Thursday, January 13, 2011

Stories In RetroVision

Artist's Thoughts
All things retro. What is it about the decades past that fascinate me? The music? The dances? The fashion? Yes, yes and yes. One of the most fascinating periods of creativity, in my estimate, was the 1940's. Undoubtably, quite a few decades left their artistic mark. I think, what impressed me about the 1940's was the sheer determination of the people to rise from a difficult previous decade.

Jazz was huge, as well as the theater. Times were tough for many, but people found a way to laugh, dance and sing.

It's not uncommon to think about the future. Back 'when,' Orwell pondered 1984. A popular singer sang about 1999. MGM created 2001:Space Odyssey. Time is a classic subject. It can even be timely. I too am fascinated with time travel. My monochromatic project that I call RetroVision allows me a creative ticket to my favorite decades.

These are fictional stories and not created for historical reference. Every story has a setting. Sometimes things appear so real. I ask myself, "Was Jack and Rose really on the Titanic?" Don't laugh..."Were they?" The wonders of technology and awesome writing as demonstrated by so many great producer/directors. My inspiration, even though I'm in animation.

The animated still above, I created as an image to kickstart my visual gears. I discovered creating in black and white, is not the same as filming in black and white. Certain elements get lost without the film and have to be added. I created the city in all gray tones with a purple-ish sky. When I put in a character, and colorized to match the scene, their tones went a gray-ish-green-ish. I freaked out. This isn't Frankenstein City. All was not lost. I discovered something I liked even more. I'll share this with some stills and an animated video clip next week.