Eye Spy began with the web design quest to make digital art for the sake of making art. The art itself does not have to make web design sense. The web page is the vessel to hold the content, but the content purpose is not to be part of the collective. The installation doesn’t have navigation or buttons to take it away from the page. The animation and artwork is the destination. If the user wants to leave, use the browser back button, or click a bookmark button, use the URL bar to activate a new URL or dig deeper with a search term. The user already has many options of how to leave your page. So why provide them with an exit point.
User friendliness may be overrated – if the parts that come together to create a user-friendly system to the detriment of the content integrity. When we speak about online content integrity what are we including. As Rachel Andrew has included in many of her presentations the fundamental foundation of hacking our way to formatting content. But, more so, I think the message I see across all of Rachel Andrew content is that we are are the beginning of something new.
With CSS grid there are new ways to control content. And that is what I think is key to the future of online content. I want a oneness with my content. Users are getting bored with the endless scrolling feeds. Can I just go and be one with the content. Actually sit with the content for awhile. Schedule time to spend with data.
When I began design work for Alice – The Ballet. The first visual concept that I needed to face was TIME. Alice is Wonderland certainly has many dips and turns in the storyline. While the theme of manipulating time remains constant.
Animation Clock Hands
Prior to the opening of the ballet – my clock hands were projected on the theater curtains. First as a still image on thick red velvet curtains.
A short animated GIF – of the beginning sequence.
As a digital artist I tend to have a strong visual idea in my head – and I then set about creating that image. For the Alice Ballet the hands of time I needed the clock hands to regal and strong.
The audience were greeted with the clock arms. First, as a still image of the clock. Ten minutes before the start of the show the clock hands began to move. The clock animation is used during the opening and closing of Act 1 and 2. Time Keeps Moving – bending time is always possible when creating visuals for Alice.
Time Animation
I am such a big fans of After Effects. I am a power house junkie with After Effects. I can think of a better reason than to use After Effects for my clock animation
From the basic animation of the clock hands I was then able to expand the look, feel, texture, and tone of the animation.
Backdrop Clock Animation
The backdrop clock animation was a fun layering effect. Again playing with the visual idea of time, and the rabbit hole, and falling.
Design Elements
The metal texture of the clock is my reflection on the staircase of Lloyd Bank in London. It was a cold Sunday morning. The bright polished metal and outdoor piping all looks super cool.
My bright red winter coat and testify to how cold it was. While also creating the constant of color against the metal panels of the bank. I refined the texture and tones in Photoshop.
The GIF format has had a long online history. The GIF animation has far outlasted some the biggest online technologies (Shockwave, Flash). As we move into 2019 the GIF animation takes on the role of engage your end user with easy to load short animations – that work on ALL PLATFORMS. No need for any fancy plugin or browser. GIF delivers on all platforms. Homepage Banner Ad – promoting the importance of design. I created the animation loop frame-by-frame in Photoshop. Setting a 5-second pause on either end of the animation. Keeping a simple design with a solid white background helps to keep the file size small. So that the GIF animation can quickly load on any device.
There was something about this scene that was so, important to get right. The entire scene runs for near seven minutes during which time the green screen cat interacts with the live dancers. I loved how the cat running across the screen looked – that was super fun to make.
The green screen life action of the appearing and disappearing cat was timed to the ballet performance.
The cat was first shot on green screen. From our storyboard, all the scenes were shot. The laughter mouth footage – was shot with the dancer moving their head forward and back. During a life performance, the actions would have been perfect. However, for the final scene of having a large mouth – laughing and floating around the stage – meant the dancer’s head should have been still – so I could add a mask and reveal what I wanted. With the mouth movement – and the dancer out of town until the day before opening night. I turned to Adobe After Effects.
Using the tracing features in After Effects, I was able to track the inside of the dancers mouth – I think I track a tooth! After placing a keyframe in every frame, I then centered all the frames – which resulted in freezing the dancers head motion.
Before applying the mouth-shaped mask, it was almost impossible to watch the mouth footage. Once the mask was in place – and all the edges were cleaned up, and the magic dust was applied -the footage worked great.
Building The Scene
The background had to hold video footage and have the ability to act as a 3D scene. Nothing in the scene was shot together. I created the forest scene from more than 350 of my photographs. The bark on the trees was completely resurfaced with bark from another tree. Plants were cropped, resized, and arranged to create the entire scene. It was a beautiful experience of starting from a blank screen and collection of my photos – and start building a scene.
ALICE: Hall of Tears scene from the ballet created by Asheville Dance Company Terpsicorps.
GARY: It is hard to know where I began when creating Hall of Tears scene. There are layers and layers of video footage, frame-by-frame animation, green screen, and special effects. All of which came together to create this awesome stage design.
PLOT: This is the scene where Alice has gotten really large, and is crying. The water is from her tears. For this scene of the ballet. Alice was shot against a green screen – in this case we also had the dancer hold a green screen in front of her (as I just needed her hands and head).
On stage during the live performance – two dancer (tear drops) appear from a slit in the center of the screen. The video projection repeats on a loop.
Animation Tears
Homemade Special Effects
When creating the water effects for the scene – I wanted the water to appear natural. I wanted a flow, spread, unevenness. All the characteristic of water. What I didn’t want to do – was simply turn to a 3D model to created water. Sure in certain scenes, and for certain effects it was great to turn to CGI to create the effect. However, for a modern ballet in Asheville – the digital media needed to be less polished and refined – the visual installation had its part to play as the backdrop.
Water Reflection
Water Highlight – shot with a small hand-held digital camera
Creating Water Effect from rain
“How Extraordinary! I thought they would care for nothing but your art”
The opening animated text sequence is a line wonderful line from The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde has always inspired me. I was in my early teens when I read The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (for the first time). Alongside the three books written by Lord Alfred Douglas. It seemed fitting to incorporate Oscar Wilde into my first public collaboration.
Frame-by-Frame Animation
Most of the content for the installation was frame-by-frame animation. Using 29 frame per second – I created a still images in Photoshop. One image for each frame. THE MATH: 29 frames = 1 Second 1740 frames = 1 Minute Installation 45 minutes = 78300 frames. This animation project taught me two very precise things about myself.
I am very fast with Photoshop.
I am very patient.
The frame-by-frame animation took hundreds of hours to create. For most scenes I had at least seven active layers in Photoshop. Each layer controlling the frame-by frame animation for one element. Providing me control over seven elements to animate for each frame.
Dancing Figures
The nude dancing figures was my artistic expression to how I was feeling. This was my first BIG installation – I did feel somewhat exposed. The opening still lady-figure was my state of artistic focus to command inspiration from feeling exposed. The dancing figures began as pencil sketches. I then photographed the sketches. And refined the sketches with Adobe Illustrator. I completely lost count how many female figures I sketched, certainly enough for the chorus line animation that they became part of.
Special Text Effect
The frame-by-frame animation white and orange text effect are extracts from my of Essay of Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley defined the art of graphic design and print making. While Beardsley provocative nature of penmanship was even disliked by Oscar Wilde. Beardsley unique ink and pen images are the visual definition and origin of graphic design.
“Patterned his Style”.
Beginning my public statement to accept the fear of being exposed. And to trust my artists expression to create. The frame-by-frame animation text sequence begins the dialog. CREDITS: Photography – Bart Peeters. Motion Graphics, Animation, and Typesetting – Gary Crossey.
Sometimes, I get to do more than Graphic Design services in Asheville. The Frame-by-Frame animation was created and showcased in the Royal Palace in Lakenhal, Belgium. Using Adobe Photoshop to create frame-by-frame animations may not be the fastest way to create content. However, the look and feel that I was able to achieve does add the personality that I was after.
Creating the Clay Lady Animation
The Clay Lady was the first of a series of short animations created for a multimedia installation. Bart Peeters had created a series of beautiful photographs of people either painted in covered in clay.
The images of the clay lady really interested me. The shape of the body, the lack of expression on the face. Making the animations felt like a road of self discovery.
Frame-by-Frame Animation Contact Sheet
The single frames of the animation also have a certain amount of interest. When viewing the single frame in the file browser – I like the color changes and the movement that the image create. (more…)
The playing card animation was commissioned by Tersicorps Theatre of Dance – Asheville. Alice in Wonderland – Chapter Eight – The Queen Croquet Ground.
What an exciting part of the Alice and Wonderland story. Alice has arrived to the Rose Garden and is now face-to-face with the mighty Queen. The stage is bathe with my playing card animation. A procession of dancers are flooding the stage – with impressions of my animation on their skin and white outfits. Everything and everyone got covered by the animated playing card wash. The visual effect was outstanding. From the opening beating of the simple single rotating hearts – half white, half red. Before launching into the animated playing card parade. The mirrored tunnel effect added to the chaos of the scene to great effect. The heart design began as the photograph of my red jacket reflecting on the metal door. The door had a diamond design that created a strong silver in one panel, while my bright red coat beamed in the adjoining panel. For me the heart was the central design element for Alice in Wonderland – the scene is rich and heavy. With hundreds of little hearts covering the scene – little hearts that were created with my reflection. While the reflection on the heart is only one half of myself – the mirrored placement of the heart creates the whole reflection.
Video Projection – Animation Wash
Parading Playing Cards
Full stage front-projection washing over entire stage and two rear projectors for added 3D effect.
Off with her head
Undoubtedly the quintessential line from Alice – “Off with her head!”.
As the chaos of the scene grows the dark playing card animation slowly fade over the stage. The music gets darker – the mood changes. On the stage their are 5 men in a web of white rope. Pulling and turning, twisting their bodies into the same knots as the rope. The more entangled the twisted bodies became the heavier the dark animation painted their skin.
Unlike, the earlier lighter animation of white and red – which created an iridescent illumination. The dark animation achieved the opposite effect. The black of the stage literally absorbed the darkness of the animation. The crimson, dark grays, and blood tones created a sinister tension between the dancer and the entangled ropes.
Rear Projector
Alice in Wonderland – Off with her head!
Animation cycle that covered the back wall of the stage. Unlike the front-projection that flooded the stage. The rear projection was onto the high-density screen. The clarity was incredible. The blood red of the animation reflected and painted the dancers skin.
Design Process – Animation Sequence
With every design the design process begins with the objective. For the The Queen’s Croquet Ground scene from Alice the animation was to serve to functions.
Visual Effect.
Lighting.
The scene relied heavily on flooding the stage with animated content. However, the general problem with washing an entire stage with visuals is that everything is covered the visual. Stage lights also serve to wash out projected content. For the scene – lights were lowered – projection increased. To create an awesome balance of visuals, dance, and audio synchronization. Finding this balance did take quite a few revisions – especially during the installation in the Diana Wortham Theater (which can only be expected).
The Playing Card Animation design process begin with simple sketches of playing card design. Before refining the designs in Adobe Illustrator. During the early design stages of the playing cards – I imported the roughs to After Effects – as I worked on refining the card design in Illustrator, the file would update to my After Effects animation. Most of the final animation effect was created prior to the card design being finished or approved.
Having a strong workflow plan completely helped to make this part of the project a huge success. The placeholder content that I had imported to After Effects was easier to animate and experiment with while the individual components were still so light. No delays from graphic card overload – fast and simple.
Once the final artwork was completed. I simply had to do to After Effects and render the animation. Revisions to the color content in relationship to the saturation of stage wash were done in Illustrator, and footage would be again rendered. PLAY CARD GRAPHIC – Each card was created for the animation.
Getting to refine to the Unilever International Management Training Website was an excellent project of coding tricky.
The Rexona Crystal Training Website is a stellar example of ActionScript showmanship at it’s finest. Inspired by Superman, and his Crystal home. The website was not built for the public – but rather was a special training tool – most used accessed the data via a DVD and private online network. Given the controlled environment for deployment – we were able to deliver media rich content to the viewers in a way that a conventional could not be trusted to do.
While it is not possible to share the website content – it is fair to say that much of the content was solid information of compounding data. Creating a visual environment that could transfer the data-heavy content into an engaging training opportunity.
Lust in Space an animation project for Club NV, Atlanta.
I created the female character in 3D with a cartoon rendering. Visual effects were created using ActionScript and rendered via code rather than being a timeline based animation. The same character appears in a Quality Forward public announcement.
Working on these 3D moving Chess characters was a real treat. The figures were created using Poser. I used Adobe Photoshop to contribute to creating the complex texture maps that make up the stone and metal of the characters and the chrome base.
I found that creating a displacement map on the figure increased the stone texture. High Contrast 3D lighting provided the warm tones.
Stills of 3D Characters
Video Shorts
Test footage of Chess Pew Movement.
Test Footage on how the character would move across the board.
Asheville Graphic Designer Gary Crossey created the frame-by-frame animation.
Frame-by-frame animation for Art Installation. The closing scene of the WithOut Art installation. I loved the little red guy flying across the screen.
The Tapped in Time section of Alice – The Ballet is when the White Rabbit proclaims I am Late. During the Ballet the stage was washed with digital numbers.
The Trapped In Time – midnight strikes.
Digital Numbers
Trapped in Time – Larger scale.
VIDEO FOOTAGE Alice – The Ballet
The trapping in time scene from Alice – The Ballet. The animation I created were broadcast across the stage. The digital numbers cover the White Rabbit. I liked the idea of using digital numbers to connect how the footage was created. Everything captured, edited, and burnt to digital format.
Welcome to the age of YouTube. After years of hiding on a hard drive – here is a sample of my early animation projects.
In time – I will come back to this page to add explanations to why these animations were created. In the meantime – here they are.
Creating the Rabbit Hole scene for the Asheville Ballet of Alice was one of the most famous scenes of the entire production. The rabbit hole was not only the first color scene, but it was also one of the few scenes that were completely made of video – with on live action. All the dancing and effects were recorded, and I got to do my bit!
Opening Scene
Research for the Rabbit Hole Scene
How to create the rabbit hole? While others may turn to After Effects for all of their special effects I prefer to look at the real world. In Asheville, there are a few tunnels – and that is where my creativity took me first.
I began by walking the tunnel with my camera.
Recording interesting design aspects.
Creating special effects frame-by-frame is not the norm. Most graphic designers and video editors would turn to Adobe After Effects. And, yes, I too love working with Adobe After Effects. However, as an experienced After Effects user, I understand the limits. I know what I want a particular look I need to do it myself.
Creating visuals for an art installation can mean many different things.
For the Gorgeous art installation, I used mostly frame-by-frame animation. Each frame created in Photoshop (27 frames a second). Combining the photography of Bart Peeters – I deconstructed the images in multilayers. Each layer reveals the newer self. The more understood. The more exposed.
The website design for Visual Propaganda changes with the user interaction. Animations load and respond to the user mouse movement. The site was developed with Flash (that is no longer supported by Apple) – here is a video sample of the animated interface.
When working on animation projects. You end up with many animation shorts. From pencil tests. To timing tests. Finishing with render tests. There are many stages when footage is created.
Kissing
Kissing: I created the kissing animation using 3D Studio Max. While the many 3D software package go into and out of vogue. I have very fond memories of working with 3D Studio Max – when it was the main dog in town. Capturing the male and female persona was a key element of the animation.
Hand Sketching Rendering
The much underrated Poser software is always fun to work with. With the two figure sketches I was looking for different shapes to use for an Atlanta logo and marketing campaign.
Stop Motion Animation
Everyone loves a good jig. Short stop motion animation created with still images and timing!
Man in Motion Animation
Short example of a series of motion animation created for a nightclub installation. The animation was projected to movie screen size and played on a loop.
{One of these days, the other 45 minutes of missing footage from the installation may show up}.
Animation – to bring motion to.
I created the dancing figures for an Atlanta nightclub installation. The dancing figures got projected on the tall walls of the 350 Club in midtown Atlanta.
During the evening I kept moving the projectors to new and interesting places, including on the back of moving drag queen.
Animation sample of a character I created for a multimedia shows in Atlanta. The animation was part of a visual series. From the series, the Light Man animation was fun, exciting, and creative projects. It also does well to mention that my client did give me creative control.
The Light Man animation begin with the simple chalk outline. I later created the light shape – with a light cycle of color. I used Adobe After Effects to created the chalk to color transition.
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Chalk Outline Animation
Part of the same series. Chalk outline Animation sample.
The photos were later pieced together in Photoshop to create a short string of motion. The idea of jumping on a plane, and heading off. All quite easy to do.
But sometimes those plane flights are different. Sometimes, they only go one way. The homeward bound flight when a home is away from home. That is this flight. The flight when I left Ireland. The animated GIF’s capture and repeat forever that moment – the moment I left. Like most days in Ireland, the sky is low and heavy with clouds. The dense darkness engulfs a few of the frames.
Clouds so thick they block the light, leaving you in darkness.
CLIENT: Club NV Atlanta PROJECT: Multimedia Protection
Creating the 3D figures was awesome fun. Most of the texture and alpha masking work was done in Photoshop.I then added the texture maps via my 3D software.
Graphic Design Style
Creating the graphic design style for the figures – was quite a development. Firstly, I wanted the character to make movements that can’t be made. In my design world there is no gravity – this girl floats in mid air (quite comfortably).
The transparent body texture that I created allowed the viewer to see though the body – to see that visual motion that you normally could not see. The visual content from the transparent figure creates a visual overload (where body parts are difficult to distinguish). While the motion of the motion of the characters is so slow that go unnoticed. Both over and under whelming the viewer.
The panels are samples from the media presentation. The animated (often) mirrored characters slowly move into each position. Then pause. The media installation had a stillness to it. Content paused. The viewer had time to say “what the hell is that?” Or, “I like the red dot”.
The point was the view could connect. The content moved slowly, if at all. For some viewers it took a while before they realized that the content had altered. In a time – when video is full of motion and content. The video projection software had another layer of effects that created more visual complexly to the installation.
Certainly Grace Jones Inspired
The Early Animations
The style of the project begin with this simple rendering – think Grace Jones as a Playboy Bunny. Using two colors to create the female silhouette – wearing a dicky bow was also on the table.
Creating Animated GIF’s from moments in time have always had a certain interest to me.
Motion from Stillness
Bring Motion to Stillness. The spinning chair will forever Spinning. Still image series of 70’s office chair.
From the opening beating of the simple single rotating hearts – half white, half red. Before launching into the animated playing card parade. The mirrored tunnel effect added to the chaos of the scene to great effect. The heart design began as the photograph of my red jacket reflecting on the metal door. The door had a diamond design that created a strong silver in one panel, while my bright red coat beamed in the adjoining panel. For me the heart was the central design element for Alice in Wonderland – the scene is rich and heavy. With hundreds of little hearts covering the scene – little hearts that were created with my reflection. While the reflection on the heart is only one half of myself – the mirrored placement of the heart creates the whole reflection.![Playing_Cards-[Converted]](https://irishguy.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Playing_Cards-Converted.jpg)
Getting to refine to the Unilever International Management Training Website was an excellent project of coding tricky.
Lust in Space an animation project for Club NV, Atlanta.
