Of OZ... and flat Zoetrophes

Ok, so I'm having some post-election day blues. I'm really disappointed in the election results - as I'm sure anyone who has read anything I have to say about the current dictator in office can imagine. I was thinking it's like I want to go to a land like OZ - a place with lots of bright colors and a kindly man behind the curtain and a cool horse of many colors. Sure OZ has its problems, but it's so much better than the reality of "home" right now.


Today I was able to continue working on a tract for the children's minister. It's another 10.7.3.1 thing, but this time it's got some optical illusions in it. Have any of you heard of a zoetrope? If you haven't heard of one, and you've seen any animation at all, you have seen one. They're usually made where they have a large cylinder that has small slits in the sides around the circumference so that you can turn the wheel and see inside while it spins. On the inside walls of the cylinder there are images that seem to come to life. It's super cool. Well, there are a few tracts out using that method, but instead of using a round spinning object, they're using a flat sheet of plastic that you slide over an image they've printed on the paper. The company that made the ones I saw is called "Let the little children come". Here's a video to show you how they work:

I've never done any real drawn animation, though I'm fascinated by it. So, I did some research, found a cool instructional video and ran off and made a few. The viewer card I made was kinda clunky at first so I'm revising it to make the lines smaller so that the animation is smoother and easier to see, so I'm really excited about the prospect of having this little tract completed.

I also made some new images for his 10.7.3.1 concept that will be used on the cover of the instructional booklet he is writing. Here's just a taste of that:

 

I found some great textures to use from that wonderful texture site called CG Textures. I frequent Lost and Taken Textures too, but the ones I used for this image came from CG. I found some great photoshop brushes - wish I could remember from where cause those things have really made this process painless for me. I know how to make my own brushes and textures, but often don't have the time and since the textures I've found are in public domain (as are the brush packs), I've found it more expedient to use the tools that are at my disposal instead of taking the time to make new ones from scratch. Anyway - I looked for metal type samples to reference while I did this image. And I found a great tutorial that got me started. I knew I wanted to go with the metal typesetting bits - have been wanting to try that myself for a while and was glad something came along that I could do it with. And since the server was down (read: no internet or email) at work on Monday, I finished this up and got most of the bones of the zoetrope done that day.