Test Hand Scans

 First step was to scan my hands a few times, in doing this I was able to learn how the scan would react to movement mid-scan, how the depth of field would work and also I had to search Google to find out if it was even safe to scan my face :P

New Project, A 'Collection' of Work

Having received a new brief and discovering that the aim was to create a body or collection of roughly 20 images and to be able to present half of the collection in a physical form and another lot in a digital format.

I thought this may be an interesting way to work as I had never really considered how images work when presented in different environments.

Having just completed my short film animation I would like to find a way to use my scanner as a main medium to produce my work. During the making of the short film I did some tests with scanning my hands and was interested in how scanning other parts of my body may work.

Finished Short Film

I'm delighted to be able to upload my finished video!!

Watch, leave a comment, tell me what you think :)

Also I do not claim to own the sound track as I found it at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47mLY8vX3L0

Queue drum roll.....

Should the video file not work please follow the link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leq_bAPTwGQ&feature=youtu.be

A Love/Hate Relationship

Contrary to.. well.. just about everyone who meets me on a daily bases' beliefs, I'm actually enjoying making this animation video! Despite it being such a long (and I mean long) process I love nothing more than being able to play back the video and see my progress so far! Also I'm really enjoying making these backgrounds, check out what can be done with some simple materials you probably have lying around:

Some old paper from a Caterpillar shoe box to an underwater world ->

From the same shoe box tissue (and a lot of photoshop) came this:

From some voile, pebbles, glitter + a CD to a spacey dimension (image was also flipped) 

And last example, I used some torn out pages from an old book along with sweet papers and made this:

Granted there was a god lot of heavy photoshop'in done to this images to make them so lovely :)

Making A Scene

You kind of get the idea from my last post how I construct the backgrounds from each scene, its a pretty slow, tedious job. But what is even slower and more tedious is making the scene come alive. With the aid of Photoshop and Premier Pro Editing software I was able to bring each picture together and creating a moving image. Each individual image has a slight movement or difference so that when they are all played back together on Premier Pro it appears as though the scene has come to life. For example, below are 26 still images from my animation and that probably barely covers 1 second of video (this is the stuff heartbreaks are made of):

The Scanning Test

I constructed some test shots to see what would and would not work out when scanned. I like how the candy paper, C.D's and tissue paper looked when scanned.

After doing and learning from these tests I was able to properly start the process of constructing my backgrounds, which look something like this:
Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Memoirs of a Scanner by Damon Stea

I love the idea of making a short film about the life of a scanner with the scanner. I like how the whole short film was constructed, short and simple but effective and well executed! We see the short life span of a scanner through the scanning screen, we see documents being scanned, human interaction and banter between co-workers. The video is hilarious and is based on a great concept. See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jfItCGEOpo

Audrey Fitzgerald - Combined & Mixed Media

The year before last I had a lovely lecturer for our combined and mixed media class, Audrey Fitzgerald. During the year we had to complete various projects and assignments using different and various materials, this was great because it really opened my eyes to what you can create by combining found or made materials. During that year I made this collage of Vincent Van Gogh's 'Starry Starry Night' using sheets I painted and cut up

But anyway, the real reason why I am posting about her in relation to my project is about the work that she creates and how its inspired how I am about to approach my project. Audrey creates these wonderful images using found objects, such as buttons, receipts, colour charts and tissue paper. They are just beautiful!

In 2012 she also wrote and illustrated a book which inspires kids to use their imaginations. It can be seen at this link: http://audreyfitzgerald.me/index.php/portfolio/book/