Research - More Image Gathering

I signed up to the SKYSCRAPER CITY forum to get access to some of their images, namely their "Old Sheffield" gallery ones.

They contained many user submitted photographs, some of which were ideal, and many of which although unsuitable for what I had in mind, still gave a great nostalgic nod to days gone by.

The gallery can be found here...
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=314150

And here are some the the most notable images on hand...

Meadowhall under construction.

Looking up through "The Hole in the Road"

Just outside the Rail station

Haymarket, 1950's.

The "Eggbox". Pre-Winter Gardens.

Stadium being built

What's probably most impressive is the information these guys give for each image they upload or comment on. I've actually learnt alot about Sheffield just from reading these pages, finding out where certain stuff is or how and why things have changed.

For example, it wasn't just redevelopment plans that changed the face of Sheffield, alot of it's key buildings were destroyed in the war. This was probably most evident with the Marples Hotel building, seen here in its prime, just a few months before it was destroyed...

...and after...

They say that the explosion cost 70 people their lives, being without doubt the worst single incident for loss of life in Sheffield during the whole war.
Others, like the "Hole in the Road" had to be filled in due to the tram lines being built above it, to provide stability for the foundations. Personally, I just think it was cos tramps used to hang about down their and it started to smell like piss...

Reading what the people say, people who love the city and are full of fond memories of it, I get a good sense of warmth and passion about it from them. Its obvious they care about their home, where they grew up, places they spent their lives, and there's alot of resentment for any unnecessary change. As one guy puts "The council have always done more than German bombs ever could in destroying the nicer buildings of Sheffield".

Other sites I found with good images are as follows. Sure, it took a while to locate them all, time that I could probably have spent on something else more worthwhile, but I think it's important to get as many resources and do as much research as you can in order to make an initial idea and concept as great as it can be.

http://sheffieldindexers.com/
http://www.freewebs.com/streetsinthesky/
http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php?
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sheffield_victoria/index.shtml
http://public-art.shu.ac.uk/sheffield/
http://firthparkgrammarschool.co.uk/?page_id=22

My intent is to scour each and every page and exhaust all possible avenues, building up as extensive a collection of old photos as I can, then narrowing the list down and choosing the best, most suitable ones for the task at hand. It's a dirty job, but someones gotta do it... :P

Research - Gathering Footage

As I now had more images than I knew what to do with, I wanted to check and see if there was any old footage of Sheffield out there, for both research purposes, and also with the intent of cutting parts of it for use in my own work, if appropriate.

I managed to find these excellent sources of inspiration...

BYGONE SHEFFIELD

SHEFFIELD TRAMS 1957-60

SHEFFIELD - THE LAST TRAMS

Some excellent footage here, if nothing else it helps build my idea of Sheffields history and help give me some useable footage with which to have a play. Although the quality is terrible, I do like how that reflects the time itself! But thank god for the digitial era!

Research - Gathering Old Images

The photo gathering begins!

Looking online I've managed to find quite a lot of good resources for old, historical archives of Sheffield.

This certainly helps make my job all the more easier, and gives me visual ideas just browsing them.

PICTURE SHEFFIELD
http://www.picturesheffield.com/ is a great site, one of the best of the bunch, set up by the city council itself, and containing a vast selection of historical images from many different eras. Here are just a few...

City Hall. 1937.

Midland Bank, Ecclesall Road. 1952.

Moorhead. 1930.

BBC - YORKSHIRE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/sheffield_then_and_now_vin_rigby_gallery.shtml

In a section devoted primarily to the Yorkshire region, BBC did a great comparison piece showing old photos from the city, with modern day comparisons from the exact same angle. Kinda like a still version of what I want to do myself! Some of the images they used are here...

Sheffield's Peace Gardens. 1960 & 2009 respectively.

Barkers Pool. 1968 & 2009.

Hyde Park Flats. 1973, 2000 & 2009.

FRANCIS FIRTH
http://www.francisfrith.com/sheffield/photos/

Another big and extensive collection, this one more in a commercial manor though, in that it tries to sell you prints of the actual images! Still, it's nice that the preservation and recollection of such memories are in demand, so much so people would actually pay good money for them. For my purposes, they should be ideal, as it means the images would be of a good quality if chosen for use in my shots. The only problem is they're heavily copy protected, not easily downloadable, and watermarked. Sure, there's way round it, and I can quite easily grab them if I REALLY wanted them, but honestly, if someone goes to that much trouble to keep you from having them, then it's really not worth it. Plus, copyright issues would obviously come into play, and I'd hate to rub someone the wrong way with my work. Anyway, here's a few images I "borrowed" from the site...

Fargate. 1893.

Fitzalan Square. 1902.

Fargate. 1955.

FLICKR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger/sets/72157600005239108/

Ah Flickr, the ever reliable! You can always count on it to deliver the goods when you find yourself looking for some sought after resources! This collection in particular, set up by one Roger B, shows many images of Sheffield from between 1905 & 2008. Many are colour too, albeit artificial in many cases, which is a treat for the retinas after viewing so much monochrome, let me tell you!

Here's a few...

Coles Corner. 1908.

Heeley Bottom. 1979.

Following Roger B's album, it led me to the Flickr group "Sheffield Then and Now", which contained even more images from all over the city, by even more of its inhabitants. There was a little too much "Now" and not enough "Then" for my liking, but still, the collection was extensive, and still provided a fascinating look into the ever changing landscape of Yorkshire's finest city.

Given these resources, as well as many others, I am now starting to build up a selection of images which I can use for my idea, and tweak to my liking. When I've got enough on hand, I can start planning actual shoots of these places in modern day Sheffield, and start thinking more about how best to reflect the changing times.

Research - Augmented Reality

Looking at the actual idea with fresh eyes, I can see many similarities to what we're seeing nowadays with augmented reality apps and programs for all these portable devices and cameras. I took a little look at these in the hope that I could use such similarities to my advantage, in terms of both generating visual inspiration, and helping to put my ideas into practise.

This ad showing augmented cinema on an iPhone is quite cool, as it shows something similar to my idea, with two different eras, one of normal modern day, and the other of scenes from a famous movie, in this case Notting Hill I believe. I think this was just made for fun, but how cool would it be to actually have an app for such things!

I can definitely see many ideas within this, things that inspire me and have certain got my cogs ticking...

Next step for me I believe is to get an angle, a hook if you will, and attempt a storyboard of sorts.

Test - Track Matte

Thinking of how I might pull the effect of seeing a whole other era through a frame, I did a test to see how it might work in After Effects. In Photoshop, I use a technique called "Create Clipping Mask" which allows you to superimpose an image WITHIN another one, only revealing the part of the set picture THROUGH the body of the main image.

With the feature lost in After Effects, I did a little scouring, and discovered a similar technique which would suit my purposes well. It's called "Track Matte" and the results are basically the same. So I had a little play and messed around with the technique myself, and managed to create a little test to see how it might run for my idea...

So it worked fine, and baring in mind that the modern day images would actually be live footage shoot on location, and I would probably be holding an actual frame, then I may have to hold one with a green centre plate, so it would be best to see through when a little keying is applied too.

Next step would be to get out and film some footage myself, which I'm looking forward to doing. Just waiting for this disgusting weather to stop first... :P

Research into Two-Era Transitions

In thinking about how I might combine my ideas and show both the past and present Sheffield, and more specifically, how I can represent the two separate eras visually, I've been looking at similar moments in films.

I think the most obvious example are the crossfade of Titanic, which although 15 years old, still look amazing today, and are without doubt the best part of the film for many. I checked the film out and cut all the crossfades from it, which show the glamorous ship as it was back then, and the rusted wreckage as it lays at the ocean floor today.

The transitions themselves are smooth as silk, and absolutely spot on, both movement wise, and graphically, and perhaps the best, most famous example of the effect going...

The actual technique can be done in different ways, either through CGI like seen in Titanic, or with lighting effects and projections. Being a bit of a film buff, I also remember such an effect in the vastly underrated comedy horror, The Frighteners, starring Michael J Fox, directed by Peter Jackson, and actually beating Titanic to the post by a whole year! Again, I cut the parts out of the film that show the effect in action, in the hopes of taking note and getting both inspiration and visual ideas...

In this version, the effect is done more through acting and lighting, with the dark and gloomy transitioning with the bright and shiny. Some shots have the whole process in one, which takes you right from one era to the next, and both examples certainly give me something to think about in terms of how I might best pull off my own transitions.

Research - Example Footage

Running with the new, revised idea, I remembered a cool bit in an old film I saw years ago. It took a while to find the film, and even longer to find the right clip, but I finally managed to track it down and it's actually a remake of an even older horror film, The House on Haunted Hill, this version from 1999.

In it, a group of young adults are offered a million dollars to spend the night in a so called haunted house. Not the most creative plot line, but one that drives the "story" forward enough to provide a fair share of thrills and spills, of which one of them popped in my head when thinking of ways to realise my own idea here.

I managed to locate and edit a quick clip of the part in question, in the hope that it would better illustrate my point...

In the video, we see a cute little hottie wandering around the basement of said haunted house, alone, in the dark, just asking for trouble. Obviously, she's not seen how these things usually end up.

The effect that stood out to me though is the use of her camcorder. She's just filming what look in real time like empty, deserted corridors, but through the camera, evil, twisted images of the past are horrifically revealed, and it's this effect that stood out to me.

Obviously, my idea wouldn't be quite as spooky, but the visual imagery of past mixed with present and seen through a frame in real time is the basis for my revised idea, and certainly helps me visualise a potential series of images in my minds eye!

The New Idea

Right, so time to put onto paper what I kinda have in mind now, just to help illustrate where I'm thinking of heading with it.

I'm basically taking the extra idea I had of a tablet revealing Sheffield how it USED to look years and years ago, and making it into some sort of narrative video. At this point, I'm not quite sure how it will run shot for shot exactly, but here's a few illustrations to help explain it so far...

So the idea would be for an app or tablet of some kind, named after the event itself...

The video I would make would show the app in action, at key locations around Sheffield...

We would follow our user around as they checked out the life and times of years past through the tablet lense itself...

And the novelty of the whole idea would be the crossfaded images of the old Sheffield sights transitioning with the new, via the tablet...

Now the whole idea kinda hangs on just what resources I can find exactly, ie: which photos and images from the past I can come across, hence why the storyboard is brief at this point, as it's these old images I must take my visual cue from. I could have the best idea in the world about filming in one certain location, but if I can't find the old photographic resources for it, then it simply can't be done.

The next step then is to start assembling a strong selection of possible photographs, then I can start looking at just where I want to film, and hopefully get some strong ideas about what I want to achieve in my video.

Final Pitch - Reflections

So today's pitch went pants. :(

My embedded media didn't work, I fiddled around a tad too much, and it kinda sucked the life out of my whole presentation.

Not that this would even matter had my idea been half decent, but after hearing other other pitches and ideas, it's not as unique or original as I hoped, although I suppose that's to be expected given that everyone was likely to do something about the history of Sheffield, given the feedback from the client. Still, some broke the norm, others even broke their specialism, and it will certainly be interesting to see how their ideas develop.

Me? I just broke my own spirit!

Matt wasn't impressed, and thought I needed more work to show. And he's right, I should have put more into practise, and developed my ideas further. Thing is I was waiting for the pitch to see which ideas would be best received, and intended on using the feedback I got from it to shape the path I take with them. But that was clearly the wrong approach to take, and I should have brought more to the table in order to SELL the idea first...

My bad. Lesson learned. And dully noted for next time.

Matt said I looked pissed off. And in a way I was, pissed off with myself. I thought my idea was absolutely perfect for the Twilight show, and almost expected it to sell itself with the ideas being communicated, and visual examples shown that demonstrated what I had in mind, but clearly, that wasn't the right approach to take, and I've missed out on the shortlisting this time. :(

My one saving grace was the idea I just threw in for the hell of it last night, with the augmented reality tablet idea showing the Sheffield of the past. Matt really liked it, and where I'd already combined my initial two ideas to make a single stronger one, I'm now going to look at ways to incorporate all three.

The road to redemption begins...

Initial Pitch - Feedback, Revisions & New Ideas!

So the mock pitch with Johnny today went okay, and I'm happy with my idea going forward. I feel it's exactly what the client is looking for, and should suit the projection perfectly.

A few things came up. I'm worried about the "interactivity" part that has been mentioned, in terms of making our projects interactive in some way. I'm a little confused here, as I thought that as motion design students we were specifically tasked with designing a piece for the Twilight shows projected footage? And I'm struggling to see how a projection itself can possibly be interactive?

I'm also a little confused as to why only 2 of us will be shortlisted. Surely, with all the time they have to fill for the projection on the night, they should use quite a few of our works? 2 or 3 pieces aren't going to give the client much to use on the night? whereas, in terms of branding, posters and artifacts, they only need one of those, right? I'm not entirely sure the client's needs and our own project go as hand in hand as they perhaps should, but all I can do is match the brief requirements and work to the best of my ability regardless, and just hope for the best I think.

Still, I'd hate to lose marks by NOT incorporating some form of interactivity within my design, so with that said, I've planned a revised pitch for the actual one tomorrow with Matt, and added a new idea that should satisfy the interaction part that's been discussed.

Here's my revised three page spread for tomorrow...

I've specifically avoided adding words to the images as I feel at no point should a client be reading words off screen. Instead, it's my job to communicate my ideas verbally. I'll also need to add videos and links to examples that I have in mind via InDesign, which given the media embedding issue found last project I'm not too optimistic about working properly, but fingers crossed it'll work ok.

I've made the slides much more aesthetically pleasing, in order to stand out and get attention, also in the hope that my effort and presentation of them will help fill the client with confidence in my ideas and commitment to them. The first two slides have pretty much the same content as before, but after getting good feedback from Johnny, I think I'm going to combine both ideas, and rather than have the "Animated Montage" being a journey through Sheffield's sights, it's now going to be a journey through TIME, using the same kind of illustrated historical imagery as explained in the first idea. I'm quite excited about how this might turn out, and I hope this will come through in the proper pitch tomorrow. :)

I've also added a new third slide entirely, featuring my brand new idea, which I'll go into now...

I envision a tablet device, or even app viewed through an iPhone, used to promote the event itself, and focusing on the entire theme of the Twilight show, namely, reflecting the history of Sheffield, in a sort of augmented reality feel.

You would hold this tablet up in key locations around Sheffield, outside the very events where each show is taking place, and depending on your position, proximity to adjacent buildings, and angle of view, the view you would see on the tablet would show you how things used to look in years gone by. ie: You'd hold up the tablet frame to the real life, modern day City Hall in front of you, but seen through the tablet would be the exact same view but rendered from still archival imagery of Sheffield as it was decades ago.

Now, while the idea was just an addition thrown in to satisfy the "interaction" part of what has suddenly been asked of us, and something I could obviously never realise at this point in time, it has allowed me to think outside the box in terms of producing original ideas for this brief, and from what I now believe, that was the entire point. We're not ACTUALLY asked to make these things, but to simply start thinking on a much more bigger, creative, and innovative scale, as to not do so in the real world of motion design is to spell your own doom already I think.

I've no idea how I could use this idea for this brief, but it would certainly be an amazing thing to actually create! I'm going to see how the actual pitch goes tomorrow, and what kind of feedback I get back before pushing on, and then I think I'll be able to knuckle down and decide where best to take this...

Crowd Sourcing - Further Development

So I thought I'd go out and try a little crowdsourcing for myself.

Armed with some gloves, thermal socks, and just a pen and pad of paper to my name, I hit the streets of Sheffield and started asking the residents of the city if they'd mind writing me the word "ALIGHT". It could either be in normal handwriting, or in a creative funky way. Either way, the people of Sheffield would be represented by their personality and style, ideal for my montage theme.

The idea was to get as many different forms of writing and text and visual aid in order animate a little title sequence, possibly for use in the background of my animated montage in a fly by section perhaps. Plus, it would help spread the word of the event, and inform those who might not even be aware of the great things happening next year.

Some people were cool, some were for want of a better word, total dicks, but all in all it was an interesting experiment to say the least! In the 2 hours I was out there, I managed to get over 20 handwritten samples. A far cry from the 500 I would have loved, but that's the point of these experiments I suppose, as what ideas you have in your head might not work in a practical sense.

The actual writing down of the word didn't take long at all, most of the time was spent telling people about the event, as obviously they were curious about what I was asking of them. Another hurdle was getting people to actually stop, I think many thought I was trying to sell them something, haha!

But for the ones that did, I was truly thankful for, and glad I went out there and did my little test! I think I got what I was after, and might even do it again with another idea if I do chose to go with the animated montage piece.

The collected signatures are as follows...

One things for sure, the folks of Sheffield aren't the most creative of folk are they... haha! Just messing, they did great I think, and looked forward to assembling them as one. There were a few more, but some couldn't be used as they didn't scan too well, but I still got enough down to make a little animation just to get them up and running...

Like I said, I would probably use the sequence as a fly by animation in the background of my montage, but for now I'm just glad I got out there and gave this crowdsourcing a go for myself!

It's a nice feeling knowing that every little piece is from a bigger puzzle, and it would be my task to arrange it all. I think part of being a designer is having control over your projects, but such an understated beauty can come from relinquishing that control, and handing over the reigns to others. Unexpected results inevitably follow, and ideas can come from places you never even considered.

This is also effective in the sense that as a designer, it's all too easy to lose that creative spark, or start lacking ideas and become repetitive. The great thing about this exercise is that there's never a dull idea, and while a title might look similar to another for example, knowing that they're from totally different sources gives a project that vital freshness it might lack if only handled by one single designer.

Further Research - Animating Stills

The following is a good example of still images being taken, cut, pasted, edited, and animated in order to create a whole new piece entirely, one that provides life and movement where there wasn't any before. It's the intro from a surfing documentary called Riding Giants, and uses both old photographs and suitably appropriate drawn artwork to make the piece fit the surfing theme. I think its a great example of just what can be done with simple still images, if given the time and vision to make them work on a much more impressive scale...

EDIT - Sorry about the lack of sound, their were uploading issues, but the main focus is the visual anyway!

The documentary is from 2004, and this technique has since been used countless times since, in many equally as creative and sometimes even more impressive ways. It's a fantastic way of paying tribute to our documented past by using actual images of the time, with today's digital motion technology, as well as celebrating nicely polished artwork by incorporating hard drawn sketches alongside it.

It would be fun to play around with still images like this and create something that moves purely from images that originally didn't, and never intended to.

In a way it even harks back to the old Terry Gilliam Monty Python animations, where a similar method was done using old photos in order to create something set in motion, albeit something crazy and random...

The technique itself does have a humorous feel to it, and in a sense, can only be taken so seriously as a result. It's probably not serious enough for what I want from this project, but it's certainly a great insight into how the process itself works.

Test - Bringing Life to Still Imagery

I took the photo I'd previously found of the old Sheffield City Hall and attempted to bring a little life to it. Not too much, but in trying to keep it subtle just enough that it gave the slight impression of movement, so as not to over complicate things.

The image I was working with was this one...

I gave the image a new background, animated the sky and clouds behind it, made the whole thing look even older by setting it against an old, rich, canvas texture, and stuck an actual person in there too to have someone walking past.

While the example I did was simple and basic, I realise the final product would have to be much more involved and dynamic in order for the idea to work on a much bigger scale. But for now, it was just a test, and here's how it turned out...

As you can see, pretty straight forward, and not too far removed from the test animatics I did for the last project, so the good thing is I'm kinda familiar with the process already. I do however wish to push myself a little more, and have no intention of just staying in my comfort zone. I'm here to learn, and I'm here to improve, and so my finished piece will be much more creative.

Hopefully. :)

Research Into Animating Still Images

While putting some time into my research looking at the animation of still, static images, I came across the following cool innovation.

It's called Cinemagraphy, and is a cool technique used to blend still images with actual moving footage. It was actually introduced by a New York fashion photographer called Jamie Beck in collaboration with a motion graphics designer named Kevin Burg.

Jamie says “We wanted to tell more of a story than a single frame photograph, but didn’t want the high maintenance aspect of a video…cinemagraphs were born out of a need to tell a story in a fast digital age.” 

Since they started the idea, many more have taken it and run with it further, to create some truly awesome cinemagraphs. They're kind of like really sophisticated and well refined animated gifs, and look really cool in motion, even cooler if you don't expect them to be animated!

Anyway here's some of the ones I found which impressed me most. They might take a moment to load properly, so bare with them, and enjoy!

What I like about them is how manageable they are. They take up less space than a video file, have the artistic look and feel of fantastic still photography, and an amazing potential to tell quite a story. I believe there's alot that can be done with the idea, and look forward to both seeing how it grows, and also, playing with it myself.

It's an effective and impressive way to animate still imagery, and one that could suit my own idea to a tee.