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I was invited to participate in a “Studio Process” for a graduate student’s thesis project, and here’s what came out of me:

After we art-ed, we were asked to write “witness statements” about what we’d made. I wrote this:

I laughed a lot making this.
I laugh looking at it.

I see a cartoon of a naked woman (obviously based on me) discovering and exploring a hole in her abdomen, in 8 sequential images.
Although you’d expect a hole in the Self to be cause for sadness and grief, this woman enjoys it the more she ...

In addition to the swell multi-frame animated lenticulars, I’ve also been working on fake quasi 3-D lenticular cards from a printer in China. These are much less expensive, but only allow 2 frames per card. I don’t use 3D software, so to achieve this quasi-3D look I move elements around manually. Here are my designs as 2-frame gifs; hopefully behind a lenticular lens they’ll fool the eye/brain into seeing depth.

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I’m exploring custom lenticular prints of loops from ApocalypseAnimated.com. I still don’t have them in hand; the first tests arrive in hand next week. Here’s a preview video from the printer of the design below:

But I’m so excited I’m already setting up designs for 6 more, to make a set of 7 lenticular prints (7 seems to be the most fetishized number in the Book of Revelation). Because I want to look at them adjacent to each other, I’m posting them here!

I made this to help collaborators generate animated fills for MysticSymbolic, but this E-Z technique can be used with pretty much any 2-D animation software.

This animated symbol is a stopwatch. It takes 6 seconds rather than 60 for the hand to complete a circuit.

This is the stopwatch moving straight across the screen left to right. It takes 6 seconds to do that.

This is the animated symbol above, replicated 6 times. Each instance of it is staggered by one second. Although it takes 6 seconds for one stopwatch to cross the screen left to right, this cycle is ...

I made these to illustrate the difference between shifting a Rohloff vs. conventional derailleur/cassette system in a velomobile going at speed. According to Doug Davis at Bicycle Evolution, some novice velonauts desire Rohloffs because they offer a very wide gear range, but the larger gaps between gears make them less efficient at speed. He has data about watts and gear inches and rotations per minute, but I merely tried to convey the drama of having to upshift too fast in a 60+ pound tub:

For contrast ...

Animating waves does not come naturally to me. I covet the skills of animators who do them well, so when I recently found myself staring at the animated gifs of Felix Colgrave, I thought, “I wish I could do that.” Then I thought – hey, maybe I can. Thus, using repeating waves as guidelines:

I made this:

It may not look like much to you, but for me, it is an achievement, promising more interesting possibilities to come.

The post Banner Yet Wave appeared first on Nina Paley.

Today I made this little straight-ahead hand-drawn pencil animation on a little 3×5″ pad. I was trying to give myself a little break from screens. You can see some eraser shreds got caught in the scanner; hopefully they add folksy charm.

Update: Someone on Neenster.org asked,”If we run it backwards, is it a creation myth?”  You tell me:

Divine cycle:

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This summer I was surprised by several out-of-the blue, generous gifts. One of them was from illustrator Nina Bunjevac, with whom I communicate occasionally on social media – we have a little Mutual Admiration Society going. She sent me a set of beautiful French tarot cards, which I received last week and promptly stared at for several hours.

Although we share a first name, I promise that doesn’t bias me. Bunjevac’s line art epitomizes what I’ve always thought line art should be. She’s a direct creative heir to one of my all-time favorite illustrators, Virgil Finlay, and ...

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I’m creatively constipated and need to flush my system.

The post Time for some more Abstract Animation appeared first on Nina Paley.

⁴ The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.  —Revelation 17

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This is definitely a work in progress.

The Whore wears scarlet, but I think the Beast she rides is also red, so I might take some liberties with color when I show them together.

² And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
….
⁴ And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
⁵ …. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
….
⁸ And I ...

I’m working on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Horse and the Man use the same 64-pointed shape as the Cathedral, Wing, Eye, Beast Head, Rose Window, etc. Because they’re the same object, I made this little 2-frame test in which they alternate – essentially a Thaumatrope. It’s just an experiment, but maybe I’ll use this effect for reals somewhere.

Many battles, much polarization; we are splitting into sides. Online especially, there is right and wrong, good and bad, the “right side of history” and the wrong. Even saying “the right side of history” implies petty, idiotic opinions are of world-altering significance.

The Book of Revelation is the ultimate story of Good vs. Evil, black vs. white. It’s also the ultimate revenge story. John of Patmos was a persecuted early Christian, exiled to a penal colony, expelled from society; cancelled, as we’d say today. He was righteous and angry. He had time to imagine, in elaborate detail ...

After months away, I’m working on my Apocalypse animation again. This is gonna be slow going, but at least I’m doing something.