COVID Dystopia: I saw Cthulhu Break the Surface

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This scene from COVID Dystopia shows a giant octopus though the lyrics refer to Cthulhu. A single giant tentacle raises an oxygen canister. This scene was first painted when India had people dying in the streets unable to get oxygen. A religious organization took it upon themselves to offer oxygen in the street.

Cthulhu, first created by H.P. Lovecraft was a gigantic entity worshiped by cultists, in the shape of a green octopus, dragon, and a caricature of the human form. My depiction doesn’t quite live up to that description but I felt it was close enough to tie in with Andy Matchett‘s lyrics.

I picket on particular oxygen canister to animate so that it would tie in with where I wanted the audience to be looking on the next scene.

I was surprised at how well the depth map worked on this scene, the Earth actually looks like it is turning and the foreground tentacles follow that rotation.

I am satisfied with the scene. All the tentacles could be animated but then the audience would not be sure of where to look. I am following the KISS rule. Keep It Simple Sally.

COVID Dystopia: Sinking Ship

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This scene from COVID Dystopia is less than a second long.That isn’t enough time to read any of the protest signs, like, lifeboats are for sheep. Hopefully an audience has just enough time to notice that all the passengers in the life boats have masks on and the protestors on the deck do not.

The depth effect ass the camera trucks downward works well. I had to create a patch so some of the foreground passengers do not distort too much.

Of course there are plenty of opportunities to fully animate the scene. The woman in the foreground could turn and look towards the camera and or protestors could be waving their signs. The lifeboats themselves could swing as they are lowered.

With all that said, I think the simple camera move is enough to keep the scene moving. This single scene could be cut apart into a series of shots. A close up pf the protestors, the concerned look on passengers faces, another passengers leaping onto a boat. All of that would be for a much longer film.

I have already created a film that people love to hate. Do I really need to invest the time in making it longer?

COVID Dystopia: Iceberg

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The Iceberg scene in COVID Dystopia just had the whale animated.A whale moves rather slow since it is so large but the scene is just a second long. The tail only animates downward. I wish there was more time to also animate it on the upstroke.

Now that the snap zooms were cut from the film there are 6 more frames in the scene.  I might consider some added animation for an upstroke.

I had a scare this morning. When I went to open the Premiere Pro file I got a warning box that said, It appears the file is broken it can not be opened. Good God. I navigated to the file another way and managed to get it to open. I better save what I have and get it onto the one drive.

My biggest fear is that I will get the film to a finished sate and then it will completely crash. If something bad can happen, it will happen to me.

I tried to render the film with all the snap zooms removed yesterday and the render failed. I used all the same settings I used on past renders. It seemed to freeze on a scene with an asteroid about to crash into the earth. I will check that scene to day and see if there is anything that might cause the render to stop. Why can’t anything digital just work?

Empire State Demo

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This sketch was a demo for one of my online students. The class is called, “Sketching People, Places and things.” Since the class was held on Zoom we couldn’t go to a location to sketch. So I showed the student how to use Google maps and turn on street view.

I explored around Cleveland to see what the theater looks like where my film will be screened on April 12. I found the theater district and walked around until I found a good view of the Allen Theater.

My student decided to explore NYC. He wanted to draw the Empire State building. He stood directly in front of the building and looked up. From that angle you couldn’t see the top spire. So I advises him to walk around the building several blocks away and look back for the Empire States Building. He was delighted when he found this view so this became the focus of our lesson.

This became a lesson on using three point perspective. One point is at the end of the street as the road converges to the horizon. Another point is off screen to the left, and a third point is high in the sky which affects how the buildings converge and get smaller as they rise into the sky.

This is my old stomping grounds. I used to work in the empire State Building about 2/3 of the way to the top. I could open the office window and sit on the ledge looking out over the city. I vastly admired the window washers who would clean the windows from outside several times year. That is a job I could definitely not do. I clench my butt just thinking about it.

My student made a fun creative decision and he had a subway train run up the avenue. I finished this in the class, but his piece still needs work. Then again, is a sketch ever really finished? I see things I would like to change and details that could be added.

Control of the Dirt

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Control of the Dirt by Louise Schwarz will run from March 29 – April 7 2024 at The Marchall Ellis Performing Arts Center (1300 LaQuinta Drive Orlando Fl.) It is presented by Playwrights Round Table.

I went to sketch a dress rehearsal of the show. As I walked to the theater entrance, Jac LeDoux, the director, was laughing and delighted. They had found a living room lounge chair on the drive to the theater. That chair was now part of the set. It didn’t smell. I had passed a chair on the drive to the theater as well but had decided to let it sit. I would be moving in a couple of days and didn’t need another item to haul.

The set was simple with three flats which could be rotated if needed. There were quite a few set changes as scenes jumped form one setting to another. The stage would go dark with faint blue light as stage hands moved furniture into place.

The first few moments of the show had me laughing out loud as Susan Woodbury  as Selina, performed an awkward and hilarious interpretive dance for her iPhone. She was a social media influencer in theory. he claimed to have many hot pokers in fires but they seemed to be false leads. She was staying with her sister in law but had overstayed her welcome.

In another story line a very intelligent high school student played by Hafsa Zuberi shared her concerns about her father with her counselor Vanessa, played by Taylor Byerly. It turns out her middle aged father had fallen for the Selina. The father performed by Tom Leahy, was much older than the Selina but she needed a place to land since she was being evicted. The concern was that she only was interested in him for his money. Selina had a tendency to exaggerate truth to make herself look good. Though her confident airs were fun to watch it became clear she manipulates people and she lies.

The characters must live in a small town, because all of the separate story lines suddenly converge towards the end of the play. Tensions flared. At one point there was an argument about funeral ashes possibly being laundry detergent. The ashes were thrown and the fine dust lingered in the air for a good 10 or 15 minutes drifting through the theater space. It wasn’t clear if it was detergent or ashes. It would be in character for Selina to get confused. The lingering dust in the air was a fine visual demonstration of aerosolized spread and I was glad I had my N95 on. I didn’t notice any HEPA air filters in the theater.

This dark comedy is a world premiere about grief, empathy, breaking points, and suspended libidos. I love dark comedies and I enjoyed this show. Tickets are $20.

 

COVID Dystopia: As the Scientists Stared in Horror

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This NYC tsunami scene is based on 9/11. The black steeple is Saint Paul’s Chapel downtown which was just a few blocks from the collapsing towers but miraculously was unscathed.

In the early height of the pandemic NYC was ground zero for the unchecked spread of the virus in America. The Republican president at the time offered little help since NYC is known to be a Democratic stronghold. The thought was to let the Democrats die. The policy of denial and minimization however backfired since Republicans began taking no precautions and died like flies. We have surpassed 1.5 million deaths from COVID in America and that number continues to rise. America leads the world in weekly confirmed COVID deaths. According to Our World in Data 890 Americans are dying every week from COVID as of the start of March. On average airlines carry 300 passengers per flight. In terms of the number of deaths,  COVID is still resulting in about 3 airline crashes a week. Yet this is no longer news worthy as the economy is the priority. With an election coming up it is better to ignore the virus, claiming victory than to clean the air in schools and public buildings.

This scene was reanimated to be sure the resolution was high enough for a large movie screen. When I started animating I thought 1920 by 1080 would be a high enough resolution for each scene but I was wrong. Many scenes needed reworking so they are double that resolution.

COVID Balast

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America has surpasses 1.5 Million dead due to COVID. That number is likely much higher since COVID causes brain, heart and other vascular issues that result in death long after the initial infection. Those deaths are not attributed to COVID.

Politicians are satisfied with the number of deaths. These people will not need social security. Politicians are promoting mass infection in the hope that herd immunity will set in and eventually stop the cull. Politicians are presenting the vulnerable at less than the average American. The problem is that every American becomes vulnerable after repeat infections with COVID. The number of disabled Americans due to COVID continues to grow. On Long COVID awareness day the media promoted the idea that we should no longer use the term Long COVID. The first social group the Nazis murdered on mass during WWII were the disabled. Care wards were emptied and the Nazis experimented on killing the disabled using carbon monoxide from auto exhaust. This next election cycle we have a former president who fancies himself becoming a dictator.

For minimizers Long COVID is not a problem until is has seized a member of their own family. For them COVID is not a problem unless they see bodies piling up in the streets. America is however very efficient at disposing of bodies. The government has done an excellent job of convincing people that they should not care about the vulnerable. The vulnerable are to be discarded so the nation can “return to Normal”.

 

Vida at Fringe Art Space

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Vida at Fringe Art Space is an original Production by Open Scene. The choreographer is Ana Cuellar whose work I have admired for years. The show features cellist Jamie Clark. The cellos somber tones resonated throughout. A rear projection screen offered quick changes of scenery. The program noted that the show is a mesmerizing musical journey with a tag line of Embrace your Emotions.

Theresa Bejarano and Marie Saad built the show around the advice of a mental health counselor Victoria Henry. I liked the beginning moments of the show, where a voice over stated most stories begin in darkness. The Birth scrolled across the screen in elegant Victorian handwriting. A female dance curled up on stage in the fetal position. I felt there might be enough time to sketch her so I jumped right in.

What followed were flashes of childhood joy. Learning to walk and then learning to tumble then learning to love. When the backlight projector was too bright in my eyes, I used my baseball cap to block the light so I could focus on sketching members of the audience. I noticed Fringe Marketing Director Desiree Montes bobbing her head to the beat of the music. This is something I invariably do while I am sketching. It is part of the reason I sit rather far back in an audience because I don’t want to distract with my involuntary movement as I sketch. It makes any drawing flow out of my hand much faster.

This was a very bilingual production which I liked. I studied Spanish using Duolingo after the Pulse Nightclub tragedy but I didn’t keep up my studies after oral histories became rare. There were about six or seven video testimonials that were projected after the initial dance performance. Since I was sketching I didn’t try and read the captions in English. On occasion I would recognize a word but never enough to get full context of what was being said. My primary objective through that section of the show was to get the audience that I had sketched to fall back into darkness.

First love had a danger illuminated in red with a long bolt of fabric. When the stage was illuminated red I burst into action. Up until them the show had been very dark with greys and blues. There were two redheads in the front row so I let the reds seep into the audience. Illustrations form Lisa Aisato were projected to help forward the emotions of the moment. The show didn’t have a linear story line but it certainly featured life moments from birth through love through the last scene which had the dancer curled up again this time holding a solitary candle.

At the end I felt like I wanted more. I checked my program thinking there might be an intermission. I was the last to leave, still hoping there might be more. Having missed the video testimonials I must have missed some of the heart of the show. I liked the interdisciplinary aspect of the show. I love that the visual arts got to play a part in the grand experiment.

COVID Dystopia: Scientists Stared in Horror

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This scene from COVID Dystopia has wave animation and depth added. I am just noticing that the wall of China rises up above the grey land mass. This will have to be adjusted. I need to slip the wall downward of raise up the grey land mass. It will probably be easier to raise up the gray mass. Though the scene is fast, someone might notice that the wall is floating up in the sky.

This isn’t adding new animation but is a blunt compositing mistake that needs fixing. I will actually make these adjustments today. Film adjustments have been on hold since I am painting Shakespeare Theater posters but I am in a holding pattern waiting for an approval session. This fix will be done as I wait.

I could add some fractal noise to the wave to add more random movement but that will have to wait.

Just one more week before I have to move my studio. Then all will be on hold. I will have to get my Disney Desk set up first so that I can immediately start painting on poster revisions. I had hoped that I might be done with the posters before the move, but I don’t think that will happen.

COVID Dystopia: Churn the Ocean into Foam

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In this scene from COVID Dystopia, the carrier rolls downward from the force of the wave. I used the pin tool in After Effects to add some rolling action to the wave. Some distortion was added to the foreground to get those waves moving.

There is a distant wave that could be hand animated to add motion but I honestly doubt that is needed. The shot is over before the audience can register that they are looking at a sinking carrier. The subtle hint of a skull in the foam is probably lost on most.

I entered the film into the Austin Film Festival yesterday. I visited Austin once and liked its “Weird” vibe. My film is certainly weird so I hope it is a good fit. You never can tell. I am getting better at picking out quality festivals from bait and switch operations who are only in the business of collecting entry fees.

I was looking on FilmFreeway yesterday and was surprised to find one of my location sketches as the header of a film festival. I contacted the organizer to be sure my signature is added. The need to educate even film festival promoters that an artist should get credit for their work is exhausting. COVID Dystopia would never be accepted to this festival since the Film Festival only shows 1 minute films and my film is 4 minutes. Also the festival wants films that promote sunshine and butterflies and my film it the polar opposite. COVID Dystopia shouts bloody murder into the void.