"Turing Test" short film by Jaylinn Davidson / atoms to the universe

Been up trying to choreograph movement of my awkward, wonky 2d photoshop constructed little oxygen atom (the 2 inner electron orbit rings are hard to see, but yeah..that's what it's supposed to be if you're scientifically minded and pick apart such things). It will be at the beginning of the animation where a gamma ray passes through it and produces a loose electron and positron, which attract and destroy each other in a tiny bit of energy. After I finish that, I can echo some of the visuals in a bigger scale, when I skip to a scene in progress in the end where a universe and antimatter universe come together in a male and female form.

So anyway this is a mini motion test (sans background) for the atom:

Jaylinn Davidson, keyboardist for The Boxing Lesson (I animated two videos for the band several years ago) and Casual Strangers and also a dear, lovely, talented friend of mine has expanded her artistic reach into writing/directing/editing her first solo music video (for C.S.). Featuring Sara Eleta Reid as the robot:

Turing Test

An interview regarding her creative process is found here in The Austin Chronicle . One thing that I particularly connected with was that she discovered a driving concept of the story while deep in the process of editing it. I've tried to plan more work in advance (storyboarding, although mine can look like indeciperable chicken scratch to any other eyes than my own)  when making animations, but I've also found that sometimes the unplanned freeform random moments can lead to discoveries that can dominate and alter the course  of the project for the better.

I'm really proud of you Jaylinn! Hope we can collaborate and explore the universe further together in whatever creative form it can take.

Animation updates

(Steps out to the quiet inky dark field just past the witching hour, to the sound of crickets....)

Hello.

I've been working on what has turned out to be an unexpectedly long term project for a very short length video. It will clock under two minutes, but is the most elaborate animation I've worked on so far. There's lots of layers of movement in this. Sometimes it took a week for only five seconds in some clips. It will be paired with a song by a favorite musician I've followed for years.

As I had the pleasure of hearing this particular song played live, an idea began to take root, which branched off into more ideas, and I thought damn, now I have to do this. It hasn't been a practical direction to take with my visual art (not that "practical" is or should be linked with art, yet it asserts it's charmless presence too often when I'm trying to enter a creative mindset)  , but it is one that kept me excited and motivated, even if it takes embarrassingly long to do at my skill level. I enjoy the short storytelling visual format that animation allows me.

Part of the story is about the joy and danger of futile pursuits. Another is the attractive pull and destructive force of opposite worlds colliding, and the new creative elements that comes from all that. It starts on a quantum level and pulls out to whole universes, with two fantasy stories of elements from those different universes influencing each other, and making inadvertent and destructive contact.

I've wanted to make a work that isn't bound by deadlines, but to the best of my (admittedly limited) technical abilities with animation at the moment. There's so much to learn, it's overwhelming.

I'm hoping to have it wrapped up by this month. That's the goal, anyway.

Here's a few soundless preview clips:

                                          

                                          

and a few earthlike planets: 

and some stills.......

Update on the David Huntsberger project I contributed to: The DVD has been out and available for purchase, and it is also viewable on Vimeo. I recommend ordering the DVD as you have the viewing option of seeing all the animators work uncut for each standup piece David performed. That said, I also recommend seeing the stage/costume design, the standup and animator work cut and combined for the full collaborative presentation. http://www.davidhuntsberger.com/2015/10/one-headed-beast-available-for-pre-order/

AntiQuark Drawer4 (Official)

Um, don't blink (and good luck pausing because its so brief it doesn't show up when I try) but a portrait of an old boyfriend (Sergio O) is in this video by AntiQuark. Painting is around 1:17

The Boxing Lesson / Fur State / Three

The Boxing Lesson has just released a new video, "Three".  (I animated One and Four embedded at the upper left hand of this blog. I'll be documenting progress on Eight in the near future. If you haven't seen...get to it! Go on! ...ahem............please...)

Like the two previous animated videos, this video (directed by  Nathan Guy / IndieGuy Productions) has cats aplenty--this time making live appearances on South Congress, Switched On, Good Dannys, The Victory Grill, Side Bar, Joe's Coffee, Rooftops, front porches, etc. Enjoy!

http://theboxinglesson.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/theboxinglesson
http://www.myspace.com/theboxinglesson http://www.twitter.com/theboxinglesson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxing_Lesson