Introduction

With funding from the The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program, the Library Company is excited to begin a collaborative project with artist Jennifer Levonian. Over the next few months, Jennifer will be creating a video animation inspired by the library’s collections. She has chosen to explore the topic of women who disguised themselves as men and fought as soldiers in the Civil War. Her video will become part of the library’s upcoming exhibition, John A. McAllister’s Civil War: The Philadelphia Home Front opening in May. This blog will chronicle her process of creating the video and will include postings from Jennifer and library staff working with her. We welcome your comments.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Repeats

I thought I'd show you some shots of my animation backdrops and puppets. To animate facial expressions, hand gestures, and other motion sequences, I make series of replaceable parts. I place each piece on a painted backdrop, snap a photo, swap the piece for another, and repeat. Here are a few examples from the upcoming animation.

The first image is a scene from my interview with Wendy the Civil War reenactor, the second will show a car entering a snowy driveway, and the third image will become a man poking a straw into a takeout cup of orange juice.