Ave-Maria

Ave-Maria

For this piece, I was asked to create a minute-long visual accompaniment to a poem of my choice. “Ave Maria” by Frank O’Hara, in its most basic form, is a juxtaposition between the ideas of freedom and isolation.

Storyboard / Styleframes

While creating the storyboard, It was important to create scenes that embodied Freedom and isolation while maintaining the poem's narrative movement. It was also vital to physically draft the poem's words on the storyboard as a preemptive measure to synchronize the frames to the poem. This synchronization would be essential that each frame was not rushed or sluggish when I went on to animate.

Initial Style Frames

Cinema4D to Illustration

One of the main issues I had to overcome within this project was the hurdle of matching the rounded style 3D creates to my hand-drawn illustrative look. I solved this issue in three ways: creating Luma matts out of my 3D footage, using blend modes to layer textures, and even re-drawing the footage frame by frame. 

Frame by Frame

I have a theory in motion design; because you don’t have much time to tell your story, you must be efficient in summarizing large portions of your narrative in single details. In this way, motion design is very similar to a poem. I was pleased how the hand's scene bridged this gap and told the beginning of this love story in 5 seconds.