WoE!? - Seedlings / Shadery

This bit of animation serves as a very slow transition as the Seedling part of the dance leads into Shadery. As the sycamore seed falls to the ground, a pile of pillows on the stage will sprout as the dancer slowly emerges, forming part of the forest that grows behind her. That background will then remain for the next part of the show, which is a more lively forest dance.

The Sycamore seed is made from a couple of bits of acetate and some paper stuck together with blu tac, and then hung and spun in front of a lightbox. That footage was then taken into After Effects, edited into a loop, cleaned up frame by frame in Photoshop and then animated on a path as it decends to the floor. Here’s a quick breakdown of that process…

The transition to the forest needed to be very slow to suit the music and the pace of the dance, and it was good to play around with the negative space and how different parts of the composition are revealed over time. I’m looking forward to seeing this bit on stage as I reckon it could work pretty well. Hopefully…