Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

II FEATURE
58
done. Take typography - a hundred new
typefaces can be created by morphing a
single typeface and creating subtle differences
and changes. The same could
be done by morphing two pictures
together. There's an endless resource
that's just wailing to be fully exploited."
Furthermore, the price of the equipment
compared to the likes of a Ouantel
paintbox plus the hire charge of an operator
has proved a strong selling point to
many animators including Hodgson: "It's
amazing that you can do so much on a
system now. It costs a fraction of the
high-end systems - it's a crude Harry
(Quantal)."
There is a downside to all this enthu-
siasm though - at present, he sees the
use of computer graphics as a little limited:
"There seems to be too much
emphasis on style and techniques and
how realistic you can make something.
A lot of 3D stuff bores me - there's a
real lack of content usually and the concepts
behind the images are generally
science fiction-based."
Like any tool as well, he knows it
takes time to get used to the computer:
"There are so many options available
that you can frequently find yourself disappearing
up a blind alley and wasting
time. The good side to this, though. is
the potential for discovery as well."
Despite his own success using the
Amiga. Hodgson can never see himself
moving solely onto a computer platform.
-
Pgraphics
is how they fit in with other
etechniques
- that's when things are
rgoing
to start getting realty interesting."
s Sounds like a recipe for multimedia to
me.
o
n
a
l
l
y
,
t
h
What 5he alWaq5
wanted
0
e has hannel shown 4's some FourMations of the leading series
fwork
produced in the field of animation
uand,
last month, featured a program
tdedicated
to the computer animators.
uOne
artist showcased was Ruth
rLinglord.
a one-time occupational thera-
e pist turned professional animator. For
othose
who saw her short animation enti-
f tled 'What She Wants" they can hardly
chave
failed to notice the sometimes
oshocking
and sexually-oriented content.
m Lingford*s uncompromising style has
pwon
her acclaim and work on an
uincreasingly
large scale_ Her love for
tanimation
didn't blossom during her
eteen
years though - while she studied
ron
an art foundation course after leaving
school, her career before animation was
dealing with mentally ill old people as an
occupational therapist. One day, she
realised she was simply running out of
care - with a husband and two children
to look out for in the evening on top of
the already stressful day job, Lingford
tia55i(
For anyone who saw the Classic
Trucks series on Channel 4,
Hodgson designed the vivid intro
sequence. He was helped by Dan
Arnall who works for Mariut
Rimmenen, also interviewed
here. What follows is a breakdown
of the intro and how the
various effects were achieved.
AN the ima ge s he re ha ve be e n ta ke n
from different sources. The fl yover,
clouds, a nd trucks we re ta ke n from
va rious books. The ma n wa lking
across the frame is a friend of
Hodgson a nd a s his fe e t ste p into the
posturoductiomadded puddle s,
spla she s a re forme d. The se we re
cre a te d in Brillia nce a nd the whole
sce ne wa s composire d toge the r using
the pa cka ge .
Hodgson took the shape of the lender
and ma ppe d on the re fle ction of the
mart a s he a ppe a rs to wa lk pa st the
truck. The a ctua l truck ima ge wa s
bent slightly to give the illusion of
perspective. The bright pa le tte
was painted afterwards. All the
work wa s done with
Brillia nce .
Amiga Computing
OCTOBER 1995
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Big CU of the whe e l wa s ta ke n from
a photogra ph. Afte r putting the pa ge
on the compute r, the live a ction of a
man climbing into a truck wa s
mapped on to the hub ca p a nd whe e l
nuts. All th• shots used in the intro
were conve rte d into a 1 6 -colour
6
"re ysca t e inste a d of 2 5 6 which
slowed down the hard drive and used
too much spa ce .
1
The blue in the top right-ha nd corne r
was a dde d fra me by fra me using
Brillia nce ', fille d sha pe option to
cre a te the pulsa ting pa 1le tte . Tha t
whole se ction wa s ma ske d off to
achieve the e ffe ct.
1
The va rious a re a s of diffe re nt
colours were traced off separately
and fille d. Brillia nce wa it use d to a dd
more contour a nd sha pe to the
1
splash. Finally, hard edges brought
about by importing ima ge s we re
removed the using sme a r a nd
smooth option..
decided that an alternative and permanent
career move was needed.
With the financial support of her
husband, she undertook a
Fine Art degree course at
Middlesex Polytechnic in
the mid-'80s and came
across animation
quite by accident in
the course syllabus.
"It was one of those
life experiences - I
knew what I wanted
to do when I grew
up. With animation.
you can make things
do whatever you want.
There are no restrictions"
1
i
enthuses Lingford.
Because of her animation work, she
was accepted into the prestigious Royal
College of Art to do an MA in animation
and in 1992, graduated. While there,
Two shots were taken here - one
of focus on the window a nd the a t
In-focus. Afte r the fra me of the window
ha d be e n ste ncille d Out, a ye
of tra nspa re ncy la ye rs we re a dde d
using Brilliance - a man ordering
inside the ca lla , a building, a truck
passing a nd in the se ction which
becomes the C la ssic Trucks logo, a
vide o of a lorry a pproa ching the
corners. its lights painted in and its
number pla te re move d.
Hodgson morphe d using M orph P
to the in.locus shot be ca use he fe lt
that simply mixing would ha ve
se e me d highly unre a listic a s it focus
pun. its ore pull focus, the C la ssic
Trucks logo come s into vie w. The
took a we e k a nd a ha lf to comple te -
there a re se ve n diffe re nt la ye rs in
Feeling Mil Wag
The film that Hodgson is wefh
ing on currently, 'Feeling kik
Way'. is an experimental piece
shot on Hi-8 and will last aboul
seven minutes. Charting the
mental outpourings and process
of a worker on his way to the
office, the whole thing is she'
from his POV. Hodgson know
that the basic premise is huge,
gripping, but from what I've seer
of his animation additions the
piece looks excellent. The
process firstly involves shooting
the H1-8 material and then
adding the effects on afterwards
What follows is a breakdown ot
that process.
she had spent some of her time usi
the high-end Macs and software to c
ate work and experiment. The firs
immediate problem on !saw
was where to find a co
puler that could repla
the more costly met
ods of traditiona
animation.
In 1988. an Amig
500 was bought f
the children to do
spot of word pro
cessing. At the tim
Linglord had a bri
look at Deluxe Paint
but had not bee
impressed initially by it
primitive look and design. 0
experimenting further, though, sh
realised the Amiga system did offe
enough to make creating animation
home a viable proposition, The nex