This scene from COVID Dystopia of people running in the street of New York City was done at the height of the first COVID wave which hit the city hard. That first wave of the coronavirus pandemic remains one of the deadliest in the world, having killed almost 23,000 residents, in just three months.
During its worst 12 weeks, from March 19 to June 10, 2020, NYC reached a higher Covid-19 mortality rate than 85 percent of countries that have reported for the entire three-and-a-half years of the pandemic. The city’s peak 12-week mortality rate was the second highest of any city worldwide, just behind Mexico City.
Each person running in this scene had to be animated twice since I first animated the scene at too low a resolution. The mechanical virus is animated using puppet pins in After Effects. It crouches down while one arm moves on an arch.
For some reason I keep getting apartment walk through videos of apartments in Brooklyn which are cheaper that the rent I am now paying in Orlando. The places are surprisingly spacious. I am completely solo right now and wondering where I should live for the next chapter of my life.
Traveling to film festivals is offering me a chance to day dream of different cities. Chicago was decent but it must be bitter cold in the windy city, Berlin is out of the question, it was rainy and cold the whole time, Cleveland was very impressive, it is just a little bigger then downtown Orlando. I hope more festivals accept COVID Dystopia since I want to travel to their cities and day dream. I should travel to a city or country that has handled the COVID pandemic well. New Zealand is on that list but I haven’t found a film festival there yet.