Esperi's 'My Tear Dissolved The View' has just been released as a free download,
along with this video by me and my mate Sean McIlroy. Download the song from SoundCloud.
Credits
Filmed by Cat Lee-Marr
Edited by Chris Lee-Marr
Designed / Illustrated by Sean McIlroy
Animated / Composited by Retchy
13/01/11 - Zoetrope
Sine Waves
Here's some footage of the finished sine wave
zoetrope - I plan to make some sort of music video or VJ mix
while projecting onto the zoetrope next, so it's not really completely
finished yet.
I thought I'd go into the process a bit behind this one while
it's still fresh in my head. It all started off in the computer
with photoshop and after effects and the mock up which you can
see below in my previous post. I won't go into the details of
how I made the the mock up (that'd be boring), but it was used
to make sure of the timings and positions of each of the pieces
of wood before I went ahead and made the real thing. Each frame
of each circle was rendered from the AE mock up as an image sequence
and then printed out to use as reference for when I started to
chop up the wood.
Each piece of wood, after it was painted, was lined up next to
it's corresponding print out, cut off and then numbered on the
bottom
and bagged up with all the other pieces from the same circle. After
all 227 bits were done, I had to figure out how to position them
on the record without permanently marking or damaging it.
After a bit of thinking, my solution was to mark the position
of each piece with a sticker (pretty clever eh?). But because
each of the circles was offset I couldn't just mark out one circle,
stick
the wood
on and move on to the next one because the previous circle would
get in the way - they all had to be done at the same time. So
I made a kind
of guide circle with the 33 frames marked out for the record
to
sit in,
taped
it in
place
and put
a drawing
pin in the middle that I tied a piece of thread around.
I then stuck one sticker onto the thread at the required distance
from the centre of the disc, stretched it out to the right
frame number on the circumference and then put a sticker on the
record next to marker on the thread. Once they were all done
I tested their positions by filming it, and it worked - first
time!
So that was it really, I just went ahead and stuck the pieces
on with my trusty glue gun. I'm really happy with how this one
turned out and I'm glad I kept pushing myself to keep it really
precise and tidy and slick, although not perfect, obviously.
My new record player has three speeds and allows me to fine tune
the rpm with a slider, so I was able to change the direction
the animation drifts in and mix it up a bit as I was filming
which makes it a bit more interesting to look at I think. But
like I say, I'm going to do some more filming with this and have
a
bit of a play with projection and masking off or highlighting
certain areas of the zoetrope...
05/01/11 - Zoetrope
Developments
I've been working away on a new zoetrope over christmas that will look a little
bit like this mock up, only made from balsa wood. It's taking a lot longer and
is more complicated than it looks (as usual), but I'll hopefully have it done
in a few days.
I also got this lovely record by music and animation duo Sculpture for
christmas. Not only is it a really good album of experimental electronic type
music, but
it's also a zoetrope! Buy it here,
if
there's any left.
10/12/10- Zoetrope
Mapping
I did this little test a while ago but wasn't in a rush to put it up due to it's
complete failure, but I reckon it's important to report on these things, if
any progress is to be made :) I was attempting to match up the projection so
it was constantly completely in line with the pieces of wood. Unfortunately it's
very hard to actually get the projected animation and the spinning zoetrope to
line up with each other in the first place, and even if you do manage it, the
two gradually slip out of synch because the maths of the whole thing just isn't
accurate
enough...
It was worth a go though, and I think I'll continue with some projection experiments
on future zoetropes, but with more general masking off of larger areas as opposed
to
precise,
single
frames.
30/11/10 - Ultrachip
Vs Forest Closure
I did the artwork for this benefit compilation for Edinburgh
venue The Forest, featuring contributions from every performer at 2010's Ultrachip
chipmusic festival. Please buy it and help save this great free venue from closure!
29/10/10
- Focus Left
I'll be performing The Lyre Of Orpheus at Focus
Left on Tuesday the 9th of November, at The Arches
in Glasgow. Possibly with live accompaniment, but probably not
:)
..........
11/10/10 - Zoetrope
Beads Again
My latest zoetrope test. This one took bloody
ages but I'm pretty happy with the result. Although I could probably
have got some better footage if I wasn't so impatient. I really
want to figure out how to exhibit these - they're much more impressive
when you see them in the flesh. My next mission will be to combine
some sort of zoetrope with the projection mapping technique.
Could be interesting...
27/08/10
- Ultrachip
Some footage of my VJ set for Comptroller at
the UK's first chip music festival, held at the Forest Cafe in
Edinburgh. It were good fun :)
12/08/10
- Zoetrope Beads
Here's that bead test I said I'd do - and it worked! The next
test is to try something a bit more complicated with it - I'm
gonna have two beads on each thread in a spiral formation so
that one set travels up and the other goes down. It will be fiddly
:D
27/07/10
- Esperi @ Dexters
This will be the last kite mapping post until
I do something drastically different with it, I promise. Which
might be fairly soon actually, if our plans come together for
a new music video with Esperi. This
is the best footage we've got of the kite in action I think,
so I wanted
to share it on here - the song is 'Silo The Fire', hope you enjoy
:)
