A couple of days ago, I stopped by
Animation Dynamics for a CGI development meeting on the look and feel of "Persephone".The
team at ADi showed me a myriad of different shots that we picked, early
on, to begin development on. Since the world surrounding the live
action actors of the Persephone story is partially formed with mist and
clouds, following an impressionistic construct, we're taking careful
design steps and are working to develop the exact style and flow of how
the shots will move from one scene to the next.In the below shot, designed by
Seth Cameron Short,
we see a silhouetted Persephone standing in pose after doing a
pirouette. As we see Persephone grow and form into a young woman, she
pirouettes and poses, stopping long enough for the audience to see her
present form before she blows away into mist, thus moving that scene
away while the next scene begins to form in frame.The next 'shot' that's being developed is being done by
Donald Fergus.
It's a transitional element which I originally conceived to be a stand
alone brush which would act as a descriptive image for the ensuing
narration. Donald took this idea, improved upon it, and incorporated it
to act as a possible transition between two other shots. The modality of
this action acts in accordance to the fluid dynamic of earlier
discussions regarding the flow and pace of the project; as a
non-cutting, morph-based edit. We're attempting to not show any actual
cuts in the video.
When
someone reads you a story... and you see the imagery of it inside your
head, do you see it "cut" from one image to another? Or, do you see
forms dissipate and coagulate together? Either way... Persephone is
being constructed and designed as a fluid formed "edit".Nick Nakadate and
Vince Nimmoor
are both working on 2d and 3d background elements. Layering the mist
and having it interact and move in dimension with the characters is what
Vince is currently exploring while Nick is creating the dynamic of mist
motion in relation to the demon that interacts with the live actors in
the story. It's amazing to see the control that everyone at ADi has over
their digital environments and it's a great education to learn from
them all.Over the next few months I will be continually meeting with, and documenting, ADi and their progress.END OF LINE
Mark Roush navigates the waters of video marketing and advertising for companies such as Nike, Autodesk, Intel, HP and many others.