Thinking About Us
Feeling good, thanks!
Thinking about impulse control and discipline. Decided that discipline is doing what will provide the greatest pleasure overall, even if it seems to go against the pleasure of the moment.
Thinking about whether my armature will break in no time once I start animating. Wondering how many armatures I'll end up making.
Thinking about how it's dawning on me that I don't want to be **an animator** so much as I want to express my artistic vision through the medium of Stop Motion.
And further that I'm super digging how some artists are leaving traces of the process in their finished work, like hands in frames and armature structure evocatively part of character design.
Realizing I haven't yet mentioned here about how I view these films as I would a painting. Film as painting is a large part of the philosophy behind Halfland. That's why it's just my hand in it rather than say a roster of people on a credit roll.
Although, the surprise spirit of collaboration found through the web is stunning me. I deeply appreciate everyone who stops by here.
Do we collaborate with ourselves when we produce our own stories?
Does anything interesting ever really happen without a culture of collaboration? When I look back at remarkable things happening there seems always to be a friendship, or a circle of people that had joined their enthusiasm to produce something altogether new.
Is this the Web of the Early Otts?
"I don't want to be **an animator** so much as I want to express my artistic vision through the medium of Stop Motion."
ReplyDeleteYES! Thank you for articulating this!
I see folks like LIO on SMA urging folks to get to work practicing animating, and it makes me feel guilty for how much I've been focusing on just learning how to make the puppets...
But when I think about what really I want to do with animation, it's -- like you say -- like painting. I want to take my drawings into the third dimension and make them sculptures. And then I want to take my sculptures into the fourth dimension and make them films!
We all have a our comfort zones. Starting is always the hardest step to take though. I still dread having to start animating, because at that point the shot is still perfect, in your imagination. Shooting it will only result in a polluted, mistake ridden copy.
ReplyDeleteBut thankfully the audience never knows this!
Hi Sven! yes, back to you, that's exactly it for me as well. A fourth dimensional (+) work. It's a joy to hear that someone else shares those intentions for this. Woo hoo.
ReplyDeleteAnd hello to Phil!!! I can't believe you feel any hesitation to actually begin your projects. I've talked about that with Mike in the past, how if an idea lives in potential only then it can't be corrupted, as you say. But I never imagined that you might feel that way at times. I read on your site that you started animating about 1992? That's when I first started on Halfland. Look what you've accomplished in those same years vs. me. You, Nelson, and others have become highly sought after for your rare talents while I am still just beginning in my way. I look at that and wonder. I often ponder what information I missed or what capability I didn't have that would have enabled me to walk a line even remotely similar to people like yourself. I wouldn't change anything in my past as I'm completely pleased to be here now. I just wonder about the differences so that I might understand such things better.
Oh, and how bizarre is it that you and Hugh at gapingvoid.com know each other?! I've been reading him for more than three years!!! I would never have put he and you together in any context. I about fell off my chair when I saw him comment on your blog. It was like internet planets colliding or something. How ever did you guys meet, if that's not too intrusive to ask?
Many thanks to you both! ÷}
That's what great about the internet, people that might not otherwise give each other the time of day, can meet online and strike up a conversation.
ReplyDeleteWould not say I know Hugh, I have been reading gapingvoid for a while, like yourself. To be honest, I was a bit shocked to find his comment on my site too.
There are some interesting ideas on gapingvoid that have helped me with fundmyshort. But we are not old pals or anything like that.
Oh, that makes good sense. My world is once again restored to a peace. It amazes me how many times I'll see a blogger of mine linked to a wholly other place on the web. It seems to be a remarkable self-selecting society emerging.
ReplyDeleteThanks and cheers, Phil!!
Ah yes, the Potentia Conundrum!
ReplyDeleteBut, keep in mind that not only does a project become less than you imagined it could be once you set out to drag it kicking and screaming into reality, but also you get those happy accidents. Things happen that take you utterly by surprize, and make the project better than you could have dreamed.
I experienced some serendipity in my "Man Drawing" project in the areas of character personality and a couple of events in the conclusion of the film. I don't know how to explain it well except to say that I started out with storyboard concepts and kept everything basic and loose so I could spend more time on animation than writing a story. Writing the story via animation instead of words? Visual screenwriting? Anyway, instead of focusing on the smaller details of story or scenes, I focused on milestones that I should reach throughout the film to the conclusion. Subsequently, I found that I enjoyed letting the project sort of direct itself in between those key events by reviewing the accumulation of each filmed sequence and responding to anything in my characters (including the camera - which is intended to be a character) that hinted at personality or emotion...that sort of thing. So, in a way I guess I collaborated with myself as the project moves along. I'm approaching my next project with the same sort of method in mind.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Shelley, thanks for linking to me and also for mentioning gapingvoid in this comment thread. I didn't know about that blog but I like some things I've read on there so far.
Absolutely fascinating, D.G. and Mike!!
ReplyDelete"Writing the story via animation" D.G., I love how you gave yourself the freedom to focus on the aspects that gave you the most pleasure!!
"...set out to drag [the project] kicking and screaming into reality" Mike, That statement is typical of your creative, insightful, poetic ways of conveying complex situations. I love it.
And I love how both of you dive in and make things happen!
Fantastically inspiring!
Oh, and yes, Hugh Macleod IS an Egenius. I initially found him through his popular blog-post developed book called, How to be Creative (http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html) which lays out some of his transforming insights. I still check in on him regularly to see what the latest edge is he's cutting through.
ReplyDeleteHe's changed the way I view the Internet and it's potential. All the years I was listening to him talk about the power of blogging to remake businesses, and the means and media they employ, it never occurred to me to apply any of what he was saying and blog myself (as it were). He would talk about the Net as a radically new avenue to commerce connectivity, etc., but now I think his insights are considerably more far-reaching and speak to the fresh means that enable all of us to simply interact.