Under The Surface | Show_Animation

It's been a brilliant show and is still going on for one more day in London tomorrow. Everything got finished on time and the whole thing looked amazing.

Finished show animation below if you missed it - one of the hardest animations I've had to do but it was well worth the hassle:

UTS_Show_Animation from Pica on Vimeo.

Under The Surface | Invitation

UNDER THE SURFACE | FEED_NOISE: HND_GRAPHIC DESIGN GRADUATION SHOW 2011

The FEED HND Graphic Design programme is a hybrid of art and design, new technologies, programming, designing digital artworks for print, screens, galleries, live events and theatre.

The course focuses on research, thinking and doing from the view-point of every discipline. It is a renaissance of art, science, philosophy and future proofing. It is a new version of applied visual communication that embraces traditional image making whilst exploring the cutting edge.

Playfulness is at the very heart of what we do, whilst developing new design strategies, techniques and solutions.


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Get involved. It's going to be a brilliant show!

Related links:
www.thisisfeed.co.uk
www.free-range.org.uk

Square One | Barnardo's Ad

Mock-advert I created for children's charity Barnardo's. Created using footage from my FMP animation. Music by Sigur Rós - Saeglópur (heavily edited).

Barnardo's Advertisment from Pica on Vimeo.

Square One | Final_animation

Final major animation. Minor tweaks here and there regarding sound but it's done.

Square_One - 11.05.11 from Pica on Vimeo.

Under The Surface | Animation_beginning

The following clip is an introduction to the London show animation. The individual features of the faces will flip as the black triangles flip below. Song is an edited version of LCD Soundsystem's, Big Ideas. Edited in Mixmeister because it's too damn long!

Under The Surface | Animation_intro_test from Pica on Vimeo.

Under The Surface | Animation_process

As a sideline project from my FMP, I, alongside two other students at BMC (Nathan Matthews and Lindsay Wiggin), have been tasked with branding our FMP exhibition down in London - this is on top of preparing my own FMP!

I've been going through different logos which depict the given name of the show and have also tasked myself with animating the 16 students who are taking part in the exhibition.

Nathan has since created more logos which will feature in the animation and printed media.

I started by photographing everyone's face in the studio, which were then edited in Photoshop to extract/lighten etc. The images below are screens of how the animation will eventually look - mixing up the facial features often ends up with some hilarious results:

Intro animation to follow...

Square One | Photo_album

As the main title sequence featured snippets of past>present>past splices, I thought it'd be good to have those splices featured separately. One idea I've had is to carve out a photo album (make it look shoddy and old - like the original ones) and insert digital photo frames with video playback into them, whilst overlaying reprinted old photos to still give it that 'album' feel.

The point being, to allow the viewer to look deeper into a place or situation thus exaggerating the idea that every area has its history, and my history is still embedded into these areas.

Life passes us by so quickly. Blink and you’ll miss it.





Animation to follow... once it renders out and I get it scaled down to a suitable size for eBlogger!

Square One | Synopsis

I've finally titled my final major project brief as 'Square One':

'Square one' — a starting point.
'Back to square one' — the beginning of a situation — to return to when things go wrong.

SQUARE ONE | Title_Sequence

‘Square One’ is based around a time when life was easy for me. A time when everything was in its right place. A time when I was growing up on Phillimore Road with my family and the family next door to ours, whom I am still in constant contact with to this day.

‘Square One’ is short title sequence and an introduction to my life.

The credits found within are not conventional credits, but rather credits which give recognition to the location and the people who played a major part in my upbringing. The title sequence pays particular attention to both my parents and the parents of my neighbours, who also provided my sister and I with the same love and support they gave their own children.

Namely, my mother, Francoise Silverstone and my father, Michael Silverstone, who died of a heart attack in 1996, without whom, I wouldn’t have had the experiences I had then, and turned out to be the person I am today.

The shots taken of modern day Phillimore Road have been slightly desaturated to explain that while the location and composition may be the same as that of the photographs taken years ago, the life and experiences surrounding the areas (the vibrant colours) have since long gone. However, the title sequence juxtaposes these current images against past photographs to show that this life and experience is still, and always will be, embedded within the location.

The area and the memories which encompass it have always stayed with me – there’s rarely a day that goes by when I don’t think about growing up at Phillimore Road, at a place I still call home. These memories often cloud my thoughts, to the point of wanting to go back and relive those days gone by. It is this grasp by which my memories have taken hold of me, which has made me question our lives and the purpose behind them.

We’re thrust into life, on our ‘one-way’ path, and for better or worse, we have to keep moving. There’s no time to stop and take it in. We have to let go of all that has happened and move on – but why? To what end? Am I unhappy about my upbringing or where I am in my life today? Not at all. Am I bitter about life’s unflinching, uncompromising, unexplainable timeline? Maybe. It’s not enough to simply say ‘that’s life’ and move on as if we understand what ‘that’ is.

‘Square One’ has reminded me that there’s more to life. That the enigma of life and death is so easily and readily overlooked, often because the answer’s too big for us to comprehend, but that shouldn’t stop us from thinking about it. I’m forever indebted to my family for the love they continue to show me, and I’m proud to be part of this world.

I only wish I knew more about it.

Pica | Showreel 2011

Song is by Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Being Bad Feels Pretty Good.

Showreel_2011 from Dan Silverstone on Vimeo.

Homage | [untitled]_handwritten_test

I've managed to break up and mask the handwritten font I'm using throughout the title sequence... took me ages, just for 12 seconds of animation:

[untitled]_photography_credits from Dan Silverstone on Vimeo.

When coupled/paired with the title sequence... it's worth the hassle:

[untitled]_test_handwriting from Dan Silverstone on Vimeo.

Homage | [untitled]_second_test

I've begun to splice the present day footage with the past and visa-versa. I'll have to slow it down to match with the suggested audio:

[untitled]_test_2 from Dan Silverstone on Vimeo.

Homage | test_animation

A test animation which uses some of the camera techniques I'll be using throughout the photo album parts. Paying attention to focus, aperture and motion:

[untitled]_test_animation from Dan Silverstone on Vimeo.

Homage | [untitled]_storyboard

I've not long found out that the brief has changed to focus on parents. Luckily, it's not a case of 'back to the drawing board' as I feel my homage encompasses not only my parents, but the parents of my neighbours.

Text taken from my homage synopsis:

"[untitled] is based around a time when life was simple. A time when I was growing up on Phillimore Road with my family and the family next door to ours, whom I am still in constant contact with to this day. [untitled] is short title sequence, which not only acts as an introduction to a short film, but is also an introduction to my life.

The credits found within are not conventional credits, but rather credits which give recognition to the location and the people who played a major part in my upbringing. The title sequence pays particular attention to both my parents and the parents of my neighbours, who also provided my sister and I with the same love and support they gave their own children. Namely, my mother, Francoise Silverstone and my father, Michael Silverstone, who died of a heart attack in 1994, without whom, I wouldn’t have had the experiences I had then, and turned out to be the person I am today.

The shots taken of modern day Phillimore Road have been slightly desaturated to explain that while the location and composition may be the same as that of the photographs taken years ago, the life and experiences surrounding the areas (the vibrant colours) have since long gone. However, the title sequence juxtaposes these current images against past photographs to show that this life and experience is still, and will always be embedded within the location.
[untitled] is a homage to the people in my life who made my upbringing extremely unique and enjoyable, and one thatI will never forget."

The storyboards below are in draft stages as images and frame are still missing. The final animation may have to change to keep up with the brief. I hope it doesn't change again!




Now all I have to do is animate it...

Homage | [untitled]_photo_album

I took the photos with a view to copy the composition from old childhood photos. I met up with my mother to grab a load of old photo albums, but only needed and scanned the ones which centred in and around the house. A few examples below [try not to laugh too much at my enormous slap-head]:

My idea was to splice the past with the present by using current-day footage and old photography. I began to make up my own albums whilst retaining the old battered look of the albums given to me:

The idea is that the current day footage would flick to the past photograph, which would then move through the album to the next old photo, which would then flick back into the current day:

By this point, I'd decided that my animation would be created in the style of a title sequence. An introduction to my life.

Homage | [untitled]_recce

Homage brief: A single exploration on something which means something to me - print & animation brief. I went on a recce around the house I grew up in many MANY years ago. A time where it all began for me and a personal place which houses a lot of sentimental value. Contact sheets below.