Test Piece

Here is my test piece. I filmed my friend nodding on green screen then used Adobe After Effects to recreate Julian Opie's style by animating solid colour Masks and still image objects tracking the nod itself. It certainly was a quicker process and more effective I think than working with each frame in photoshop like I did with 'The Figure'



Step by step process which shows each object I added each step. I start with the blank mask then work my way up to the end also adding cartoon and posterization filters to the piece along the way as well as curves adjustments.

Rotoscoping

Julian Opie's style of animation is a form of rotoscoping. Therefore, I took the time to look at different types of rotoscoping on youtube for comparison. If I am going to attempt a short animtion in his style, I want to be able to have full knowledge of rotoscoping in general. I have done some rotoscoping in the past, however, it was distorting film stills rather than redrawing them as seen below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeVkTNqxEw (The Figure) I animated my friend into a monster via rotoscoping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1pRb0VELxU&feature=related (ROTOSCOPIA) A short animation by somebody else. It has a nice pencil scribbled effect. Practically, I'm not sure I'd be able to use it in my test piece but I like it just the same.

Julian Opie Landscapes

Not only does Julian Opie use his style to show movement in people, he also has created some beautifully simple landscape timelapse pieces as shown below:



Julian OPIE LCD animation View from my Bedroom Window.

Julian Opie In The Guardian

I found this article about Julian Opie on The Guardian online website. It is one of the few articles I could find on him. The rest of his work and interviews are mainly in Youtube format. I suppose it is better for him that way as he is much more visual than vocal with his methods

'The highlight is Wayne McGregor's Infra, created in 2008 and looking just as compelling second time around. It's staged with a dazzling ­simplicity: Julian Opie's neon figures track briskly across a city walkway while the ­dancers beneath evoke an inner world of ­mystery and turmoil. The choreography confirms McGregor as a master of ­contemporary ballet. There is a meticulousness in his approach that gives every split-second twist and torque of the body a ­burnished clarity. And he elicits ­transforming performances from his dancers. Eric Underwood is stretched and curved to an iridescent fluency. Sarah Lamb, as a woman approaching ­emotional ­meltdown, ­articulates her state through an infinitely subtle quality of dyspraxic, unhinged slipperiness.'

Julian Opie Youtube videos

It's been a while sinec my last blog, which leaves me not a lot of time to finish my research and development. Mainly due to having to focus my time on my animation project. Looking into Juilian Opie as an artist, there isn't a lot of reading material. However, there are a few posts on Youtube regarding his work, talking about his experiences etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KP7X9049m4 (A London Conversation with Julian Opie) This film talks about the origins of his work, starting out etc) Julian Opie, like every artist, found it daunting when he was first starting out in the industry and struggled to make money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8c1HFMp3T0 (Julian Opie, titled This is Shahnoza in 3 Parts) Julian Opie preparing an exhibition of his work. He talks about some of the processes behind his work, for instance, finding a model who is supple bodied for more animated movements in rotoscoping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk8VgGhxOVU&feature=related (Julian Opie - "Walking Along O'Connell Street") One of Julian Opie's street art pieces in action. It shows how simple the piece is with the bold lines looped, yet it is still mesmerising.

Julian Opie style pictures

Here are a few of the pictures I've created that I mentioned in the previous blog, each one was based round a fellow classmate, the animation clips I create through this project will no doubt also feature classmates:

These images contain the same sort of simplistic style that I think makes Julian Opie's artwork stand out. I hope to be able to develop this and bring it forward into my animations. The animated picture on this post shows one of Opie's creations, working with simple facial movements to bring his portraits to life. I shall attempt some of these in my test pieces.

Decision

Today I made the decision to hone in my research and look solely at the work of Julian Opie as an artist and animator and develop his style to produce my animation clips. I believe I would be more comfortable with this because I have already worked at creating many different portraits in his style. These will be shown on my next post when I have my laptop at hand.