Screen Flow is an experimentation of where animation can exist in both virtual and physical environments. For the video I have used a low polygon style in the form of a river to “flow” between these spaces. To bridge the gap between the real and surreal, I have used methods such as camera tracking, stop motion and seamless transitions.

Since the last post I’ve added in my 3D tracking shot. Where my last attempt failed, this time i managed to make it work and flow quite nicely the rest of the piece. Using the iPad as a portable screen, it allowed me have the animation appear in a location that wasn’t an office, bedroom, studio etc; Therefore I could use a nicer looking location.

To start with I created another screen border in my 3D environment and then used the iPad as the portal. The border fades to an image of Jamie Shoard, this is a first person view of the rivers jouney from the iPad. From there it cuts to third person shots of the river in the physical environment and then back to first person as it goes off screen. I arranged the next shot so that it could fade between the real and the virtual. I thought this part might futher blur the boundaries of where animation can exist.

I decided to kalideoscope my finished video. It worked really well with the 3D portions of the video as the contour lines and block colours create some quite interesting patterns. Here is the result

To begin the project I knew that I wanted to experiment with transitional effects and environment changes but it was putting them into context that was proving challenging. I began by outlining ways in which screen content could be viewed in other ways but I was still struggling to think of the animation I could use that would be relevant to this concept. However in the meantime I had begun playing around with some triangular low poly styles similar to the work of BEEPLE and others; I really liked their aesthetic and wanted to experiment with how they could be used. In the process of making them I added a noise modifier to generate a fairly random landscape, however it was at this point I noticed that this could be animated. Through several experiments with this I got to the idea that this could be turned into a low polygon river flowing through an environment. From that point I started fusing this side project with my FMP, the concept of a river created a great metaphor of “flow” between environments through screens.

Now that I knew what animation I would be using in my project I began testing transitional effects. This was the fundamental aspect that my project was built on so I knew that these would have to work well. I researched into how other people had used similar effects in motion work and found that generally it creates quite a surreal effect. I looked at The Chase (2011) , Full Circle (2012), Good books (2012) and Frame of Mind (2012); they constantly move seamlessly between different mediums and environments and I was interested in how they achieved this by means of camera angles, motion tracking and effects. I experimented with how the screen could be used as a portal between a physical environment and an animated video. This included physical camera zooms onto screen based content with a video camera as well as stop motion. The stop motion for this didn’t work but I discovered that in some cases this could be faked with a single image scaled in after effects. This was also particularly helpful when doing motion tracking so that the sequential environment could be placed on top and then zoomed in on.

I had the animation, I knew the transitional effects could be produced and would look alright, now I had to figure out a sequence of events so that the video could seamlessly move though it. I was finding this quite difficult as I would have to think about a possible environment that I could use them, how the animation could arrive there, the transition, what would happen in that space, the next transition and where it would end up in the 3D environment. For that reason I found a lot of places wouldn’t work. I began by thinking of places where screens existed but this also lead to another problem; TV’s/monitors / screens generally only exist in quite boring locations. Bedrooms, studies, studios, lounges, cinemas, offices. I was thinking of using more exciting locations like an animated London billboard screen or something similar but it was always difficult contemplating where to send the animation after it had come out so that it may re-enter the 3D environment . Another issue to this was that the shot of the exit screen would have to be faced directly so that the animation may move seamlessly through it. I tried filming in Sainsbury’s as it has a TV section and I thought it could look cool with the animation coming out of several screens at once. However I found this footage to be awful in terms of lighting, advertising and the hurried shots I got in order to avoid staff. I decided I would have to improvise. I thought I could move my screen into a location like a park and get some nice shots but then I realised that this would just look fake. However then I suddenly remembered that iPads existed. This was great as they could be genuinely put in any location to film. Using this concept would would well with physical camera shots overlaid with 3D motion. Pixels (2010) gave a good example of this and later on I used this idea to film the park scene.

For the intro I decided I wanted it to start with someone walking up to a desk, sitting down and pressing play on a video. I re-viewed the documentary Desks (2011) as I thought it may help with what people experience from that environment. From the the desk it could zoom in and make the first transition. This was used similarly in the matrix (1999) as a metaphor for the fact that humans were living in a computer program. I thought this would work well as it would reflect in how the viewer had stopped to view the video and help them engage with the journey. In reverse I thought the same could be applied for the end scene, exiting the animation via a reverse zoom of the screen. I decided to have a go filming it in the photo studio as it would look better than a bedroom. However it really didn’t work, the white backdrop didn’t cover the whole shot and it just looked fake. Therefore I decided that if I filmed a room, used a nice desk, with sun light on a good day with a “designed” layout I could pull it off. I was very happy with the shots I got and I think it worked well as an intro/outro to the video. Differently, for our show in London I may swap out this footage for that of the desk that the screen is sitting on there. The advantage would be that the user would be totally immersed with the first shot and would be more likely to feel like they are a part of the animation. It would have a similar feel to that of One and Three Chairs (1965).

I next decided to experiment with using stop motion to view an animation as frames printed onto paper. This meant taking a section of the animation and printing them to be photographed in a real environment. I used a zoom out from the paper as a means of transition to bridge the gap from the polygon environment. It was important to get this right as I wanted the transitions to appear as seamless as possible. In the 3D landscape I also created a screen border so that the user recognises the motion as a transition between environments. The camera then cut to a perspective shot of the paper so that you may more easily view the paper descending. This worked well and I managed to get some nice looking sequences of the scene. I decided to use our room at uni as it meant I could have the Mac monitor and projector both playing the same video which help to highlight the fact that the animation is being displayed everywhere. Furthermore it meant I could cut to the next shot of the projector for the zoom back into the 3D environment.

Deciding where to do the next shot was difficult so I just went out and filmed in several locations where I could pull off the transitions. I decided to use the park footage, the animation bridging the gap via the iPad screen and simply ascending out of it. From here I could do some 3D motion tracking and add the river to the scene. The OFFF Paris sponsor titles (2010) had some good examples of 3D tracking and effects. The last shot also set me up perfectly for for the fade shot back into the 3D environment.

The main problems I faced during this project was getting my head around how the whole thing would piece together and locations I could film. The editing also provided a similar challenge when having to get everything to seamlessly flow together, everything had to be frame perfect, tracked and stabilized. However the project lead me to learn quite a bit more about using after effects as well as speeding up my work flow with the program. The similar can be said for the 3D as I really enjoyed using the low polygon aesthetic and I shall definitely continue working with the style across future projects. In particular I would like to create a longer version of the river with the addition of other low polygon elements as well as the possibility of it looping

Looking at these forms of seamless transitions, I really like how they link environments and would definitely consider using them in future work if the need arises.

As the viewer passes the first screen border the camera zooms out seamlessly to show 2 stop motion pieces. (The first is less noticable as its top down). I’ve used the screen border in the 3D environment as a portal as it helps the viewer recognise the transition happening. In the second stop motion piece I’ve also played the same piece of animation on the mac monitor and projection screen. This leads to a cut in front of the projection screen which allow the user to zoom back into the 3D environment seamlessly.

I thought that I may be able to switch to a paper made environment for a section of the video. I made several “surfaces” out of paper and photographed them. Below is an example of what this may look like alongside the digital river.

I really like this piece and thought it had a simialr aesthetic to what I was going for with my polygon environment

Before now I hadn’t done much filming with SLR’s. I’ve found they have several benifits as well as some weaknesses. I think they can give great shots as long as they are stationary or panning. You cannot autofocus during filming so moving with the camera/zooming become difficlt. For some things it has made things difficult but generally provides very nice shots.

After failing at boujou tracking I decided that I couldn’t use that shot. Therefore I knew I had to change the storyboard of my animation. I plan to cut straight to the stop motion paper scene and I’ve got an idea on how to film it. However this meant I needed to render out a longer version of the river. Here is the river at full length.

For the new opening I re-shot it in a peronal study. I decided I could make it work here as the walls were blank and I could arrange the desk for the shot. I was quite happy with the outcome, the shots were nice and they worked well with the zoom transition. I may add some colour correction later on in the project.

I filmed a room scene where the river comes out after going through the screen border in the polygon environment. I idea was that the river and “camera” could flow out of the screen, into a real environment and then back into another screen. For the footage I hand held the camera to create a varied meandering path like a river. I put the shutter speed up and was able to stablize the motion into quite a steady shot. It was filmed in 1080p so could also scale it up a little due to the final video being in 720p. To apply the 3D on top of the footage I used boujou tracking software which could work out a camera path for my 3D program. However later I found out that the tracking data wasn’t that accurate and the finished result didn’t look that great. The room itself just didn’t have much that could be tracked. If I choose to do more shots to be tracked, I shall plan ahead and put down markers.

I was finding it hard finding interesting/nice filming locations from which I could finm screens. Usually they are just in a corner of a room or on a desk. Not that interesting. Therefore I thought if i used an iPad, it could take the animation anywhere. I filmed outside in the park, jamie sitting on a park bench. Here are a couple of the shots I got.