Preludes Mixed Media Animation by Matthew Rankin

Preludes Mixed Media Animation by Matthew Rankin is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award Uʻamea in Mamanu Ata Tifaga Competition Category.

UʻameaAta Tifaga· 2020

Preludes Mixed Media Animation

by Matthew Rankin

Client: Matthew Rankin

A' Design Award Uʻamea Winner in Ata Tifaga Category

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Verified Award Winner
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Foai Nei Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Preludes Mixed Media Animation

O le Preludes o se ata tifaga puupuu mixed media e faavae i luga o le solo e tutusa lona igoa na tusia e T.S. Eliot. E tolopoina le ata mo le tasi minute ma le valu sekone ma faafesootai ai ata tifaga a Eliot ma se musika na fatuina faapitoa mo lenei galuega. O vaaiga o loo fesootai e ala i autu ma leo, ae le o se sitaili vaaiga e tasi. O le galuega o loo tuufaatasia ai le 2D ma le 3D animation, na faia i le Cinema 4D, na faia le rendering i le Redshift ma faapipiiina i le After Effects. O vaaiga mai le ea e liliu atu i le maualalo o auala, lea e feala ai tagata i tua atu o lauulu puipui. O le ata tifaga o loo atagia mai ai le olaga faaonaponei e ala i se tusitusiga anamua.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award Uʻamea

O le A' Design Award Uʻamea na manumalo ai Preludes Mixed Media Animation, o se faamaoniga mamalu e tuuina atu i mamanu lelei e faataunuu ai manaʻoga faapolofesa ma pisinisi e faamoemoeina mai galuega ua mamanuina lelei. O ē manumalo i le Uʻamea e faaalia ai le tomai tele, le faapitoa maualuga, le malamalama o tagata poto ma le mafai fatufatuaʻi o ē na faia. E faamoemoeina Preludes Mixed Media Animation e avea ma mea ua matuā vivii, mataʻina ma pelepelea e aogā ma fou. O lenei mamanu na manumalo i le A' Design Award Uʻamea e tuufaatasia ai faiga sili o le pisinisi ma e iai uiga faatekonolosi mafai ua fesoʻotaʻi ma le poto ma le taleni. Ona o lona faatuatuaina, e tatau ai Preludes Mixed Media Animation ona faaaloalogia ma ua mamanuina e tuuina mai ai faaleleiga o le olaga e fesoasoani e faia ai e le lalolagi se nofoaga e sili atu ona lelei.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Preludes is a mixed media collaborative animation based on a poem by T.S. Eliot. The process involved the poem being chosen by the producer, who then invited a musician to compose a one-minute piece which was handed off to me to provide to create visuals on both the the words of Eliot and the music.
Dimensions & Packaging: Duration: 1-minute, 08-seconds
Tags: poetry, animation, motion graphics, 2D, 3D, after effects
Production Technology: Preludes utilizes both 2D and 3D animation all composited in After Effects. The scenes with 3D were done in Cinema 4D and rendered using Redshift. It also uses several After Effects plugins such as Video Copilot's Sabre, Rowbyte's Plexus, and Red Giant's Particular and Form.
Design Challenge: The challenge became putting the many ways this manifests into only one-minute and matching those visuals to an already created musical composition. And that's how an aerial view helps to alienate us from the tracking signals on the street and we are suddenly shifted to street level view to see faceless people bumping into one another with screens blocking the vision.
Research: For this project the research fairly straightforward. It started with a cursory reading of the poem, Preludes by T.S. Eliot, and listening to the soundtrack created by Angus Macrae. I listened to the audio repeatedly to let it sink into my memory and to help with visualizing general concepts. This was followed by seeking out deeper analysis of the poem so that I better understood the themes, ideas, and symbols. While I could certainly have skipped this step it was profoundly important as I went along and was searching for visual fragments to add to the density of the piece.
Inspiration: Preludes is based on T.S. Eliot's poem of the same name and a one-minute musical soundscape provided to me and composed by Angus Macrae. The whole project was organized by a group called Campfire Poetry that uses poetry as away to promote collaborations between musicians and animators.
Project Duration: The project was started 20 December 2019 in New York City and completed in February 2020.
Operation Flow: I was immediately drawn into Eliot's non-narrative and slightly abstract form, even though he was describing a very defined and concrete world. I took that as an opportunity to create scenes that were thematically, but not necessarily aesthetically, connected. Instead, I chose to let Macra's soundtrack be the connective tissue weaving together Eliot’s view with my own as I explore how our modern world looks and feels in the context of Eliot’s ideas.
Team Members: Director/Animator: Matthew Rankin
Producer: Max Rothman
Music/Sound: Angus Macrae