a lot of sense because, after all, she is a dinosaur. Gertie also did a little dance within the film, which shows her playfulness and how well trained she is. This tells a further story of Gertie having a relationship with the animator prior to the performance. It marks a history of existence for Gertie and inserts time as a factor. The animator thought about aspects and characteristics of a dinosaur and played with them. He made Gertie pick up a rock with her mouth and throw it out into the water. Rocks are really heavy and Gertie’s ability to toss it so effortlessly shows her strength. Basically, all of these actions and body languages reveal something deeper and more complex to the viewer’s understanding of this character and their environment. Everything is that much more exaggerated and emphasized in order to get across a certain message, meaning, or understanding all while keeping the viewer interested.

This flip book is about two people being hesitant about each other and taking a chance. Their hearts grew in the process.

I used Post it Notes to display this story and make a flip book, but I realized that it might not have been the best choice. A tougher paper would have made the sequences flow more smoothly and had a more clear view point. I choose post it notes because it was already bond together and set up perfectly for a flip book.

I remember going on an audio walk made by Janet Cardiff in Central Park called Her Long Black Hair. This walk was unlike anything that I have ever done and it will always stand out to me. For this audio performance concept, it was a great influence. I definitely wish to maybe one day turn this audio performance into a project where people can physically attend the places that I am referring to, but Covid makes that hard right now. I will solely use the audio to develop a scene and create imagery. I want to focus on the joy of my community.

I grow up in the Villa Victora in South End, Boston. It is a 5 block section 8 housing unit neighborhood that often gets lost in the midst of million dollar brownstones and high end stores. You can see a distinct cut off line between my community and the brownstones across the street. I have always felt like the surrounding residence looked down on the people of my community and saw us as dangerous, uneducated, and inhuman. Although, my neighborhood, regardless of its faults and ills, is one of the most beautiful, animated, prideful, colorful, and cultured places I have ever seen. With this audio performance, I want to take the listener on a walk through my neighborhood. I want to focus on the fun conversation, laugher, music, bustling of pots, bodega gates opening, kids running, greetings, etc. I want to show the people across the street that we are full of love, culture, and community.

I found a generative music artist named Evol on Bandcamp. Since the late nineties, Roc Jiménez de Cisneros and his collaborators (Evol) have been producing what they call “computer music for hooligans”, inspired by geometry, metaphysics, noise, cosmology and rave culture. Their generative music is heavy on baselines, air horns and arpeggios. Their music stood out to me because it’s a playful approach to algorithmic composition. From the title, to music art, to the sound of the music itself reminds me of a goofy low fi video game. I feel like I could carelessly dance to this in a very freeing way.

I really liked that their music was inspired by geometry and cosmology. I think its interesting how such big and intricate concepts can be translated into a sound that is enjoyable to listen to. Their music is also so evident that it is within rave culture. I can see this type of music being played at huge rave festivals with light shows to match. I think combine live performance video and audio is so cool now that I am learning more about it because it really creates a whole 1of1 performance. The sounds and images will never be played in that order or way again so it really does make the experience special.

https://poonexglobo.bandcamp.com/track/madball-manners-2

https://e-v-o-l.bandcamp.com/album/wabbit-trax-2-diag058