Fin

This is the completed piece, a couple of alterations have been made since the draft:
. Effects have been applied in order to create the image of a heart monitor. While this is not perfect I feel it still does an adequate job in conveying that message.
. Due to a catastrophic error, the second half of my visuals were lost/damaged/destroyed. As a result I decided to increase the duration of both the audio and visual portions of the piece. While this has resulted in a much-decreased frame rate (and thus a slower animation), the sound has gained an eerie, vacant, almost haunting quality that I feel has benefited the piece.

Waveforms and Heart Monitors

The inspiration for the visual side of my animation has come mainly from wave forms and hospital heart monitors. Yes.

"Waveform means the shape and form of a signal such as a wave moving in a physical medium or an abstract representation.

In many cases the medium in which the wave is being propagated does not permit a direct visual image of the form. In these cases, the term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a graph of the varying quantity against time or distance. An instrument called an oscilloscope can be used to pictorially represent a wave as a repeating image on a screen. By extension, the term 'waveform' also describes the shape of the graph of any varying quantity against time." - wikipedia

When uploading my track to my computer, I was presented with a visual representation of the music in this form. This has led to the bizarre circumstance in which I am animating a visual representation of music while using another visual representation of this music as a guide. Confusing.

Here I am doing exactly that!

Heart Monitors:

The visuals on a heart monitor used in hospitals have provided the other inspiration for my visuals. This idea occurred to me when a friend suggested I animate to the 'heartbeat' of the music.

A digital representation of one's ticker.

Below is a kind-of teaser of my final piece. Here it exists as it was produced, with no editing as of yet, however that will change as the piece nears completion. 

Music

The music is done, however for whatever reason Blogger won't allow me to upload an mp3 on it's own, so I'll quickly run through how it was made.

Garageband is useful as a music production tool as it allows one to import pre-made tracks for editing and combination. Using this software I produced a simple track using drums, synthesizers and a few abstract loops in order to produce a short and minimalist piece I could animate to.

The Problem with Wine Glasses

Originally it was my intention to utilise the sound of wine glasses being played, and animate along to the recording. However, recording with wine glasses as proven rather problematic: I am obviously not a professional at this, but I had a t least hoped to be able to produce some interesting harmonies and sounds. The reality is that it is extremely difficult to get all the sounds produced in the same key. This, coupled with my general inability to play them anyway, has resulted in the devising of a new strategy: the soundtrack will now be produced more traditionally (through live or electronic instrumentation), though still within the abstract genre. As my intention was to animate after composing a soundtrack this has not greatly impeded by project; however I am left a little disappointed that my original idea could not come to fruition.

Above: What I can never hope to achieve

Proposal

Research that was used to inform my proposal presentation (including omissions).

Exploration of motion through Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvq7UETuaNI

This video shows a more abstract approach, simple yet effective. (video won't embed for whatever reason)

My Proposal:

Using hand-drawn animation to create a visual representation of a musical score

Score to be recorded using wine glasses

Visuals will feature abstract shapes corresponding to the different textures of the audio, with little to no narrative

iStopMotion

iStopMotion is a simple and easily understood program for producing stop-motion animation, it is likely that this program will be used in creating my final piece. iStopMotion is ideal for clay based animation and hand-drawn animation in conjunction with a light box.

Traditional Rostram set-up for use with iStopMotion

This is what a light box looks like, in case you didn't know.

Claymation

From that most venerable of sources, Wikipedia: Plasticine was formulated by art teacher William Harbutt of Bathampton, in Bath, England, in 1897. He wanted a non-drying clay for use by his sculpture students. Although the exact composition is a secret, Plasticine is composed of calcium salts (principally calcium carbonate), petroleum jelly, and long-chain aliphatic acids (principally stearic acid). It is non-toxic, sterile, soft, malleable, and does not dry on exposure to air (unlike superficially similar products such as Play-Doh, which is based on flour, salt and water). It cannot be hardened byfiring; it melts when exposed to heat, and is flammable at much higher temperatures.


Perhaps one of the more well-known forms of Animation, plasticine animation has become a key-part of British animation history through Aardman Animations 'Wallace and Gromit' series.

Other examples of Claymation:
Morph (1976)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Chicken Run (2000) (Another Aardman work)