MASSIVE: a YouTube Short

 

UK artist John Harris does large paintings with rough brush strokes of MASSIVE structures and space craft. He has a new book out: The Art of John Harris: Into the Blue

I remember a story in OMNI MAGAZINE when it first came out. It was called MASSIVE and was illustrated with Harris's work.  Thinking about that, and a particular painting of his, was the inspiration for this scene.  

A large starship finding a MASSIVE ship in deep space.  Is it abandoned? Is it just passing through?  Clarke, of course, did that in Rendezvous with RAMA.  He also didn't answer any questions he put forward.  

This is a rather small model built from a couple of model stands and mostly sheet styrene. It is just the rear part, to be shot from the rear. 

I put some extra details on the photo I took with my phone camera in Photoshop. Made some shadowy details more in the black too.

Been listening to a lot of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene and Equinoxe in the last weeks and the music uses those kinds of sounds.  Maybe why Youtube took 9 minutes to check copyright on this 55second video. The mix is panned with dear VR MUSIC for headphone listening.  Sounds okay on speakers, but headphones give a better experience, and something I will probably do more of.

This YouTube SHORT is just one scene that will go into a future episode of our ROCK Opera, IN THE ASTEROID BELT.   Consider the 4 parts so far to be all of  Season1.

Of course I am making these for myself. The Soundtrack Album is also available for free download on Bandcamp. 

It is a challenge to come up with something combining things I am interested in, can actually do single handily, and finish in a day to a week or so.  I have used a few stop motion animated scenes in these, but it is all put together as 2D animation in Moho Pro 12.  Doing something all stop motion would just take forever, and isn't something I care to undertake. 

I write this in the last few days of 2022 and look back at the year and feel a sense of accomplishment.  Spending time in My Studio is what I have done most in the last 3 years since coming back to Japan, helped of course by COVID-19 and semi-retirement.  

I wonder what new paths in 2023 I will take, as I would never have guessed at the end of 2022 what would happen, other than combining the things I like to do. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology