Collage animation

Brief

A set brief from my Diploma of Visual Arts at NCAT: combine hand-cut collage with digital production to create an animated GIF. The constraints were specific. Build a physical collage, animate it through stop-motion photography, at least five frames shot on a phone, then assemble and time the sequence in Photoshop.

Approach

For some extra challenge, I constrained myself to the materials available in the pile, rather than work with my own images because I wanted to see what ideas I could generate from limited options. The old books and magazines were National Geographics and encyclopaedias. There were a lot of insect drawings, underwater photography of sea life, and there was an assortment of old-timey folks in Victorian garb. When I came across a print of knitted wool texture, my mind went straight back to all the moths and butterflies that I’d flicked past in the pages of scientific drawings. Setting my iPhone up overhead, I created the series of still images that went through the motion of the moth creating a hole in the wool to let the baby out.

Outcome

I called my short film, I Made You an Escape Hatch. It’s a little bit of whimsy but it’s also about helping each other find our way back to the flights paths we’re meant to be on.