Angel and window

A clip from the animation...

Two rooms with a view

But are they Done?



Minor changes in the two main rooms. Each room will appear in scenes lasting no longer than 10-15 seconds each. This first room will also feature images playing on the TV.



I decided to put the radio on a stack of suitcases like I saw at TGC instead of the table it was originally on. Added other random things...



This room will be seen from two views. First in the dark just before the hall light is turned on. Only minor changes have been made to this room since I last worked on it, including adding plants.



Second, during a close up view of the items on the dresser.

I really can't say if they are done, but close enough for now.

Angel ... audio

Just a quick comment. Again, Mark Roper wrote Angel and is the poet I worked with at the Tyrone Guthrie Center at Annaghmakerrig. I told him that I would not post the audio file of the narration. I don't want to give everything away, especially since I am already spoiling so much by updating you with images. I was thinking of making an animatic, but decided against posting something like that, as well.

However, I really wish you could hear the audio that is nearly complete (but I can't bring myself to post). The poem is so good. Mark's narration sounds perfect (Thanks in large part to Sandy's excellent equipment). And, when I was in Paris, I worked with Maureen Evans-Hansen and Patrick Michaud on music. Maureen essentially did the music (Patrick was mainly the technician. And then there was me towering over her shoulder constantly making comments ... poor, patient Maureen).

Well, I hadn't listened to the sound file since August when I was last experimenting with timing/pauses, extra sound effects, etc. Of course, I have read the poem or heard the narration so many times. I know it forwards and backwards. I know what the voice of Angel sounds like (I have come to know him as just Angel rather than "the angel")

Yet, when I played it a few days ago, I got goosebumps when Angel sings

---

and a side note, I also still think Sandy's narration for the fetus story is funny. I don't know if I will ever pursue that piece, though ... sadly, I think it has been abandoned

Pantry done?

I can't BELIEVE how many hours I have put into these items that will account for a mere 4 seconds of digital video (Edit - I just did a time test with the audio - this might be a 10 second sequence). Ugh. I think the pantry is done, though. I probably got carried away with some things when I should have just focused on the food items. It IS a pantry, after all.

Here is a detail. The jars have my Mom's handwriting on them.

Angel back on the radar

I decided at least one chair should be a rocking chair, so I just changed the bottom half of the previous design.



I don't know if this is more of an American thing (the animation is supposed to take place in the UK), but I ran across one of these jugs and decided to make one for the pantry.



I decided I needed some oil lamps.



Mark was wondering if I could make an aspidistra plant. This was my first attempt.

Mark Roper reads Halcyon

This is about 12 minutes long. I promised I would post this since you will have to wait a long time to see Angel. It is the essay I posted earlier that Mark Roper wrote about his poem, Halcyon, and his mother.

Meet Mark Roper

The animation, Angel, has been derailed (all me - EDIT: I mean I have been distracted) and recently a few people have been asking about it. They have also wanted to know who the poet Mark Roper is, especially after reading his essay about his poem, Halcyon (I might post a video of him reading the essay, as well).

This is a short clip of Mark reading his poems when we were at the Tyrone Guthrie Center (an artist residency program) at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.

Meet Mark


Introducing Mark Roper

Figure textured

This is a test texturing (coloring, etc) of the angel figure. He is supposed to look a little dirty, but instead looks more splotchy. I will have to experiment more, later

Yet Another Angel

I can't believe I have created so many versions of the angel figure, but considering he is the title character, I guess it is important that I get him right. This time I am trying to give him a slightly 1950's feel (Mad Men?), but also out of shape (man boobs and a potbelly - although he looks more pregnant than out of shape... ugh).

I might return to an older version of the angel, but for now, this is what I have been working on this week.

Maya wireframes

I received a question a while back about Maya and what it is like building things in wireframes and then texturing everything. Here are some screen shots of wireframes from the dresser scene:

Wing working...

I really want to attend a workshop with someone like Lee Lanier and learn from him. It is a pain in the ass teaching myself everything, but satisfying when I troubleshoot something and get it to work. This wouldn’t seem like a very big deal to anyone who uses Maya or has taken classes, but it is satisfying to figure out how to make reference objects and deform the original objects so 2D textures don’t swim (create a texture reference object). Killer. Normal textures? No problem. Complex 3D projections? Ugh.

The angel’s wings and body are now ready to come together. I won’t get myself too excited, though, because I am sure there is another hurdle in the distance. There always is with this program.

If you are really curious what I mean, click on the QuickTime Movie link and scrub back and forth, slowly. The wing was made with many separate polygons. See how the projected 2D texture moves with the 3D poly forms? Great to see, for me, even though a seasoned Maya user would be thoroughly UNimpressed.

Maya updates

Ongoing updates of the dresser items


Detail


Creating jars of jam


The pantry, so far


I unintentionally had a button checked in Maya which started rendering crazy colors in the glasses. Neato

Updates and details

Items on the dresser for the hallway scene of Mark Roper's "Angel" - more items still to show up


Detail of the drawing showing droplets. I might have to tone them down a little.

More with Maya

Back to Mark Roper's poem...


Very unfinished house experiment. Not sure where I am going or what I think.


Some bowls.


Glasses made with Lee Lanier's amazing knowledge.


A bunch of the stuff mashed together for the pantry.

New objects for "Angel"

Hallway scene lighting test with a new room (using items from first room)


I guess I am starting with simple objects so I feel like I am making progress. Cans for the pantry scene, based on real labels from the '50s that I collected or created for the Fallout Shelter from a couple years ago.

Halcyon

Mark Roper has given me permission to post his essay about his poem Halcyon. Halcyon seems ostensibly to be a poem about a kingfisher, but really it is a poem about his mother. I had read the poem before I had known he had written the essay. The essay will be published in the coming months in a periodical in the UK.

I heard Mark do a reading where he presented this essay to us at Annaghmakerrig. It is amazing how differently I see the poem now. I recently reread the essay and I decided that if I am to post his essay on my blog, I should give you the same opportunity to read the poem before learning the story behind it. So, here it is:

---

HALCYON

I’ve never seen the kingfisher
you claim to have witnessed
on the stand of brackish water
at the edge of our wood.

Years I’ve been looking.
Not a sign. Wrong habitat
too: no bank for nesting,
indeed no fish. Face it

there was no bird yet
each time I pass I peer into
that gloom and each time
this comes to mind:

a flash of chestnutsapphire.
A small flame brooding on ooze.
Your words made light.
Your bright idea. You diving

through the long years
of grief to surface here,
halcyon, incorruptible.
And not one bird but a pair.

Audio comp

Yesterday was mostly travel and Monday I plan to run around London a little. Sunday night I did a test of all of the audio elements (sans sound effects) to estimate the overall length of the piece. Until I actually complete the animation I can only guess at how long the pauses will be. However, the test certainly reveals that the overall animation with intro and credits should be in the four minute range. Even though I hadn't really thought about the length (it will be as long as it needs, but no longer) that is a full minute or two longer than I originally anticipated.

I doubt I will do anything more with the audio until I animate the piece. I would guess the piece is several months from completion. That may sound slow, but when you are doing it all yourself, it is a laborious process.

More audio

Check marks for today:

√ Intro music for "Angel"

√ Completion of Outro music for "Angel"

√ Audio for "Nature vs. Nurture" - a new script I started at Annaghmakerrig

√ Script revisions for an untitled animation that I started based on a conversation with Mark Roper (also tangentially based on an abandoned piece I started years ago, but will be working on with Maureen later this week)

Good, solid, productive time. However, I won't be posting scripts or audio here.

I don't mean to be overly secretive...

More music

Sorry I am not posting audio here. I don't want to put that up until it is done, really. The first piece has been scrapped and a newer, cleaner set of vocals has been created. It sounds fantastic. Mighty Mo, indeed.

This week will be full of audio experiments, so I will have very few visuals to share. We might go to the gardens at Versailles in a few days, though. If I take pics, I can share those. Otherwise, not much for show-and-tell for a while.

Actually... here's a picture of a slug.



Feels weird not seeing hundreds of them every day. Plus, not seeing the slugs means not seeing Pat & Tom Phelan chasing them around with buckets of salt.

Composing music...

Arrived in Paris on Friday, and within an hour after dinner, I sat down with Maureen Evans-Hansen and Patrick Michaub and played the audio of Mark Roper reading his poem. We immediately started talking about music and Patrick and Maureen were quickly creating amazing music for the piece. I am listening to their experiments as I write this.

Gorgeous, horrific, and haunting, all at the same time.

This is gonna be gooooood...