on a dime

Moving away from the ideas discussed yesterday.
Nothing special about it. Just substitutions in the process.
I've created a kind of Japanese screen door through which I'm planning to screen some live footage...

layers and narrative

I don't know if this is heading anywhere.
the Images are from a 'sketch' of this weeks project. But it is far from being organized into a story. I am playing around with layered color and blade shapes, and I like that part, but the movement is not very interesting yet.
I need to sit back from it for a while...
Meanwhile... its a nice day outside...

peace and love...

white

Why am I so interested in abstraction? What is it about the intersection of two clean lines, or the 'difficult breathing' of an old fridge motor, or a slight inflection dug into an otherwise perfect curved surface that will, on occasion, catch me me off guard? Make me pause and take in a deep breath.





I move forward. I take so much for granted because I have to. Our brains, after all are pre-conditioned to compartmentalize and move on. The ordinary and everyday objects around us are neither threatening or otherwise advantageous, so why should we pay much attention. And yet occasionally, just occasionally, something slides into our field of view: askance from what is considered relevant . A level of detail from the overlooked universe. A rusty scraping of metal, a geometrical imperative that folds into view, then just a quickly folds out, a texture bump that yearns to be acknowledged with an outstretched finger.



But then I move on. The abstraction of the moment passes. I work, I hang out with my partner and Labradors. I complain about the weather. I make miso soup on occasion. I fiddle with music and images: trying to capture something... These are all good things... But so is the abstraction.

ep. 21

Conditions ep 21 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

Change

I am doing something different this week. I am changing the music mid-stream.
This is because the animation style itself mutated into something far more mellow since the start of the week. The glitch and static sounds of the music I had no longer suited the shapes and colors that I created in After effects.
So, after a nice relaxing morning walking the dogs and a sushi lunch, I sat down with the challenge of creating a one minute composition. What I ended up with is a very simple rhythmic piano piece. Like last week, there is an emphasis on performance. However I did a better job of cleaning it up this time. I considered adding strings, but in the end I just stuck to the piano solo. It suits the images better.

towards blue

This weeks animation is a continuation of the 'accident' from last week. the basic style of repeating nested structures folding in and out of each other with a third variation built in to 'displace' the elements.
Its not as planed as usual, but I am having fun with the design and color.

ep 20

Conditions ep 20 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

rare

Its a rare week this week. I'm battling a cold and yet I am feeling quite productive. Episode 20 is progressing quite nicely despite the fact that I'm less than happy about the quality of the music.
What I am happy about is the results I am getting with a few key expressions (java-script) in After Effects. In this animation I am using some recursive sets of expressions that control the size and shape of the basic element, and then have adjustable delayed reactions. This has resulted in some interesting pattern structures that are controllable with just a few keyframe parameters. The structure of the animation patterns are easily synched to the larger formal structure of the music.

work and play

my dogs are bugging me for a play and I'm thinking, perhaps its better to go away for a while and give them some attention. allow some 'perspective' back into my current project.

ep 19

Conditions ep 19 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

More experimentation.

more fiddling

I'm experimenting quite a bit at the moment with textures and while this is not going anywhere particularly structural at the moment, I do like the look of it:

something that I'm working on at the moment. I don't know if it will see the light of day as there no 'story' to it yet. Just some image effects.

up on NIN group

my nine inch nails entry has finally been added to the groups section.
This is good news.

16 people

Created by OnePlusYou

what a difference

Just goes to show you what kind of difference there is between You Tube and Vimeo.
Don't get me wrong. I like both services, but clearly...

36 ghosts IV from f3ilter on Vimeo.

Nine Inch Nails

About a month ago Nine Inch nails released a great instrumental album and invited listeners to create their own videos to go with the songs. This is my entry. Its based around the final track of the set (which is nice and short, and thus perfect for me). The animation was done surprisingly quick: its just a set of star shapes that are mutated and spatially adjusted in nested sequences. As usual, You Tube has done a hatchet job on the transcoding: pity. Otherwise, however, this is clearly the best thing I've done for a while.

new music

Conditions March 2008
(inspired in part by Nine Inch Nails new album Ghosts I-IV).



The player doesn't seem to be working, so the direct link can be found here.

abstract stories

As mentioned in a previous post, ep 19 is being delayed a little because of the music. I think I will have something ready by the end of next week.
The animation I have planed is somewhat rudimentary. It is certainly more abstract then normal, but I am trying some new techniques which I hope will pan out in a few eps to come.
I’ve been thinking about story more: I feel that even pure abstraction has the capacity to tell a story. Some people in the world have the capacity to tell such stories even in a still image. This is still something that is largely beyond me: my artistic skills are quite rudimentary. But by working on this stuff on a regular basis I do feel that I’m developing some skills regardless. And, every now and then, in something like an ep 9, I get something close to a story.

A quick self assessment:

Ep 18 is up and its not my best work. Often the idea for something starts one way, in the realization there are too many compromises. Too many technical hitches. Too little time. I didn’t to the concept, the found poetry the justice it deserved. There, are, however, some interesting technical skills that I learn't on the way to completing this project, which I’m pretty proud of.

ep 18

finally ep 18 is up and away.

The phrases in this composition are from a great website I found that is virtual fridge magnet: http://isnoop.net/toys/magwords.php. People are invited in real time to rearrange the words. Each day for a week at the same time I noted the most interesting phrase I could find and used those phrases in this project. In the project I was trying to capture the moment between when these are single words, and when they are meaningful.


Much love to all the unknown poets who contributed to this project.


Conditions ep 18 from f3ilter on Vimeo.

mistakes and GPS

This morning I discovered that the end titles for ep 17 actually say '18' instead. I did this by mistake because I was working on ep 18 at the same time (just as there is an overlap this week between 18 and 19). I must admit I find these kinds of mistakes a little dispiriting. Firstly because it means I will have to go back and re-render (I'm lazy and by the principle of the thing I don't like going back to old projects), and secondly I feel incompetent because I missed something so simple.
Recently my partner told me about the GPS theory of life: that when you make a wrong turn GPS machines don't go off the handle at you, but calmly reorientate you back to the correct path. Its funny that such good advise comes from a machine.

This weeks ep is falling behind a bit. I've decided to concentrate a little more on the sound design. In turn this means some fundamental retraining of the software instruments I use to create that music. Its worth a little delay.