Here I was, sitting at the desk and drawing circles around this title. I did not know where to start and I basically did a brainstorm. Draw things that I could relate to this film. I watched a documentary about the real wolf of Wall street who has represented in this adventure movie.


Okay...
I was ready to draw all props in illustrator... BUT
before that, I promised myself to find music. A soundtrack that works together with the time when these events that are represented in a film happened.

I chose
The Dead Weather - Hang You From the Heavens
But that was not it. It has a lot of lyrics and parts that were very repetitive, so I put the audio in Adobe Audition and cut it in pieces. I also add some effects on drums and edit the transitions...
I worked on levels and on stereo channels to make the video more immersive.





I actually went back time to time while I was editing the actual animation. I wanted some bits longer and some bits shorter, therefore I worked on both programs at the same time.

Next part was doing all illustrations.
I started with a bus. That's how the film starts with a young guy in an NYC bus looking for better life.

My inspiration comes from intros
Catch Me if You Can Opening Title Sequence

I liked the simple look and use of colour.
I loved the transitions the most, they are very clever and you cannot predict the next one.

Next - title sequence of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang


Position all layer in 3D space using After Effects was not challenging, I did it once with a bus and everything else was just natural. I got use to the points and axes very quickly.

 I used some silhouettes of buildings to represent big city
 All animations I keyed to change the speed more realistic.
 Here I am changing speed for bus animation and camera
 Many moving layers. starting from a wheel to the whole city.
I animated in a rhythm of the soundtrack. I like pop-up texts and seamless transitions for animation. I liked bright colors and very simple backgrounds. I used a lot of compositions, so the actual project contains 2D and 3D compositions. Some were moving, some were just stills moved by keyframes.

TITLES
I wanted very simple and visible font. I did large scale letters to be readable in time they are on the screen. Each title was replayed many times to make sure that it has on the screen for long time enough, but at the same time not for too long time. I find very annoying if titles are too long on the screen. I like that it is possible to read the text and still appreciate the animation.

I very liked the process of keyframing the camera angles. I have to say that the longest process in the whole project was the illustrator. I spent around 10 hours learning it and about the same time to make all shapes you can see in the next blog post.

Still playing with the spread of information we wanted to base the piece on the passing and delivery of words, how things said by others can’t be monitored nor controlled. In the piece, you are viewing five separate screens working as a vocal circuit. Four of the Screens act as distributors of information. Starting from the left (Screen 1) something is said, moving along it reaches the middle screen, upon receiving the news the middle screen reacts, the reaction is later heard/seen by another passing on the story. The middle screen acts as a Breeder and Target for gossip it plays a victim of rumor. Shocked by the words it has come to hear, it addresses the viewer with the words “just between you and me” in hope to seal the spreading; in natural fact, nothing stays private. The circuit loops again, middle screen reacts with anger “Beat the shit out of a pillow” yet making another headline.

CIRCUIT

Having in mind this interesting video I look for another. Each video took my attention more and more.



After a good research, I found out what is Morph Motion - Still to Still. Soon I had a RE:Flex plugin on my Adobe After Effects.

I run few tests and realized that on trial version nothing is going to work. It put a huge cross over the image - watermarked.

Having this problem made me think of ways around it. So I came with a solution to generate huge pictures, edit them with the watermark and then just crop needed frame in Adobe Premiere.

I ended up with 11.5K footage on my computer. All videos and sequences were about this size leaving portrait area for FULL HD resolution. 1080x1920p PORTRAIT!

I watched tutorials how to use RE:Flex motion morph for different files - videos, still images and animations. I was very into this technique and I am glad I explored it. First tests went bad, but I got use to it. One portrait took me about 4 hours to turn sideways and open its mouth.

What motion morph does is basically takes the points defined by me and blends together with the image next. I have to go frame by frame and move shapes that are different for two frames between.

Here is a video that is taken for 4.5 hours.

In total, I made fully 6 portraits. Morphing and later on exporting through Adobe Premiere in .MOV H.264 1080x1920p 25fps.

After generating motion from still, it was time for motions. Each motion was trimmed separately like sequence. It was more like a sequence of the sequence of the sequence. Files on files.

In my opinion, we set roles very clever. Ivan was in charge of characters. As soon as he finished one face I began to draw shapes and move pictures in After Effects. I think his process was not easier, all layers and texture took a long time. Meanwhile, I was working with different sizes, trying to figure out pixel ratio and frame times in certain seconds. 

We had issues, particularly my Adobe crashed for like 5 times. 

I would say that I was excited by the process learning a new technique... but closer to the end and I got very tired. Every single point needs to be checked in all frames, keyframed every single second and because of different drawings, all shapes changed their form every single frame. 

It was challenging, even more, because of something I have never been aware of. I got new experience and a feeling of great teamwork. 

The work shows a distorted version of the Portrait of Innocent X painted by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez in 1650. The work is one of a series of over 45 variants of the Velázquez painting which Bacon executed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. The picture was described by Gilles Deleuze as an example of creative re-interpretation of the classical. [3]

The insertion subverts the encapsulation of power and self-assurance projected by Velázquez. The screaming mouth, isolated from other facial features and divorced from any narrative context, suggests existential agony. The pathos of human vulnerability and loss of faith or conviction are accentuated by the precisely rendered space frames in many Bacon images of popes, which make the figures register as ‘enclosed in the wretched glass capsule of the human individual’, to cite the evocative phrase used by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy (1872), one of Bacon’s favourite books.[2]

I was more into the Popes biography, but it seemed really secret. Therefore I choose to find out why Francis Bacon wanted to show him screaming, what was the reason and is this is somehow interacting with his sexuality?