With most of the visual aspects in place, the next goal was to define a concept and acquire dialogue. I often use public domain material, enjoying the notion of revisiting or “recycling” dated information. My searches led me to an excellent web resource called “Lit2Go,” a service of Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. Here I found the work “Symbollic Logic” by Lewis Carroll, narrated by volunteer Rick Kistner. The premise of the work concerns syllogisms and deductive reasoning (a is b, b is c, therefore a is c). I especially enjoyed the humor of an idea being more logical on a planet other than our own. In a more serious sense, deductive reasoning is a potentially malleable concept that can be used irresponsibly.



Another goal was to incorporate the human form. In past work, my prints and drawings most often featured a suited “everyman” as a sort of psychological insertion point for vicarious viewer involvement. More recently, I shied away from characters in my animations, hoping to imply human presence through the use of symbols or virtual “stand ins.” Part of this reluctance is based on the fact that it is difficult to get past the CG “look” of 3D figures. My solution was to use a mask to hide the face of the character, the most difficult aspect to believably simulate. I don’t claim to be an expert character animator, instead rely on artistic devices in order to avoid that which is beyond my technical expertise.

Necessity is the mother of most invention. 

Instead of building the character from scratch, I purchased a rigged model online and spent quite a bit of time altering and refining the figure to fit my needs. I also purchased some motion capture files that made realistic movement more feasible. There is still a lot to learn about character animation and these are the first steps, literally.



One of the quicker but especially enjoyable aspects of the project was the sound and video editing. Adding incidental sounds, such as footsteps or chair squeaks, is the magic ingredient that brings visuals to life. All of these sounds were downloaded from the web. I also wanted an ethereal sound to help carry the viewer from one figure to the next during the “print walk.” I started with a royalty free ambient sound (included with Final Cut Pro) and used sound editing software to layer many tracks of bird sounds, including a rare Australian Bell bird. Faint traces of Thomas Edison’s voice may be detected upon close listening.



I need to thank my wife, Pat, for being without me for close to eight months as I sat at the computer working this whole thing out.




Duration:
• 6 minutes, 6 seconds

Video:
• 720 x 520, pixel aspect .9, 30fps

Software: 
• 3DS Max 2009, Mental Ray, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Audacity

Hardware: 
• Modeling and Animation: BOXX dual quadcore PC, 2.8 GHz, 8 Gb RAM, nVidia Quadro FX 4600, Samsung 30” and 24” dual displays
• Video and DVD Editing: MAC Powerbook G4