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
:)
23/07/10 - 3D
Zoetrope Cloud Test
I was just looking through some old files and came across this
failed attempt at a floating zoetrope. It's pretty close to working
though, so I think my next test will be to use slightly heavier
objects like beads or something to weigh the 'frames' down properly,
and I'll need to adjust the lengths of the threads so that they
come out to the correct circumference once it's spinning... I'll
hopefully have something to show relatively soon.
16/06/10 - Orpheus
At N_ilk
Here's another performance of Orpheus, this time
at N_ilk which is a night put on at Drouthy Neebors in Dundee
with live performances, both visual and aural. Also check out
the new Live Music
Videos page
to have a look at previous performnces and any future videos
I might do. I was supposed to be performing this again at Is
This A Test? at the Roxy Arthouse in Edinburgh on
the 26th of June, but I've been
postponed until a more suitable line up can be sorted out for
me to slot seamlessly into. A couple of my films will still be
screened there though, and there's lots of other cool stuff happening,
so come along if you can!
19/05/10
- More Esperi Gigs + RetchyvSmash
I've had a couple
more Esperi gigs now and I seem to be coping with the setting
up process a bit better these days. We're gonna try and get some
momentum going with a bunch of gigs together in June, so I'll
hopefully be able to improve the visuals with each performance
and try out new stuff as well.
This is some unedited footage from our second gig at Pivo Pivo
in Glasgow...
And here are a couple photos from the last gig at
Dexters in Dundee - it was a really nice atmosphere there, with
very low light which really allowed the visuals to shine :)
Thanks to Petra for the photos :) - more on Facebook.
I
also had a bit of a redesign and relaunch of the RetchyvSmash VJ
website which we'll be making an effort to keep more up to date
than in the past, although inevitably there will be
a bit of
crossover with this site in terms of content - especially with
the Esperi stuff.
I should have some more Retchy only stuff in the next month or
so though - I'm itching to get back into the 3D zoetrope experiments
(just purchased a lovely new record player off ebay, as the last
one was over abused), and I'll also have a new live music video
to perform at the Roxy
Art House on the 26th of June. I'm just trying to decide on a
song at the moment...
13/04/10
- Esperi Gig
Me and my VJ buddy Garry met Esperi (aka
Chris Lee-Marr) at one of our first gigs a few months ago and
we decided to work together
and have a go at
doing
some
custom visuals for some
of his gigs. I thought it'd be nice to try something a bit different
so quickly put together a little test using a
kite that my girlfriend Petra had given me for christmas (I had
yet to actually fly it at this point :) and the projection mapping
technique that I've talked about before.
This was all well and good as a test, but the real challenge
would be to prepare all the different animations so that they
could be
quickly
adapted
to the
new
positions
and angles that the kite and projector would end up in on the
night of the gig - I'd have to re-align all of the animations
in After Effects and render them all out again in the three hours
I had at the venue before the gig started.
In order to be able to do this quickly and efficiently I had
to create a separate
parent composition in After Effects for each of the 24 triangles,
which
consisted
of just solid, still, constant shapes. I then took these comps
and combined, sequenced and animated them in new compositions
so that I would only have to tweak the positions of the parent
shapes
and
all
the comps
that
used them would be automatically updated.
I needed to create various other parent compositions too that
were slightly more compicated than the still triangles (for example
the
animations
that manipulate the edges of the kite) but the same principals
applied. Having to work like this was a bit of a strain on my
tiny mind, and it presented quite a few limitations on the kind
of animations I was able to produce in the time I had available,
as I had to constantly go through the setting up process in my
head and decide if I could afford the time it would take to tweak
a whole new set of parent compositions on the night.
Here's an edit
of the first gig at the Doghouse in Dundee - I couldn't use the
live sound unfortunately as
it was a bit of a poor quality recording, so I put together this
semi music video to Takkat by Esperi himself.
I'll have some footage from our second gig together up soon with
the actual audio. Also, have a look at my Central
Station blog where I talk about the
process and performance a bit more (perhaps more coherently,
I'm not sure).
25/03/10 - Orpheus Take 2
The Orpheus gig went really well the other night - I had a great
time,
but still can't seem to get through the performance without screwing something
up. The adrenaline (or blind panic) seems to just take over when I'm doing it
in front of people and I end up throwing stuff out of sight that I need again
later in the performance. All part of the fun though, and I'd love to do this
more often so I can get used to all the excitement. In fact, I've been fantasizing
about doing a whole VJ set with an OHP and a massive pile of drawings :D
I've been asked to perform this again at The Roxy
Art House in Edinburgh on 26th June as part of a night of AV
performances, as well as possibly another song that I haven't
decided on yet. AND maybe some sort of 3D Zoetrope installation
but I'm not sure I'll have time to do that...
18/03/10 - Gigs, Blog And Stuff
I've been working on some new projection mapping
stuff for a gig this saturday at the Doghouse in Dundee, doing
visuals for Esperi.
Artist networking site Central
Station have
asked me to blog about my animation process during March (their
Process Month), which includes some stuff about the Esperi gig
- I'll post something
on here about it soon too. And I'm also gonna be performing The
Lyre Of Orpheus live music video at VideoLab in Edinburgh on
the 23rd! Busy busy busy :D
.........................
Also, please join my legion of three fans (including myself)
on Facebook and
follow me on Twitter! <--
Look! I even have the social network branding badges! I will
try and update them with interesting things. I may fail.
23/02/10
- New
Showreel And Some Publicity!
Just finished my
new showreel. Take a look and please do get in touch if you'd
like to work together, or have any questions about my work.
I received a lovely write up from Amid Amidi on the animation
blog
Cartoon
Brew the other day -
"One of the most fulfilling aspects
of blogging on Cartoon Brew is every so often discovering the
young filmmaker who loves to experiment with the medium and isn’t
bound by conventional notions of animation filmmaking. I’d
venture to say that Dundee, Scotland-based Graeme Hawkins is
one of these chaps..."
And I also got featured a couple of times on Glasgow based artists
networking site CentralStation.
They seem to like my projection mapping stuff the most...
....
31/01/10
- 3D Zoetrope Mock-Ups
Some mock-ups of my next 3D Zoetrope tests (please
view them in fullscreen so you can see them properly), you
just need to imagine the whole videos printed out and joined
end to
end
so
they form
cylinders.
The
first is
based
on a grid
system
-
I
split the length of the cylinder into the 33 frames required
of the zortrope, then split them into equal parts, each frame
being 6 squares in length (although I'm working on a version
that'll be 12 per frame). Then I just used Photoshop to colour
in the squares, and sequenced them in After Effects.
It's all a bit random and cheesey at the moment
but I think it has potential, especially if I layer up a few
more grids behind it and sort out the colours, maybe simplify
the movements quite a bit. This next one is using multiple
layers, and again will be printed out to form a cylinder. I was
trying to keep this one simple, but I think I'll test out the
grid one first cos it's a bit more interesting and less fiddly
to put together...
These
will hopefully lead to some sort of instllation in the near
future, and l should have some footage of it in action soon.
