Passion Works! February 5, 2018

I am currently an Animator-In-Residence at Passion Works Studio, Athens, OH
It is a delight to be working with such a diverse and talented crew of artists. Passion Works is a welcoming, creative studio for people with developmental disabilities. The studio welcomes artists in the community to work with their artists. The PW artists are generating the images and imaginative narratives while I provide the technical workflow to make the movie happen. Check out some behind the scenes footage of two PW artists hard at work making a space scene! Fred is making the stars twinkle with a scrim and Noah is puppeteering a fleet of alien spaceships.

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Categories: Passion Works

LaurelLoops November 30, 2016

LaurlLoops Pink Blocks

Starting a new project in collaboration with artist Laurel Farrin. I admire her works for many reasons. In particular, her static images contain a certain potential energy. I am attempting to digitally deconstruct her paintings . Once deconstructed, the former fixed elements of the painting become a plasticized material for animation studies. The material and shape of the “unfixed” images inform their animated behavior. I’m also interested in experimenting with the perceived materiality of the shape. In this first example a green object expands like a lofty balloon but falls like a cement brick. These contrasts in material weight will be interesting to play with.

The second example in the video below deconstructs a painting of a whimsical block tower. The individual blocks were mapped with a surface shader in Maya to 3D models approximating their 2D shape. Using Maya’s gravity and rigid active body attributes, the former fixed elements from the painting submit to gravity and tumble away from the picture plane.

Laurelloops1 from Jeremy Bessoff on Vimeo.

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Categories: 2D Animation 3D Animation After Effects LaurelLoops Maya

Truchet Tiling October 25, 2016

Truchet 1 from Jeremy Bessoff on Vimeo.

Truchet 1 (1 Min., Silent, Color, 1:1 embedded in a 16:9 frame, 2016)

A structuralist film study of the infinite design possibilities provided by the truchet tile. Using a simple truchet tile as a pattern for tessellation, Truchet 1 generates a thrilling, infinitely random series of patterns. Hand-drawn shapes reveal the material of both the truchet’s medium and process. Grain of the paper and imperfect pencil fills add to the film’s deep textural aesthetic. The frenetic pace of Truchet 1 is derived from the editing alone. The tiles themselves are static, in both position and time. The illusion of animation is created through dynamic contrasts between the opposing orientation of individual tiles. The inherent plasticity of digital video allows for fine, frame accurate swapping of tiles. A flickering graphic conflict occurs onscreen when tiles are randomly juxtaposed. Positive and negative space collide, swap places and seem to swirl and pulse across the viewer’s eyes, generating the optical illusion of animation.

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Categories: 2D Animation Snapshot Exercise

Dr. Office Visit July 22, 2016

Our characters visit the Doctor for an uncomfortable update to their medical situation. The voice of the doctor was acted with medical gravitas by Austin Bunn.

Dr Puppet Parts

Dr Office Scene on animation stand

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Categories: Tongue Project

Unintended Collage July 9, 2016

Before paper puppets are assembled, the pieces often arrange themselves into pleasing collage compositions.

Unintentional Collage. “Her Skull Is Always Smiling on the Inside.”

Unintentional collage. “Aether Condenses on Ghostly Limbs.”

Unintended collage. “The God-Head Contemplates Writing Equations Defining Infinity”

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Categories: Tongue Project

Olifer Eliasson in Code May 11, 2016

Learning while() statements. My recreation of Olifer Eliasson’s,Thirteen purple to grey movie, 2010, watercolor and pencil on paper

using Processing code. The source is included below:
float i = 0;
void setup(){
size(400,300);
colorMode(HSB);
background(#d3d1d2);
rectMode(CENTER);
fill(#d1ccc8);
stroke(#cbc3c1);
rect(width/2, height/2, 250, 150);
}
void draw() {
stroke(195, 99 – i*13, 99, 100);
while (i < 13) {
fill(195, 99 – i*13, 99, 100);
ellipse(150 + i*12.5, 150, 100- i*8.5, 100 );
i = i + 1;
}
}
void keyPressed() {
if (key == ‘s’ || key ==’S’) {
save(“Olafur13.png”);
println(“Drawing_Saved”);
}
}
//coded by Jeremy Bessoff

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Categories: Processing

CatBurster1 March 16, 2016

Does Photoshop not have enough randomized line and kitty cat filters for you? Then download CatBurster1! A drawing program that creates randomized space lines and a cat! It’s actually my first foray into generative art with Processing.

To download go to www.bessoff.com/processing
left click on CatBurster1.zip
unzip file and double click CatBurster1
Paint with a cat by clicking and dragging the mouse
Mac OSX only (Must have Java 8 installed too)

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Tags: Processing

Categories: Processing

Articulated Tongue Construction February 2, 2016

The shape for the puppet is first sketched, making sure to draw in where the articulation points connect.
Transfer shapes to the material puppet will be made from. I use Seral graphite paper to trace the shapes.
Cut out pieces and punch joint holes at articulation point.

Now your are ready to animate your big, floppy tongue.

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Categories: Tongue Project

A Whopping 15 Seconds. September 21, 2015

Here is a whopping 15 seconds of animation from the new project, Lingua Absentia. All animation is in camera shot on a multi-plane animation stand with 2d, jointed, paper puppets. Stay tuned! There’s more to come!

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Tags: 2d, Animation, Bessoff, Multi-plane, paper, puppets

Categories: Tongue Project