Batai Poul

'Politics' Animation

Puppets

 

Smooth Talk Almost Complete

POLITICAL SUICIDE

Cool Collage

Sculpture That Interest Me

Some of these are done by Mona Hatoun and Sagalit Landeau

Lavar Munroe

Lavar Munroe

Country: The Bahamas

Smooth Talk

 

Smooth Talk being self explanatory is about the sweet words of leaders. What makes them successful is how well they articulate, and all the promises they make, inculcating what seem to be words of wisdom that persuade which way we vote.

“No Abstract Art Here” Summary

    “No Abstract Art Here”: The Problem of the Visual in Contemporary Anglo-Caribbean Art. Krista A. Thompson


    The biennial national exhibition at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas July 2006 sparked controversy after the jury did not accept some of the artists work.The artist thought that the jury had unfairly robbed them of the opportunity to exhibit and together they besieged the gallery’s staff with protests, threats of boycutt and appeals. Respectable citizens had complaints about the work, saying that installations were not ‘Art’. It was thought that the visual grammar of conceptual and abstract art could not translate the experience of the Caribbean; that representational art showed clearly using photo-realistic images and presented the islands as orderly and dreamlike tropical locales. Residents even view these pictures as more authentic that the islands themselves even if they have been modified to be picture perfect by removing anything unpleasing. Anyone who did not represent the island in this way were cast as visual heretics and were accused by a powerful segment of the cart community and was said to not be creating art.
    Artist defiantly go against picturesque aesthetics by bringing to light ugly and bad aspects of the Bahamian society in their subject matter and use methods that disrupt earlier ways of visually imagining the islands. This picture perfect idea go as far back as colonial times when the British government hired photographers to create picturesque photographs of the islands when tourism trade first started. The photos were then hand painted to remove unwanted elements.
    Sensitive invisible issues such as the Haitian population and their contribution to The Bahamas were highlighted by the artists via conceptual and abstract work. These new pieces cast new light on aspects of society that have been historically eluded by representational art in The Bahamas. They offered honest snapshots of life outside of the picturesque frame.

WAYS OF SEEING

What we know or what we believe affects the way we see things. We only see what we actually choose to look at. We always look at the relations between things and ourselves and not just that specific thing that we are looking at. Our vision is continually active, moving and holding things in a circle around itself. As soon as we can see, we are aware that we can be seen also. An image is a sight that has been reproduced or recreated or an appearance or set of appearances detached from its original time and place. We are aware that a photographer chooses a sight from an infinity of other possible sights. The painter shows how he sees things by the marks he makes on the canvas or paper. When an image is presented as a work of art, people view of it is affected by a series of learnt assumptions about art. The power of an image comes mainly from its compositional unity.

Mystification is the process of explaining away what otherwise might be evident. Perspective structured all images of reality to address a single spectator who could only be in one place at a time. The camera destroyed the idea that images were timeless because it isolated momentarily appearances; it showed that the notion of time passing was inseparable from the experience of the visual. In paintings it was opposite because they were usually staged and

When the camera reproduces a painting it destroys its uniqueness and its meaning multiples and fragments. Paintings are also now traveling to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting and in that the meaning is diversified. An original piece always has this uniqueness that gives it respect over reproductions. It is defined as an object whose value depends on its rarity. Authenticity makes a painting ‘beautiful’. It is noted that the majority of the population do not visit art museums. Studies show that the more educated a person is the more he or she is interested in art. The highest numbers of people come from the professional and upper management class.

The social presence of a woman is different from a man’s. A man’s presence depends on the promise of power and it may be fabricated that he pretends to be capable of what he is not; whereas a woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself and defines what can and cannot be done to her. She continually watches herself because she how she appears to others is crucial. Men look at woman and woman look at themselves being watched. Women were ever recurring subjects in European oil painting especially in the category of the nude. Nakedness was created in the mind of the beholder and the woman is blamed and punished by being made subservient to the man at the beginning. Initially, the images started by showing shame and then moved to some kind of display, and then the woman’s nakedness was depicted for pleasure. This nakedness was not an expression of the model’s feelings but a sign of submission to the owner’s demands and feelings.  To be naked is to be without clothes; however, to be nude is a form of art.

Buying a painting means that you also buy the look of the thing it represents. Oil painting is known for its ability to render the tangibility, the luster, texture and solidity of what it depicts. It tends to make the viewer assume that he is close to or within touching distance of any object in the foreground of the image and it gives some kind of intimacy with the persons there. The highest category of oil painting was the history or mythological picture. Landscape paintings were not as popular but each time the tradition of oil painting was significantly modified, the first initiative came from landscape painting.
It is noted that every exceptional work was as a result of prolonged successful struggle, however not all prolonged struggles were successful. An artist had to recognize that his vision for what it was and then separate it from the usage for which it had been developed. He on his own had to contest the norms of the art that had formed him. This meant that he saw himself doing what no one else could foresee.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin (1935) Summary

A work of art has always been reproducible or imitated by men, however, newness came from mechanical reproduction. Historically the Greeks knew two procedures; founding and stamping whereby they were able to reproduce works of art. Graphic art became mechanically reproducible long before script became reproducible by print. Engraving and etching brought along lithography which was surpassed by photography. Photography therefore freed the hand of the most important artistic functions and henceforth used the eye. Pictorial reproduction was accelerated since the eye perceived more swiftly than the hand can draw. The most perfect reproduction of a work of art lacked the presence of time and space, the history to which it was subject to throughout the time of its existence. The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity. The process of reproducing the object is more independent of it than the manual reproduction. The process can bring out those aspects that are unattainable to the naked eye in the finished work, example the use of enlargements or slow motion can capture images that would escape natural vision.

The “aura” of the work of art is lost in mechanical reproduction. The unique existence and the intimacy that the artist has with the piece is lost with reproduction. It is said that the object is pried from its shell; its aura is destroyed. Earlier, artwork came about in the service of a ritual; first the magical then the religious kind. The aura was never entirely separated from its ritual functions; the authentic work had its basis in rituals. The work was not in existence for show but was only to be exposed to or meant for spirits. Mechanical reproduction therefore emancipated the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual or cult. Photography began to displace cult value but it also recorded it by becoming the standard evidence for historical occurrences. Photography also became a rival to painting as it forced artist to look to impressionism and abstraction instead of realism.

As film came along, an actor’s performance was presented by means of a camera and he lacked the opportunity of the stage actor to adjust to the audience during performance. The audience become critics without personal contact but via the camera. The aura of the actor vanishes and the aura the figure plays replaces it. The comparison of a cameraman and a painter is said to be that the painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality and the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web.

With the increasing extension of the press anyone is able to publish written material and at any moment a reader is ready to turn into a writer. The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art from the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. Painting is said to be in no position to present an object for simultaneous collective experience although they began to be publicly exhibited in galleries and salons.

In my opinion, there is always going to be mechanical reproduction or imitation of original art pieces, but the importance is the process by which one gets there and the personal spin that is placed on the finished piece. One of the most amazing pieces I have seen are those that are mixed up with the traditional techniques and the processes that came along with mechanical reproduction over the years.

Old Da Costa Building

Im experimenting with palette knife etc and for some reason Im really interested in old Barbados. Im not saying that this will have anything whatsoever to do with next semester's projects.

Written Paper on Project Process

    Name:    Sharon Moise

    Tutor:        Ewan Atkinson

    Course:    New\Contemporary Media



According to Answers.com “ Ideological control is a concept introduced by the Marxists. It means to control someone not physically, but mentally, in a subtle, sub-conscious manner.  You are not aware you are ideologically controlled, as it is everything that surrounds you. The only way to prevent this form of ideological control would be a complete communist revolution. ”Whites during the time of slavery had the notion that they were the supreme being and Blacks came somewhere between them and animals.  The idea of this was inculcated into their minds from generation to generation and hardly anyone dared to say otherwise.

In my first piece ‘Secret Message’ this white man despite what he was taught, was overwhelmed with confusion about his feelings. He could not let anyone know his real take on slavery, however he had to say it in some way to relieve his mind. He did so by writing and tossing it overboard in the form a message in a bottle. This piece is an installation of a bottle that is found near the coastline with the message still in tact although it was from the 1700’s and a tree growing from it displaying what people generally think about ideological control.

I aged the paper after printing the message onto it and placed it into a bottle. After picking the perfect branch to grow out of the bottle in the form of a cork, I drew leaves in Adobe Illustrator and printed different colours of them. I had people write what they thought about ideological control on them and placed them on the branch. Majority of the islands were colonized by the British hence the colours of the British flag were painted on the branch and bottle.


Ideological control was shown by how the people of the same race were manipulated to be against each other. Division would come if a man is called to beat his brother. There was also division between field slaves and domestic slaves. Today we still experience some of this kind of discrimination from our own people because emancipation was never abolished in our minds. The next project therefore is an animation called ‘Abolition of Slavery by Law but Totally alive in Minds’.
When I first started this project the story board was about a slave being whipped by another black slave. The person doing the whipping then at some point looks into the great house where a domestic slave closes the curtains. A transition from closing the curtains was done where a door would be open in present day right after the hand closes the curtain. The scene after was about a black receptionist being more polite to the white customer than the black customer.

I started my animation by making a few sketches

based on what I was thinking each scene should look like. I then scanned and imported the photos to Adobe Illustrator. There, I moved around nodes to make different movements. After some research, I started using the animation software Toon Boom where I adjusted each frame to show movement manually. After further reading I learnt how to break down one image into sections and how to rotate body parts using angles. From there, I was able to skip frames and the program simulated the in-betweens. I started having difficulty with the natural movements of the body since I had no reference. I then resorted to shooting videos. I was then able to import the video as frames via Photoshop and then export them as individual files. Actions were then created using droplets in photoshop to convert each file the way I wanted it to look. After cleaning up over two hundred frames each of various videos; I exported each scene as a movie and then organized them in the iMovie program. It was noted that some parts especially the ending were not very clear and it was suggested by my tutor that I concentrate on the whipping scene.

As I went back to the drawing board I discovered the program Pencil on my computer. I drew in there and added a few images that I had worked on previously and it all came together in the end.

In conclusion, ideological control is a concept that affects everyone despite their race. Which ever part of the spectrum one may be it does not seem to evade us. Being aware of the biases and idiosyncrasies is the first step to making change that will make us better individuals.

Ideological Control Installation

Ideological Control Animation

How to make a basic flash animation.

How to use iMovie: Animation.

Ideological Control Video

Liquid TV - Sweeper

Funny Animation

Black or White

I ran to get my camera when I saw this, I think this is a perfect example of why we should all get along! "It don't matter if you black or white" Michael Jackson.

Toon Boon

I downloaded this program, well the trial version, lol. Just learning how to use it.

Your character is now ready to be added to a peg:

1. Click the Add Peg Element button.
   
2. Drag your character element over the peg to connect it.
   
   

Once your character is connected to your peg, you will need to create a motion path that will go from left-to-right or right-to-left depending on your animation.
To create a motion path:

1. Select the Motion Tool from Sceneplanning Tools toolbar.
   
2. Drag the last keyframe to the left or the right while holding [Shift]. A motion path will appear.
   
3. Run through your animation a few times and see if your character’s feet are sliding on the ground.
   
4. If they are sliding you must adjust the length of the motion path until it looks like the feet are no longer sliding.

Once the adjustments are done, you are ready to start repeating your cycle.

Using the Create Advanced Cycle Option

The next step is to repeat the hand drawn animation several times so that there are enough frames for the character to cross the screen.

1. In the Timeline View, right click the first empty cell of your hand-drawn animation and select Create Advanced Cycle.
   
   
   The Advanced Cycle window opens. This contains two windows, one for the First Drawing and one for the Last Drawing. Make sure that both drawings are correct. If you want to change the drawing, simply use the slider or enter the name of the cell in the specified text box.
   
2. Next, select the number of times you want the cycle to repeat.
   • None: If you don’t want the cycle to repeat.
   • Continuous: If you want the cycle to restart with the first drawing on each loop.
     For example, if you create two continuous drawing loops for drawings-2-3, the resulting loop would be: 1-2-3-1-2-3.
   • Forward-Backward: If you want to restart the loop with the previous drawing.
     For example, if you create 2 forward-backward loops with drawings 1-2-3, the resulting loop would be: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2.
   
   
3. Type the number of times you want the cycle repeat in the Loops field.
   If you want to repeat the cycle for a specific number of frames, type a value in the Frames field.
   In this example, the baby walk will loop 5 times.
   
   
4. Click on OK to close the window and go back to your work.

If you browse through your animation, you will now see that the character will move from left to right only during the first cycle. After, it will be stationary again. You can change this by using the Change Loops option.

Using the Change Loops Option

The Change Loops option is specific to the peg and is used to repeat a peg sequence. You can repeat cycles of hand drawn animation using the Advanced Cycle option.

1. First you must select the first empty cell next to the last peg keyframe in the timeline.
   
2. Right-click and select Change Loops.
   
   
3. Enter the number of loops you wish to create.
   
   In this example we created 6 loops.
   
   
4. Click on OK to close the window and go back to your work.

If at the end of your animation, you notice that the peg loops do not fit with your hand drawn animation. This can easily be corrected by dragging the end of the peg sequence up to the same frame as your animation.

You can now play your animation to see the result!
Your character should now walk all the way to the end of your motion path.

Moving the Motion Path

Now that the animation is completed, you will probably notice that the motion path is not correctly placed in your scene. To move the motion path so that your character comes in and goes out of the screen:

• Using the Select tool from the Sceneplanning Tools toolbar, click on the motion path and move the it until your are satisfied with its position and the result.
  

Summary

Here are some important things you should remember:

• The Create Advanced Cycle option is specifically used to repeat drawing cells.
• The Change Loops option is used to repeat a selected section of a peg.
• Repeating a peg will not create copies of your drawing cells, it will only repeat the Motion Path.
• Use both options together to save time and effort.

Good luck!

The Walk Cycle

Animating a walk, where do we begin. Well first we need a character. For today's lesson we're going to use Mr.Stickman. Next we need a clear and simple method of approaching walks in general. I didn't come up with the technique that follows. I gleaned most of this from Richard Williams book 'The Animator's Survival Kit'. If you find this tutorial useful I highly recommend you pick up a copy. We're going to use a pose to pose method to animate today's walk. At 24fps a walk will usually range anywhere from 8 frames per stride for a brisk pace, to 16 frames for a leisurely stroll. In order to be clear I'm going to animate at 24fps and make each stride 12 frames (march time).  Let's begin animating a walk with the contact poses. This is basically mid stride where the heel strikes the ground. Contrary to what you might think, this is the part of a walk that has the least amount of weight. It's the pose directly after this, or the down pose that sells the weight. We'll get to that much later. For now let's concentrate on this pose. Go ahead and pose every part of your character on frame 1. Make sure the forward leg striking the ground is straight (knee is not bent) otherwise your character may look like he's carrying a load in the back of his pant's. Also make sure you add a little vertical torsion in the hips and shoulders (i.e., twist the torso slightly). Now advance the time 12 frames (frame13) and do the the next heel strike pose. Remember to key everything on your character. The final heel strike pose will happen 12 frames later on frame 25.  It should look something like this.

Now that we have the contact poses set let's start breaking it down by adding the passing poses. Go to frame 7 and pose every part of your character in a passing pose. Make sure to keep the shoulders and hips in opposition to each other and drop the shoulder and hips laterally (i.e. curve the torso slightly, see below). It should look like this.

Now are walk is starting to take shape. Once you get this far the rest is a breeze. As long as the contact and passing poses work you can do just about anything you want with these break down poses and it'll work. For now we're just going to animate a generic walk. Let's break it down further by adding the actual weight bearing pose or down pose between the contact and passing poses (frame 4). The forwrd knee drops and bends, the head shifts forward and the Hips and shoulders tilt. It should be something like this (don't for get to key everything on you character or one pose might wind up affecting a pose you've already worked out).

Now we'll add the striding or up pose between the passing and contact poses (frame 10). This is where your character bounds upward and begins to fall farward. The hips begin moving back toward the centerline so the body will be ready to catch it self with the opposing foot.

We're almost finished. Now it's time to go back and inbetween everything. In your curve editor you'll want to smooth out any nasty bumps or ledges in your curves. You'll also want to make sure you've got a nice steep hard edged curve for the heel striking the ground. At this point the walk is pretty much finished. I like to go through and off set keys on overlapping joints to loosen up everything and give it a more natural feel. Also make sure frame 1 and frame 25 match up perfectly. When you're all done you should wind up with a nice looping walk cycle between frame 1 and 24 (frame 25 is a repeat). Here's what it looks like.

And this is what it looks like in motion.

Using this technique anyone can acheive convincing walk cycles of all types. Now that you've completed a faily generic walk why don't you try animating the following types of walks.