Portrait of Nihonzaru
0March 9, 2012
in Kwon Ganjo, Sketchbook
A princess amongst the cherry blossom. Nihonzaru.
I got a little carried away with the realism for what I was initially hoping for. I think her eyes drew me in.
Horstmann – Animation Test
0March 6, 2012
Fate told me to open up this project again and give it some thought… So I’m thinking about it… hard.
I’ve refined the animation rig on Horstmann this evening to better control his base.
Lunokhod
0February 24, 2012
in Thoughts
Lunokhod 1 was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body. He also has a face… And a sad story to tell.
Having been launched on November 10, 1970, the last communications session with Lunokhod 1 ended at 13:05 UT on September 14, 1971. After several attempts to re-establish a connection, the operations of Lunokhod officially ceased on October 4, 1971, the anniversary of Sputnik 1. Lunokhod had traveled 10,540 m and had transmitted more than 20,000 TV pictures and more than 200 TV panoramas. He had also conducted more than 500 lunar soil tests.
Lunokhod was lost.
I imagine he continued pondering about for a while, visiting his favourite spots to catch the sunrise, finding new places from where to take photos of the crescent Earth.
Lunokhod was a big fan of panoramic photography. Here’s one of his classic #fromwhereistand shots.
I imagine he passed the time he had left looking through the photos in his data banks and getting excited about incoming comms every time the Earth appeared above the horizon.
Time passed. Almost 40 years, and no trace of Lunokhod.
On March 17, 2010, Albert Abdrakhimov found both the lander and the rover in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image M114185541RC. Such a tiny dot in a vast grey desolation. He looks so alone. Below you can see his landing module/home as well as the routes he would take to find the tastiest soil around. He was a creature of habit. A friendly chap who enjoyed simple pleasures.
As many pioneers that step into the abyss, his fate was no return. He spent his final moments completely alone, but he will live on forever in the hearts of millions. Next time you look up at the moon, spare a thought for Lunokhod, it’s oldest resident.
Resonating Thoughts
0Coincidentally, I’m also starting a new project at work, which is about how we are searching for extra-terrestrial life. I had my first ideas session with Max today and we got talking about our personal connections with some of the ideas that are in the current outline. I’ve been looking forward to working on this project for several months now as me and Max have been working independently of each other for ages and his soul is a pleasant one, one I enjoy working with.
I had some ideas regarding “Mankind’s enduring fear of being alone” and I had a really lovely moment of reflection from a time just before I started working at the space centre, when I was pitching for some funding to make a short film called ‘Resonance’. It reminded me of the moment I knew working at the space centre was a my fate. At the time I had numerous things happening that all seemed to lead me towards the people and place that are now my family and home. So many things, it seems it was unavoidable. I have been thinking about space a lot in my personal work recently and I really love the ideas behind Resonance. They still resonate within me. I’d love to revisit the project one day, and although I could now make the film in half the time it would have taken me back then, I think it needs too much involvement from other highly skilled people, which would cost too much. Nevertheless, I’ve just been looking through the project website I created 6 years ago for it and I’m really excited by it. The treatment is cringe worthy film council tick-box stuff but the imagery is nice to look through. I think Jon Hopkins would work incredibly well for the soundtrack. Or Ben Frost. With Richard’s ‘wine glass orchestra’.
Actually, it really isn’t obvious from the script, but the idea is inspired by the Voyager 1 space craft. I wanted to use a hugely distorted ‘Johnny B. Goode’ sample within the ‘message’ as this appears on the the gold disc, among other eclectic sounds from ‘Murmurs of Earth’.
The website is still online at borgasm. Some things seemed to have got lost, but some things are still there:
Moments of Space
0
in Sketchbook, Thoughts
Over the past few days I have been thinking about what to make next. It’s a savouring moment between things when you can take a moment to breath slowly, clear your mind of all the busy thoughts any project brings and think about tomorrow. It’s kind of like a creative bath. It feels peaceful.
I’ve been casually drawing some pictures and writing some thoughts to tease myself into starting work on something, unsure of where I will lead myself.
There’s A Siege of Colour. I’ve considered returning to this big project several times over the past few months but I’ve managed to keep contained for a year or so. It requires at least 6 months worth of my evenings to get it where it needs to go and I’ve really enjoyed the brevity of the last couple of projects, so I’m not sure I’m going to continue just yet. I think I need something really quick and simple. Something that is almost nothing. A sketch perhaps.
I’ve been thinking abut another Music Box Chronicle, but all my ideas have been too big, requiring too much process, too much time.
I’ve been toying with the thought of making something about ‘Space’, or at least exploring some cosmic twinkles that fill most shadows of my mind. Space is a big part of my life, it’s part of my every day and still remains very strong in my heart. It’s hard keeping them as sketches though. I’m used to working on large scale space films that travel the universe at work but without a team and serious render power I have to limit these ideas or lose months of time. I like this though. I like the idea of creating sketches of space. Finding little stories. Enjoying something subtle in the vastness of the cosmos.
Over Christmas I started playing with some ideas. To be honest these were mainly as stereoscopic experiments, but I think they were a little more than that too. I think there might be something small I can make with these, or maybe a few small things. A few well crafted small things would be nice at the moment.
v.01 Video Array
0February 20, 2012
in v.01
As a respectful nod, I’ve made a video array à la inbflat due to it being one of the main inspirations behind the project. I think it’s fun to play with and gives a good idea how the v.01 exhibition worked. Here’s a mini version, but if you you want to have a play with a load of the videos, head over to http://www.luniere.com/projects/v.01/
v.01 Stereoscopic Play
0
in v.01
Playing with v.01 exhibition at QUAD Gallery in Derby. Get your 3D specs on and select 3D mode to see the machine in all its cubist mechanical glory.
Robbie Newman, Aron Brown and Jennifer Stewart are playing the machine.
This was filmed on a Fujifilm W1 camera in low light levels, so apologies for the low quality footage. This was actually my first time editing live captured stereoscopic footage together from the W1 and realising just how complex the process is. I didn’t really give much thought to the filming itself as it was filmed in the morning following the closing event and finding food was of a higher priority. It’s basically clawed together from desperate clips basically documenting all the parts of the main exhibit. The cuts are really awkward and the S3D is painful at times, yet this took around 9 hours to put together. To do this I had to figure out how to extract the two video channels (seriously time consuming) from the W1 avi’s and figure out the convoluted workflow from After Effects Pinkau stereoscopic scripts into StereoPhotoMaker and back for alignment. Actually it also took ages to align and replace the audio with the original files and mix them together better as the audio from the camera was pretty bad, and replacing it allowed me to let it flow over and cover up some of the terrible editing.
The main purpose was just to capture the exhibit in a very basic 3D and figure out the live-action stereoscopic workflow. I think it actually has turned out pretty good as long as you watch it at it’s natively low resolution.
Playing with the Machine
0February 4, 2012
in v.01
A practice session before the launch event for v.01 exhibition at QUAD Gallery in Derby.
Robbie Newman is playing the machine.
Musical fingers and feet from:
Jim Cork from Crash of Rhinos – http://www.crashofrhinos.co.uk/
Rich Collins and Daz Cook from You Slut – http://www.last.fm/music/You+Slut!
Jamie Cattermole from Cheap Jazz – http://cheapjazz.bandcamp.com/
QUAD v.01 Promo
0February 1, 2012
in v.01
This is a promotional video I made for the v.01 exhibition at QUAD gallery in Derby.
