A Look Outside The Window

Looking outwards at artists and works I was less familiar with, these animations provided a variety of shots, framing, transitions, colour and metaphor to consider while looking at my own work.

Estonian cartoonist and animator Priit Pärn, presents several shorts within a short in his 1987 film Eine Murul (Breakfast on the Grass).

First Slide

The top row looks at framing, camera angle and composition.

• A long shot presents the character in a tight corridor. With space behind, the way forward is blocked
• A tight close up presents a grim-faced profile shot. Eye level, close and personal, claustrophobic even in an external street scene.
• The perspective of the supermarket shelves leads the eye to the approaching character. The character is animated in faded transitions as the environment remains static. Perhaps a suggestion of passing time.

The bottom row starts with a heavy metaphor.

• Birds fly in an expansive, clear sky while below our tiny protagonist is captive, held to the ground.
• From cartoon scenes of cool, muted blues and greens the film turns in style and colour. Leaning towards photo-real, warm, tawny and umber hues take over. An open window frames the outside world, a large expanse in comparison to the character's scale, his head coincident with the horizon.
• The lift car. A filmic device. While this one appears as a means of escape from the prowling figure, mine is designed as an inevitable descent, a sarcophagal journey to another world.

Second Slide

This affecting sequence examines a woman's loss of identity in motherhood. Her efforts to find her former self are frustrated at every attempt. Again, heavy in metaphor, her lost personality can be seen in the blank mask. She attempts to redefine herself, repainting her image as a poor simulation of her former self. Even these efforts are physically wiped away by her child.

The use of makeup (another mask?) as a means of deliverance appears to point towards a conflict between the external image and internal feelings. The fight for the external is ultimately fruitless and as we see mother and daughter grow, the natural face of the mother reappears.

Third Slide

The final shots follow mother and daughter through a fair. The mother carries an apple (the forbidden fruit, signifying knowledge?) which she exchanges for helium balloons. There is a suggestion that she may take an opportunity for freedom before handing the balloons to her child, her natural image is restored and the next generation is allowed to fly away.

Quite beautifully realised.

Next up...

Directed and written by Israeli born Ari Folman, the 2008 Oscar winning Vals Im Bashir (Waltz With Bashir) deals with a veteran of the war in Lebanon and his efforts to reconstruct his own memory of the period.

I'll continue with that one later.

Other Ways of Looking

This was another vision of a tracking shot from the Leica reel. Hand drawn and representing three key frames as the protagonist passes a door. He's head-down and shuffling before his name is whispered from a dark cell.

I'm tempted to put the image's layers through Premiere.

The Curse of the CU - Technical update

The retop is complete on the shoe model and, beyond the normal map projection, only simple PBR materials have been applied so far.

David's shoe retopology - Complete

David's shoe - Arnold render

David's shoe - Arnold render

This model is a single, manifold mesh and I'm now wondering if that was the best approach. A little more work and time will tell.

The Curse of the CU

The film starts with a "set up" rather than a traditional, wide establishing shot. The upward pedestal of the camera scans over the protagonist while accentuating his descent in the lift car.

It looks to be a promising and affecting shot.

A possible downside is that every detail of the character is revealed in closeup, requiring detailed modelling and texturing of every element.

Take these shoes as an example...

David's shoe - Sculpt

David's shoe - Sculpt

David's shoe - Retopology

The textures will reveal that they are old and battered, the lack of laces a clue to the situation of their owner. All well and good but... they will be seen closeup so require that much more work.

Leica It or Not

I've taken a character proxy, rough 'n' ugly rigged it and thrown it at the environment to work out some shot timing, camera angles and transitions.

It ain't right but that's not a bad thing. Figuring out what's wrong is half the battle?

Re-framing in Premiere can help a little but some shots are revealed as being ineffectual. The high angle, long shot and track to the lift doors is a car crash at the moment. Other shots show promise but could need cut-away to emphasise impact.

There are some alternate shots and moves in this lot but more experimentation is required.

Time for T (pose)

Taking this character to a full body t-pose raises a few issues.

It's not a particularly natural pose. In relation to a relaxed pose, the clavicles and scapula are raised, trapezius and deltoid muscles are pronounced, the latissimus dorsi are flared and the pectorals are elongated. How will all this translate when rigged?

The proportions need tweaking here. The navel is low and the leg bones need attention

Some adjustments have been made. A mouth sack has also been added. The closed, puckered mouth would have made the task of retopologising the head for animation very tricky. The more relaxed jaw should allow for effective use of edge loops around the mouth.