THE orla wren animation is begun!The story is gently beginning to tell itself with pencil drawings that will be moved very small distances, remote shorelines and, of course, beautiful music in the autumn of its completion.
I have rigged up the most Heath-Robinsonian affair ever known which is supposed to be an animation studio .. this involves a video camera attached with brown parcel tape to some bits of damp kindling that never made it to the fire, which are screwed together and clamped to an old Singer sewing machine table flap... with bits of cardboard box between the clamp jaws to protect it. The lighting consists of an Ikea lamp balanced on a wooden stool balanced on some breadboards balanced on a box of drawing equipment. And the imagery is taped onto the top of a low shelf and encircled with shiny white card to bounce light back onto the scene.
I am using different stop frame animation software this time ~ Animator DV ~ which is designed for use with digital video cameras. We have managed to set the camera up so that it just "sees" the scene under the lens and then I can use the program to grab stills. Goodness knows whether I will be able to get to grips with it. Today there have been many grittings-of-teeth-ings whilst trying to animate the most minuscule paper character, as well as trippings-over-of-wirings and breakings-of-lampings and a little bit of cursing!
My last (and first!) animation was a rougher beast with characters and scenery painted onto cardboard.. and a tight deadline to work to. This time I am drawing the tale with a very fine pencil and the piece will be slower moving in subtle colours and with tender sounds.After many thousands of frames and a good few months you will see and hear the delightful result!
I must be the luckiest of animators to be sat in the room animating to a beautiful track whilst it is being created. This ~ The Fish and The Doll ~ will become the first track of the new orla wren album ~ to be released later this year.
Very exciting. I loved the last video you posted and I can't wait to see what you're working on now.
ReplyDeleteHi Rima,
ReplyDeletelooking forward to seeing what you are creating...
Everytime I read your blog, (which I enjoy enormously, by the way), I can't help but wish I hadn't gone down the 'buying a house and fitted kitchen' route. I wish I'd been braver, stuck to my guns and lived my life a little differently, like you.
But then on the other hand, this house we have is our ticket to France, and I suppose we wouldn't be able to go live our dream if we hadn't bought it...
Life is wierd, isn't it?
I'd like to think that everybody ends up living the kind of life they want.
I know I'm a lucky girl with my life, but it's not what I always wanted.
Nick and I have been dreaming of living in a ramshackle cottage in Perigord for a loooong time, and I think this is the year we're going to make it happen.
I simply can't wait to see what you do with your new horse box and read about your adventures in the dark Scandinavian forests!
End of essay, (sorry!)
Erica
xxx
I love the idea of your cobbled together animation studio, you're so creative even to the last detail! How tiny is that character!!!!!????? Beautiful drawings, so tender.
ReplyDeleteThe rook story sounds wonderfully scary.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will illustrate it beautifully.
Oh I can't wait!! So exciting!!
ReplyDeleteHi Rima.. Your work is beautiful! I am very interested in your animation in progress. How lucky to have your own little animation studio! Also, what an excellent bookshelf. x
ReplyDelete