animatedcreativeandreamcswan: Reflecting practice

Saturday, 23 January 2016

Reflecting practice - as a tool to shape an idea

Reflective practice is proving to be great in bringing sub-conscious ideas to the surface. Feels like I am revealing my creative process...not only to others, but to myself.

And in this reflective practice I am beginning to see that I have a few common themes that have run through all my ideas for my final project....

So, to keep my ideas conscious and highlight which themes inspire me, I've made a simple list of ideas to date and their common features:

Idea 1:

Exploring interactions between people, humourous and emotive. Set in an urban environment. A relationship begins between two people who never meet. Inspired by the interaction between this street artist and the council.

Idea 2:

Having experienced life inside DJCAD I was inspired by the possibilities and the software available. My ideas changed rapidly.

A 2D woman is trapped hostage in a camera film negative and fights to break free and become 3D.

Similarly this idea explores a theme of freedom and restriction. I was particularly drawn in this idea to creating a 2D character and transforming her into 3D. A journey of growth. However, I felt that the story was weak and I wasn't convinced that there could be a good enough catalist for her to break free. How? Why? etc

Idea 3:

I've been inspired by Game of Thrones and the title sequence and have been researching how it was created. I was thinking of creating a film title sequence, using dynamics and highly polished VFX to create a stunning animated title sequence - possibly based on the story within idea 2.

This idea, whilst it could look amazing, lacks in a story. And a good title sequence, from the research I have done, all have a solid basis of a good story. So, I want to create some of the dynamics and high definition abstract images, but weld them into a good simple story.

So, back to the drawing board to reflect on my ideas so far, and to see what common themes there are.

And here are the themes that have interested me and the progression of my thoughts today and my final idea, that I'll work on presenting to Phillip Vaughan at DJCAD this week...

Flat to solid

2D Neon outline

2D tranforming into 3D

Monochrome to colour...

Tranformation

Abstract HD imagery

2D becoming solid

So my objective is to now get some real focus into what can be achieved in a one minute film...taking into account the ideas and themes above.

My starting point....an internet search for 'shortest stories.' 6 words or less!!

Here's my inspiration - particularly the first and second ones.

We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
James Patrick Kelly

See that shadow? (It's not yours.)
Jim Crace

Free to good home. Extraneous coffin.
Barbara Trapido

So, my mind is sparked with lots of new tangents and ideas - I thought I would show my train of thought both with a word and a picture....

Melting Jelly

Jelly Molds

Melting

Melting ice

Fire and Ice

People of ice and fire

Melting

Dark to Light

This image reminds me of the neon theme and the hostage idea. The fire of the hostage would melt the captor.

Ice sculptures.

There may even be a story in this picture?

One substance turning into another

Ice people

Ice melting

Aha! I remembered seeing images of this exhibition in Berlin. By the artist Nele Azevedo

http://neleazevedo.com.br/

And I am wondering if I can create a short story based on two ice characters that are in this exhibition? A simple theme of letting go and transformation.

I love designing to music. Mozart and Bach today....I think classical music will go well with this....