Summer Hobby. I love Word Searches and started making my own for S&G’s. Happy to send a PDF plus Key to anyone who DM’s me. Lots more to come. This one is dedicated to Evatima Tardo, one of magic’s great oddities. https://oldspirituals.com/2016/02/03/evatima-tardo/
Category: diy
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As I start ramping up on my writing full time as a novelist, I wanted a website that might reflect my interests bests – especially the genre(s) that I write in – mystery/memoir/comedy. My latest book, Nothing to Lose’ is a pastiche of influences and I wanted to have a separate imprint for writing, promotion, campaigns and the like.
You can sign up here https://hollyweird-north.com/ to get regular updates, freebies and giveaways once I’ve got everything set up
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Getting my #Gothic #VisualNovel game on with music box melodies and a classic tale of madness, death and destiny. #GoodTimes
Over the winter break, I shall spend the next month crafting this free-to-play VN as a proof of concept and a chance to experiment with the format. I’m leaning more to a linear story right now and will perhaps add interactive elements as I grow more familiar with the software.
I’m working on character designs, title reformat, visual approaches and all the usual exciting visual developments that help cement a project for me.
I’m changing names, ideas and story lines as I find my story. I have a good idea of where I think I’m going. But the weekend is here and by the end, it may change yet again.
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As I acclimatize myself to my new home/ studio, I am also continuing to explore the hybrid forms of animation I am attracted to. I’ve already completed one Stop Motion film for a prestigious client (more about that when I can) while I examine my methodology and art practice as a #nextgen cinema artist.
Here I am developing the look for a longer form web series (10 chapters x 10 minutes) that I want to make for 2017. Using IClone 6, voice actors from Chicagoland and a modicum of support from CCC, I am hopeful that I can bring this to fruition.
What’s exciting about this work is deciding the form it shall take once online, 2D or 3D, color or B/W? Create a full series and then bulk upload all episodes or time release on a weekly basis? My continued exploration of #onlinecinema and #motioncomics coupled with a healthy interest in designing limited animation formats while maintaining artistic control and narrative & visual cohesion drives me.
This is a world of limitless opportunities for me as I design and create stories I have the technical ability to tell married to the assets I develop, purchase and create. IClone and Google Warehouse plus their Content Marketplace allow me a plethora of tools – and my own filmmaking skillset allows me the ability to create films online that resonate.
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Here’s an advance look at my next Grant Guignol Stop Motion Project. This year is all about doing art that matters to me and developing my StopMo chops. #diyordie
I’ve been very fortunate with my recent stop motion film, “Gloomy Sunday” has already been accepted into a major international film festival (more details once I can release them) so I am continuing to develop my body of work (which was always in the plan) this semester. Here you can see my main character, a poor government worker relegated to an isolated military outpost who passes the time listening to music and watching TV while pining ‘for the fields’, as Monty Python used to say. Like GS, the idea here is to open myself to free form association and find the story as it develops. I am debating going full color on this one – as I shall be integrating full 3d backgrounds and CGI digital composites throughout. My hero rides a moped – see photo below – that allows me to get my green screens out and get all ‘rear screen projection’ on this piece.
As you can see, this is another dirty, drab and handmade world (all by me, naturally) although I am indebted to CCC alumnus Cassie Grawes who left me the shell of her set from her thesis film to use as I may. So, I adapt, add-to, manipulate and paint splatter to find my world. I know that this film is also about love – or more specifically about love lost – and it shall not use dialogue. I do believe that visual storytelling is the key to my successful cinema and I shall continue to adopt that position here.
Music will figure prominently and, as I am currently on a retro Big Band Swing kick, can only imagine it shall be something forlorn (and possibly reed-based) once I find my metier. I’m learning to hold the reins lightly in this process so I’m not counting anything out.
I’m figuring the work will take me more than GS due to the complexity and the style of work I shall be doing. With CG integration, driving sequences, real walk cycles and other detailed work, this will be a much harder stop motion endeavor. If GS was my formal introduction to the stop motion world, this film will be more of a thesis event for me to consider. I shall post more as I go.
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Today was all about looking at how to integrate 3d eyes into the StopMo workflow. I quickly roughed in a 3d puppet and added eye blinks and brought across to AEFX to add to still photographs I had taken to help me with my proof of concept. Using AEFX, I sketched in the eye movements and learned a number of key things.
Here’s an example of a composite where I’ve added various film looks and light leaks to add to the look of the finished film.
I know that I have to work on my matting and mask feathering skills and tracking the animation will also add to the workflow – but it’s turned out well for a proof of concept. I will have to watch the on of the eyelids as well and make sure they match the character I am adding elements to – but it’s a nice start.
Here I’ve added camera shake and twitch plus a suitably spooky sound bite from my horror library. This cinema is everything that I love – dark, strange and otherworldly – with more than a tip of the hat to classic horror, silent cinema and my StopMo heroes.
The goal this semester is to explore the art that I am making and bring together all of my disparate loves – the beauty of the grotesque, childhood fears, bugs, decay, rust and ruin – all in pursuit of love or some noble deed. Lofty goals for a small film.
Last but not least, I returned to my Porcelain baby doll (Clip #1) and experimented with S8mm footage and adding a suitably scary tone under. These are the visions that keep me working. See the test here.
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This semester I take on one of the greatest challenges of my career as an emerging artist and filmmaker. I have long been a stopmotion enthusiast and this semester I attempt to learn more by making my own new original film. The Animation Dept. has graciously allowed me space this semester in one of the studios and today I loaded up an Uber and brought my art, sets and supplies to my first off-site big-boy studio.
I have an idea – a plan of sorts – to build a surreal art film based on the work of the Bros. Quay, my photo hero Joel Peter Witkin and the surreal cinema of Jan Svankmajer. It involves angels and devils, Cupie Dolls and mishappen broken Porcelin figurines. It is about love and loss. Death and resurrection. But beyond that – I am keeping my options open.
As an artist and an educator, I am dedicated to exploration through practice. I understand the value of ‘play’ and the joy of following one’s intuitive self in search of a greater, personal meaning. I’m not limiting myself to time, defining myself by genre, restricting myself to a specific style or tone. All I know is that I don’t know what I’m going to do. Yet.
And I couldn’t be happier.
I define my look first – it informs my story telling – I’m leaning to B/W as it is a tonal and textured approximation of light and dark – and I’ve learned to let the work live with me for a while before I make a decision. So, I shoot test photos and look at them and then they tell me how to best approach the work. Here’s what I’ve got so far. I wonder what the characters have in store for me?
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It’s back to school time – but I was able to get one more comic finished before I begin full time work again. I’ve a full semester with my new micro cinema class debuting, the online Grindhouse & Eurocult class and Producing III. I’m upping the ante this year as I add a new stop motion animated film to my workload as I continue to develop my manga portfolio – and I’m at school every day – so it feels good to get this one finished now.
So, time (as always) was of the essence – and I’m thrilled that Nik Korpon let me use his Bar Scars collection to develop my comic work.
It’s a B/W Noir comic complete with all the trimmings. I expanded on Nik’s original story a little and played with the outcome of the events – inventing an expanded backstory for all involved. Overall, I’m happy with how the work came out – and it doesn’t reveal too many of my limitations (both artistically and technically). I’ll post it up in its entirety on Facebook and the like and make a PDF available as well. Like the last one, I shall do a limited print run on Blurb – as nothing feels better than hard copy – and then send off complimentary copies to friends, Nik and those that have been kind enough to encourage me in my endeavors. All-in-all, I spent J-Term well and this is the result of the last few weeks through the Xmas holidays and up to today. I finished this work in about three and a half weeks so it’s a good timeframe for me – and I’ve learned a lot in the process.
You can purchase a copy of the finished book here or read an online copy here. #Onwards.
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Continuing to build up ideas and animation techniques. Here’s a Steampunk Robot idea that has been kicking around a long time. A Stalag 13 prison break film with robots being controlled by mankind (all unseen as in the old Tom & Jerry cartoons or Peanuts grown ups.
Using this premise, I can devise a simple ‘break out of jail’ scenario emulating Chicken Run or The Great Escape. I’ve always been a sucker for these type of pictures and the POW idea can speak to our reliance on technology and how eventually robots must be locked up as they begin to fight for their right to exist.
The joy of this is that I can create a number of vignettes all centered around a main story or premise (as above) and create little web episodes or snaps that tell this story.
Working on projects like this – and sketching them out here – allow me to ‘think out loud’ and see how I respond at a later date.
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Getting ready to start my next comic adaptation from Nik Korpon’s Bar Scars short story collection – A Sparrow With White Scars. The story centers around The Pine Box – a bar that I shall visit a number of times on Nik’s stories – and it’s one of my favorites in the collection.
Here’s a look at the main room with my leading lady for scale. There’s a pool table plus a lot of action here inside before we move outside.
This one I shall look to uniform framing, a more refined text and word balloon placement plus a stylized B/W palette. There will be a number of extras as well seen at all times so it’s a good test for how many characters I can have in a scene.All of this work is a good warmup for more involved projects for 2016 – including a web series (I hope) that is extremely ambitious -even by my standards.
I’ve had a great time adapting Nik’s work and I’m looking forward on doing Sparrow in January before I go back to school.