Final Animation...

ALDOUS HUXLEY Peyote Brain from Wilf on Vimeo.

• Overall i'm really please with how the animation turned out, I surprised myself with how I could make my images work as a moving picture.
• I had almost convinced myself that nothing animated was possible within my final prints (i wanted to print new imagery, better suited to moving image), it wasn't until I got on the computer and started to edit and dissect them that I realised what could be done.
• I few tricks came in handy to help with technical animation: Putting the 'easy ease' effects on the key frames made a massive difference to the movements and smoothened them out. 'Partnering' all the object to the head was really useful when moving the whole head around the page (it meant all the other moving object moved with it as one piece). Also simply copying and pasting key frames was so useful, because there is subtle repetition in the movements, it meant I could get the pieces back in the exact same places. 
• Another good thing that helped me was turning the brain sections into its own composition, because it consisted of so many layers. After I had made the brain pieces appear into the head, I wanted to move it as a whole piece, this wasn't possible until I combined the sections into its own composition. At the last minute I reversed the effect from the start, and made the brain circles exit in the same way, im really glad I did this, it rounds off the animation nicely.
• Im pleased with the overall hand generated/printed feel the animation, I like the aesthetic that mimics my final prints with the overlay on the brain.
• Looking at it now I really wish I had put a slight grainy print texture across the whole composition, I could then animate the texture and make it flicker throughout the animation. This would have been really subtle but would have boosted the distorted aesthetic a lot. It would made the animation have a slightly less clean a pristine finish - which i think would have enhanced the whole atmosphere. 
• Looking at it now I think this concept could have been condensed into a 10 second sting. I could have then applied this same concept too 2 other of my final prints (and moved/warped the coloured layers behind the outlines). Dissecting up the faces similarly to this one. So basically applied the same animation ideas but too different faces. This would have made a nice matching set of warping faces. It would have been interested see how the other faces translate into animation.

Sounds:

• Im really pleased with how the sound effects worked with the moving imagery. I aimed to try and create sounds that had a similar weird and surreal effect to the imagery.
• All the sound effects where downloaded from freesound.com, and where copyright free.
• I layer up the sounds and made them build up and overlap to create a confusing orchestra of sound effects. I synced them to certain movements in the animation, for example when the pace of the movements sped up, I would introduce more sound effects (making the sounds more complicated, as well as the imagery more complicated).
• As the intensity of the animation decreased, I made the sounds decreased as well, like the sounds are part of huxleys hallucination/psychedelic experience. 
• I think what makes the sounds most confusing and un easy, is that fact that they sort of contrast with each other. There are natural sounds of crickets and frogs, combined with futuristics sci fi sounds and synths.
• Then the drum beat really helps to pic up the pace and give the movements/gestures much more impact.
• Then there is the weird screaming voice, almost like some sort of war chant. That adds to the intensity and pace of the entire thing.
• I like that the sounds are confusing and un obvious, I think it works to represent ideas of psychedelics and hallucinating.