COVID Dystopia: I Saw a Megapod

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This scene from COVID Dystopia simply shows the submarine captain looking through the periscope. No animation was required but depth was added as the camera tracked from left to right.

This was a late replacement scene. Originally the scene showed a 911 operator encased in a glass dome as he looked at computer screens that had large COVID virus images on them.  In that scene I could have animated the fingers typing on a keyboard but such small actions go largely unnoticed in this fast moving film.

The plane tickets I ordered from a company called EDreams were canceled. I called my bank to find out if the funds had been taken out of the bank and I was told they were. I preemptively warned the bank of possible fraud. I had to have my credit card canceled and I will get a new one in 5 business days.

Pam helped me order new tickets direct from the airline and they were about $40 cheaper. Hopefully this is a lesson learned. Do research on sites like Kayak, but order the actual tickets from the airline website.

I have to get up at 5am to get to the airport and I will spend much of the day exploring the Cleveland International Film Festival with luggage. At 9:50pm that night COVID Dystopia will screen in the historic Allen Theater which can seat 500 people. Naturally I hope for a full house. I am excited to hear the soundtrack which in now in surround sound. I am now sending out press released to Cleveland media in the hope of generating some interest in the film. Sitting on an airplane being the only passenger masked, and sitting in a 500 seat theater will be the largest risks I take this month in my effort to convince just a few that COVID is far from over.

I found out that three virtual classes were scheduled during the Cleveland International Film Festival. I have to decide if I will teach from the air B&B or if I should be at the awards ceremonies. The festival is an Academy Award qualifying festival so my hope are high but I also know that most minimizers are insulted by the message of COVID Dystopia. Clean the indoor air with HEPA filters, wear masks and isolate when infected. These are pretty simple steps but Americans can not be bothered.

 

COVID Dystopia: Air Out in Space

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This scene from COVID Dystopia has simple animation of the hand and skull rotating a bit. Volumax was used to make the face as dimensional as possible as the camera track top the right. I don’t see any need to add any other animation to the scene. The San Francisco Film Festival rejected the film yesterday. The amount of rejection this film gets is soul crushing, and yet when it screens at selected festivals it keep winning awards. This is a film that people ether love or hate. Unfortunately it inspires far more hate since the message contradicts the nations desire to forget and deny the existence of COVID. Just mentioning the word can cause anger from minimizers.

To counter the soul crushing rejection, I always submit the film to another festival on the day it is rejected. The fast and furious pace of the imagery might not sway minimizers, but it might cause a couple of people to wake up for a moment.

I booked a flight to Cleveland yesterday and have an Air B&B booked. I will be unpacking my studio the first week of April and then immediately flying off to the Midwest. At this point in my life, I need to consider that I could live anywhere, so leaving Orlando is a possibility. As I travel the world following the screening of COVID Dystopia in Film Festivals I will remain open to the possibility of moving anywhere. I discovered an artist from NYC who moved to Berlin and now documents the cabaret scene there. I wish I had known about this artist before I traveled to East Berlin for the Berlin Shorts Film Festival, I would have tried to visit the artist’s studio. Berlin was rainy and cold the entire time I was there so I am not considering that as a possible move.

COVID Dystopia: Flat Earth

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Willful ignorance is rampant. People base opinions on lock downs, the COVID Virus and vaccines based on social media posts and opinions of politicians whose motives are questionable.

No student has seen my animated COVID Dystopia film. I insist the parents view the film first and grant permission. That step has never been taken. I mentioned my COVID Dystopia film to one of my online students and she went off on a tirade about how vaccines are the cause of all symptoms associated with the virus. She was proud to be unvaccinated. I let her now that I was vaccinated and have not had a COVID infection. She vented her anger at lock downs and vaccines.

Since the parents are likely anti vaccine, I decided I could not correct my student. I realized that my job was not to educate her about the science behind vaccines and airborne transmission of the virus. My student has been infected and will likely be repeatedly infected. The first infection was chalked up as a bad cold in terms of symptoms. Each repeat infection however increases the chances of disabling Long COVID.

We went on with the lesson without another mention of the C word. For those who believe the world is flat you can not tell them it is round no matter how many scientific studies corroborate that fact. Scientific studies can be viewed as misinformation. When Russia bombed a maternity ward in Mariupol Ukraine in 2022, there were API journalists at the hospital who shot video of the carnage. Russia decided that they would combat the footage, saying it was not real, but that actors were playing the parts of the mangled bomb victims. A mother was carried out on a stretched with her belly ripped open. The open would was blurred out on national TV. Her hips were shattered and the baby was dead. The mother pleaded to be put out of her misery, she later died. The information war favors the ignorant.

Crealde Panorama

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Each Sunday I head out to Crealde to do demos and try and inspire my students to sketch anywhere they go. We spent all of the classes so far exploring the campus. I keep stressing that everything is sketch worthy. We have covered drawing human proportions and this last class I did a demo on how to draw faces. Most of the time however is spent sketching.

I had the student break up a single sketch page into 9 panels and the goal became to fill each panel with a small sketch. Since students were still getting used to the supplies they worked slowly the first class. Some students only finished one panel other finished several. This week we returned to the same assignment to complete the page. At the end of this class one very talented student had finished every panel. She said, “This is the first complete sketch I have ever done.” It was rewarding to know I helped pushed her towards the concept of finished sketches that have line, value and color.

Another student pointed out that she had never filled a sketchbook. The problem is that many artists feel the book as a whole needs to be a masterpiece, and if it isn’t they put it aside and start another sketchbook. I always show my students my sketchbook that was lost when I rode my bike across the country. It was returned 30 years later when it was found in someones garage. Early sketches in the book are from when I was a freshman in college, then the book transitions into sketches form today. The transition is a jarring as the transition for black and white to color TV.

Since I am packing up my studio, I found all these scraps of matte board which are very horizontal in format. I demonstrated how to block in a panoramic composition in pencil, then pen and finally watercolor washes. I walked the sketch around to show each step, so students know how much time an effort goes into each step. All the while I let them keep working on their own sketches. They learn the most for making their own mistakes. I always offer suggestions, but also encourage then to accept the sketch as it is and apply my suggestions on the next sketch they do.

A gardener was carrying off huge trash cans full of refuge. It looked like real back breaking work. He loved to chat. He has been doing this type of work since he was 14. His father got him started and the money he made was put towards his first car. I later learned that he makes more than I do teaching at Crealde. Unfortunately I doubt I am strong enough to carry the same loads like Atlas. I can only put down lines and washes.

COVID Dystopia: Brain Damage

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Even mild cases of COVID cause brain damage. Most people don’t like to hear this. Even a case of COVID that felt “no worst than a bad cold” can cause lasting damage to the neurons in the brain resulting in a 30% decrease in a persons IQ. Worst cases of COVID then result in an increased loss of neural activity in the brain. Just mentioning the long term damages caused by COVID can cause a science denying anti vaxer to froth at the mouth. They want to blame anything but the virus.

This scene has the two scuba divers animated as they swim back towards their ship. Presumably they have just finished inspecting some neural damage and need to type up their report back on the submarine.The background was filtered in a free online depth map generator and It allows the camera to zoom towards the making it quite believable that you are moving along the brain neuron. I am quite pleased with the effect

As for myself I feel that it is my responsibility to take basic steps to keep from getting infected. I always wear an N95 mask inside. Air in the studio is filtered using a high quality HEPA filter. I am getting out and sketching in theaters again, but I will be the only person masked as I work on my sketch.

I have been sketching in the Orlando Science Center this week and was pleased to see several staff masked. I am glad a few are following the science.

COVID Dystopia: Just Past the Earth’s Face

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This scene went through quite a few changes. The last was adding an orange glow to the center of the crowd and adding a blue tint to rest. This is the one scene that I left as hand painted animation for the flames. I like the look with the many layers of paint. Working this way was just far too time consuming.

I find it odd that the timeline for the movie does not render when there are captions. I might be better off exporting the captions as a separate SRT file. What SRT means, I have no idea. I need to start researching. I rendered the film yesterday and one of the early scenes rendered with a black warning box over several frames. Oddly the warning box was back behind one of the characters. It was resolved when I closed Premiere Pro and reopened it. I need to figure out what that was all about in case it is an ongoing situation.

Maybe I should just consider the film done with all it’s problems and glitches. Pam keeps insisting that the film is just a distraction. I feel like leaving the known problems unresolved will be an even worst distraction.

The problems with the audio need to be resolved. I may need to work with another talented folly sound technician. Having worked on this alone for so long it is hard to give up the reins. I just have to find someone who is a true artist with mixing sound. Right now the soundtrack feels like it was mixed by a bull in a china shop. I do want the film to be a blunt slap in the face, perhaps the sound reflects that aesthetic. Honestly I can only tell what I have once I hear the soundtrack in a huge theater with surround sound. I will know what I have on April 12, 2024 when COVID Dystopia plays in the Cleveland International Film Festival.

I just realized that COVID Dystopia is the only animated film being shown in the after hours shorts programing at the Cleveland International Film Festival. My film appears with films with titles like Slay, and Meat Clever. It sounds like my film was  correctly curated. I have resisted submitting the film to festivals that don’t screen many animated films. Perhaps I should reconsider that idea. Every day I look at festivals whose submission deadlines are coming up. The ongoing challenge is figuring out which festivals are bold enough to screen this blunt and harsh critique of the human response to an invisible threat. This is a film festivals love to hate as they rush to “normal.” It takes just one minimizing judge to tilt the scales.

COVID Dystopia: Sputnik Vaccine

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This scene definitely needs some touch up work to the painting of the star field. IN the original painting I didn’t bother to paint  black behind the satellite. When I animated the satellite that less than stellar are became visible.

The shot happens in less than a second, so I think no one has time to notice the blotchiness in the painting of space, but I know it is there.

Right now I can only note the work left to be done since my time is fully involved in creating a series of theater posters for the Orlando Shakes.

Each morning I wake up knowing what what poster needs work and I hope to have that poster finished by the time I go to bed. I have two more posters I need to work on. Today I hope to finish the painting for a new play being presented at the Shakes next year.

Tonight I hope to finalize plans to head to Cleveland in April. I will be moving my studio on April Fools day. I already ordered WiFi so I should be able to keep this site up and running on move day. I also need to be ready to start teaching virtual art classes almost immediately. I am making sure I accomplish some moving task each day so that moving day might happen quickly.

COVID Dystopia: Asteroid

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In this scene from COVID Dystopia I tried hand drawn flame animation with this hot of the asteroid but found a better solution using after effects to create the flame animation.The techniques used to animate these flames were then used through out the rest of the film.

I left hand animated flickering at the leading edge of the asteroid. These flames are mostly transparent but give the impression that the asteroid is heating up.

Soon I want to find someone to start fine tuning the surround sound audio mix. The surround sound was thrown together rather quickly by a technician, but now I need someone who can fine tune the n=mix and consider all the subtitles of mixing sound effects with the music.

I asked for two adjustments to the audio on the last round of edits and only one of those adjustments was done. I need to be able to sit down with the person doing the audio.

Andy Matchett mentioned someone who might be willing to do the work. He also might be able to get all the original audio files which will open up vast possibilities inn the audio edit.

At the Cleveland International Film Festival in April, I will get to hear the surround sound mix in a large theater for the first time. I am hoping that the audio glitches that matter so much to me will not be noticed by the audience. I have an Air B&B booked in Cleveland and I need to book the flight tonight.

COVID Dystopia: A Giant Metal Planet

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As I am posting this scene from COVID Dystopia this morning, I discovered that the caption was missing the word, metal. I must have watched the film dozens of times with the captions but honestly there is never enough time to read them all. I get distracted by the animation.

I edited the word back in before sharing the scene here, but the Cleveland Film Festival will be screening a version of the film missing that one word. I doubt anyone will notice the mistake, but I will know it is there. If this one mistake managed to sneak its way in, there might be others. I will watch the film several more times today and only read the captions.

This is a busy month for me. I am sketching at the science Center to document their new Nature exhibits which will be opening soon. Animals are being added now that construction is close to being finished. I sketched the reef tank yesterday and there was one lone hammerhead shark circling the large tank. I learned that all the other tropical fish were in the back going through quarantine.

I am also doing a season of theater posters for the Shakes. This is my favorite assignment each year. The painting have to be done quickly and the posters often evolve quite a bit before reaching their final version. On top of all this I am packing up the studio and will be moving April Fools day. I am sad to leave the space where I was able to safely produce the hundreds daily paintings of the pandemic series. I stopped doing the pandemic series when the National Emergency was lifted, but the pandemic is far from over.

A film Festival in Dublin proudly announced on their website that there would be no masks or safety precautions of any kind at their next festival. Clearly my film would never be accepted to be shown at a festival in such a state of denial. I considered sending it anyway, just so several judged might be rudely reminded of their blindness, but then I decided to keep the $25 and submit elsewhere. COVID Dystopia is a film that Festivals love to hate.

COVID Dystopia: Duck and Cover

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No one is moving in this scene from COVID Dystopia.Only the camera moves to show some dimension to the scene. I could clutch fingers together tighter or add some subtle arm movement but it would hardly be noticed.

The whole films dances between lots of movement and very little movement from scene to scene. My experience working on background characters in the movie Mulan helped train me to decide which movements are important and when stillness is more appropriate. It is all a matter of judgement.

Last night I booked an Air B&B in Cleveland. I plan to fly in on the day my film screens. My film is being shown at a late night screening so I will probably have time to explore the city a bit before heading to the theater. The B&B is just a six minute drive from the theater, so it might be a manageable walk on foot.

For me this is an exciting screening since the theater, with surround sound, can seat 500 people, and this is the first Film Festival which is Academy Award qualifying. I am rather realistic however since I know this is a film that most people hate. Most people have embraced the propaganda that COVID is no worst than the flu or a cold. The recent CDC guidelines essentially encourage workers to return to work while infected. Mass infection is the new norm. We are coming off of another wave peak but levels of infection in America never return to a reasonable low. COVID is not a seasonal virus. For this film to say that this is insane makes it an outlier. I honestly do not think most people even  comprehend what they are being shown.