Research
For this assignment, I conducted research on several things. Since the concept was centered on instrumental music, that was the first thing I researched. Looking into this genre of music was an entirely new experience for me; I had only ever heard a few instrumental songs in my life and so I was very surprised by what I found. To keep track of my thoughts, I made a huge mind map of songs I liked, instruments I wanted to incorporate, and many other things. Below is that mind map.
After consulting with my partner, we ended up going with a song she found. Titled, “Joyride” by DCS Lefty, it encapsulated every quality I wanted. Once we had this finalized, I started to research different types of paper mechanisms to get a feel for what ours could possibly look like. Conveniently, we went to an exhibit as a class where we had the privilege of seeing OSU’s collection of paper mechanism books. Below are a few of my favorite ones I saw.
Once I had these saved for inspiration, I moved on to researching stop motion animation. I started with looking up the basics of stop motion and watching several how-to videos. From here, I researched videos that were set to instrumental songs so I could get a better idea of what ours could look like. Below are the links to a few videos I especially liked.
- Exercise #1
Concept Statement
In mainstream American culture, music is a huge part of people’s lives. Whether it’s being played on the radio, in a classroom, on a phone, or through the speakers of the device you’re reading this on, music is a limitless medium of expression that can convey every known mood, feeling, or emotion. It can help the development of sensitivity, creativity, and an ability to analyze vocal or instrumental sounds. The latter of that list is exactly what we did for this assignment. After picking the song, Joy Ride by DCS Lefty and Roadetrix, my partner and I created a ten-second stop motion video that analyzed the instrumental layers within the song. We divided the section in half; I took the first five-second section and my partner took the last five-second section. Through this analysis, we assigned each instrument a shape. Doing this revealed that when introduced one at a time and continuously added on top, all of the instruments create an extremely harmonious effect. Beyond this, we constructed the stop motion using only bright colors such as blue, pink, yellow, and green. We choose this color scheme so feelings of happiness, warmth, and peace would be demonstrated. Through all of this, we attempted to take our viewers and listeners on a “mental vacation” where nothing else mattered but what was on the screen. Music has the amazing ability to do this by itself but our carefully crafted visuals help to further push this idea along.
Iterations
Although we had originally planned to create duel paper mechanisms, after researching the idea of doing a stop motion my partner and I decided to go in that direction instead. I’ve never worked with stop motion before so I made a test video with my AirPods to learn the basics. It was a short, one-second clip but surprisingly, it still had quite a few frames in it. Below is that video.
After creating this, we moved on to planning our actual stop motion. I had a few ideas so I tested them out before jumping in fully. I did this in a sort of backward way; I created the files digitally on my Ipad, took pictures of them on my phone, and then put them into a stop motion app to see if they worked or not. Here is a compilation of those tests.
Production
#1
The first step towards creating our final stop motion was to create a thumbnail view of what the frames would look like. Compared to filming the actual video, this part was definitely the hardest. Trying to stay completely abstract while still depicting shapes and emotions was something we struggled with but watching videos such as those I listed above was very helpful.
#2
After doing these quick thumbnails sketches, the next step was to make individual frames. We decided to do this digitally so that we could use the cricut afterward to cut the pieces out consistently and with precision. The total number of our individual frames was way more than I could include in this post so above are screenshots of what a few sections looked like.
#3
Once we had all the files completed, we used the circut to cut everything out. This was really helpful in ensuring that everything was the correct size and had clean edges. Here are what some of the cut-out pieces looked like.
#4
After this, it was time to start filming the video! I didn’t have time to be in the studio so I had to film in my dorm room. This is what my setup looked like; I used an old sketchbook as my backdrop, my roommate’s desk light for lighting, and a rectangular container to hold my phone steady. It was a little crazy but it worked.
#5
The first section I filmed was the opening. It was meant to draw viewers into the main drum scene by having two window-like panels open to reveal it.
#6
After the opening, I made the drum circle section. I used several colored dots to imitate the sounds of the drum by having them pop up across the screen.
#7
Once the middle section was complete, I moved on to the ending of my section. I filmed this section by isolating one of the dots and having it flow downwards into a wave-like blob. Said blob then spread across the screen to fill it with one color. This full-color screen acted as a good transition section so that’s why we decided to end my section here and start my partner’s.
#8
Thanks to my high-class setup, my next step was to crop the video. The app I was using to film didn’t have this option so I just looked up “video cropper” on google and uploaded my video.
#9
Once it was cropped, I added the music to see how it would line up. The middle section lined up perfectly but the start and end were a little slow. To fix this, I uploaded the newly cropped video back into my stop motion app and speed up the frames per second on those parts only. This was very difficult to do but it solved the problem. After this, my stop motion section was finally done! I expected my section to look a lot more complex than it did due to the many hours I spent on it. I can’t complain that much, however, because it matches up with the music very well and I’m proud of that.
Link to Portfolio Project
Now that you know how it came to be made, here’s a link to my Dynamic Pages page. Enjoy!