Beginning Process
Getting my illustrations on digital video was the main focus, 2-D frame-by-frame animation was too time consuming, so the next idea was to tape myself drawing, and then use that footage to make a film.In February '05, the wonderful production crew of Chris Commons and Andy Hunter, installed the camera rigging. And after that, my apartment closet became my drawing studio for the next couple of months.
The Lighting Process
The four lights that I used for this project weren't the best, but they worked.
I found that by placing them underneath the table, I created less of a shadow from my hand.
The camera was positioned right above the area where I drew the illustrations out.
Problems led me to consider doing this differently next time..
The Drawing Process
A digital video tape holds up to 60 minutes of record time. The only problem is that it takes me at least an hour to complete a fully finished piece. A full finished piece, or what I call a single scene, usually started with me not having a clue what it would look like, or even how I was going to draw the scene.I made a lot of mistakes while I was drawing, mostly due to the time pressure.. but you'll hardly notice since I cover up most of my mistakes.
For some of the scenes I just recorded the entire drawing session from start to finish. For other scenes, I would draw for a bit, push record, then push stop record.. so that in playback the drawing 'grows' without my hand in the scene.
The Digitalization Process
Once I was finished recording the scenes I wanted, I handed off the tapes to the digital producer for the film, Chris Commons. From there two video clips were chosen as trailers. A musical score was created by Christopher Matthews, and then credits were added to finalize the trailers.There are a million more creative thoughts that have come and gone, and some that are yet to happen.. that involve the future of this project. It's a never-ending creative process.