Digital Tools for Artists: Space Oddity

Stars

The first song I downloaded for this class, with the goal of using it in an After Effects sequence, was Debussy’s Claire De Lune. I find Claire De Lune to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I also have an emotional attachment to the piece, as I once had a professor recommend it to me during a conference. It wasn’t the recommendation that struck me, it was the fact that he recommended a song I had loved all my life but never knew the name of.

I chose to use Claire De Lune for my Space Oddity studio prompt as I felt it exemplifies the feeling of movement through time and space. The emotion that runs through the notes of the piano mimics the feeling of wind and evolution, of travel and growth, loss and struggle. The song is booming with inspiration. This was both a gift and a curse, as the song articulates so much emotion and movement, I found it difficult to do the piece justice. I found I wasn’t creating images and articulating movements that could adequately express the emotion that exudes through the piece. I had an idea in my head of what this sequence could look like and unfortunately my final result does not necessarily encompass what I had hoped to achieve.
Sketch 02

Sketch 01
I started off with a rough idea of what my sequence would contain. I knew I wanted to have a piece that traveled from the earth towards the sky. I also knew I would use flowers as a kind of guide throughout the journey. I was thinking about the way a lost balloon floats up into the sky, seemingly on an endless journey through space. I wanted to achieve that concept with flowers, earth’s creation, as the balloon, continuously appearing throughout the journey.

Flowers

I was happy with the environment I created at the start of the piece. I was especially pleased with the end result of the clouds and the sun. I chose to go with a very geometrical look, inspired by the PBS cartoons I watched as a child. This was both influenced by my love of early 2000s children’s shows and the fact that geometrical shapes are very approachable for a relatively new user of After Effects.

Clouds

Things got bumpy as I added more content to my sequence. I became overwhelmed with the delayed playback. I had never worked with such a dense After Effects composition. This delayed playback made it difficult for me to get a sense of timing and movement. Going back, I should have been more diligent about utilizing my music markers. I used them at the beginning of the project and then started cutting by ear, but once my playback got so delayed it became difficult to cut to the notes of the song.

I am satisfied with the way the piece comes to a close. I wanted to create the illusion of an alternate universe mimicking reality with subtle differences. I replaced the sun with my Photoshop illustration of an orange planet. I am also happy with the way the magnified fractal combined with the kaleidoscope, gives the illusion of evolving static, I found this to be a nice reiteration of the space theme.

Static

I struggled to incorporate the loop command. I used it towards the end of the sequence when the flowers bob back up into frame. The challenge I found in the loop tool adequately sums up the struggle I experienced throughout this project. I found myself planning out the piece in accordance to the effects I had to incorporate rather than create with a plan to implement the required effects at the end. For future studio prompts, I will be sure to look at the requirements as elements I need to include in the end result, rather than aspects that dictate the sequence. I wish I could have created something with a little more emotion. I think if I had gone further with my storyboarding and stayed closer to the beats of the music I might have achieved a more emotional piece.

Author: Margo DePorter