I jumped right into the project without first knowing what I wanted the goal to be at the end. I started putting together a composition that I thought would be interesting if it reacted to audio sound. It was then that I decided to design a program that small creators on YouTube and SoundCloud could purchase and use in their content to give viewers and listeners something interesting to look at while they listened.
I initially worked in only black and white, focusing on the animation and effects before jumping into what color scheme I wanted to roll with. While I was playing with the RGB values of the circular arc, its values feathered out into the rest of the composition where I realized I could just change the color of one element of my piece and it would gray out toward the edges. This is where I decided it was going to be monochromatic, and I found myself picking a blue-turquoise color. There is a lot going on with the shaky lines and two audio-visual elements at play, so Professor Scott suggested I include something slow for the viewers' eyes to have something to rest on. Behind the scene in the background is a Cosmic animation very similar to watching the waves in water, acting much more slowly than the animations in front of it.
There were a lot of issues concerning speed and the animation of the lines during this project. The speeds had to be different to create an offset and create interest without being so dramatically different, and the lines couldn't be too calm nor too outrageous. I also explored more with masks and differently-shaped layers stacked on top of and inside each other.
Lion Composition 2: Space Lion
Following the first idea I had earlier in the project, I set out to create another visual that reacted to audio and was interesting to watch. This time, I wanted to do something with a little more color and a little more action happening throughout the canvas instead of just in the center.
I once again began working in black and white and messing around with layers. I learned that you could get some interesting animations if you multiplied an animation on top of another and get more action and composition out of it. I also learned that not all of the animations are listed in the menu, that you can go to the MadMapper website and find free downloads to add to your library. I discovered this one called "Plane Deform," which looks like an old screensaver on computers and threw it into my program, layering a Caustic animation on multiply on top so that certain areas would feel more natural like it would appear in space. I did another experiment with the lines dancing in the background to the audio, where I multiplied a sort of barcode animation on top.
Working with how to make the color in the lion's mane stand out more involved more practice with masks. I originally had it so the entire face was lit up with the "northern light"-ish animation, but I wanted the mane to be more of the focus and the lion's face to actually look like it was looking straight ahead. So I applied a mask over the face to darken the values of the color (basically dim them) and filled in the eyes and the nose with a basic white. I think this version is more interesting than the one before just because of the different animations going on in a single space.
Crane Composition 1: Data
For the origami paper crane, I wanted to do something calm and peaceful because when I think of the art of Origami, I think of something that should be relaxing. While thinking over the themes or aesthetic use of the Crane, I eventually found myself associating pixels to the piece. A majority of the animations used in this project are squares or pixelated objects. When playing around with timing and layering, I decided on doing something that looked like a rainy day on open water.
I did an overlay of two square arrays with two different colors for the background and then applied a layer on top that multiplied to make it look like there were waves coming in and out of the display. To make the rain, I used basic lines with Chase and flickering animations, then spaced them out across the canvas. The pixels inside the crane fade in and out like it does in the background, but the color is just a basic white to help the figure stand out.
I think this piece could be successful if I had added audio of a thunder storm or a rainy day on top of it to help with the mood. The colors used are in a triad color pallet that would most likely resemble water and floating flower petals. The lines of the Crane still fall in with the pallet but are brighter and softly fade to at least maintain a "shadow" of the crane when the white squares fade.
Crane Composition 2: 5Gum
For the commercial aspect of the project, I immediately thought of 5Gum after finishing Data. I had to watch a few of the intro and outro sequences of their commercials to get an idea of what it should look like. I wanted to try and stay on the same path of Data and explore the possibilities of MadMapper, but that simply wasn't going to work. Professor Scott recommended that I start working with After Effects, to which I admitted I had no idea how to use. He insisted that I at least try, and so I took an online tutorial to creating the TV glitch and wave effect.
I first laid out the composition in MadMapper to place where I wanted my elements to go. There was some more playing around with layers and masking in this project. I had to record the background in MadMapper and convert the video file over into After Effects where I applied the glitch and wave animations. I did something similar where I typed the text in Photoshop and transferred it into After Effects. I then took the video files after the changes and assembled it all back together in MadMapper.
For having not heard or worked with After Effects, I think the project worked out really well, and now I'm addicted to watching all sorts of effect tutorials online. I did my best to stay close to the color pallets used in the 5Gum commercials to make it seem as legitimate as possible, as well as give the viewer some sense of motion.
Crane Composition 3: Super Crane
After discussing my compositions with Professor Scott, he suggested I should try something "out there," so I played around a lot more with MadMapper and made a third composition for the Crane. No plan, no idea, not even a clue as to what I wanted the end to look like - all I knew was that it had to be exciting. Bright colors, fast animations, and some action.
I played around with the plane deformations inside the crane's body, messed with the perspective in my new Plane Deform animation until it looked like the Crane was actually flying, and tweaked the values of the spinning color wheel animation. I wanted the crane to also be a bright color that changed over time, so I applied a different color hue changer over the animations and reduced the amount of green that appeared. The lines of the crane were left as a basic white that stands out from the background and the colors inside, to outline the different patterns and colors dancing around inside and behind the figure.
I definitely had fun with this piece just because of the color and making it look like something was "flying." Someone recommended to me during the critique that the background should have been synced to audio, to which I had no idea that that was possible. I haven't had the chance to do so yet, but I definitely think that would put an extra edge to this piece and make it more visually interesting.
