I created a 3d model of one of my reels and then had it printed out.
I wanted to keep it on the theme of projectors but my projector was too complicated to print. Instead The next best thing was to do one of the reels.
I added a bit of film to to make it look better. My first model that I sent to print was too thin so instead I made it thinker and bigger and I ended up with this:
I am pleased with the results and it did not break. I think I chose the right component to print as it depicts the exact theme of my final piece.
I have finally managed to finish my model ofthe projector. I have also added the screen which the footage will be played on. I found it hard to find a way to make it look as though the footage was playing on the screen. This was because there is some mist in the light so if I was putting it into after effects, then I would of had to of found a way to get the image behind the mist and that was too complicated formme. Especially as I had done some experimenting with mist and compositing two pieces of footage so they played at the same time. It did not go well so I looked at a few different methods. After toning to one of my peers, I decided to create an animated texture on the screen which would look much better. After looking at some tutorials and knowing I had already created the footage, I created a successful animated texture.
The next issue I have is getting the film to move through the cogs. But again, after talking to one of my peers, I decided to use another animated texture so that I appears to move without actually moving. Whether this will be as successful as the other, I do not know but I shall give it a try.
After that I will just need to texture the metal parts, add a little animation to the reels and then render. At least I can see the finish line... Almost.
I went up London to see the Eadweard Muybridge exhibition at the Tate Britain. I thought this would be good research, especially as I am using his photography as part of my project.
Whilst at the Tate, I saw a lot of his photography and also discovered a lot of history about him. He moved to New York from England when he was 22 and then moved to San Francisco when he was 25. He was involved in a stage coach accident and returned to England to recuperate.
When he moved back to America in 1867, he worked as a photographer, photographing landscapes of valleys and different areas around california. He then began to work for a gentlemen called Leland Stanford who requested him to photograph his horses.
In 1874, his wife has a son fathered by a lover rather than himself. In his rage he killed her lover but was found out and tried for murder. He was acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide.
After this he returns to his photography, taking panoramic pictures of San Francisco and still working for Stanford. In 1877 was when he began to take shots of horses in action. This then progressed to athletes and in 1881 he published a book with all his motion shots of horses and other animals. He experimented with his technique and used high speed shutters to capture this. He would create a line of cameras with trip switches so when the horse set them off, the cameras would take a photo creating the animals in motion.
It was a good trip and I learnt a lot about the Muybridge. I did not learn much about the development of his technique or where the idea came from which would have been more interesting but I saw his photography and his book of animals in motion.
While I am making slow progress on the model, I have decided to make the footage that will play onto the screen. It was hard to find any footage that was not copyrighted and that I could easily edit. There were plenty of images on the internet so I decided to use the images, cut them up and create my own footage. This way I could also add the Sky Arts logo.
It took some PhotoShop work, a lot of slicing and building up of layers and some creative thinking to create my different images to create my final footage. I wanted to have the Sky Arts logo look as though it was part of the original film so i had to use some blending and blurring techniques. I originally wanted in on the horse but the soon discovered the horse bends and contorts too much for me to add the logo on its back. I then decided to add it to the corner but to make it look even more authentic, have it moving slightly from frame to frame to male it look jumpy - just like it would of looked in that century.
This is an example of one of the images:
There is eleven of these images which make a sequence which is looped. The end footage is also very jumpy and flickery which is the old style effect I was going for.
This is my footage so far:
This has definitely been a successful couple of days.
