COVID Dystopia: Shock Wave Blast Animation

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Yesterday I experimented with animating a shock wave blast in After Effects using fractal noise. Since I have never tried this effect before I relied on a youTube video to get me up to speed to try it out. Part of me wants to try the effect a second time to see if I can get an even better result, but it appears on screen for only a fraction of a second. Most people will never see the effect since it happens so fast but they only feel the explosion, they have no time to notice the details.

I animated the effect against a black background which shows off the fiery colors best.  When I imported the effect into the actual scene and used an add blend mode, the effect became super bright. Ultimately it just adds more complexity to the already existing explosion animation that I drew by hand in Procreate.

The final shot of the movie was changed. At first the curtain closed after the COVID bomb exploded. This however seemed to stiff. It also implies that the pandemic is over and that is not the message the film is meant to convey. Instead, I animated the curtain closing half way, and then the bomb explodes and is blown upward, followed by a long transition of debris and smoke rising upward which then cross dissolves into the credits also rising upwards. For me this is a much more satisfying ending.

Ophelia

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Ophelia is an original musical being presented at Fringe Art Space by Phoenix Tears Productions. The show re-imagines the story of Hamlet from the vantage point of his love, Ophelia. So what do you do when your boyfriend, the Prince of Denmark goes completely mad? I am sure this is a question many a young woman has had to ask herself.

The many facets of Ophelia’s personality are represented by a group of women who are actually flowers. Violet, represents her innocence and love of life, whereas Fennel represents her dark brooding moods. In all seven flowers represented her split personalities.

Laura Powalisz did a good job as the demure Ophilia. Megan Markham performed as rather funny drunk yellow flower. In a play within the play Megan sang a fast paced rap while the goth Lex Bentley head banged to the beat. Lex also had me laughing with an over the top performance as the ghost who haunted Hamlets dad. This might be a spoiler, but, Carson Holly as Violet had a stunning performance when she collapsed on stage. She was still for so long that I started to wonder how she could control her breath so well.

Ophelia had so much she could have learned from the multiple floral personalities but in the end she kept a blind faith in her love and when madness prevailed she gave up on life. Pam noticed that throughout the play Ophelia wore different colored belts. White for innocence and in the end black for mourning. When focusing on a sketch I can miss such subtleties. A carving on the three isn’t meant to represent water, H20 but Hamlet + Ophelia. In the end that carving was hacked out and marred.

Some of the musical numbers were quite passable while others could use further rehearsals. I admire that local production companies are taking such bold chances.

Ophelia Pre-Show at Fringe Art Space

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Mallory Sabetodos Vance founded Phoenix Tears Productions, a local acting troupe that experiments with interactive theater. I have been sketching their quirky shows for years. They are now staging Ophelia, an original musical about Hamlets amore.

It was pouring as Pam and I drove to the theater. We honestly thought we might be the only people willing to go out in such insane weather. We got to the theater an hour early to be able to see the pre-show in the lobby of the new Fringe Art Space. Sure enough we were the only people in the lobby.

Mallory came out and explained that the show would be starting late because of the weather. Apparently the drummer could not get off from work. With time to kill Pam and I looked around. The show has a well designed and illustrated poster. The poster artist also had her thick impasto floral paintings on display outside the bathrooms.

Originally I had not planned to sketch the pre-show but with an hour and a half to kill I decided there was plenty of time to get a sketch done of the lobby and ensuing frivolity.

The actresses began to trickle out and interact with the gathering crowd. Combine,  in a peach colored dress (Emily Sheetz) kept dusting all the surfaces in the room. She asked the couple next to us to get up so she could dust their seats. Thankfully she left me to sketch in peace. Violet, (Carson Holley), in a light purple dress came over. welcomed us and offered her hand which I delicately shook. In Hamlet’s day a gentleman would have stood and kissed her hand, but I was busy sketching.

There was an Ophelia backdrop where people could have their pictures taken. Violet was gleefully encouraging people to pose. In contrast, Rue (Lex Bently) lurked nearby all in black exuding her goth menace. Fennel (Ashley Vogt) in her bright pink stippers outfit and fabulous white leather boots with massive heels, made her way into the sketch.

Sprout Halloween Nap

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The last drawing I did during a virtual online course with a student pulled everything together. Donkey got off of this seat and Sprout took her place. Thankfully he was facing me as he dozed off. He is rather small on the page which allows the setting to tell more of the story.

In the corner is an umbrella for a rainy day. Next to the umbrella is a six foot long stick which I used to bring to Crealde Classes to be sure students were spaced apart. COVID is airborne and can linger in the air for much further than six feet but at least I tried to keep my students safe.

What makes this sketch work is the contrast between the bright outdoors and the dark interior. It allows for more impressionistic colors and moody greys. Hopefully the student walked away with an understanding that a good sketch is more about the story than just getting the thing on the page.

TOSCA

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Orlando Opera is “All for Art” in the 2023-2024 season. No opera better exemplifies the tragic artistic spirit than Tosca. The new Steinmetz Hall is in many ways unsettling. I asked to see the play from the highest possible vantage point. Each of the upper levels has a knee high railing, and from this height vertigo set in. Pam and I sat on the end and had to stand to let late comers squeeze by. Gathering my art supplies became a challenge as people pushed by. I am amazed no one was pushed over the edge.

Coughing echoed throughout the hall.

The singing in Tosca is in Italian. I sketched through the first act, so I didn’t have the advantage of reading the subtitles above the stage. I had seen Tosca many years before however so I had a general idea of what was happening. An artist worked on a sensual portrait of a Madonna. His lovers, a famous singer, was jealous because the eyes in the portrait did not match her own dark eyes. When the artist was not in the studio she climbed the scaffold and painted a dark slash over the eyes.

Sketching in absolute darkness, I think my sketch doesn’t come close to capturing the gorgeous set. I suspect I would have capture the gorgeous candle light better with a digital sketch, but I didn’t think I could get my digital sketchbook into the hall. Huge paintings defined each plane of the set. A child in a gasket, perhaps Moses was placed at the back of the stage, I think Jesus was on house left and the Rape of the Sabine Women on house right. The floor was also a framed painting and I think it repeated the painting at the back since the child’s face repeated on the floor.

The opera was absolutely tragic.

COVID Film: Death of Democracy Animation

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I decided to animate an insurrectionist in the background of the Death of Democracy scene. He anticipates and then pumps his fist in the air. In the foreground representative Jamie Reskin will stiffen his back and stand proudly. I had to create this new depth map in which the animated insurrectionist and the representative were removed.

This morning I will be compositing the shot. The other element that will animate is the breath and COVID spatter coming from the gaping mouths of the insurrectionists. I didn’t notice the breath animating last time so I will push the animation further.

I tried separating out the greenscreen in this Photoshop example but it was less than successful. Since this isn’t part of the film production pipeline I decided to leave it as is. I am sure that with some research I could eliminate the stray green pixels around the edge of the character.

COVID Film: Dr. Death

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I spent most of today animating the Doctor Death scene in Callipeg. The complicated bit was animating the patient on the gurney turning his head to look at the viewer. To accomplish this I did a rough pass in red where I drew the shape of the head as it turned. I then did a clean up pass on top of that with the final line work.

I then animated the green fluid squirting our of the needle, followed by the plunger and the doctors thumb pressing upward. it is all rater subtle animation and who knows if people will see it in the one second the scene is on screen. I watched several videos on water effects before I animated the needle squirt. That animation might only be noticeable on the big screen.

As always the animation and the background with depth were composited in After Effects.

I then had corrections to make in the end credits since several of the animated scenes flashed off too early. I had to re-render that scene 5 times before I got it right.

Now I am considering re-animating the Maya sacrifice scene. I think the animation of the high priest is too stiff so I might fully animate him so he plunges his hand into the chest cavity and raises it up as it drips blood. That is rather complicated and will take several days to complete.

 

COVID Film: Button

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I designed a button to help promote the film a film festivals. Granted film makers might not want a film with COVID on it, but how could they resist a butting with laurels on it? The button will be 1.5 inches wide which is kind of small, but hey the virus is small. I decided to get 50 of these made up. They are just swag. I will not be selling them.

I also printed up cards with the film poster on the front and social media and lyrics to Andy Matchett’s song, Just Can’t Wait on the back. Again they are swag giveaways to help promote the film. There is a QR code on the back and amazingly it leads directly to the film. I scanned it and saw the film on my phone for the first time. Honestly, most people will likely see the film on their phones but I am continuing to promote it at film festivals.

The post cards are ready but when I went to drive to the print shop, I discovered my car battery was dead. That is how long my car has been sitting idle in the driveway. Pam and I tried to jump it last night without success. We will try again tomorrow for a longer time. The jump we did managed to get a few small light to work but the engine was still dead.

The cards will have to stay at the printer until I figure out how to get the car up and running again.

COVID Film: Adobe Glitch Nightmares

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Overnight, Adobe seemed to have updates its software without consulting me.Imagine working on a film for months and then wanting to render the final product but finding that dozens of shots are not longer able to render. What I see instead are color bars. I had to go through the entire film and re-render shots in Adobe After Effects.

Besides the color bars a program called the Media Encoder was thrown out with the upgrade. I re-downloaded the Media Encoder but the program didn’t recognize it. I wasted over half a day trying to find a work around to get the scenes to render. I found a youTube video by an Indian artist describing a work around. I had trouble understanding what was being said but I could follow the movement of the cursor. I had to copy source code and navigate multiple menus to finally manage to get some renders to work.

This final shot in the end credits is a stubborn hold out. It refuses to render. The clip works in After Effects but any time I try and render it I get color bars. I will be spending hours again today searching online forums to see if other are experiencing the same nightmares.

For now however I plan to step away from the problem for a bit. Attacking the problem in frustration could do more harm than good. The programs may need to be thrown out and then re-downloaded and I am not up to that level of destruction and reconstruction.

Instead I plan to focus on marketing. I need to create 50 five by seven inch cards that can be used as marketing swag at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival. I also created buttons that I think filmmakers might want to wear with the film title and laurels. The buttons were ordered online, and now I need to find a printer for the cards. Pam had a great idea of printing the lyrics to Andy Matchett‘s song Just Can’t Wait on the back. I also will offer web links should people want to order the music. All my web links will also be on the back.

COVID Film Official Selection

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COVID is an official selection at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival being held November 10-11, 2023. COVID will be be shown at the 4 pm screening on Saturday November 11. This is the 20th annual CIRSF Film Festival.

The screening will be in the Chicago Filmmakers Theater, 1326 W. Hollywood Ave., Chicago, IL 60660.  This Venue is the NEW Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Location, located in the Andersonville neighborhood. I am quite excited since this is the first time COVID is being screened outside of Orlando. Tickets to the screening at $15 should you be in Chicago. If anyone knows of a nice place to stay in North Chicago, let me know.

Chicago Filmmakers is a not-for-profit media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation, and understanding of film and video as media for artistic and personal expression, as well as media of important social and community impact. Chicago Filmmakers’ twofold mission is to serve independent film and digital video artists by supporting the creation and dissemination of new media arts works and to serve Chicago audiences by screening artistically innovative, socially relevant, and diverse films and videos.

I will be attending the festival and now I am arranging to print 5 by 7 cards, posters and buttons as swag. Should you be ins Chicago, stop by and say hi. Look for the guy in the N95 mask and goggles.