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. 

Using Zeitraffer

I've been experimenting with filming a wire toy I have that reminds me of a 3D version of a mandala. It's very delicate and can be manipulated into different shapes. It's so 90s too; a relic from the age of mood rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and dungarees. 
I tried to create a pixelation of it at home, but without a tripod, proper lighting and just your basic digital camera, the result is a bit poor. I think this needs to be re-shot in the studio. The only part I like really is the section at the end where it gets squashed down, because you can see the transition quite clearly. (I used my suitcase as a homemade tripod there). Really I wanted this film to be used in my second animation, and reflect the paper cut mandalas, which will be revolving. I'm not sure how clear the transitions are though because the object is so complex, so I'll have to retry the pixelation and then see how clear it is. 

Chakras and Palmistry Experiment

To compliment a section of my hand-drawn fibonacci animation of an outstretched palm, I've been looking into Buddhist ideas of chakras in the hands for my mandala film. I've discovered that different parts of the hand relate to different areas of the body according to the chakra theory, and this correlation is shown by colour-coding the matching areas. The complimenting film section that I could create for my mandala film could therefore be a pixelation of the coloured areas spreading across my left hand (to mirror the right hand in the fibonacci animation). The film section needs to only be 3-5 seconds long which is plenty of time to paint and draw across my hand and map out the basic chakra areas. 

 < Section of the hand-drawn fibonacci animation. Right hand holding a nautilus shell. 

< My left hand painted to demonstrate the areas of the palm relating to chakras in the body. I painted onto my palm using acrylic paints which come away easily afterwards, as opposed to inks, which stain. 

< My painted left hand with patterns drawn on using biro pen. I thought the colours alone looked a bit bland and bare, so I experimented with shapes and lines I've used in my mandala creations. I might alternatively just write onto my palm which sections relate to which chakra in the body, as they all have different names. 

First-hand research

For a section of my fibonacci animation I wanted to animate a hand picking up a shell, but having never drawn  something like that before, I wasn't sure of the exact movement. After the gif I made ofMr Rufus Rabbit went so well though, I figured the best way to handle my problem would be to film my own hand picking something up and then watch the movement until I could replicate it. There is a certain amount of intuition that still goes on with this method, as this time I'm not rotoscoping the image the way I did for the rabbit gif. 
Using first-hand research (pardon the pun), is definitely the best way to approach animating something new, otherwise it is very easy to get the movement wrong. For something as commonplace as hand gestures, I did not want this to happen as it would be very noticeable if the action wasn't naturalistic. 

Line test for Fibonacci Animation

Unfortunately, I've had trouble trying to get line tests done over the Easter break due to a lack of access to the animation studio. I did manage to do a very short test using my digital camera, which seems to be at the speed and accuracy that I want, but I'm still unsure of the rest of the film. I'm hoping that my instincts are correct in the drawings though and I won't need to make any adjustments. This section is of the fibonacci spiral transforming into a galaxy. 

Printing patterns

In order to get every element of a mandala the same, it makes sense to use a printing technique. Obviously with printing, there is always an aspect of difference between each print, depending on how the paint/ink has connected with the printing block and then the surface. I did some experimenting with found objects such as jewellery, pins, charms, coins and pen lids. 

I also tried printing leaves but the effects were so different each time that I didn't think they'd make good prints for mandalas. Other people have used leaves to create natural mandalas though by using the entire leaf rather than just an imprint of it. 

Bunnies and Buddhism

I love rabbits, having always owned them as pets; and I think their movement is fantastic for animations, as it's such a fluid, joyful motion. I wanted to somehow include my love of these little creatures in my animations, and discovered that Fibonacci came up with a hypothetical situation involving rabbit breeding habits, which followed his mathematical sequence.

Until now however this only allowed me the possibility of including bunnies in one of the films. After some further research into shape symbolism in Buddhism and other religions/cultures, I found these images of Buddhist and Celtic triskelions. 

I may not include these in the final films as there is already a lot of imagery and content relating to my subject, but for my own personal interest, I'm really pleased to have discovered these quirky little images. They are especially interesting to me as I have Irish celtic roots as well.