Extended Sun Sequence from Wesley Cathon on Vimeo.
The story dealt with these cloaked characters who have the job of raising the sun up in the morning. In this other world, instead of rotating around the planet, the sun simply shrinks down into a miniature form and hovers there until morning. In order to create this change, there are beings that are assigned to conduct the whole proceeding. This is where that idea of music comes in to play. What eventually happens (not animated yet) is that the cloaked guy (named the conductor for future record) raises two giant statues out of the lake. both of them are classical looking figures holding instruments, standing on top of pillars. The conductor motions them to start, and then it was going to be this sequence where he directs the statues, instruments aimed at the miniature sun, to play music, making the sun grow into it's normal size. Eventually the sun shoots up into the sky, ending the animation.
It's a fairly abstract story. I don't know if I did a good job describing it with words. But anyways, this was my own attempt at using sound as sort of an element that made physical changes throughout the story.
The characters really stuck for me. I had been searching for something for a while, and I knew I wanted something kind of strange with an elaborate headdress. I'd say the first big thing I saw that really made me stop and think "wow, that could be a really fun thing to animate" was the cover (strangely not the movie) of 1984 "Amadeus"
That stark silhouette, just kind of radiating energy, hands outstretched, totally blew me away. I'm not even really ashamed at how much influence this single image had. I was more amazed that someone hadn't really tried to give it motion, and develop it further than just some abstract rendition of the live action film.
From here I wanted some more animal influences. I was really into the shape and function of things like moths and bats, which is ironic being that they are natural enemies. I also kind of enjoyed the idea of implementing the hearing abilities of bats.
I mean, we all are familiar with that exaggerated, pronged look. I also had the thought to switch around the way the ears perceive all kinds of wavelengths with the ability to emit sound. Think of that: large fixtures on a creature's head that serve the purpose of a voice, almost like a tuning fork. Thus the design of the conductor came into being. That is also how these creatures would communicate, and control the giant structures: by emitting frequencies with the prongs on their heads. I reminds me of the scene in "Phantasm" where one of the characters discovers a portal to another dimension made by two vibrating nodes. He tries to close it by placing his hands on the top of them.
This stops them from vibrating, just like a tuning fork. Anyways, those are some of the thoughts behind this specific animation. There's plenty more nerdy back-story and other artwork I've made based in this world, but I'll save that for later. King K. Cool, too Kool for school, Baduuulioooo. Yeah. Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment