"Prancing Paper"
By: Diana Walker
To go along with our cut-out animation study this weekend, I thought it only fitting to find an example and share it with you all. I thought this animation, found on youtube, entitled “Prancing Paper” by Diana Walker was great because it fit with multiple topics we have been discussing.
The first thing that caught my eye was the background. It was colored glass, with a light shining through, and I though it was beautiful. It played an enormous part in the success of the piece, and displayed characteristics of kinestasis. The artist moved the camera around to create movement while the background stayed stationary, as well as in the beginning, she explored the cut outs through camera movement, not subject movement. It created a flickering effect.
I thought that the artist created nice contrast and balance by using solid black and white organic cut out’s in front of the colored, geometric background. The silhouette effect and clean edges of the cut outs created an eye pleasing piece.
The artist used many different body movements, and I would be curious to know how many cut outs it took to create this, but I did notice several parts in which she used the same motions repetitively. I thought it was a good choice to add multiple dancers and use kinestasis because it took my attention off any repeating of positions.
In terms of sound, it’s obvious that it was needed. The animation was choreographed directly to the music but due to the nature of the subject matter, I feel like I’m speaking the obvious yet again.
One thing I did want to point out, however, is the way that she included the title and credit in the middle of the animation to separate songs. I didn’t like that choice at all. I think that there could have been some other transition used instead.
The first thing that caught my eye was the background. It was colored glass, with a light shining through, and I though it was beautiful. It played an enormous part in the success of the piece, and displayed characteristics of kinestasis. The artist moved the camera around to create movement while the background stayed stationary, as well as in the beginning, she explored the cut outs through camera movement, not subject movement. It created a flickering effect.
I thought that the artist created nice contrast and balance by using solid black and white organic cut out’s in front of the colored, geometric background. The silhouette effect and clean edges of the cut outs created an eye pleasing piece.
The artist used many different body movements, and I would be curious to know how many cut outs it took to create this, but I did notice several parts in which she used the same motions repetitively. I thought it was a good choice to add multiple dancers and use kinestasis because it took my attention off any repeating of positions.
In terms of sound, it’s obvious that it was needed. The animation was choreographed directly to the music but due to the nature of the subject matter, I feel like I’m speaking the obvious yet again.
One thing I did want to point out, however, is the way that she included the title and credit in the middle of the animation to separate songs. I didn’t like that choice at all. I think that there could have been some other transition used instead.
I think this piece was interesting because it made a nice collaboration with audio and animation. I think the cut-outs were well made and exhibited movement rather gracefully for the medium. However, although the background was quite beautiful with the colored glass, I found it distracting how much the camera bounced around. I feel like this would be a great project to do on an animation table. It would take the effect of the hand-shake out of the camera, and you could potentially find a different method to layer in the glass background... maybe film the glass separately? Interesting cut-out piece!
ReplyDeleteI liked the three-dimensionality the different panes of glass brought to the piece - the figures and background are flat but the different layers hints at an illusion of 3D. If an animation stand were to be used I think they would have to figure out a way not to do so without losing the depth of the layers. I also like how you couldn't really figure out what the space was - just as the camera would zoom out and the edge of a wall was barely revealed, it would go back in again. That coupled with the hand-camera movements and the lighting it felt really homemade - which I think made it more interesting when the figures became animated.
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was most impressive with this piece was the panning and zooming. I thought it really worked out for this piece especially since it had a consistant subject of two people dancing - compared other animations that change frequently. It made you really draw focus on the two rather than the background. I thought it was also very smart to have them white rather than another color.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura, the obvious and almost exaggeration of the distance with the layers (in comparison to other cutout animations, when they have them stacked directly on top of one another) was an effective way to add a 3 demontional effect.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time I like seeing the outline/background/containers of work it gives you the feel of the artist hand, that it is infact made by a person rahter than a machien but with this piece I'm not really sure I can't pin point what it is but I would have loved to see the piece without it. I guess it felt like it was just that a contaner. I felt it was restricting or unintentional? Am I crazy?