Yesterday This Was Home: A Reminder

Posted on by Thor

In this shot Sam pressed down on the girls wrist to remind her that they should not move. This was one of my favorite moments in the story. I kept their movements constrained focusing mostly on his simple gesture of lifting his hand up and pressing it down on her wrist. She reacts simply by glancing over at him and he glances back. It is a precious scene and I animated it early to get a feel for the characters. How I drew then in this scene influences how I drew then in the rest of the scenes.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: Sam Looks Up

Posted on by Thor

Sam Looks up at the driver. The animation involved an anticipation where Sam lowers his chin a bit and blinks and then raised his head up. This is his chance t make a stand. The background and characters were reused from two shots prior. I isolated Sam’s head so I could animate it in Callipeg. The shot only last for several seconds as the Narrator says, “I looked up at him and I said,”. By this time I was animating up to three scenes a day. I was on a roll and realized that the steps I had taken to organize the short were paying off. The storyboards were developed enough so they doubled as backgrounds and I had worked n layers meaning I could turn off character layers if they needed to be redrawn for animation. In this case I just had to isolate Sam’s head to animate it.

In the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline you can see that the original Oral History video is under all of my storyboard and animation clips. It was edited a bit to cut out conversation and laughter that is interspersed in the oral history. I needed to keep the animation and story tight and concise.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Evolution of Music
Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Legacy of Ocoee: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, October 29, 2020

Lunch & Learn: Crafting the Ocoee Exhibition
Friday, November 6, 2020

The Destruction of Rosewood
Sunday, November 15, 2020

Family Days: Growing a Better Tomorrow
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Saturday, February 6, 2021

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Storytelling & Poetry
Thursday, February 11, 2021

Yesterday This Was Home: We Have a Right to Sit Here

Posted on by Thor

Sam looks up and says, “Sir we have a right to sit here, we are traveling by interstate commerce.” “The law says we can sit anywhere we want to.” There is a slow zoom in as he speaks. It is a pivotal moment where he is standing up for his rights.

It was a tricky scene to animate in Callipeg, with many head shakes and head tilts as he spoke. I learned quite a hit doing this scene and it helped me solidify the characters look in my mind. I had done another close up prior to this as he spoke and this scene was more on model. You learn a bit more every time you animate a character. You just hope it is good enough as you keep moving forward.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: New Driver

Posted on by Thor

When the Greyhound bus got to Jacksonville, Florida, one driver got off the bus and another driver got back on. When I got to animating this scene I decided there wasn’t enough time to get the driver up the bus steps. Instead I had him already inside and walking down the aisle, seen only through the bus windows. This had the added advantage that I didn’t have to worry as much about animating his lags and arm swings. The animation went smoothly but I could not get away with animating him of fours. With that wide spacing between drawings he seemed to pop into view in the bus windows too abruptly. I had to put any animation seen in the bus windows on twos which means each drawing was held for two frames of film.

The bus painting was reused from the shot of the bus pulling up into Winter Park. To allow to see the character through the windows I duplicated the bus layer in Procreate and erased the windows- I stacked the layers so that the bus driver animation was between the background bus layer and the foreground bus layer. The main reason for doing this was that I could quickly paint the driver without being super careful about painting near the windows.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: The Driver

Posted on by Thor

This shot only lasts two seconds as the narrator says, “The Driver”. I zoomed in a bit during the shot and decided animation was not needed. I did enough research so that I knew every nut and bolt of the bus interior when I drew the backgrounds. As I mentioned before the storyboards doubled as the backgrounds, which meant that what ever quick spontaneous decisions I made as I boarded the short remained in the final look of the film.

Several scenes in the film had several values in flesh tones and since this did not animate I simply kept the painterly feel of the board. With most white passengers I made sure to have pure white highlights. Actually I painted white passengers pure white and then added a few shadows to keep them pasty white as much as possible.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: Reinventing the Wheel

Posted on by Thor

The sound of the bus accelerating grows louder as we cut to this close up of the wheel spinning. I am showing the various layers that were used in the animation that I assembled in Adobe Premiere Pro. The background is dark grey with just a shadow painted on it. The wheel well was animated separate from the wheel itself to give some added motion of the bus suspension. The wheel was surprisingly difficult to animate simply because the first two times I didn’t draw perfect circles. The slightest imperfections were instantly noticeable with the oblong wheel wobbling out of control. The final pass still wobbles a bit around the central axis, but I wasn’t about to start over so I lived with it. I discovered that it is possible to draw a perfect circle in Procreate and that is what helped me finally assemble a decent wheel.

Animating in Premiere Pro was easy each time. I just rotated the tire around it’s central axis and set key frames in the timeline. That was easy, but with the wheel wobbles, I had to go back and redraw. I considered animating the wheel in Callipeg, but it seemed like it would be harder with a whole lot more steps involving a lot of copying and pasting. I considered adding paint to the black wheel areas to show motion as well, but the painting of the tire was partly transparent which achieved the same effect quite by mistake. I am always glad for happy accidents.

When working a scene in Disney’s Animated Feature Film Mulan I got to show the world class animator, Mark Henn the cleaned up drawings I had done for his scene. The scene was of the bath lady pushing Mulan into the tub. I had thought through what her legs might be doing under the long skirt. Mark simply remarked, “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time.” It is a quite that has lingered with me. Sometimes you just have to trust in the grace and flow of a scene without getting caught up in the mechanics. It turns out that this scene with the bus tire was all about mechanics, so I had to reinvent the wheel several times.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: OK

Posted on by Thor

The girl simply replied “OK” when Sam explains that they have a right to anywhere they want on the bus. This animation simply involved tilting her head and raising her eye brows as she said “OK.” She has a concerned look implying that she thinks Sam might be exaggerating their predicament.

I I had time to go back into scenes, I would revise her hair style in this scene since I developed a look that seems to be more appealing in later scenes I animated. But like many things in life, I have to accept the choices made at the time. The animation is already on display and I am just having to revise the opening titles a bit. I decided today to incorporate some old film scratches into the opening scenes which adds to the aged look to the animation.

Again, the animation is on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) from  October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021. The exhibit is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition by the Orange County Regional History Center will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire for moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, we have implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. For the run of the exhibition, we will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays after October 3, we will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Yesterday This Was Home: Animated Map

Posted on by Thor

As Sam talks about the recent court case that makes segregation illegal when traveling between states, this animated map shows the bus route to Detroit from Orlando through Jacksonville. This was fairly straight forward, by setting up a start key that set position and scale of the art in Adobe Premiere Pro. I then zoomed out to include enough f the map to show Detroit as well. The white line showing the bus route was added in Callipeg copying each frame and adding a bit more to the line with each new frame. I think this was the first animation I did with the program to get used to the interface. I did enough research to be sure that all the highways were indeed circa 1957.

This animated short will be on display a the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando Fl) from October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021 as part of the new exhibition called Yesterday This Was Home which is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire for moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays after October 3, we will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Exhibition programming

AdVOTEcacy in Action
Saturday, October 3, 2020

Coffee with a Curator
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Saturday, January 9, 2021

Celebrating Black Culture: Music, Storytelling, and Poetry
Evolution of Music
Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Legacy of Ocoee: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, October 29, 2020

Lunch & Learn: Crafting the Ocoee Exhibition
Friday, November 6, 2020

The Destruction of Rosewood
Sunday, November 15, 2020

Family Days: Growing a Better Tomorrow
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Saturday, February 6, 2021

 

Yesterday This Was Home: We Have a Right To Be Here

Posted on by Thor

This is a view of shot 12 in Adobe Premiere Pro. The camera pulls back from the bus window as the bus pulls away. Sam is saying “We have a right to be here.” In the timeline you can see that this shot consists of a series of images stacked on top of each other. Audio is green. The main audio track is the narrator relating the story. The other audio in this shot is of a bus a it accelerates. The audio was supplied by a free online service called Zapsplat Sound Effects.  Other sounds included the sound of sneakers on pavement and the sound of someone settling into a comfy seat. Since I don’t have a quality audio recorder, the effect sounds were a lifeline to finishing the folly work on this project.

The visual elements included a painting of the bus. A painting of the bus interior and a layer for tinting on the windows. As the bus pulled away I darkened the windows. All the animation of the bus move was set up with the bus itself and then the animation key frames were copied and pasted onto the other layers so they all moved together. At first I tried to animated each element separately but the window tinting and bus kept getting out of alignment. The copy and paste trick was picked up on viewing a you tube video tutorial.

The exhibition is opening tonight for VIPs. I had to finish  up two other videos just today, and thankfully they worked out well. I figured out how to use green screen techniques to have two paintings animate as time lapse recordings at the same time. One painting was of the person who was speaking and then the background related to what they were saying.

These films will be on display at Yesterday This Was Home at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) from October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021. The exhibition is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history. It couldn’t be more timely with the election looming.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

Now that all this animation is complete, I feel a sense of relief, but also an exhaustion I have never experienced before.

Yesterday This Was Home: Don’t Move

Posted on by Thor

If we are asked to move, don’t move. I kept this dialogue scene simple to save time. Sam tilts his head ever so subtly as he speaks but there are not head turns to complicate matters. It is a single sentence of dialogue and the simplicity worked. Again I like the lady with the cat eye sun glasses and she stays perfectly still staring out the window.

I reused the Winter Park background multiple times blurring it outside the bus windows. At other times I let the bus windows blast out pure white.

This short film will be on display October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021 at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd, Orlando Fl). The exhibition is about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition by the Orange County Regional History Center will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire for moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays after October 3, we will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.