Julian Moeschl LSAD Project Page

Obviously, we wouldn't be able to do so perfectly as we are not professionals, nor do we have the time or budget. However, we still would be able to get a close resemblance, through proper performance and well-designed props.

First, I made some storyboards, which went together with the shotlist, to get a good feel of what the project had in store for us.

Next, I helped out with the props of the wings, and getting a proper set together that resembled the scene in the video. Doing so was difficult, as while the lighting could be readjusted, the brown background was hard to replicate, therefore our shots are a bit inconsistent. Still, we managed to replicate the feel of the video I would say. From then on, we shot as much as we could, to have as much footage to edit as possible.

The main editing of the video was done by my teammates, while I focused on doing the blooper reel by myself. It was less intensive work, but ended up longer than expected.

Here's our final results!

While it was fun to watch the animals simply behave and live their lives, their environments added a special feeling to the experience, and sparked ideas. While I am not the best at sketching, I tried to get creative in my representation of the animals, and sketched it down thus on this page.

After watching some examples ourselves, we started to storyboard a simple Super Mario scene that we could reproduce ourselves in an afternoon.

We then scouted for a good scene, and put on props that we had made ourselves, then started filming.

Here is the final result:

First, I sketched a design, and looked for different mouth shapes that I should prepare, as I would need them for the lip synch.

I also looked at my own mouth and its shapes while talking, to make it accurate to myself.

Then, I started working on my MiniMe itself. I started with a 2D area, as that is more familiar to myself, and should be easier to execute. However, I later found out that this had problems with putting in a background image, as well as the cropping of images. Still, I tried to capture my essence and put on a bit of detail.

Finally, I put it together in video form:

Here are my conclusive thoughts towards each elective of my project.

Print - Similar to painting, print is a very versatile module that can be utilized within other disciplines easily. I had not expected to have that many options with it as I do, and I am confident that I will make use of it again when I have the chance. As a choice as a discipline, I would not choose it as my first priority, but I can definitely see a big appeal and would still be able to try out different projects and perspectives within print, able to utilize knowledge from other areas as well.

My print projects were mostly made at the beginning of the elective, thus my theme may have not been thorough for them as with my other outcomes, but I still am confident that I managed to portray movement through my compositions.

Photography - From my own point of view, I would say that I had the most development within photography. At the beginning, I had nothing more than pictures of aerosols floating around prettily with no further meaning attached, but I managed to work out a choreographed motive with symbolism and wordplay behind it, and make use even of the film that didn't turn out as I had hoped through the Thaumatrope. Furthermore, there is a lot of general knowledge about photography that I was taught that I will be able to make use of even for just general image composing. Therefore, I would say that out of the three electives at least, I had the most success in photography overall.

Animation - This one is a bit hard to judge, as the workshops in animation weren't as clear-cut, and I had sadly missed out on a lot of them. However, there was still engagement through the Thaumatrope and the general tasks. The exercise in storyboards is definitely important to get a good understanding into the general process of planning animation, and the general research help broaden my knowledge and understanding of it too. I still have a lot to learn about the craft, but I still consider it my highest interest out of the three electives.

For the fourth task, we had to establish the aesthetics we would make use of in an animation concept. I decided to go with the short story entry I wrote on contrails, since it would not require a lot of work and would be good for a first.

The background would be a simple gradient changing colour per video effects over time.

For the plane and the contrails, I used this image as a reference, and created a simple sketch out of it. Since the airplane is only seen from below and as a very small object, not much detail would be necessary.

source of image reference: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/world-best-selling-airplanes/index.html#:~:text=The%20Boeing%20737%20and%20the,in%20on%20many%2C%20many%20occasions.

Here is my storyboard for a clip from the movie "Puss in Boots" (2011) by Dreamworks, linked below.

Here are three animation styles I have researched, with an example of each linked right below.

Cutout animation:

Images are put together through paper cut-outs of object and characters, and then put together and composed as necessary for the scene. A photograph is taken of that frame, before the cut-outs are slightly altered to create a different frame, which is photographed again. Together, the photographs create a fluid scene.

While this can be seen as just a type of stop-motion animation, the strict 2D nature of the paper and thus the frames makes the creation of lighting and sets in general much easier, however the movement may carry a degree of uncanniness, such as in South Park.

https://youtu.be/01tWIKOqQHg

Pinscreen Animation:

An assortment of same-sized and same-coloured pins is evenly spread across a screen. The pins can then be tilted and pushed inwards/outwards, to create different scenes through the shapes created by the pins' alterations. The pins are then slightly adjusted for each frame.

It requires meticulous work as all pins are sensitive to touch, and there's a distinct lack of colour and different textures as a set limitation. It is similar to sand animation, however the pins have a different aesthetic, which is also specific to the pinscreen used. The resemblance can be seen in the video below.

https://youtu.be/ydiaPnag0YE

Sprite-based Animation:

A set amount of images is created for all scenes and objects involved in the animation, and are the put together and manipulated according to the events of the scene.

This is similar to cutout animation, but even more limited due to the lack customization. While this is usually used in video games for storage-related reasons, photographs and edited images can be used for the same effect, as seen by the example by content creator Molly Moon. She uses photographs of herself as sprites, and combines them with digital images moving over the screen to create a unique, although creepy aesthetic.

As the first task for animation, we had to think of short story concepts that could be animated well. Here are my examples, together with immediate feedback that I developed on to arrive at the final example.

Within a still frame of the night sky, dark and with the silhouette of mountains in front of it, a human hand holding a spray can appears in the foreground. It uses the spraycan to spray the word "view" onto the sky, in yellow coloring and a bubbly font, with the spilled dots of paint resembling stars.

--the perspective is not well established, and exact motions could be slightly difficult to storyboard.

A cigarette is lit by a match, and smoke starts rising from it towards the sky. It passes through the layers of the atmosphere, before arriving in space and forming a planet-like sphere.

--beginning and end are well established, but too much about the middle part is left out to properly get an idea about the sequence.

In a clear, blue sky, multiple clouds are forming and colliding together. As a large amass of clouds is formed, they condense and rain down as a big drench of water.

--generally it work out, however more detail about the shapes could be added for clearance.

The first workshop was on Monday, the one by Tarpey. Here, I experimented more with incorporating aerosols into my pictures directly and thematically, as well as learning more about handling a dlsr camera.

Next came the workshop by Deborah, which went further into the theory of photography, and I got information on how to properly set up a picture. It included the rule of thirds, negative space, and iso as a few examples of subject matter.

This was what I used in order to set up my image. I wanted to capture aerosols, and one I hadn't worked with was smoke. Thus, I ended brainstorming on an image including smoke and perhaps a wordplay relating to it, and I wound up with 'foggy mind'.

I wanted to capture a person whose head is blocked by smoke in front of them, as they are smoking. It's supposed to show smoking blocking one's mind and all that. I also researched on how other artists have incorporated smoke into their work next to humans, specifically looking at photographs taken by Tim Walker.

Putting all this knowledge together, and with the help of my friends Nathan, Rachel, and Tuck, I ended up with this image as an outcome for photography.

Here are the final results of how my thaumatrope ended up looking.

I wanted to reuse primarily one of my pinhole photos that I had made in the workshop that had an interesting perspective, while also itilizing the purple, mystique colour scheme from my Intaglio, in order to elevate that the clouds are unnatural, and give it more intrigue.

After discussing with a teacher on how to go about the Thaumatrope structure, I glued it together, using a leftover wooden chopstick to be sustainable. I also cut the sponge into the cloud shape I had previously worked out and prepared the pain for printing the shape on, attempting it a few times prior as preparation.

This is how the thaumatrope looked in the end:

After finishing Print by now, I reckoned that it'd be a good idea to see what I could have improved upon.

My main issues were that the cloud shapes I created were either very cartoony or too vague to resemble any aerosol, and that the materials I used were not very good to work with, such as the fluffy carpet.

To work on that, I first researched on other print artists and how they handled aerosols, as seen below.

Then, I researched what could be used as print material and searched in my local art supply shop, and ended up with sponges. I also designed a motive for the aerosols as per research.

Here are further project idea sketches for my theme of aerosols.

Photographing a hot breath

Pinhole picture thaumatrope

Graffiti timelapse

Capturing smoke in a bottle

For the photography elective, I started with pinhole photography as my workshop. Pinhole cameras are neat little devices that basically act like pocket polaroid cameras, with the added bonus that one can develop different images depending on how much light enters the hole/how long it is exposed to the light.

Here's how the imagery of the sky outside may translate into a photograph: