A real line test! Finally!

So I've finally managed to get into a studio and capture my frames for the first proper line test of the animation. Normally I would prefer to get this done earlier than 629 frames in, but whatcha gonna do...? Luckily, my instincts seem to have served me pretty well whilst drawing and I've only got a few timing discrepancies that I need to sort out. 
The start of the grid formation in the beginning of the film and some transitional sections are far too fast for my liking but they can be easily solved by drawing in extra frames and taking double captures of the frames where necessary. 
The parts I'm happiest with are the meteor at the start of the film and the hand at the end. I like that the arc in my meteor's trajectory worked out well and didn't just look like I couldn't draw in a straight line, because meteors apparently never come straight at the Earth because of the gravitational field <(Fun Fact) I think the hand worked out well because I really had to research how a hand moves by filming my own and studying it frame by frame. I feel the extra time invested there has paid off. 
The only thing that worries me about my animation is that after connecting two line tests together on Final Cut, the length was only 33 seconds. 629 frames caught at double capture in iStopMotion ought to create 52 seconds worth of film... Where have my other 19 seconds gone???? My only explanation for this is that perhaps iStopMotion was not capturing the frames as doubles. Need to investigate this, as it might affect my timing problems in the animation. 

Unit X - Briefing and Initial Ideas

Today we had our first group briefing for the Film aspect of Unit X. Around the theme of 'Lost Science' we started discussing what we might research for our films, and it was really interesting to see what theories have been lost to the ages and how certain cultures have put more store in alchemy/nature/exorcism etc.

 

My band of research has been geared towards the idea of maths infusing everything we do/see, which is a strongly accepted theory based around the Fibonacci sequence and the idea of the Golden Ratio. From flower petals to the formation of galaxies, this numerical sequence can be found, and the idea that there are forces governing our reality has a strong influence in science fiction and religion.

 

From this briefing it has been made clear that we need to create two films which propose opposing ideas based on a similar theme. For me, this could be the idea of a real mathematical series which relates to life (perhaps linking to particle theory and the Hadron Collider in CERN) aka real scientific research; and then alternatively, the idea of karmic forces governing the universe, nature's connectivity, holistic healing, mandala patterns etc. Or even, to contrast completely against the idea of coding within nature, I could look into chaos theory.

 

Using a pinterest board, I've started to collect imagery around the idea of pattern-making and natural phenomena. http://www.pinterest.com/rachelmcmahon10/mandalas-patterns/ However, by mind-mapping my ideas, I've begun to see just how many connections can be made once you begin to spin out from a central mathematical code. To help me understand the maths a bit more, I've been watching a few TEDtalks on the subject, which have proved not only interesting but useful too.

 

Arthur Benjamin is SCARILY clever though. I can't even begin to understand his mathemagics perfomance on TEDtalks.