Burnt Out
I chose to put a contemporary and technological spin on an animation presentation device dating back hundreds of years. While flip books are most often done through drawings and doodles, I chose to use digital images. To take this one step further, I took the images from a video to play with the idea of transforming the modern moving image into moving image of a different time.
I started by taking a short video, and uploading it as an .mp4 file. I imported it to final cut pro and then exported the sequence as still images. From there I kept every third still and discard the rest. I opened them in photoshop and decided to change the image using a filter. I thought that this would make the images themselves more interesting. I then took all of the altered stills and opened them in iPhoto to print contact sheets which I then cut out to create my flip book.
The first time that I flipped through it, I could see sections that were very dynamic and interesting, while others were dull, boring and showed little movement. This is the point where I began editing. I had about 230 images to sort through, so I took small chunks and flipped through, removing any access cards that did not do anything for the animation. I then looked at the whole animation together and started the editing process over again.
This is where I started to think about how I would have changed my process. At the very beginning, I would have handpicked my images, instead of randomly discarding. This would have allowed me to choose images that would give me the most dynamic changes from one image to the next, and look the most interesting when changed in photoshop. Then, I would have adjusted each image in photoshop to get the most out of them. Because of time restraints, I applied a filter and moved onto the next without any adjustment to line strength, smoothness or opacity.
I love the idea, and the process was fun and worth the outcome. I easily could have done this animation digitally, but I enjoyed the hands-on aspect far more. I was disappointed with the print quality, but through careful editing I was able to create a visually interesting piece.
It was great to see what a successful and fluid animation you could make using contemporary techniques and software, yet still paying homage to the historical device. I thought there were some brilliant choices made, especially making it monochromatic in red and then highlighting the red element again in the binding. You were very dedicated to the process and it showed in the execution of your book.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your process because it seems as though that our projects were similar in the way that we captured images, processed it through photoshop and transmitted them onto paper to make a flip book.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting to me that although we had similar outcomes our process was different! Which is one of many reasons I love this field. But on a side note I was thinking about using your process at first but I like to keep things simple and avoid major programs to do simple things. It's amazing what programs such as Quicktime can do! And takes less time to load. It can trim and take screen shots too!
I really enjoyed your flip book a lot! Not only the flip book, but your thought process about making it. I would have never thought to have taken a video and have it still framed - very cool. Like I said in class, I really liked how the color was red and that there were different shades of it uniquely expressed in each slide. But, the thing I was impressed with the most was the binding you made for it, it looked as though that was a store-made item. So, I was blown away when I found out that you hot-glued it and wrapped it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else - the execution/design worked brilliantly and made for a stable piece that will probably last longer than the store bought flip books. I'm curious now about the choices in color and subject matter - do you like cars? red?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it was easier to edit out the boring parts after you flipped through it - like would you be able to discern what to cut before animating it?
I love red, but honestly have very little interest in cars. I was actually completely obsessed with the visuality of a burnout creating so much smoke that the car disappeared completely at certain points. This is why it made it difficult to choose what I would and would not need before cutting. Some of the images that looked great digitally, didn't translate well into the flip book presentation. But, it was also a learning experience for me, so now I would be much better at choosing images prior to putting in the extra work!
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