Rigging characters for my 4 Brain Cells Dance is proving harder than expected, so here are a few other things I’ve been up to while I figure that out.
Last month I went to my local library for a popup showcase of short VR documentaries presented by the MIT Open Documentary Lab. It was part of a series of VR showcases at different Massachusetts libraries this summer with the aim of increasing interest in VR films as sources of entertainment and education. The program offered 14 different films to view, but due to technical difficulties only a few of them were available to view. I chose to watch “Insider-Outsider” by Phillipe Cohen Solal, a piece based on the works of obscure artist Henry Darger. The film was loads of fun, laden with bold colorful imagery and interactive elements. I enjoyed “touching” objects with a digital hand to make music and helping the Vivium Girls defeat an invading army by “lifting” orbs of light and “throwing” objects at them. The piece had objects and characters moving around me in 3D space, so I had to turn my head to see everything that was going on in the scene. The film interested me in Henry Darger, and made me want to read his stories and learn more about his work and art. “Insider-Outsider” also featured a soundtrack of Darger’s poems and songs set to music, and I’d love to listen to the full soundtrack in the future. I also wanted to hear full versions of the music based on his songs.
Overall, I really enjoyed the VR program, and want to see more of MIT’s short VR films. The popup series ends in late July, but I hope MIT has future showcases of these films, and allows more people to watch them on their own VR devices.
I’m currently reading “Motion Design Toolkit” by Auston Shaw and John Colette, which has a lot of cool exercises for After Effects and useful information on motion design and animation principles. I just finished the “Emotion Mograph” project, where I had to use basic shapes and transitions to express three different emotions in 5 seconds each.
I chose Hope, Rage, and Calm, and used dynamic movement, color changes, and animated gradient backgrounds to show off each one. Hope is shown by a white star and increasing light as the grey circle tentatively reaches out to it. Rage is a shape coming unhinged as it grows in size and flails around the scene, kind of like the “REEEE!” expression of a person losing it. Calm is a spa-like atmosphere with a slow-moving background and a square moving up and down like its breathing in and out. I’m really enjoying the book, and I’m already working on the next exercise, where I animate shapes to a piece of music. I’ll post that and any further projects to the site as soon as they’re done.
Sources:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/151xg6PnVEOLLkGFrcaG9G_Tp2C5ahswI/view
