The Infinite Now
AV Performance
Duration: an hour
Sunday, 23 September 2018 | 22:45 > 22:45 2018-09-23T22:45:00.000Z | Sala 9
The Infinite Now Some time ago I took a still image with water splashes, frozen in time by using a strobe.
Later, when working on some cinemagraphs I decided was curious to see if I could convert this still into a moving cinemagraph.
Playing around with the Puppet Warp tool in Adobe After Effects I animated the splashes, and was surprised at how convincing the motion of the water looked.
I'm sure this was not something that Adobe had in mind when they came up with Puppet Warp, but hey, it worked! Many people actually thought it was an ultra slow-motion video shot.
To shoot a real slow motion shot like that, in this kind of resolution, you would need a super expensive high end camera like a Phantom Flex 4K, and probably a few hundred kilowatts worth of lighting.
This made me wonder what else I could do.
It seemed like a really cool idea to apply this technique to the work of a photographer who I admire a lot, and who's probably one of the best ocean photographers out there: Ray Collins.
At first I hesitated to contact Ray about the idea.
Here I was, a total stranger proposing to mess around with his images.
But when I finally sent him a rough example based on a low res image, he immediately loved it.
From there, things moved quickly, and our collaboration has now resulted in a series of 4K cinemagraphs of some of Ray's most iconic images.
As mentioned before, the cinemagraphs are created by animating the still images in After Effects, after which I use Flixel Cinemagraph Pro to create the perfect loop and mask out parts of the image that should remain static.
I usually create an animation of around 4 or 5 seconds, and create a 100% overlap when making the cinemagraph loop.
This way it's not obvious where the loop starts and ends.
It turned out that certain images lend themselves to this technique better than others.
There's always a bit of trial and error involved.
It helps to visualize in my head how the wave would move in real life, as I only have a still image to work with, and no video reference.
The nice thing about this technique is that it lets you take an infinitesimal sliver of time, and see it in motion indefinitely.
When I showed some of these cinemagraphs to André Heuvelman, trumpetist at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, it inspired him to get together with pianist Jeroen van Vliet to create a bespoke soundtrack for this cinemagraph series.
I combined it with a compilation of the cinemagraphs, and the result became the short cinemagraph film "The Infinite Now" that you see at the top of this page.
This has been a great collaborative project, and I hope we can expand and build on it in the future, perhaps even bringing it outside of the digital screen and into real world exhibitions or performances.
Later, when working on some cinemagraphs I decided was curious to see if I could convert this still into a moving cinemagraph.
Playing around with the Puppet Warp tool in Adobe After Effects I animated the splashes, and was surprised at how convincing the motion of the water looked.
I'm sure this was not something that Adobe had in mind when they came up with Puppet Warp, but hey, it worked! Many people actually thought it was an ultra slow-motion video shot.
To shoot a real slow motion shot like that, in this kind of resolution, you would need a super expensive high end camera like a Phantom Flex 4K, and probably a few hundred kilowatts worth of lighting.
This made me wonder what else I could do.
It seemed like a really cool idea to apply this technique to the work of a photographer who I admire a lot, and who's probably one of the best ocean photographers out there: Ray Collins.
At first I hesitated to contact Ray about the idea.
Here I was, a total stranger proposing to mess around with his images.
But when I finally sent him a rough example based on a low res image, he immediately loved it.
From there, things moved quickly, and our collaboration has now resulted in a series of 4K cinemagraphs of some of Ray's most iconic images.
As mentioned before, the cinemagraphs are created by animating the still images in After Effects, after which I use Flixel Cinemagraph Pro to create the perfect loop and mask out parts of the image that should remain static.
I usually create an animation of around 4 or 5 seconds, and create a 100% overlap when making the cinemagraph loop.
This way it's not obvious where the loop starts and ends.
It turned out that certain images lend themselves to this technique better than others.
There's always a bit of trial and error involved.
It helps to visualize in my head how the wave would move in real life, as I only have a still image to work with, and no video reference.
The nice thing about this technique is that it lets you take an infinitesimal sliver of time, and see it in motion indefinitely.
When I showed some of these cinemagraphs to André Heuvelman, trumpetist at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, it inspired him to get together with pianist Jeroen van Vliet to create a bespoke soundtrack for this cinemagraph series.
I combined it with a compilation of the cinemagraphs, and the result became the short cinemagraph film "The Infinite Now" that you see at the top of this page.
This has been a great collaborative project, and I hope we can expand and build on it in the future, perhaps even bringing it outside of the digital screen and into real world exhibitions or performances.
Author
- Frans de Rond Frans's interest in audio technology can be traced back to a childhood enthusiasm for electronics and music.
He studied recording technique as well as double bass at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Frans currently lives in Hilversum and works as a independent sound engineer.
His studio is located in the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep, one of the most legendary studios in Europe.
He is a very active sound engineer with broad field of experience from CD recordings, radio... - As a child, Andre Heuvelman (1966) had a great passion for making music.
The trumpet appeared in his life by coincidence.
However, this instrument offered a great challenge because of Andre's handicap – he had a short lower-arm and a limp wrist.
His down-to-earth approach to achieve what he dreamed of in the world of music allows Andre to have a compelling story to tell.
That explains why he's asked often as a keynote speaker to touch, connect and inspire audiences.
With his beautiful music... - Armand Dijcks is a cinematographer / photographer creating moving images, stills and cinemagraphs, a hybrid form of the two.
In his work often combines techniques from the worlds of still and motion photography, to achieve innovative and unusual results.
He also produce educational content in collaboration with world-class fine art photographers, and teach workshops internationally. - FLxER Team was born in 2001 around the developing of FLxER software born from the idea of using a computer in order to realise a live video performance, similarly to what was already happening in the electronic music production/performance.
Since none of the expensive consumer video software available in the market did allow to perform in real time, the solution was to independently design and develop an application able to solve this problem.
Since 2001 many FLxER visual and audio visual shows,...