Thrown Caution

Latest Artwork

2010-08-09T12:57:00.001-07:00

This last month I've been playing with Sculpey, which I'd never used before. I've been making a lot of heads, practicing molding, and painting. I was having a lot of trouble making female faces though. The shapes always ended up rather angular, and they always ended up being gaunt old men.

For my latest piece I really pushed myself in the opposite direction, went ludicrously hyper-feminine, and created this botox-heavy figure on her spa-day. Enjoy.

When Last We Flew

2010-08-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an illustration I did for a Fringe play when last we flew, a play by Harrison Rivers in this year's New York Fringe Festival.

The producers were looking for an image in a similar vein to the poster art for Wes Anderson films, as well as the movie Happiness.

Time to get this blog up and running again!

2010-06-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all in cyber space!

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, and I thought it could use a resurrection. I will be posting things that I like, things that I make, and things that I made and like that I made.

To start off I thought I'd show everyone a little peek at what I've been working on these past few months. I am currently working as the lead graphic designer for the New York Musical Theatre Festival and am in charge of creating the "look" of the season. I am designing all the major mailings, posters, billboards, programs, banners, pamphlets, and will also be animating the Times Square jumbotron screens. Here are some of the items I've created so far.

This being my first graphic design gig, it's really exciting to see my work in print! I can't wait to see my work plastered across the Theatre District!

Cool Music Videos

2009-01-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Clinic
"Harvest"

CSS
"Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above"

The name is Trope. Zoe Trope.

2008-11-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I saw the new Bond film "Quantum of Solace"
The film was nothing to write home about, and overall, neither was the title sequence (which I am completely willing to admit is usually my favorite bit!)
However, as someone interested in the influence of early moving image techniques in contemporary motion design, one part of the title sequence did stand out for me. The ubiquitous naked women are represented in sequences reminiscent of both the kaleidoscope and, more excitingly (for me) the zoetrope, both early methods of presenting moving images.

The zoetrope, invented in 1834, is a spinning drum with a sequence of images along the inner perimeter, and slits around the drum. When spun, peering through the slits at the inside images gives the impression of movement, in a similar way that the shutter in a film projector gives the impression of movement when run through the viewfinder.

Here is a short video explaining the zoetrope:

And here is the opening title sequence of "Quantum of Solace" (I have chosen a version that replaces the offending title song with easy-to-listen-to "Baker Street")

The Zoetrope section starts at around 2:02.

For more Zoetrope goodness, here is a clip of a lifesize pedal-powered zoetrope at the Burning Man Festival by Peter Hudson!

WANT: Slice Clock $120

2008-11-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

From Spring 3D comes this amazing sliced grandfather clock, which they are selling as part of a 'Dexter' Themed Dining Room.

Can we talk about how much I WANT THIS?

Toy Theatre in Film

2008-10-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Toy theater has always fascinated me. I remember as a child building various toy theaters out of cardboard, dioramas out of shoeboxes, and a full-sized handpuppet theater out of a fridge box. Toy theaters were originally mass-produced miniature facsimiles of famous opera and stage-play productions, made of card cut-outs. Some examples of the traditional toy theatre can be found below.

Sliding the small figures back and forth in these theatres might be considered an early version of moving picture. Many films pay homage to....

Oh my goodness! It's snowing! In London! In October?

Anyway, back to business. Many films have paid homage to the form, in particular the films of Ingmar Bergman. Below is the opening to his film "Fanny and Alexander"

His film version of The Magic Flute takes place within the world of an old theatre, the sets of which have a very toy theatre feel to them, which I suppose isn't unusual, considering how most stage sets were built at the time: Flat painted panels.

It's best illustrated at the 4:30 mark as winter transforms into spring.

Below is the trailer for the excellent "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk, an entire film created in a toy theatre:

Other films of interest:
"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"
"The Thief of Baghdad"

Below you will find some great toy theatre resources:
Penny Plain Twopence Colored, a wonderful blog devoted to toy theater.
Great Small Works is a theatre company that curates toy theater exhibitions and toy theater festivals at St. Ann's Warehouse in NY.

And here are some clips from more traditional toy theatres:

Pop-Up ABC

2008-10-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is quite an amazing little book.

Abc3D - A funny movie is a click away

Created by Marion Brataille.

Airborne Jellyfish Machine

2008-10-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

This is crazy.

Slow-Motion Dogs

2008-10-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Slow motion, while most notable for capturing those minutiae of experiences and emotions that we seem to miss in every day life, can also cause things that are fairly common to look utterly alien.

Jumping shaggy dogs, for example:

Created by Pleix for Vitalic (WARNING: Seizure alert for Vitalic's Myspace)

Cut it Out

2008-10-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

When working in After Effects or Photoshop, one works with 'layers'. The following pieces of motion graphics play with the idea of layering in the software and layers as physical cut-outs layered in space. What I love about these pieces is the overarching sense of physical craftsmanship even though they were created in virtual space.

The first is the title sequence to the TV mini-series A Pedra do Reino (The Stone of the Kingdom) created by Brazilian studio LOBO.

The crazy movement of the environment is balanced by the measured progression through the tunnel, and the developing visuals are complemented by the rhythmic music. There is a very visceral sensation of traveling into the world of the film, and the idea of opening is conveyed by the long series of apertures that the camera passes through. The titles start very two-dimensional, with images in each progressive plane moving laterally across the screen, but the convention is soon broken and three dimensional movement is introduced. This opens up a whole new paradigm. The fact that one can pick out each individual drawn element further enforces the idea of physical cut-outs.

The second is the end credit sequence of the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, helmed by Jamie Caliri, Todd Hemker and Benjamin Goldman.

This title sequence is what got me interested in - and prompted me to pursue - motion graphics. As you can tell from my few posts so far (this being number 2) I love how motion graphics is directly influenced by pre-film techniques of moving image, and this title sequence combines many: Toy theatre and theatrical set design (cut-out waves), shadow puppetry and silhouette (the silhouettes of Count Olaf's head), paper toys (the spinners). It is also a blend of many different artistic styles, ranging from Edward Gorey, most obvious because of the gothic humor and muted colors, to the narrative tropes of titles by Fritz Freleng and Saul Bass (hide and seek, chased vs. chaser, miniature vignettes, playing with graphic design as a spatial element).

Shadow-Play

2008-10-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

"I believe in the truth of fairy-tales more than I believe in the truth in the newspaper"

These are the words of Lotte Reiniger, who in 1926 completed The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the earliest existing full-length animated feature film. To create this work, she emulated the technique of shadow-puppetry and silhouette, using paper cut-outs to create remarkably detailed figures and sceneries. She pioneered a new form of storytelling, animated film, utilizing an art form that goes back thousands of years.

Shadow puppetry originated in China during the Han dynasty, shortly before the start of the Common Era. Emperor Wu of Han had his court officers "bring to life" one of his recently deceased concubines. They cut a figure out of donkey leather, with 11 articulated joints and painted clothes, and then cast the figure's shadow against a screen using an oil lamp. The form quickly grew in popularity throughout Asia and spread westwards with the conquering Mongols, all the way to to Turkey.

In 1767 French missionaries in China returned to present the art form in Paris, where it quickly gained popularity. Ombres chinoise (Chinese shadows), became Ombres françaises, and shadow plays became a popular 19th-century past-time, especially in nightclubs in and around Montmartre, particularly the famous Chat-Noir.

The films of Lotte Reiniger evoke these old European shadow plays, with figures reminiscent of the popular silhouette portraiture of pre-photography days. However, instead of direct manipulation of shadow puppets, she did stop-frame animation, slightly altering the position of the figure in each consecutive frame. Here is one of her later films Jack and the Beanstalk (1955):

Silhouette and Shadow has been used in countless forms of film-making and design (for example Apple's iPod ads) , however only a handful of examples do seem to be quite explicitly influenced by the aesthetic of Lotte Reiniger's work and the Shadow Puppetry art form.

A recent example is The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, directed by Anthony Lucas. Below is the trailer for the film.

Jasper Morello Trailer
by pezhammer

The film does an amazing job of placing two-dimensional figures into rich, three-dimensional spaces, and the atmospheric colors are reminiscent of the colored plates Reiniger used for different scenes in Prince Achmed. Just as Reiniger's film was relevant in the sense that it looked to an ancient form of storytelling to pioneer a new form of media, Jasper Morello looks to an old form of two-dimensional world creation, and challenges our accepted notions of space in the age of 3D animation.

Below is a short film by Anthony Lucas, utilizing similar techniques:

Below are several interesting links with further information:
Lotte Reiniger Bio and Filmography
Flash Presentation on Shadow Puppetry
Karagoz.net: Information on Turkish Shadow Puppetry
Jasper Morello: Official Site

Thrown Caution

2008-10-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

Thrown Caution

A dispensary of ideas, a collection of connections, confusing dreams, inspiration for creatives with a theatrical bent. Puppetry, Set Design, Graphic Design, Animation.