Week 9 Play and Materiality

Light

Context

Light is a unique material. It is untouchable but beautiful, so our topic is to record the movement of light. The inspiration is from leght animation ‘Freezelight Magic Forest’ https://vimeo.com/8669028 by FREEZELIGHT.RU .

In this animation, the studio photographs one image by long exposure and consist them of the frame by frame animation.

In this group work, due to my photography experience, I mainly helped our members photograph their images. And, my piece of animation is the angle’s wings.

Method

We borrowed the Canon 5DIII, a tripod and a camera remote control from school. The reason why I used a remote control is to prevent the slight shaker when pressing down the shutter button. We chose to photograph at a relatively dark park but can view the night scene of the city, where is in front of the Royal Exhibition Building. Before we go to part, Phoebe and I did a couple of tests in the studio. The method of recording light is by long exposure photography. For each photo, the shutter speed was 30 seconds and the aperture is 11 and ISO is 200.

I made an animation about the angle’s wings (Sophia plays the part of angle). The animation started from a pair of closed wings and gradually opened.

Response 

It was an exciting experience. I was always interested in long exposure photography and took the night scene photos, like the stars to the light track from the moving cars. But it is my first time to know that the animation can be made of light, which opens my mind. Besides, it was super fun to collaborate with others. Each animation cannot be completed by one person. Everyone enjoyed their part of the role, although it was very cold in the midnight. 

Reflection

Using light as a material to make animation is creative. It inspires my studio work in next semester, the light might also be a part of the gameplay. For example, the puzzle or clue might consist of the light emitted from glowworm in the summer night.