20 Layers Acetate

Bloody hell, it’s nearly a year since I posted anything! It’s been a busy year, it’s just I’ve not really done much I’ve felt belongs on the site for one reason or another.

I’ve worked on a couple of projects for Norwich Puppet Theatre, both of which were really good fun, but I totally failed to capture any footage of the shows that would do them justice, and the animations just wouldn’t make sense on their own, out of context. And the same goes for the two or three jobs I’ve done for dance company Smallpetitklein. I should get my act together really.

Anyway, I have been slowly but surely plugging away at my latest zoetrope effort in between jobs, so I thought I’d stick a few images and a video up here for anyone who’s curious.

This is the mock up I made in After Effects, so in theory the final thing should look something like this.

Having filmed just the few layers in the images below, I’m a bit scared that I’m going to have some major issues when it comes to lighting this thing. The parts of the acetate that I’ve roughened up with sand paper are possibly too opaque, so I’ve stopped that part of the process for now until I’ve got all the layers in place to see how they work together. I’m hoping that a strong enough back light in combination with some projection from above will solve any issues, but I’m not overly optimistic. This could end up being a rather time consuming lesson to learn…

Fingers crossed though, I’m sure I’ll sort something out. I have plans to collaborate with a sound designer mate on this one, so keep an eye out, should have something to see before the year is out.