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Portraight by Adam Neate, A contemporary artist, involved in the guerrilla/street art movement of recent times. Taken from the La Boca Design blog. The sense of movement in this portraight gave me the idea of painting multiple frames in an almost Cubist fashion, played in sequence to give a body movement. From this painting you can also see the slightly abstracted approach I am interested in taking.

Painting in the rain, first version without photoshop lens flare the second with. I intend to build up various different elements to add some movement to this concept art. This shouldn’t be too hard to animate as things move in a relatively linear fashion underwater.

Some visual references I have collected as part of my projects and interests. I like to refer back to images that I feel signify certain check-points through development. It helps to improve the coherence and integrity of designs but also means alot can be re-melted down into the pot of influences.

I really liked the style of this film shown in last year’s cinema screening. It is a student film from the Gobelins schhol of 2008. The way in which water is animated in this video is really nice, and i especially liked the underwater scene, where the light is passing through the water above. The character design of the fish creature is very imaginative and is the kind of thing I would really like to incorporated into my work. The closing shot of the city in the clouds is also extremely stylistic. Although this kind of animation is quite different to most of my recent influences, I think it is really crucial to make reference to a wide variety of styles, especially when it has so much soul and uniqueness. Some of the abstract, minimal designs can look abit flat after a while, so hopefully this is a level of animation I can work towards, with a foundation in basic colour and graphic concepts. Click the image for a larger rendition of the scenes.

I have been experimenting with different designs and patterns using the Transform each and again function in Illustrator, I really like the pschaedelic forms created using this method. This is not so much a representation of the sound physically, but an experiment into how we see things, and how the human brain translates the light hitting the optical nerve. The idea of sound traveling in waves is often mixed up with the measurement of waves on a graph. However the use of lines on a graph paper can give a really nice effect and give a relative proportion to something else.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT:: Find more ways of depicting light and colour in minimal forms that challenge the eye.

This video shows some of the earliest computer graphics programmed in mathematical algorithms by John Whitney. His book, Digital Harmony goes into great detail about his exploration of geometric forms in motion. I including him as part of my research for my dissertation which is also about the use of music and animation in harmony. For now, here is a video of his main catalog of work, with very nice typefont animation at the start.

Having watched a few experiments on the effect of sound waves/ vibrations on water I have learned that at different frequencies the water forms different shapes. Many of these forms are recognizable as symbols of some religions. Unfortunately I am not in the line of thinking that it forms these geometric shapes as a result of these religious symbols, rather that they have been harnessed as encompassing forms of nature. Below is an example of one of the simplest combinations of two shapes, known as Metatron’s cube. You may see some similarity to the star of David, the symbol commonly affiliated to Judaism.

The combination of two triangles in this symbol, is significant in that it is the combination of two of the simplest geometric shapes but also the strongest geometric shapes. It could be feasable therefore that water takes on this form simply because that is the most stable structure it can form without dispersing. During my first term, I produced a 2D animation, animating the formation of this shape, then the dispersal of the individual corners of the shape into seperate pools. This touches on the idea of fractals, found also in the formation of snowflakes.

A quick experiment on canvas in an attempt to recreate the waterfall effect i mentioned earlier. I also put a few lighting filters over the painting to give it a bit more of a glow. This also introduces the idea of the Live graffiti Jamming being combined with a live feedback loop. Whereby the artwork’s progress would be filmed and projected with a filter of some sort over the top.

Minimal yet complex, geometric design from La Boca design, London. I really like the way the outer shell has less hue, creating a sort of optical illusion. I am interested also in the meaning of the colourful shell, especially how it has been destroyed to make way for the path the man is walking along. I can only assume that the shell is a symbol for the bright and beautiful life on earth, having being demolished to make way for man’s pursuits of conquest and power. Although I do think that there might be a slight over-emphaisis on the damage man is actually causing to the earth’s vast density and rich diversity. I think it could be seen as quite egotistical as a species to think that we are causing so much change and damage, although, having said this any attempts to minimalise the changes we are actually causing. i.e. construction on greenbelt land, is completely justified. I may have been sidetracked there slightly, so apologies for that, but it just goes to show how representation combined with minimal graphic design can be very thought provoking and inspiring. How much the artowrk represents and reflects the music behind the sleeve is difficult to say, as i have not heard the music, but it may also be representative of the conceptual side of things behind the actual notage.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS:: Collect an array of different album artworks that I feel have been produced in response to the music itself in an interesting way.

A new innovation developed by graffitiresearchlab.com. consisting simply of an LED, battery and magnet.