Animation Everywhere

Here's the first of the animated segments from Hasan's book. In the scene at his apartment, Dorit imagines the illustrations coming to life. This piece was done in After Effects by Darren Lakes. It will then be mapped to 3D pages which are basically just flat polygons but will move like suspended paper with a realistic motion. The scene has about 30 images mapped in such a way, about 5 of these will have full animation.

Under the Bridge

Well, the blog is finally back! We haven't been idle though...After many long and hard decisions our film is settling down at the six minute mark and is as lean as we can get in animatic form. We have a team of animators working classically, a 3d department in place and we begin assist and colour next week. Here's a sneak preview of one of the 98 secnes of 'Reflections'. It's an establishing shot under the Queen's Expressway ( a little artistic licence with the Greenwich sushi bar!) on a rainy night in the winter of 2002. In the final composit, Hasan and Dorit will shelter from the sleet under the bridge while a train thunders overhead. Background art by Ray Forkan, After Effects by Katja Schumann. We're working on a teaser in house so watch this space for more of the same!

Character Design

Just getting in the first approved character design from June, who is doing a fabulous job. The final 'look' will be looser, more like an ink drawing, but these drawings are helping nail the underlying structural reference the animators will need.

Hasan and Andrew

When I was in Ramallah, Khaled gave me this clip of Hasan, caught on his friend Andrew's cellphone. Its the only footage I have of him, but so much of his personality is on show even in these few seconds...

Now that the task of animating Hasan is nearly here, such clips are invaluable.

Preproduction

Well, we're finally up and running, although making as many revisions as decisions for the moment. In January Ray Forkan, fresh off 'Brendan, Secret of Kells' took up the helm on layout and last week June Wright took on the turnarounds for character design. Meanwhile, I am trying to piece together the new narrative, based on Ray's concept design, my experiences travelling to New York and Palestine and the myriad of photographic and video research that resulted from those trips. We need to kick off production on February 11th, so lots of hard decisions to be made in the coming week...

'Suddenly, and how ironic that it should happen with you of all people, I found in my voice a true love of homeland. I had to sit with a Palestinian guy on the freezing steps of City Hall in Brooklyn in order to admit to myself how attached I am to Israel. I had to go all the way to New York so that you, with the nostalgia of one born to a refugee family, who grew up with the ongoing longing for the landscapes that surrounded me throughout my whole life, would describe them to me. Far from them, by your side, I loved them perhaps more than ever.'

'The Indian owner of the cigarette stand on West 4th Street, for example: To me he would sell the daily packet with impassive politeness; in your presence, he turned into a glib conjurer with a mysterious expression, who juggled with his fingers and pulled the change out of his left ear.'

-From 'The Exile's Return' by Dorit Rabinyan