julius nasol

shots of the film experimentation process. techniques attempted were as follows:

WORKED:

household bleach

mouthwash (somewhat)

food colouring

acetone (potentially ruined film)

bicarbonate soda and lemon juice

taping fragments of other film on top

scratching

hole punch

acrylic

alcohol based markers

DIDN’T WORK:

hair bleach

vinegar

scans from weeks 16-17, more hand & feet exercises using charcoal, with week 16 focusing on tonal shading, and week 17 focusing on showing volume with line, building up shapes first using bold strokes to show the path of shadows on a figure. ive also included extra gesture practice, facial expressions, and dynamic exercises from another life class that focused on depicting animated movement.

my final video for the stop motion workshop, on the theme of identity.

comments on the software & editing process:

ive only used dragonframe twice while using the university studio to do approximately 6 seconds of animation. the rest was done on an app called stop motion studio, which had useful features like onion skinning and the ability to prolong frames or reverse their order. stop motion studio, although convenient on its own, became increasingly more inconvenient the more i used to animate paint on glass, purely because of the mobile phone element. as mentioned previously, the camera could stay still with my current setup, but i would have to tap my phone to capture a frame, and tap it again to focus the camera. my reluctance to touch my phone is reflected in how many frames are somewhat blurry. as i was doubly reluctant to edit the frames apart from deleting and duplicating within the app, i resorted to editing the videos themselves while making the final result.

as seen here, ive repeated sequences for the rain and layered them over other sequences in order to form an atmosphere over the liquid narrative ive created within this film.

frames preceding the “heart squish” were reversed, then duplicated and placed in between the same frames that were not reversed.

a compilation of all my stop motion tests of sufficient length. at first, i had trouble keeping the camera still and used various items such as the edge of my desk or a cup to hold the camera. eventually i got hold of a tripod for my phone so that i would be able to continue my film at home, which helped a lot. however, i chose to hang it from a bookend so that the magnification levels wouldnt decrease the picture quality as much. as a result, it wasnt perfect because every time i would move to capture the shot the camera would shake slightly. this is a technical problem that i must figure out how to solve as i plan to make paint-on-glass sequences for my film at the end of the year. 

a comparison of both my setups, one at the university studio, and the one i have at home. evidently, my setup at home is quite limited, and mostly makeshift. both setups had the same issue where the glass would reflect whatever was above it, like the checkered ceiling at the studio. 

to solve this, a black blanket was laid across the camera stand and the unused lights, and black tape was used to cover the logo of the camera as well. at home, i stuck another blackboard to the bottom of my shelf, and bought a black phone case. even with these solutions, however, i still had to zoom in with the camera lens in both cases because the glass still reflected the edges, leaving me very little space to work with.

to further enhance the appearance of the paint, lighting had to come from either side of the glass so that it was even, and you could see the path of the rubbed-out marks left behind and the textures of the paint. with my home setup however, i had to make do with the only “lamp” i had which is a ring light i use for video calls. i positioned this to one side and hoped that the mirror on the other side of the glass reflected at least a tiny amount of light to illuminate the other side of the glass (it probably didnt work but i did it anyway). i think next time i might have to borrow someone elses lamp or a torch.

as for my research on method, i did some digging and found an interview of miyo sato, a paint-on-glass animator who inspires me through her work on the anime mob psycho 100. here, she talks about her experience animating with the medium, and reveals the setup she has in her studio. i watched a tutorial/demonstration by patrick jenkins on his method, and found that he uses gouache mixed with vegetable glycerine and water. i was also warned that using too much colour would brown my work, so that was another thing i needed to watch out for. class discussion and consultation from fellow students helped to confirm my findings, and i was finally able to animate using this medium.

i found that:  1) watercolour and oil paints are far too liquid and easily dull in colour with the application of water  2) i would rather avoid the smell of oil and spirits in my room 3) acrylic would dry too fast, so would be harder to move around and 4) gouache was a good midpoint between these paints as it can maintain both its viscosity and colour when wet.

with this in mind, i also drew inspiration from incredible paint-on-glass films like black soul by martine chartrand and the music video monotonous purgatory by saori shiroki for matryoshka.

here, i drew a rough storyboard that i wouldnt necessarily follow to the letter, but would serve as concepts for the progression of the paint as it morphs and moves from one image to another. i also noted down materials i would need for the days that followed.

working storyboard for “into the night”, a 55 word short story by dick skeen.

this was not an easy story to illustrate as it didn't necessarily contain a strict narrative, it was rather a list of words that needed to be pieced together by pure connotation. the first time i looked at the story, i simply thought, "cheating spouse". but then i realised that some words were more nuanced, and others threw me off the story i was creating in my head because they would say locations like "bathroom" or "kitchen" that took me away from the scene of the two lovers in an affair.

however, i took the artistic liberty of transitioning from that scene, to the point of view of the murderous husband in order to portray this sudden change of tone. to show this, the camera would pan from the bedroom to an imaginary wall connecting the apartment and the estranged couple's house. the house where, the husband, is in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror angrily. he would leave the bedroom he and his wife once slept together in, and shut off the lighthe is then pictured taking a knife out of the kitchen drawer.