Media - Text to Image

Creating a piece inspired by the text 'Death of a Moth' by Virginia Woolf.

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Working in the sun with a homemade #matchtea 'iced latte'... Weird but nice

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Have you ever had an encounter with someone you didn’t know that has stuck in your mind? Do you often wonder where they are now? What are they doing? I need your help for my university art project. Please click this link to tell me about your interactions with strangers. It could be anything from a bizarre passing comment to a life changing moment. It could be thanking them, apologetic, complimenting, opinionated, confessional, funny, an attraction to or anything else. Please address it to the stranger, include as much detail as possible and feel free to post your comment anonymously. The finals will be posted on my art page: www.facebook.com/ASpinkArt Thanks x

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Please help me with my art project. Go to youranonymoustales.tumblr.com and click on 'ask' to tell me about your interactions in the past with strangers. Thanks! ASpinkArt x #help #illustration #art #interactive #stories #strangers #reconnect

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Click this link to tell me about your interactions with strangers. It could be anything from a bizarre passing comment to a life changing moment. It could be thanking them, apologetic, complimenting, opinionated, confessional, funny, an attraction to or anything else. Please address it to the stranger, include as much detail as possible and feel free to post your comment anonymously. Thanks x E.g. To the checkout lady in Tescos - you have a beautiful smile.

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The Final Piece

This is the final edit of the film. Overall I am quite pleased with the end result. I had my parent's view it and their reactions were what I wanted - of empathy and sadness. There were a few faults with some of the images i.e. objects not moving smoothly, however I feel in general it looks good. Next time I would play around with other techniques for example different angles and also use a thinner canvas perhaps tissue paper instead of printer paper. 

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Story board

This is the story board I've been working from for my animation. There are elements of death and decay in the short story however I have portrayed them in quite a naive style. By doing so I am creating a feel of empathy for the stereotypically insentient being. It also beautifies the process of death alike Woolf's descriptions. I have also taken her descriptions of the moth's battle against death such as "Also, when there was nobody to care or to know, this gigantic effort on the part of an insignificant little moth, against a power of such magnitude, to retain what no one else valued or desired to keep, moved one strangely" and turned this in to the short scene in which you can only see the moth's legs twitching and struggling along. In the story by Woolf she doesn't help the moth as it seems as if he has been defeated. Oppositely in my story I have the human hand put the moth outside among nature in order to die in a natural habitat. From this I've added a sense of time passing and decay by having the moth decompose quickly alike it's surroundings (dead leaves and debris). This was inspired by the time lapses of vegetables decomposing I found on youtube. By having the pieces of the moth and debris dance almost also adds to the beautifying of decay. The neutral earthy colouring and lighting was inspired by Stan Brakhage who used quite minimal colouring, both bold and delicate. I was also inspired by the photographs I took on the forest trip. The story ends as it began to show how the moth's life is one of many and alike most of it's kind. 

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Screenshot of the film so far...

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I've been searching youtube over the past few days to find songs that will go with my video so far. I have been looking for an acoustic song with a slow tune that will reflect a sense of sadness and empathy. I feel this song works well with my video so far however this may change once I complete the animation. 

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The first top and bottom images were accidents with their originals next to them. I put the photo paper in the printer the wrong way up meaning the ink wasn't absorbed properly. I then added to this by placing bleach on the paper, as the ink was still wet it merged with the bleach well. They have created quite abstract pieces however I feel they have also worked well to portray decay - appearing quite sun bleached.

The central image is a photo I took yesterday on the light box of a leaf between two sheets of coloured acetate. I then took a the sandpaper to it and drew around the edges in pen. Today I burnt the edges, I tried to burn the center to create a hole however the paper wouldnt take it. I feel this technique didn't work successfully. 

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Yesterday we worked at physically manipulating photographs to create a many different effects. When editing mine I wanted to create a sense of decaying. I used sandpaper and bleach to create many different effects. I feel the images that came out best were those in which I have blobbed the bleach on to it making splashes of faded colour. I am pleased with how these images have come out and feel they have successfully created a sense of decay. I now intend on burning some images to see whether that will be as successful. 

These images have been inspired by the similar style of Valerie Hegarty's work however are 2D versions. Her work normally incorporates more sculptural pieces yet they too have a feel of decay.

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Testing technique

The test animation I made was created by shooting completely blind. I had no way of seeing if the pictures had come out correctly or if they flowed. I have now attached my DSLR to my laptop in order to view the images as I take them. This method is called remote shooting. It is also convenient as the images are uploaded straight to the laptop. Also with this you can adjust the cameras settings; the focus and white balance. This way I can also take the images using the laptop so that I don't have to touch the camera, reducing the chances of the image being knocked off center.  Today I am working on my storyboard more and then will be testing different techniques to use. Hopefully I can get started on filming the animation today also! 

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Here is my first stop start animation. I created this short video to test out the light set up and practice moving the subjects. I found that I have moved the pieces a little bit too much between photos and that I used objects too large for the screen. In my final video I intend on using multiple scenes/backgrounds and potentially a few abstract ideas like in some of the videos I researched. I am now going to look at the text and pick out the most striking imagery to inspire my work. 

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Today I've been looking in to how to create a shadow stop motion animation.  Image 1:  Using the leaves I skeletonised earlier, I attempted to make a moth shaped creature to use as my animation's subject. 

Image 2 & 3: I created a shadow box 'theatre' by removing the front of an old canvas (slightly larger than A4) and replacing the canvas material with a sheet of paper. I placed a lamp behind the canvas.

Image 4: As the homemade 'moth' wasn't very thick the light easily passed through and unfortunately all the veins didn't show up clearly.

Image 5: I went back to the drawing board and created some moth shaped silhouettes out of black paper.

Image 6: These worked much better however I found that my hand or the stick I used to prop up the pieces didn't work well. Gravity meant the propped up silhouettes tended to fall over a lot. I'd also found I didn't have enough hands to take the photo, prop up the box and move the silhouette.

Image 7 & 8: After sketching up some ideas (see sketchbook) as to how I could suspend the light and the box, I tried out propping the lamp and box in my puppy's crate. 

Image 9: I tried making a short animation on Windows Movie Maker. I found in general it worked well however I needed to use a smaller moth silhouette. I am in need to create a storyboard before making another movie in order to make the film longer and to relate it to the text more. For now I am going to practice different techniques. 

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Shadow stop motion animation created using a backlight and a variety of objects. This could be a good way to create my piece and I am going to have a go at my own version. 

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Silhouette stop motion.

Printed images - like a flip book.

Moving camera with the subject - i.e. when apple is thrown up, the camera follows it.

Multiple Camera angles - zooms in also.

2:05 - Use of zoom and image cracks to reveal a multiple leaves.

Background colour and silhouette switch colours - Could use this idea to create a sense of emotion. 

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Skeleton Leaves

Now that I have created these I intend on passing an artificial light through them to create a similar look to Stan Brakhage's videos. I am going to look in to creating shadow animations using them as potentially the wings of a moth. 

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Skeletonising leaves

I found offline many different ways to skeletonise leaves. As the majority were American and using American washing products I made my method up. I put some vanish powder, baking soda and water in to a boiling pan. Placed the leaves in to the mixture and brought it to the boil. I then let it simmer for around and hour. After this the leaves were pulpy with a slimy texture. I took an old toothbrush and gently scraped away the pulp leaving just the skeleton. I then put the leaves in to the oven for a bit to dry out.