Monday, May 17, 2010

ENVISION: Step into the sensory box

How amazing is this!? It would be wonderful to be able to do something like this someday, only with type perhaps? Funny thing though, I think the "Transforming the Mobile Experience" really takes away from the entirety of the piece. Makes it feel like an ad instead of an art installation... oh well. It's got my gears spinning for sure!



ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Assignments from Digital Imaging

It is a slow process, but I'm planning on getting everything up from the past semester to this blog—I know I don't have many readers, but I figure someone might enjoy reading my blog? Who knows.

Anyway, here are a few assignments from my class of Digital Imaging with David Lambert.

The instructions for this assignment were simple. Create a 1:00 stop-motion animation. I ended up going over the 1 minute mark to get my plot across, but I think it turned out good. Initially we had to create a 10 second animation on a 2D plain that we could then transition into the rest of the stop motion. The initial drawing of the DIA was for the first assignment and then integrated into the final. Yes, I did go in and photoshop the individual out of each frame. 500 frames of madness. I did not get much sleep over this. I spent 48 straight hours working on this roughly with only an hour nap. I don't recommend 2 all-nighters in a row EVER.


The Tourist was the basis of the instructions. We had to create a 1 minute video with the title of "The Tourist", instructed to go to a place that we have never been before. I wanted to lean away from going some place physical and instead wanted to go to a state of mind I had never been to before. See if you can guess where I am going in the film. I'll post the spoiler (if you haven't watched it yet or guessed) at the end of this post. So you should watch it now if you haven't already.


This is the video for the final project in which were were instructed to create a 3-4 minute video that we could take in any direction we wanted. Initially, my idea was to make a video on me falling into the world of Facebook (like Alice in Wonderland) and interacting with everyone as if I were trapped inside of facebook. While this would be very comical, I was unable to get people and bodies to create a social network. After a few tries at filming and capturing some weak footage I canned the idea and decided to pursue a task I had wanted to do for a long time: creating a music video for Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek.

I have always been in love with the song since I first heard it. For awhile when I was depressed I would listen to the song non-stop day and night—not the most healthy, but I could feel the song (yeah, not going to go any more emo now). I was mesmerized by the lyrics and the brilliance of the song. Genius. I ended up using it as part of a poetry reading for Iowa Speech contest—something I took to All-State level. For this video I wanted to do something with stop motion (since I have really enjoyed the process and the effect it gives) and wanted to include that. I was inspired by Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance" video of the stop motion of the bed and wanted to do something of the same, only on a green screen. I carefully plotted out everything I wanted to show behind them and how many pictures to take in reference to the words. My entire plot was not executed due to time and camera battery life, so I had to simplify many scene; however, I am happier with this outcome. Parts of the video might take some conceptual thinking behind them, so you might have to view things a few times to understand what I'm trying to comment on. For instance, at the 1:28 mark images of lips appear behind the figure. Both images say "I do" in reference to marriage—a cleaver way Imogen Heap sneaks this idea into the song without it being so obvious: "trains and sewing machines"— trains as in ACTUALLY trains that carry people on a journey, and train as in the 'train of a wedding dress' in reference to a sewing machine as well. The wedding signifying the beginning of a journey together. Catch that? Hopefully you can catch a few more things in my video as well. Position of the individual in reference to the background was also a big consideration. Notice the interaction between the two of them to receive a deeper meaning to the song. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Insomnia
Also, you can enjoy some of my past projects on my youtube account. Time and location of study is in the video description. www.youtube.com/hageja01