The Pre-Process of Animation
Over the past weekend I made my second trip to the Museum of Moving Images in Astoria, Queens. It was a very unique experience from two years ago, partly because during my first trip the museum was under construction and partly because I have learned a great deal since my first time. I remembered many of the exhibits, enough so that I was able to notice the addition of prosthetic legs used to illustrate a bruised and mangled up Winona Ryder in Black Swan and choice costume pieces from Mildred Place.
Regardless of those additions, what really drew my attention was the timely Jim Henson exhibit, simultaneously promoting decades of genius work and the new Muppets movie. The Henson exhibit gave viewers a remarkable look into his thought process as he created pop culture icons such as Kermit, Miss Piggy, and even Big Bird. It was organized so that viewers could go from room to room viewing storyboarding techniques, rough character development sketches, and even some avant-garde films. Going through the Henson exhibit, I was reminded me a lot of the recent Tim Burton display at the MoMa, both fantastic visionaries from the film and animation community.
With the final project, I have had to try my part and follow the traditional pre-animation process of abstract, character development, story boarding, and all other parts of pre-planning that would make my life easier when it came down to creating original work. Therefore, I really found value in looking through an esteemed artist as he followed the same steps I was taught in class.
Henson’s story boards were not always detailed but always concise in portraying key action and expression in a piece. Sometimes he would use a lot of color to show each character and other times it would be a brief and seemingly rushed doodle. Still, I was able to really understand the plot and structure of the story by his drawings.
It was interesting to see how Henson’s rough sketches and doodles of inspiration were interpreted to great puppets and elaborate scenes. One sketch on display was of rows and rows of uneven arches inside of boxes, with the outline of a character placed inside each arch. Upon first look, I had no idea what that could be for. Then next to it, I was able to see the final product, a brilliant set design of windows evenly aligned that enabled the Muppets to peak their heads through the ornate arches. It was with these transformative designs that made Henson a true visionary.
I was surprised to find that Henson delved into experimental movie making. There was one video entitled “Time Piece” that showed the effects on keeping time. It was his go at unorthodox editing; it looked like pieces of plotline streamed together in a collaged sequence.
My second trip to the Museum of Moving Images was very different from my first. I was lucky to have been able to see the season exhibit of Jim Henson that was very relevant to the course as well as take a second look at artifacts overlooked the first time.