Yesterday This Was Home: Tall Driver

Posted on by Thor

This shot pans up from the kids to the driver. The two filed guides show the progress of the camera move upwards. My idea behind this was inspired by Alice in Wonderland where she grows in size filling a room. The camera move plays down this exaggerated perspective but you feel that something is off. The narrator recalled that this was a younger driver who didn’t have the attitude of the older driver. I cleaned up the characters a bit but let the camera move carry the story forward through this shot. Part of my inspiration as well came from Citizen Kane after the election when Kane seemed like a giant. Orson Well put the camera literally below the floor boars to get the shot looking up at Kane.

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: I Have Whites Getting On the Bus

Posted on by Thor

In this shot, the new driver explains that he has white people getting on the bus and he asks the kids to move to the back.  I decided to keep him as a looming dark silhouette in the foreground and I zoomed in on the kids which saved me from having him deliver the dialogue. He repeats the request a second time later, pleading with the kids so I focused my attention on fully animating the dialogue in that scene. I decided I could just get away with the camera move in this scene and decided the kids remained still. The style throughout the film is that the kids are bathed in light and the driver is in the dark.

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: 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: 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 might have to move to the back of the bus.

Posted on by Thor

Sam points out that they might be asked to move to the back of the bus. This close up dialogue scene was done early since it helped me figure out the general look of the boy and how to structure the head for head turns. It is not a perfect scene but i learned a whole lot doing it.

I actually finished the final edit of the film today and turned it in. Now I have several other I need to do over the next two days. They will not be fully story boarded like this one but I have figured out how to layer various paintings together in the timeline using green screens. I am excited to try the process out.

This and the other films 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 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.

Yesterday This was Home: Getting Seated

Posted on by Thor

The girl gets seated. As she does, the narrator is warming up to telling her about their possible predicament. I finished animation on this scene and some of the drawings of the girl have nailed her personality in my mind. The best way to find a character if by digging in an animating them. Many model sheets at Disney Feature Animation are simply drawings lifted from a scene that really worked. This is one of those scenes for me. The boys animation is limited to him tilting his heat to watch as she bounces down into the seat.

This film will be on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) from  October 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021as part of Yesterday This Was Home an exhibition 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 History Center has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. These procedures go into effect after October 3, 2020. For the run of the exhibition, they will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays after October 3, the History Center will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours later until 7 p.m. On Thursdays, they will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets for timed entry are available online.

Upcoming events surrounding the exhibition:

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

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

Yesterday This Was Home: The Timeline

Posted on by Thor

The girl enters the bus. This is a view of the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline. Clips are stacked in the timeline along with the audio. The project started by editing the oral history. That is the base clip under all the animation clips. Some shots require multiple clips for the various elements, like the bus, backgrounds characters etc.

Red lettering in the upper left hand corner of the screen warn that I do not have enough processing power for the program. I am proceeding anyway. Playback of the scenes is often stuttered but the final render of the movie runs smoothly so I just have to live with the stutters for now. If I keep producing animated shorts, I will have to get a better computer. I have not been able to see some dialogue scenes straight through with out stuttering which makes it hard to judge if the lip sync is working smoothly.

I have about 4 large scenes left to animate and I wake up each morning excited to tackle something new.

This film will be shown as part of Yesterday This Was Home a new exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801). This special exhibition on display October 3, 2020 – 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.

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.

Tickets are now available for timed entry.

Yesterday This Was Home: Animating

Posted on by Thor

This is one of three scenes I animated today. In this scene Sam looks out the window, sees the girl boarding in Winter Park and decides to switch seats so she can sit beside him. The scene is 68 frames or to seconds and 20 frames. I had to act out how you might switch seats and I decided on him leaning forward and hen thrusting himself up on both arms to swing his butt over. It is a classic squash and stretch scene. The squash being his lean forward and the stretch being his thrust upward. I had fun animating his hand move to the far seat. He pauses for six frames looking out the window and then swings across.

In this screen shot from Callipeg, you can see the different levels used in the animation. The bottom level is the background . Above that I put the storyboard so I could reference it for the values used when painting the character. The animation drawings are on a level above the character’s painting level. I am not hiding how the drawings were dome. Some of them are very rough while other inbetweens get cleaner since they are put in to simply slow down certain sections.

It turn out I miss animating. It has been fun getting back into the process without having piles of papers cluttering the desk.

This short film can be seen at the Orange C0unty Regional History Center in the special exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home on display October 3, 2020 – 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.

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.

Yesterday This Was Home: He Was 12

Posted on by Thor

He was 12 and she was maybe 15 or 16. He watched as she s she boarded and he moved to the window seat. I will likely revise this pose when I start animating this scene. I have to decided how a 12 year old would excitedly switch seats.

I animated the protagonist entering the bus station today. I am pleased with his more relaxed walk and the timing I developed to make it clear the door had weight. The length of the scene turned out longer than expected so I will have to trim a following shot. I will likely spend less time at the ticket counter.

I also animated a dialogue scene this morning. It is from a distance, so I simplified the scene with just his head moving and the lips. I am learning what is noticed and what isn’t so I am using these short scenes to save time n the animation process.

I am cross eyed from animating all day so I will cu this short. The demands of animation are unrelenting.

This film will be on display October 3, 2020 – February 14, 2021 at the Orange County Regional History Center for the exhibit, Yesterday This Was Home, an  exhibition about the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, which 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.