Autumn
Brief: create a short animation, exploring the theme of autumn, that will be part of a live projection light show featured on Eastbourne town hall tower.
In collaboration with Eastbourne Borough Council and West End Studios, this project focuses on projection mapping, a technique unfamiliar to myself. Agreed by the client and Council the theme issued was “Eastbourne through the Seasons”, Spring, Summer and Winter elements were to be covered by W.E.S, leaving Autumn to be explored. The final outcome would be included in the Eastbourne christmas light show which will be projected onto the town hall tower, along with opportunities to work with W.E.S on a placement.
My initial research took me into investigating the basics of projection mapping, as a completely new visual technique to me, I wanted to understand and grasp the workings and effects that projection mapping offers. Also known as video mapping and augmented reality, this visual tool uses projected light to turn objects into a display surface for video projection. These objects range from buildings to theatrical stages, using software such as Ae and Autodesk Maya a 2D or 3D object is mapped on the virtual program which mimics the real environment it is to be projected on. Combined with audio input, projection mapping is used by creatives to describe a narrative explorations in image, type, colour, light and sound.
Continuing my research I visited Eastbourne and the town hall, where the final projections would be held. I gathered a series of drawings and photographs of the tower and building, helping myself grasp the scale and physicality of the building which in turn gave me a better understand of the practicality and visual sides of what the animation could become. In addition seeing the tower in reality puts into perspective the elements and textures of the building; for example the majority of the brick was a burnt red colour, so anything thats red projected onto the building would not be visible. Also there was a lot more curves and bumps to the tower that I hadn't noticed previous, I felt this was something to engage with and not to dismiss, experimenting with the buildings layout and architectural features might offer a more visually exciting and impactful projection.
After visiting the tower and grasping the process and techniques of projection mapping, in turn learning the visual effects that can be created using the process, I began to brainstorm initial ideas and themes surrounding the brief and the season of Autumn. First draft ideas ranged from exploring the patterns and visual playfulness of fireworks, to the spooky atmospheres of halloween and describing the ever changing and preparation of wildlife in Autumn. Along with drafting first stage concepts and themes, I also started thinking about the animation technique, wether to create a vastly digital narrative, or go with a more traditional and hand drawn approach. My decision was made to go with a hand drawn animation technique, when during the briefing and research I found a lot of existing projection mapping consists mainly of digital and 3D animation; I wanted to explore and challenge mixing a traditional technique with the modern process of video mapping. With the animation process established, I looked over my initial ideas and decided to choose Autumn wildlife, I felt out of the three the wildlife theme offered a stronger narrative to play with, with opportunities to experiment with subjects such as change, preparation and evolution.
The next stage of the project was researching into the range of wildlife in and surrounding Eastbourne, whilst exploring the process of change and preparation that wildlife goes through during Autumn. From this I gathered a series of initial sketches and drawings highlighting a range of wildlife, from owls, foxes and badgers to mushrooms, meadows and trees; these basic samples established the framework to build my animation upon. After a storyboard was settled I created a rough animatic using my initial sketches which I converted into .gif files, this offered the first visual perspective of what my animation would look like on the tower.
From then I began creating the final animation drawings, using the technique of rotoscoping I mixed mediums working from pencil to ink, in turn generating variable textures, patterns and visual emotions. Once I had finished all the single framed rotoscoped drawings I scanned each of them into the computer, then editing them in Ps along with generating single .mp4 files for each scene, which I then took into Ae to composite each single animation into a narrative. Furthermore using Ae I was able to digitally map my wildlife animations onto the Eastbourne Tower, using a template supplied by W.E.S.
With the single animation .mp4 files composited and mapped onto the digital template of the tower, I focused on introducing elements of colour. I initially experimented with a variety of different layouts and process’s to generating colour, ranging from converting my black and white animations to different autumn colours to overlaying whole sections of colour onto the tower. In the end I found myself blocking and masking certain architectural features of the tower out with changing colour, the final outcome being a colour generated template of the tower that I could then overlay my animations, adjusting the opacity so that the animations blend with the autumn themed colours and shades.
With the animation and compositing elements of my projection completed, it was time to input aspects of audio to bring the silent animatics to life. Initially I thought about featuring a song with an natural/wilderness atmosphere to it, artists such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. However once overplayed with the animation sequence the audio and visual didn't work together, I felt it was the input of vocals that wasn't quite right. So I decided to make my own soundtrack for the narrative, using garage band I mixed a sequence of sound that is fairly muted in order for the animation to speak for itself.
With the soundtrack to the animation completed, I finalised some touches to the order of structure to make the narrative a little clearer, then exported the final animation projection sequence to a .mp4 file. On exporting I created three versions of the same piece, a black and white, coloured inverted overlay, and coloured overlay version, with in mind that the black and white version would work better with the projection setup, but I still wanted to explore the coloured elements.
Overall I am very happy with my final outcomes, looking back I feel my black and white version works the best for the reason that the wildlife animatics are much more visible, in turn making it easier for the audience to understand and read the narrative. However the coloured version emphasise the change in elements and wildlife but ultimately highlight the architecture to the tower, yet I feel the single animations get lost within the changes in colour making for a visually exciting and interesting piece but with a misunderstood narrative structure. The music is subtle and peaceful, allowing the moving images to speak for themselves and relax within the sequence. On reflection the final scene is engaging, playful and stimulating but ultimately challenges the concept of projection mapping. The next stage of the project was to await a decision from W.E.S and the Council to see if my projection animation would make it into the light show.
West End Studios
Fortunately my animation sequence did get selected for the light show, from this I was invited to a week long work placement at W.E.S, this enabled opportunities to grasp working within industry but ultimately experience new creative offerings and challenges.
W.E.S are a privately owned international experience creation company with a 40-strong team and a total in-house production capability based on the latest technologies across all media.
From their purpose-built facility in Eastbourne, W.E.S have produced thousands of successful immersive experiences worldwide that inform, excite and inspire. Below is a journal I kept, recalling my accounts and experiences whilst working for my week placement:
Day 1:
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Intro to team
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David talks about project so far
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Briefed on work to do
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Start work on Halloween segment
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Complete wolf drawings, bat sketches, alongside rough storyboard
Day 2:
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Continue working on halloween scene.
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Work split into two
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Begin working on zombie, spider, and skeleton sequence
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Rendered out initial scene
Day 3:
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Two sets of Halloween work composited then rendered
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Moved onto seaside scene
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Cut out scene imagery
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Sourced sound effects for Halloween scene
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Begin work on christmas flyer scene
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Prepared the Illustrator flyer files, to build into the tower
Day 4:
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Finalised and rendered christmas flyer advertisement scene
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Looked back on my Autumn scene
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Transferred and organised files
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Updated my autumn scene to work better with rest of the animation projection sequence
Day 5:
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Issued with creating Elf on a Shelf scene
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Transferred and adjusted files in Illustrator
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Built and composted scene
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Rendered out and viewed final projection
Overall my time spent at W.E.S was fulfilled with enjoyment, challenge and learning. Initially my first impressions working there were testing , because I was faced with overcoming new softwares, environments and work scenarios, but after the first day I grew comfortable with the situation. To my surprise I covered and created a lot more work than I first anticipated, after finalising my own autumn piece, I worked on the halloween and summer scenes of the animation projection, but also covered a couple of advertisement sequences which in turn I enjoyed the most; turning something which is quite bland and boring into something creative and visually exciting I found rewarding. Through these multiple projects I adapted and learnt the software Ae, initially I had a basic understanding of the programme, but as the week went on I increased with confidence and technical skill. Ultimately though the work placement opened me up to the opportunities and work ethic that industry brings; working within a team, collaborating, sharing ideas and time management. The opportunities that I grasped and experienced at W.E.S I will take forward with me, expand and learn more from; my work placement concluded a project that I learnt new technical skills from, expanded my creative explorations and experimentations and touched on the insight to opportunities within industry work. Below is the final light show on the Eastbourne town hall tower.