Welcome to my Motion Graphics blog!

Welcome to Gabriel in Motion, a blog documenting the work that I produce at Chelsea's Motion Graphics Graduate Diploma Course. Be sure to visit my other blog Thrown Caution, a collection of inspirational artworks, with a focus on hand-made crafts and their influence on film and motion graphics. Also visit my personal portfolio blog, documenting my work in scenic design, graphic design, puppetry and photography!

Thanks for visiting,

Gabriel Aronson

The Setup

Some concepts

"She chopped his knob right off.." Jumping Jack

"Sad, Mad, Glad Mrs. Bobbitt"

"A cleaver she did wield"

Toy theater in film

Toy theater has always fascinated me. I remember as a child building various toy theaters out of cardboard, dioramas out of shoeboxes, and a full-sized handpuppet theater out of a fridge box. Toy theaters were originally mass-produced miniature facsimiles of famous opera and stage-play productions, made of card cut-outs. Some examples of the traditional toy theatre can be found below. Sliding the small figures back and forth in these theatres might be considered an early version of moving picture. Many films pay homage to the form, in particular the films of Ingmar Bergman. Below is the opening to his film "Fanny and Alexander" His film version of The Magic Flute takes place within the world of an old theatre, the sets of which have a very toy theatre feel to them, which I suppose isn't unusual, considering how most stage sets were built at the time: Flat painted panels. It's best illustrated at the 4:30 mark as winter transforms into spring. Below is the trailer for the excellent "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk, an entire film created in a toy theatre: Other films of interest: "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" "The Thief of Baghdad" Below you will find some great toy theatre resources: Penny Plain Twopence Colored, a wonderful blog devoted to toy theater. Great Small Works is a theatre company that curates toy theater exhibitions and toy theater festivals at St. Ann's Warehouse in NY. And here are some clips from more traditional toy theatres:

The Persistence of Vision

Thaumatropes





Zoetropes

Little Miss Bobbitty-Boo

I originally came up with this version of Lorena Bobbitt's nursery rhyme, based on the rhyming and rhythm schema of "Three Blind Mice"

A  Little Miss Bobbitty-Boo. Little Miss Bobbitty-Boo.
A  Whatever did she do? Whatever did she do?
B  With a carving knife commit a deed
B  That caused her man to thrash and bleed.
B  She threw his knob into the weeds.
A  That Little Miss Bobbitty Boo.

For comparison's sake:

A  Three Blind Mice. Three Blind Mice.
C  See how they run. See how they run.
B  They all ran after the farmer's wife,
B  Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
B  Have you ever seen such a thing in your life,
A  As Three Blind Mice?

The rhyme retains the convenient carving knife element and also borrows the the "title" of Little Miss Muffett. 

Soon afterwards, I came up with something a little more colorful and original:

Sad Missus Bobbitt. 

Mad Missus Bobbitt. 

Glad Missus Bobbitty-Boo.
She served her man a cold revenge,

with verve and derring-do.

When one night Mister Bobbitt 

Came home quite besotted
A cleaver she did wield.
She chopped her husband's knob right off
And tossed it in a field.

Soon later the Bobbitt 

Appendage was spotted.

And swiftly sewn back on.

Then Bobbitt and his Knobbit had

A brief career in porn.

Sad Missus Bobbitt. 

Mad Missus Bobbitt. 

Glad Missus Bobbitty-Boo.

Don't cross her path when she is mad

You might lose your knob too!

Bobbitty-Boo, which uses Lorena's name, is also a reference to the magical song sung by the Fairy Godmother in Disney's Cinderella, "Bibbidi bobbidi boo".

Contemporary and Technical Influences

An overview of my final project:

An adaptation of a recent event, presented as a nursery rhyme, using various hand-made methods of animation.

Contemporary Influence:

Many nursery rhymes are said to be inspired by news-worthy scandals of the day. These theories are usually apocryphal, such as Jack and Jill being a retelling of the rise and fall of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. However, historical inspirations, and disproving them, seem to be a prominent element within the study of nursery rhymes. 

For my project, I am writing and animating one or two nursery rhymes based on the scandals of our generation.

The first is the story of Lorena Bobbitt and John Wayne Bobbitt, an infamous news story in the mid-nineties. John Wayne was an abusive husband, and after returning home drunk and forcing himself on her, Lorena chopped off his penis with a carving knife, went for a drive and deposited the dismembered member in a remote field. It was later recovered and reattached. Lorena Bobbitt was acquitted due to a defense of "temporary insanity" caused by abuse at the hand of her husband and the psychological aftermath of a forced abortion 3 years prior. 

John Wayne Bobbitt cashed in on the notoriety of the case. He appeared in two adult films, "John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut" and "Frankenpenis". He also spent some time working as a minister in a Las Vegas Wedding Chapel.

Lorena has been hailed by some in the feminist movement, and her name lives on as a threat: "Don't do that or I'll bobbitt you!"

Technical Influence

I am looking to use early forms and pre-cursors of animation, such as the toy theater, the thaumatrope, zoetrope, flipbooks and stop-frame animation. Many of these early forms of animation were used not only to entertain children, but also adults, with many naughty mutoscope (a flip-book style precursor to the nickelodeon) presentations, leading to them being called "What-the-butler-saw machines".

I am also looking at stop-frame animations by Lotte Reiniger and Ray Harryhausen, both stop-frame pioneers who amongst other subjects, created animated fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Mini Mind Map

Origins of 'Jack and Jill'

There are many theories as to the origin of the rhyme Jack and Jill. As with the origins of most nursery rhymes, most, if not all of these are apocryphal.

Norse Mythology

The story of Hjúki and Bil is about a brother and a sister who follow the personified moon, Máni across the sky. The story, written in the 13th century Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, tells of how, as they fetched water from the well of Byrgir, carrying the pail Sæg, Máni kidnaps them from the Earth. They are now immortalized on the face of the moon, and the pair personify the waxing and waning moon, appearing and disappearing one-by-one on the moon's face ("Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after"). Some have drawn a connection between the stories due to the similarities in the names and the actions of the two children.

The Rise and Fall of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

This theory can be disproved by the simple fact that Jack and Jill first appeared in print in John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody in the 1760s, well before the French revolution. Many, however, continue to propagate this origin story. Louis and his queen ascend to the throne (up the hill) and Louis falls and is beheaded, and Marie soon after (broke his crown, etc.) The "pail of water" is usually not taken into account, though some have said that it is a metaphor for the royal couple trying to quell the fires of the revolution.

Charles I and tax reform

(quoted from wikipedia)

In the 17th century, King Charles I tried to reform the taxes on liquid measures. He was blocked by Parliament, so subsequently ordered that the volume of a Jack (1/2 pint) be reduced, but the tax remained the same. This meant that he still received more tax, despite Parliament's veto. Hence "Jack fell down and broke his crown" (many pint glasses in the UK still have a line marking the 1/2 pint level with a crown above it) "and Jill came tumbling after". The reference to "Jill", (actually a "gill", or 1/4 pint) is an indication that the gill dropped in volume as a consequence. A variant of this is that liquids (specifically alcoholic beverages) were watered down, hence, "fetch a pail of water."

THE FORM!

Your Name

Gabriel Aronson

Statement of Intent

An animated adaptation of the classic nursery rhyme Jack and Jill with roots in illustration, early animation and cinematic composition.

Field of Study

Motion graphics and character animation.

Focus

1. Parodic cartoons

2.  Old forms of animation.

Context

This piece is a reaction to the tradition of animated fairytales. Practitioners include Lotte Reiniger and Ray Harryhausen. People who have parodied the fairytale include Tim Burton and the Looney Tunes cartoons. Looking at composition in illustration and film: Edward Gorey, Wes Anderson. Looking at praxinoscopes, zoetropes. Drawing from my experiences at Blink Productions. Practitioner: David Wilson. The aesthetics of the flat, in a 3-dimensional world: toy theater, pop-up books? Practitioner: Andrea Dezsö. The history of fairy tales, and the subversive process of breaking down such moralistic tales for comedic purposes.

Methodology

Primary research includes figuring out the logistics of zoetrope animation. Creating a looping animation as a title sequence for the piece. Integrating scanned and photographed textures into the piece. 

Secondary research includes looking at the work of previously cited practitioners, and further research into the world of animation in the victorian and edwardian eras. Also looking at the origin and meaning of fairytales.

Resolution

A subversively funny piece of animation.

Jack and Jill development ramblings

My final project is an adaptation of the Nursery Rhyme "Jack and Jill"

For the storybook feel, I've been looking at Lotte Reiniger, who did many adaptations of fairytales in her signature silhouette style. Because her work is silhouette, it means all movements, and environments, need to be laid out laterally, across the screen. This leads to very figurative landscapes, delicate and intricate. 

I really like this paper-cut feel and am looking to incorporate some of it's fragility into my work.

Because I am going for a dark feel, I am also looking at one of my favorite writer/illustrators, Edward Gorey. His work falls into the category of literary nonsense, and the same can be said of many nursery rhymes. His characteristic drawings are usually quite bleak and minimalist: empty hallways, half-open doors, grey landscapes, dead gardens, etc. The compositions of his drawings are very specific and geometric, with the placement of characters within their environment (or deliberate omission of content within the frame) telling as much a story as the actual content.

Because of the Edwardian influences, I'd like to explore the use of a zoetrope as the bookends for the piece. Though most of it will be animated in the computer, I think it would be fun to introduce the nursery rhyme as a strip of animation played back in a zoetrope. The idea is that the scroll is one in a large cabinet of dark nursery rhymes, hinting at the possibility of a larger series.

If I am to going to go with the zoetrope idea, my main concerns in that area will be to

a) find/build a zoetrope.

b) make the film strips 

c) storyboard and film that sequence.

Based on these influences, I am thinking of employing a 2.35:1 cinematic aspect ratio, which allows for almost triptych-like compositions. The sort of two-dimensional cinema feel that I am going for is characteristic of the films of Wes Anderson, who primarily uses constrained lateral camera movements such as tracking and pedestaling. 

I am looking for humor in restraint. Little movement or action, minimal gestures used to convey over-the-top emotions.

I have re-written the last two lines of the nursery rhyme as a "twist ending" if you will.

Jack and Jill

Went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down,

And he did drown,

And Jill had peace thereafter.

The idea is that Jill is constantly plagued by her younger brother Jack, and decides to push him down the well in retribution. The narrative is simple, with titles alternating with corresponding sequences, like in silent film.

An interesting article on awkwardness in film at Splice Today.

The Film in question is this:

Watch Death to the Tinman in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Jack and Jill

Character designs:

2.35:1 super widescreen aspect ratio gives storybook feel:

Final Project Inspirations

Changing tack, an adaptation of a Nursery Rhyme. Combining stop-frame and after effects.













Cuteness in lowbrow art.

Mark Ryden:




Gruesome cartoon violence in a cute context:







Adding violence to traditional animations of fairy tales (stop-frame by Ray Harryhausen)




Cuteness vs. Gore
Stop-frame animation

Final Project Ruminations

I am thinking of doing a short non-narrative piece that explores themes that have cropped up working on the excursion piece with Parrot in the Tank, specifically the creation of different realities, and the disparity and overlap between two simultaneous pieces of moving image. I'm thinking split screen, projections, the viewer interacting with the footage, various surfaces and how they interact with the footage.

Here are some pieces that I have found inspiring:



I want to experiment with projecting onto people, projecting things interacting with their bodies. I want to play with projecting a person's own image onto themselves and what can be achieved with that.


Only the Brave, an ad for Diesel jeans (don't you just love how mysterious advertising can be?) which plays with simultaneity in a tryptich format. Three individual stories, lined up side by side tell a fourth story. How can I play with simultaneous action, perhaps having a person interact with themself (and projection as well).

I'm thinking things traveling through the body, and into other people's bodies, through projected elements that show what's inside. Cutting a person open, by laying an image over them. Picture Frida Kahlo's "Las Dos"



How do people disappear into their environment?


A building in Vienna that is covered in LED's

The Pebbleman

After returning to London, I had my first meeting with Parrot in the Tank members, where we conceived a story for an upcoming "walks" performance at the Untapped Festival at the Arts Depot near Finchley. This will be performed on the 2nd of May, so relatively soon. For this performance I worked on story development, and will be creating an animated flashback sequence, where the main character yearns to return to the sea from whence he came. This animation will be integrated into live footage. I also want to experiment with stop motion using pebbles, as the main character is based on a statue made of pebbles. I would probably use these for titles.

This whole project for me is about collaboration, which is what I've been really looking for after months of relative isolation working on my BBC project. The requirements for this piece are fairly minimal, however the short span between now and the performance means I have a lot of work ahead of me, and I am excited to be working at a much faster pace. After the May 2nd performance we pull out the big guns, and prepare for the 24th of May, which is the Accidental Festival at the Roundhouse Theater. I hope to do some more in camera animations, but also work on projected elements, and how the viewer interacts with all three modes: real world, virtual world, and the projected world. Many, many possibilities!

Initial inspiration for the flashback sequence can be found below:


The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Coeur de Secours

Brainstorming my final project.

As I wade through the lengthy process of producing the BBC short, I've come to realize how much I've been neglecting my duties to this blog and my final project, not to mention the final show!

In the last few weeks there have been several revelations in my state of mind as I began to face my most uncertain future. A mixture of excitement, yearning, and shear terror of not knowing what I'm going to do...

As I considered and reconsidered going back into set design, maybe doing an MA, maybe working as a runner at a production house, things started to slowly fall into place. Or at least they are at the tipping point of falling.

I have recently been asked to do some projection designs for a relatively young theater company, co-created by a friend from high school, called Parrot in the Tank. Working on projection and multimedia design for their shows would, I believe, make for a wonderful final project, because it marries my interest in animation and motion graphics to my passion for theater design, and spatial narratives.

There are two upcoming projects for the company, and the first is similar to the work of Janet Cardiff, who's work I was exposed to through research by my classmate Gavin.
The piece that they - or should I say we as I've been asked to join the company as "official animator"- are working on is conceived as a site-specific performance for one audience member, using a hand-held imaging device such as a camcorder, to guide the viewer through the space. Planned performance is in mid-May, at the Roundhouse in Camden. The story, currently in the infant stages of development, tells the story of the man immortalized as a statue on the roof of the theater:



The statue is in actual fact one in a series by Anthony Gormley, placed in various spots around the UK.
The piece would conceptualize a story for this man, why he is standing on the edge of the roof, apparently about to commit suicide, and his connection to the theater. The performance will guide the viewer through the corridors of the Roundhouse, and will involve both the footage on the camera and live performance.

My part in the process is evolving as the idea of using animation increasingly enters the group's collective thought process. Initial ideas were for simple title animations to divide scenes, however my responsibilities have thankfully been expanded to animations that interact with the live footage.

This makes it the perfect opportunity to marry my desire to work with live footage, with my interest in motion graphics within a theatrical context.

One of the directors showed me the following music video as possible inspiration:


At the present moment, the project is fairly amorphous, yet, I look forward to working on this project not just as an exercise in motion graphics, but also collaborative work, which is something I've been yearning for for quite a while.

Currently I can identify several points of departure, in terms of research:
•Janet Cardiff
•Anthony Gormley
•Animation integrated into live-action.
•Design for the small screen.
•Animation in the context of theatrical performance.

Showreel: An early edit

Just experimenting

with After Effects.

Imagine That Test Animations

Wordplay

"Imagine That" Boards

Scratchfilm Project

Imagine That Boards

Treatment for Imagine That

In translating the dialog of Imagine That into visuals, my choices were motivated by the absurdist and non-sequitur language of the sketch. Rather than following a literal approach of representing a gameshow, I opted for a piece that was part of a surreal landscape inspired by some of my favorite directors: Terry Gilliam and his cobbled together animations, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his dark fantasies, and the gothic humor of Tim Burton. Using these inspirations, I have turned Imagine That into a darkly humorous mad tea-party, a gameshow with an imaginary audience and delusional contestants, presided over by an ominous all-imagining brain in a tank.

BBC Project Development

For this project I am animating an audio clip from That Mitchell and Webb Sound. The sketch I have chosen is Imagine That, a panel show full of non-sequiturs and general ridiculousness. Though the rapid and colorful language lend themselves well to kinetic typography, I want to try my hand at character animation, something I haven't yet attempted.
My challenge is to bring something new to the animation that works on a level beyond the pure spoken language. How do the visuals expand on what is already there as opposed to simply illustrating?
My ideas at this stage are rather straightforward characters for the non-descriptive segments, and Terry Gilliamesque sequences for the sound descriptions, which may or may not, include kinetic typography as a device.

Character Designs:

I'm fairly pleased with this character.


I'm trying to decide whether or not to give June some eyes. I kind of like the look of the Muppet's Dr. Bunsen Honeydew:




I'm still deciding whether to make the host a human being or a brain floating in a tank, a la The City of Lost Children:


Further Ideas:
I am also thinking of the word IMAGINE and how it is described as taking the GIN from Gin and Tonic and putting it between Ima and That. I like the idea of the entire show being imaginary in a sense full of labels such as

IMAGINATORIZERS
IMAGIDESK
IMAGINAUDIENCE (A phonograph that plays laughter.)
IMAGISTUDIO
etc.

I imagine the piece could be quite dark, actually. I like the idea of these 3 crazy people being asked questions by a brain in a giant empty room, with only a laugh track. I got a bit worried that it might be too gothic, but after watching their comedy, some of it is kind of twisted. After I started my designs, and thought about the aesthetic look, I found the credit sequence for That Mitchell and Webb Look and it actually has a sort of dark look to it that I really like. Unfortunately I can't embed it, so click here.


Further Inspiration:

I like this as inspiration for "the soft patter of angels' tears falling into a slurry pit."

Things I find funny.

Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot

Collaged Characters

JibJab - 2008 Year In Review
Uploaded by JibJab

Skip to 8:35

Brief 5 - Reflection on iPhone Project

I am extremely happy with the results of this project. I started off in a direction that was largely cosmetic, but ended up with a project that distilled several ideas into a clean and simple interface. For me, this project was about filtering. I started off with many different ideas for a ringtone with clock-like elements, and ended up with an alarmclock/calendar screensaver. Along the way I did research into different forms of measuring time. I looked at different interfaces, and the way people interacted with time management. Intrigued by the idea of physically interacting with the clock, I was inspired by an alarm clock I had seen at the British Museum, which utilized pegs and placeholders on dials to sound an alarm. Using this inspiration, I developed an alarm clock/calendar that used a similar system. By introducing different dials set within each other, I was able to display time on a scale of seconds right through to years. Initially thinking of an interface with inter-changeable skins, the focus being on user customization, I settled on choosing one skin to develop, the solar system. This was a natural choice, since the clock was partially inspired by planets aligning.
As I began to pare down the interface from a labored antique style orrery to a geometric abstraction of planetary orbits, and in turn changed the name from iConjunction (which my teacher Pete said sounded like "conjunctivitis") to the elegant and punny plan-it.
I decided to present the clock in the style of a commercial, and in doing so work on my presentation skills and approximate a tie-in with existing apple merchandising languages (I used the same font and the iconic plain white background from other apple commercials).
Though originally conceived as a gadget which could be used to set dates as well, peer feedback revealed that the interface may be too small to do that, and that the app might work better as a screensaver that is linked to events in the calendar and alarm clock.

Brief 4 - Reflection

"Pursuit" was developed after a strain of thought originating with research I did into the artists Fischli und Weiss. The final product is far removed from the initial spark, probably too far to say that I successfully achieved the goal of the brief. However as the deadline drew closer, I shifted my priorities towards completing a - for all intents and purposes - polished piece of work. The finished result is certainly not resolved, and I make no claims of that. Originally conceived as five different acts, in the end I only managed to finish one of them.

The large difference between this work and my previous projects is that I spent more time planning this one. I storyboarded before going in, which helped me a great deal in making sense of my ideas. Once I established my initial intent of illustrating and eliciting suspense, like that seen in "Der Lauf Der Dinge", I became more interested in narrative forms of suspense, and looked at scenes from Hitchcock's oeuvre, as well as other films that have good illustrations of different types of suspense. However in doing so, I moved further and further away from my initial inspiration. I looked at "Opto-scientific" as inspiration, which illustrated causation to great effect. This pushed me in a more narrative direction, as I attempted to distance myself. I liked the idea of a dot and a line interacting in some way, and inhabited a world of two-dimensions, with very little color.
However, as I continued to develop my ideas, I found myself moving further into a three dimensional world, and embracing depth and subtleties of color. I worked with light sources in After Effects, and found myself seduced by this world.

I ended up, predictably, with a piece of work much closer to my comfort zone of rich, deep color, however I think I benefited from making my first attack on this brief with simple planes and geometries. The concept came first, the embellishment last, which is not always how I've worked in the past.

I am extremely proud of what I created, and feel it has a lot of potential. However I can't claim that it currently embodies my initial desire to illustrate "suspense" with simple, no-frills graphics. The piece is neither no-frills, nor particularly suspenseful (my class-mate Gavin saw more flirtation than suspense, and I concur that that's what it finally became). But it has charm (I think), style, cheekiness, and has served as a wonderful way for me to develop my skill with the 3D camera in After Effects, as well as explore a bit of rudimentary character animation with dots and lines.