Building My Ideas - Illustrated History

Going back to the first revised idea I had of the cross fading old photography shots, possibly redrawn by hand, I wanted to check out some old Sheffield images to try and get a feel for what resources were available.

Just to recap, the idea was inspired by the following film segment from "Gangs of New York"

There's quite a few pictures online detailing Sheffield as it looked back then, but in order to get the kind of quality and perfect angle I think I would need to pull the idea off, it may be just as well buying an actual book that does the same. If I run with this idea, that is what I will probably do.

Still, here's some I found online which capture well what I am aiming for...

So there's just a few, but the old, weathered, vintage style I want is evident. The trick would be to find relevant images from modern day to compare to, and make the transition from old to new even relevant. I think the best thing to do would be to go out myself and take some of my own photographs, so I can line them up to match both the angle and distance perfectly, otherwise simply searching for them online could prove quite frustrating.

What I like about the idea is how relevant and appropriate it would be to the Alight project. It would also be alot of fun to mess around with images from this old era, as I'm a bit of a history geek at times!

What I don't like about it is how basic the idea seems, and at the end of the day, live project or not, we still have to get graded on this, and getting good marks by just crossfading between several images is not very likely.

With that in mind then, what I might do, although it would be VERY tricky, would be to animate each photo, make it move, give it life. I could show the people within walking along, trams moving, clouds blowing, etc. It need only be short, simple animations, which could be slowed down even which would help the ageing transition effect. Like in the video example I posted above, sometimes it's literally just a single blade of grass blowing in the wind that gives the impression of movement within an image, and obviously to keep things practical, I wouldn't want to animate EVERYTHING in there, there simply wouldn't be enough time!

But here is where I feel the idea could really come to life. I could show an old tram moving along, which could crossfade beautifully into a brand new one. A horse and carriage becoming a moving car. And so on, the possibilities are vast, and could give this idea that vital edge it needs.

Again, it would take a while, and prove incredibly difficult to pull off. But the results in the end would be fantastic if done well, and would without doubt justify the trouble.

Suddenly, I'm very excited about this idea...

Hmmm....