A visual for a piece of sample-based folk music I composed with a banjo in memory of an online friend named Anderson that I had not seen in 4 years. This animation was originally projected over an acrylic painting with the same composition but would give the illusion that the painting itself was moving (gif below). To see the original painting and process, click through Visual>2020.
This painting is a reflection on the many hours I have spent in virtual spaces, namely playing Steam games like TF2, Gmod, CS-GO, and other online games. Throughout my life I’ve made many online friends that I can still contact to this day. Some have completely left my life, leaving the memories of these impossible spaces and silly but sentimental interactions. This project took many forms that ultimately combined into one, starting as a piece of music, then painting, then animation/projection.
As for the process, I have been continuously interested in 3D and 2D characters and objects intermingling. I first created the composition in Cinema 4D through 3D modeling, going off the music as inspiration. I had a vision of nautical cowboys adventuring underwater and defeating monsters/bosses. I love taking my graphic design roots and transferring that attention to color, pattern, and composition into painting, and felt that masking tape would help capture this “clean-cut” graphic look I wanted. I tried using curving masking tape and liquid masking tape for rounded edges, but found that I could get a cleaner line just using my hand. I projected the image over a canvas, helping me paint it, but knowing I would try animating the canvas itself so I worked accordingly. Below are some work-in-progress pictures.
A couple of ducks go on a grand, loud journey. This was an exploration of improvisational sound design (Ableton Live) and 3D animation (Cinema4D). I tried to reject standards of animation in which you must storyboard and plan every frame. The result was a process that broke away from “pipeline-style” animation and was ultimately more enjoyable for it. The sound design is a combination of several field recordings of nature, EMF signals, and music samples to create a cacophonous composition, and create a foundation from which the visuals and movements took inspiration from.
