Wiggle: Abraham Lincoln in color #1

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 17-02-2012

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Finally, a new animation! Per Jullian’s request, here is the first draft of Lincoln in color. It’s pretty rough, but I’m glad to have started moving my fingers (and my brain) just a little bit more. I think I’ll do some touch-ups, this is just color and alignment, no cleaning. I’d also like to add some kind of movement, even if it’s just a simple blink… maybe a smile? I’d be glad to hear any suggestions!

Bedouin Bagpipe Progress - 1

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 25-02-2011

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1898-1946 Young Bedouin man blowing (bagpipe) instrument.

Above is my progress so far on this animation.  I like the colors, but they’re too monotone and the bag is too blue.  I’m working on cleaning up the colors on the second frame, they’re a bit out of line.  Most of the faded areas have been lightened or darkened with level adjustment layers.  I’ll probably clean them up a little more, especially around his belt area where there was a bit of extra scratching.

While cleaning some scratches and spots, I noticed that dot (left) on his hand was on both frames. It’s a fly, I could probably have a little fun with that, there’s not much room for any other sort of environmental movement.

I’ll probably crop it a bit closer, but I like to keep it big until they get closer to complete.  His hands will have some pretty drastic movement, at least compared to what I’ve done so far.  The blowing movement with his cheeks will also be an interesting challenge. Then the movement of the bag, potentially with moving layers of the pipe and hands above… but that might be too much.  Perhaps I can just adjust the shadow around his arm to create the illusion of inflation/deflation.

I’ve shied away from too much movement for a couple of reasons.  Mostly because the way I create the movement.  I’ll be tracing his hands and making a new layer of them two times, one for each side of the stereo - I’ll just call them frames since that’s what they become in the animation.  Then I make a new layer for each frame recreating what would be under his hand if he’s moving - the background.  Otherwise, when I create the movement, you would see his original hands under the moving hands and well… I’m not really into sci-fi animations yet.  I don’t know if that makes much sense, but when I get to that point I’ll use the animation to illustrate.

The other problem is the movement itself.  I’ll have to work his fingers like like cut out dolls, piecing together joints and creating new skin in the bends then softening up the edges.  Sometimes I’ll warp them but for this that will kill the quality because the amount of warp it would take, the definition would be lost, shadows would blur, etc.

That’s getting a little deep into it, but that’s where I’m at so far.  Would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

New animation in the works

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 23-02-2011

I’ve ranted a lot in these last few months about having a hard time working on these.  Turns out, I’m allergic to a medicine I’ve been taking during that time.  I knew it was making me spacey and I was having a hard time concentrating, but eventually more obvious signs turned up.  Now I’m back in business.  I’ve been working on a new one for about a week and hope to get it up in the next week.  I’m pacing myself, and for this one the movement will be much more drastic… if I can pull it off.

I’ve talked about taking suggestions and posting my progress on these animations.  Anyone want a sneak preview?  Comment and I’ll post progress on this one.  But if there’s no interest, it’s not worth the trouble.  I could always use the input and critique.

1900-20 Baby Samaritan Colorized Wiggle

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 16-01-2011

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1900-1920 - The Samaritans of Nablus (Shechhem). Baby Samaritan.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1864 - Aiken’s Landing Girl, Colorized Wiggle

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 20-12-2010

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1864 - Aiken's Landing, Virginia (vicinity). Young girl at Aiken house

1864 - Aiken's Landing, Virginia (vicinity). Young girl at Aiken house

I fell in love with this image when I found it about 6 months ago.  Since then, I’ve struggled to imagine what to do with it.  She’s too stern to smile, her hands are fixed and her dress is too complex.  Then I noticed a bit of a wind blur where the ribbon on her dress is, and it occurred to me - the movement can be made primarily in the environment.  I focus too much on the subject when, sometimes, manipulating the environment can give it more of a real feeling.

Some details struck me when working with the full sized image.  She was married, and she was a very hard worker.  She’s young, yet her hands are scarred.  One nail appears to be just growing back in.  Her face shows a hard life, yet her hair and dress are immaculate, despite the windy day.  So I guess because of all these details, it was important to me to get her right.  Seeing things like that make the person more real to me and, hopefully, more real to you as well.

UPDATE - You can now save this TIFF file and open it up in Photoshop (or comparable product), if you would like to pick it apart to see how it works!  Click here to download.

Check out the original here. Find out how these are created here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1864 - Wiggle Optical Illusion

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 12-12-2010

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1864 - Aiken's Landing, Virginia (vicinity). Young girl at Aiken house

This is a bit of a spoiler for my next animation, but I wanted to share an illusion I see often making these.  Notice how her dress looks blue, then orange? And the brick looks orange, then blue?  This animation only has one colored frame, the second frame has no color.   It’s just an illusion, the brain filling in the gaps.  Most are not so pronounced because they have more colors.

1900-1920 Old Olive Trees

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 09-12-2010

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1900 to 1920 - Trees and shrubs. Old olive trees. (Olea europaea L.).

1900 to 1920 - Trees and shrubs. Old olive trees. (Olea europaea L.).

I was digging around looking for my next project and found this one.  I really love the depth and detail in this picture.  I thought of a few things I could do to animate it, but they would all make him look like he was… frolicking.  And that’s kinda weird.  Plus it would be hard to get it to look right.  But I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

Check out the original here. Find out how these are created here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1900-1920 - The Burning Bush

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 07-12-2010

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1900-1920. Caption from original, "To Sinai via the Red Sea, Tor, and Wady Hebran. "A burning bush" silleh bush."

I played with fire.

Don’t let your Christmas tree do this.  Go in there and smell it a few times a day or something…

Check out the original here. Find out how these are created here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1900-1920 - Sudanese with Fife, Wiggle

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 21-11-2010

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1900-1920 - Various types, etc. Soudanese (i.e., Sudanese) with his fife.

This image has only a bit of restoration work, it doesn’t need my help.  This is one of those rare images with movement, one photo was taken then another a moment later.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

1900-1920 Smoking Samaritan, Wiggle

Posted by Clicksy | Posted in Wiggle Animations | Posted on 20-11-2010

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1900-1920 - The Samaritans of Nablus (Shechhem). Samaritan smoking the narghileh.

1900-1920 - The Samaritans of Nablus (Shechhem). Samaritan smoking the narghileh.

I know what you’re thinking…  but he’s probably smoking tobacco.  For a long period in many areas in Europe they were quite a status symbol, and it was common to be photographed with the narghileh (aka hookah).  They would often mix the tobacco with sweets like honey, and sometimes used a bit of rose oil or other liquids to alter the flavor.

It’s important for me in this work to remain respectful.  So many pictures I’ve imagined these people doing some pretty goofy things, but on most, I won’t do it.  I wouldn’t want to see one of my passed on relatives being made to do something silly (even if it would make this website way more popular).  Sometimes the photo is taken in a humorous way, and with those I will be more liberal, because that was the intent when the photo was taken.

I think I’m finally getting the hang of adding more animation within these images.  It was hard to grasp… here you have two frames, left and right.  Within those two frames you may have several areas with movement.  For each movement, it’s done once for the left frame, and then again moved for the right frame - or the animated area would lack wiggle and look wrong.  This way I am able to add more movement outside of the main focal point of the image.  Above, the focal points are his face and the hookah, those are the two places on the image that are most in focus through the wiggle.  This is because they are about the same distance from the camera, and it’s lined up at the points of interest.  But the hand on his lap has a very pronounced wiggle.  I haven’t tried movement that drastic yet, but eventually the right image will come along.

Some of you may be wondering why I use so many photos from the middle east.  This is because there are so many good quality images, dry plate, available from the Library of Congress from that region.  The above image was taken in the American settlement in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was a place that many wanted to see, so it not only educated, but it sold a lot of stereo cards.  Likewise, Egypt, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, all of these places have a huge selection.  But the dry plates, many in the collection are of exceptional quality.  With these I can spend less time restoring the images and more time animating.

Find out how these are created here.  View the original image here.  Get page updates on Facebook here.

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