Fall 2014 Interdisciplinary Final Pieces

Some selections from the Fall 2014 Interdisciplinary projects:


Maan 301 01 f14 Cynthia Membreno with sound from cynthia membreno on Vimeo.

Cynthia Membreno collaborated with Music students Devin Farrell and Hannah Lorimer on this interpretation of Radiohead's "Creep."

Final Two Weeks

To Do

• maintain journal notes, posting new work and reflections
• identify technical obstacles and find solutions in class
• work added to animatic
• identify shortcuts, things to cut out to make process efficient and realistic
• make sure calendars are up to date

Tim
- work with moving layers and masks to create wave animation
- add typography to cards to give final look (and work backwards from there)

Mee
- post new work, take action to move forward
- make decision about visual aesthetic
- start with illustrations and make choices about what moves after the composition are set up

Tara
- continue forward progress
- consider replacing white background; seems to work best with full color in image
- consider interaction of performer and imagery for efficiency in production

Chris
- catch up on journal entries, work posted.
- need to see illustrations populating entire animatic, then make movement choices

Meghan
- move forward and communicate progress to partner whether or not you hear back
- use After Effects for motion that can be keyed; start with illustrations for character movement and consider use of cross-dissolves to give impression of fluidity

James
- maintain forward momentum
- let's see the animation this week

Cynthia
- maintain forward momentum
- find moments where After Effects movement might help save you time (i.e. camera moves)

Andrew
- need to see work

Andre
- catch up posting to blog
- use After Effects to create movement from limited animation/illustration

Ra'shon
- post animation
- identify After Effects or Flash questions

Greg
- change blog format to show post entry date and time
- make a usable production calendar
- need to see more pieces of the puzzle

Animatics for September 15th, 2014

Animatics due on Monday. These may necessarily be only rough approximations of what the final approach to the music will be, but exploration now will serve you well in the following weeks, so I'm expecting to see real research and effort. Avoid being passive, and don't let obstacles slow you down. The more you move forward under your own efforts, the more opportunities you will create for yourself.

Pitch Grading Criteria 
• presentation includes introduction of self and partner. 
• did you meet with your collaborator to discuss the music and possible visual approaches? Articulate technical process for moving forward (materials, steps, etc.) 
• together with your partner, articulate your goals for this piece of music: interpretation, ideas contributed by each of you. Summarize the main points of your conversation. Information posted to the “Journal” page on your blog. 
• degree to which idea shows inspiration, originality, basis for real dialogue between an animator and a musician. 
• preliminary thoughts on materials needed and overall production schedule. 

Animatic Grading Criteria 
• animatic with scratch music ready for class review. 
• animatic is easy to understand (visual continuity via shot selection), reflects conversation and beginning dialogue points made with your partner. 
• reflections on critique feedback posted to “Journal” page of blog, along with your own thoughts on the process to this point. * by end of class.

Create Production Calendars and Post to Blog

• How will you organize your time? What tasks need to be done? When? How long will they take to accomplish? Break them into small pieces.

• Demo Google Drive: create spreadsheet.

• Post Production Calendar to blog by 2pm. 

Week 3

A few notes about our progress thus far:

• Labor Day was a speed bump: it is Week 3 and we need to catch up.

• It is important to understand that the musical piece chosen is one that the vocalist will be working on with Reggie Pindell, and that they understand they are strongly encouraged to perform live with animation supporting the performance, in mid-October (date to be set). This is not a piece the animator tells the vocalist to work on, although the hope is that your musical tastes are compatible and that you are both excited about the song.

• Your blogs need three tabs: "Journal" (for weekly posts), "About" (where you describe the music chosen with your partner and your artistic goals for the piece - why choose particular aesthetic approach, way you will interpret it, how this project serves as a means to learn the language of music and how to work with a musician on a collaboration), and "Production Calendar" (link to a Google Doc that outlines the production process from start to finish, including scratch track deadline, animatic deadline, asset creation deadline, animation deadlines, final audio recording deadline, and compositing deadline). Include our major critique dates, as per the syllabus.

• Tabs need to be pages, not posts.

• Links need to be clickable.

• The tone of the writing can be fun, but you must represent yourself as an artist who asks to be taken seriously.

• Most of you are missing the post that articulates your initial thoughts about the project, the type of work you are thinking of creating (installation, music video, other), and any thoughts about the examples screened in class (Tony Oursler, William Kentridge, others). We will do this in class.

• The weekly post is a progress post. This week's had to do with describing how the meeting between yourself and your vocalist went: discussion of music and musical tastes, visual tastes, the performance goals of the vocalist, your ideas for the visual interpretation, etc. Also include what your next, mutually-agreed step forward will be.

• Individualize your blogs so they don't all look like this one, but keeping the pages visible (I will, too!).

• Make sure to begin structuring your production calendars, as we will move quickly into production (after animatics). 

Here are the pitch grading criteria*:

Pitch Grading Criteria

• presentation includes self introduction and summary of conversation posted to blog (see below).

• did you meet with your collaborator to discuss the music and possible visual approaches?

• together with your partner, articulate your goals for this piece of music: interpretation, ideas contributed by each of you. Summarize the main points of your conversation. Information posted to the “Journal” page on your blog.

• degree to which idea shows inspiration, originality, basis for real dialogue between an animator and a musician.

• preliminary thoughts on materials needed and overall production schedule. 

*note: assignment grading criteria will be posted to Digication this week. Please refer to Digication for these notes, as well as for grades, announcements, etc.

Week I

Welcome! We got off to a good start, today, with Voice instructor Reggie Pindell paying a morning visit to our class to help introduce the project and to answer and ask questions from you guys.

Consider using direct animation or motion graphics techniques (paper cutout, sand, Flash, After Effects, puppets, etc.) that will allow you to complete the project with a balance of aesthetic sophistication and efficiency. You are not constrained to "pure" animation and can make use of live-action and other methods to create this piece. If you choose drawn animation as your technique, make sure to calculate the amount of time it will take to go through each step.

Here are a few links from examples of music and animation screened in class, today, as well as others, to aid you in your research this week as you scour the internet for inspiration:

• The Tender Game (Hubleys: simple, abstracted characters, animation set to jazz)

• The Erl King (Benny Zelkowicz: sand animation set to a song by Franz Schubert)

• Le Merle (Norman McLaren: paper cutout set to a traditional Quebec folksong)

• Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren: scratch, paint on film)

• Synchromy (Norman McLaren: paint on film )

• C-note (Christopher Hinton: abstract animation set to abstract music)

• An Optical Poem (Oskar Fischinger: abstract animation set to music by Franz Liszt)

• Moving Along (Patrick Smith: drawn animation, contemporary music video)

• The Hat (Michele Cournoyer: ink, morphing imagery) 

• William Kentridge (trailer for "Anything is Possible:" animation in performance)

• Tony Oursler (vernissage: video projection breaking free of the flat screen)

• The Eye and the Ear: (Franscizka and Stefan Themerson: visual/aural experiments using animation and film) 

• The Tale of How (Blackheart Gang: After Effects and 3D, moving illustration)

Please create a reference list of links on your own blogs.

~ Chris