Van Gogh into the paintings

Van Gogh into the paintings

This is my Final Year 3D Animation Project for my Master degree (MA course in 3D Computer Animation at the University of Arts of London). I have decided to assemble a series of works by Vincent Van Gogh which the artist painted between the summer and the autumn of 1888 in the south of France and that are now icons of modern art. Moreover, I have decided to design, model, texture, rig and animate Van Gogh's character to include him in the final animation.

The project wants to be a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh's life and works by giving to his artwork a new and contemporary interpretation using computer animation: although the artist had a tormented life and a problematic relationship with his art and the world around him, he is depicted serene and smiling as he is represented immersed in his paintings. This is referred to the statement of the artist saying, “I put my heart and soul into the work”: though flying into his art, as he does in the animation, he fulfils his words “and have lost my mind in the process”.

Mood board & Concept

The sources used to develop the narration and to inspire the visuals of the animation are Vincent Van Gogh’s letters collected in the book “Vincent Van Gogh: A life in Letters (English Edition)” by Leo Jansen and Nienke Bakker. Another source of inspiration has been “Van Gogh London Exhibit: The Immersive Experience”, an interesting multi-sensorial exhibition that combined motion graphics with Van Gogh paintings elaborated through digital manipulation to create an immersive experience that resulted very impressive. An important source of documentation was also the website of the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, where many important information about the artworks of the artist and some insightful facts about their creation can be found.

Storyboard

The storyboard, which helped me to visualise the idea and to clearly convey how the story had to flow, describes how the shots are ordered to work together and narrate the story. It also allowed me to see potential problems that could arise developing the project, helping me to save time later. In fact, in the storyboard I have planned how long the information should had to be displayed and in which form, and I have deepened the meaning of the actions performed by the character and the reason to include them in the animation.

3D Environment Design

After choosing which of Van Gogh's artwork I was going to reproduce in 3D, I have tried to include them together in a "house exhibition" where the character would have wandered around.

Textures

I have spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how to best translate Van Gogh's "Impasto technique" in 3D. After having tested out different texturing methods with "Substance painter" using height maps, I have decided to create my textures in "Photoshop" since the results seemed to me to be closer to the one I originally had in mind. I have tried to replicate the swirls and the pattern from the different values of the same hue present in some of the artist's greatest artworks.

Character Design

For  Van Gogh's character design I have taken inspiration from one of his many self-portraits: his clothes, his facial features, the colours of the textures are highly inspired by this.

3D Character Model

Rig in Advanced Skeleton

From Painting to 3D

Working on the artist's artworks I have created some 3D models which I had the intention to bring the paintings "to life", modeling the the "stage" where the artist wanders around.

"The Starry Night" 3D model

To create the "swirl movement effect" of the sky of the painting I have used individual brush strokes in "Maya" imitating the thick brush strokes Van Gogh used to include in his artworks. I then separated them in groups to animate them independently. Since in my animation the camera moves towards the painting coming out from a window, I have tried to reproduce a parallax effect separating the objects in the foreground (the tree) from those in the background (the whirls in the sky and the stars).

Inspiration from Van Gogh's letters

I have always loved sketches created by artists to plan their works: I think they are very personal and they provide us with a real insight into an artist's technique. This was the case of Van Gogh's sketches of his paintings, which in most cases he included in his letters. This drawings were preceded and followed by descriptions of them as well his thought process behind them. I was really captivated by the idea of transitioning from the real coloured painting to the sketch he made in his letters: I have thought I could transition from the 3D painting to the 2D sketch to share the informations about his works and his life, making it more visually interesting.

First 3D Animation snippet

Final 3D Animation Project