MAGIC MASKS

Reflective Statement

Sam introduced use to the what3words map which geotags 3 words to a specific location. I decided to do the location that I've been spending my quarantining for the last 3 months—my home in Vancouver. I understand alpha masks through illustrator and the rest of the adobe suite. However, in the context of found videos and generative effects where the masks can be adapted with 3 layers to it: the foreground, background, and the mask itself, I had to explore the different technical abilities of Isadora to make the most use of it.

Again, I had a lot of trial and errors. My first try at this magic mask assignments, I was just blending 3 videos through alpha masks without much creative intent. However, thinking about the last time I danced at a party, I wanted to image the 3words 'SEASIDE, EDGY, SAILORS' as a prompt for a dance footage that plays on a projector in a house party.

 

Supporting Research

Recently, I've been really caught by analog processes of cutting out shapes or painting in gestured shapes. Particularly, I was inspired by the works of Henri Matisse, and Jordy van den Nieuwendijk

I had also seen the Eggers' movie The Lighthouse which inspired me to find some black and white footage around water and sailors for the 3 words. From the urge to dance, I remembered watching old dance rave videos from the television from which I wanted to juxtapose all the elements into a visual poem from the 3 words.

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Ideation

The left shows my earlier iterations. I kept it simple because I was just trying to understand what the process of masking is like in Isadora.

On the right, shows the directions I ended up taking as a found more intentional footage, with a more dynamic typographic treatment.

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Iterations

I made these custom masks in illustrator inspired from the masks previously researched which added as alpha masks which become distorted accordingly in Isadora.

the seaside

To introduce the first world, I wanted to set the scene with found ocean
and sailor footage alpha masked together with the wavy mask I made. 


breeds edgy

I used video effect actors like displace to alter the mark so
it blurs in and out as the ravers are dancing.

 

sailors

I used the wavy shape to mask the sailor with some texts
modulating vertically with a limit-scale wave generator.


assembled

Using enter scene, trigger delays, I connected the 3 scenes to be viewed as one continuous piece.