Light, growth, life

Death and Rebirth is split into two very different moods constructed through the use of light and camera movement. The first creating the feeling of a dark and foreboding presence in the building and the other is as the daylight floods in showing the transformation of the building, growth has begun to take over as seen in the flower, grass and small creatures. Growth will also be on the windows bouncing different shades of green all around the room.

Two important additions to the cinematic piece is the animated beetle and the butterflies. Animation is something i really want to do but knew i didnt have the skill (not having a animation background) to do a fully animated piece. This allows me to try some animation without getting over my head. I modeled a beetle from NURBS before, this time ill will be sticking to polygons and probably choosing one of the beetles from living jewels website. The butterflies idea i got from a trailer for a computer game i'm looking forward to been released...called The Last Guardian. The visuals in this trailer just blew me away. If i could get my lighting anywhere near as good as this game i would be ecstatic, my goal is high so thats what im aiming for!


The Last Guardian Official TGS 2010 Trailer from Josip Kostic on Vimeo.

Storyboard

 

Secondary sourced photographs are used in this storyboard. Credit goes to the user 'Dassababes' on Flickr. Link found here

Abandoned jute mills

I decided to work with primary and secondary images of the strathmartine hospital to storyboard my cinematic together, however, i think it is still important to visit other abandoned buildings during the course of this project. I can gather important visual information on how the light reacts around these buildings at different times and can collect images that can be used for texturing. One of the obvious areas in dundee to explore is the jute mills. I found most of these buildings to be fenced off from the public. There is one building however im talking to Tayscreen about getting access to.

Death and Rebirth project development

Tayscreen has gotten back to me and unfortunately there is no way they can get me access to the abandoned Strathmartine Hospital, interior or even exterior. The Site Manager at NHS Tayside who is responsible for Strathmartine Hospital told Anna that the building is now privately owned by a separate company and is not allowing access to anyone.

The project can now go in two different directions. I can work from my primary images and secondary images from photographer's such as the user, Dazzababes on flickr. These were the original photos that interested me in the location. Click here for link.

The other option is to keep the same cinematic narrative but with a different location. I feel it is important for me to have access to the location and be able to re-visit to collect textures and record the light coming through at different times of the day. Im working with Anna at the moment to find a new suitable location. Time is a factor so hopefully this be sorted by the end of the week.

Final Project - Death and Rebirth - Strathmartine Hospital

This is the building that caught my attention, abandoned some years ago and slowly decaying as nature begins to claim the land back. I recently visited the site with Garry from my class, hoping to gain access and get a few interesting interior photographs. The plan was to get a feel for the place before returning the following week to get some proper photographs to storyboard and use as textures for my cinematic.

In my head so far the cinematic, Death and Rebirth, will be the camera moving around a 3D reconstruction of two or three rooms in the abandoned hospital. I have an idea of what the rooms should look like in my head but waiting to see the interior to decide which rooms to pick...which rooms have more of a presence. Just been on location looking through the windows set off all kinds of feeling that are too complex for me to describe in words. I hope to translate this feeling across in my visuals. As the camera walks through the building's dark corridors the morning light will burst through all the winodows and cracks, almost as spotlights revealing the flowers and insects that have now made this place their home. The growth on the windows bouncing their colours off the walls. The cinematic will be the contrast of two very different visual pieces as the dark and foreboding environment lights up with a mix of different colours to reveal the life growing inside.

Unfortunately it is not possible to get access to the older buildings as they are privately owned now so i have been in contact with Anna Rathband from Tayscreen (www.tayscreen.com) to help get me access to the building interiors. I feel at this stage im just waiting, dying to get straight into storyboarding and modeling this project. I have the idea in my head but just need access to the location.

Below are some photographs I managed to take before been asked to leave. The doors were all heavily boarded up so they are all exterior shots bar some through broken windows.

Report: Perceptions through light and colour

Working title: Telling stories through light and colour or Perceptions through light and colour. 

Gregory Crewdson

The drive behind this report is understanding how light and colour reacts with each other and the world around us. How we previse these colours everyday and the emotional impact it has on us. Artists use colour to show moods and emotions or draw the eye towards a focal point or use of light to dramatically change the story been told within a scene. The Gregory Crewdson photograph above is of a normal family evening but through the lighting a more sinister story is been told or even just put into question.

This project will be exploring how light and colour in different spaces can have instinctual psychological effects on us, as well as the science behind light and colour and how artists manipulate this to express these emotions upon us within their own works.

The outcome of this research will then be reflected upon onto my own work within a 3D environment. This can be applied so environmental events such as specular refection from light bouncing when applied can create a more believable and atmospheric scene or can go further to allow me to have a more deeper psychological impact.

Notes – Don’t want to get into philosophy…more psychological.

Finding it hard to find a book just on the emotional impact of light and colour…more colour science, theory and philosophy.

Books im reading at moment – 

Light and colour in nature and art (Williamson and Cummins)

Colour (Zelanski and Fisher)

Understanding colour (Linda Holtzschue)

Colour perception (Mausfeld and Heyer)

Kandinsky’s teaching at the Bauhaus (Clark V. Poling)

Gregory Credson's twilight

Poetics of space (Gaston Bachelard)
Practical light and colour (Jeremy Vickery) (DVD)

Final Project - Death and Rebirth

Riverview Hospital

After been inspired by Graham Young's work on Still Life with Smoke and Mirrors Ive been interested in capturing the feeling we get when in old abandoned places that once had human life. I like the idea that rather than these places dying, they are more transformed into something...spiritual is the only word i can come up with but its so much more than that. I want to be able to re-create a place that has gone through this transformation and then use elements and colours created through time and play with them. It will be constructed in 3D which means i can manipulate it in whatever way i want. Create and re-purpose...possibly through simple animation. In the image above of Riverside hospital the green on the window stands out to me and projects this beautiful colour on to the walls either side. These buildings dont follow the purpose society set of for them anymore so there are no artificial lights and clean walls, because of this the sunlight from any windows or holes becomes very powerful and striking setting off all kinds of colours and shadows everywhere. 

Lake Shore Inn

I have a vision of a camera panning down a corridor like the one in the image to the left. The light some how changing, reacting to us invading this place. Follows down to a bathroom like the Riverview image above. The green can start moving up and over the windows changing the colour of light coming in. A vibrant flower grows out of an old cracked toilet bowl. I want to be able to play with the colour and shapes. I have this experimental idea camera been you and invading this space...something tiny like a piece of dirt is moved out of place, seen close up in slow motion falling...the room reacts by everything animating into a shape edge with an unnatural high pitch scream/sound. The same feeling as the hair on your neck after getting a shock or fright but its the room thats feeling this. These are all just ideas im accumulating for now.

I got the idea of making strange from a video James showed me. Video is from 16tracks.net and the song is Videotape by Radiohead which can be viewed below.

To begin any of this experimentation i need to choose a place. Ive been looking into Strathmartine Hospital, an abandoned Asylum in dundee with a long history...but that will be for my next post.


Radiohead_Videotape from Wolf Jaiser on Vimeo.