trainsmoking
trainsmoking is the second entry in the TV BABY project.
this time, i attempted to approach the mystery from a different angle, one turned more towards romance and tranquility, a moment of calm existence in this world separate from our own.
this idea came to me as a split second visual in my brain as i was having a very chill moment by myself, just being, and from that place came the vibe that this animation brings.
trainsmoking
much like it was with TV BABY, i had a specific visual in mind right from the beginning of this project and i tried to stay as close as possible to it all throughout production.
after the initial spark of inspiration, i wrote down what the idea was and began work on a draft in Krita.
original still draft
once i had a visual that was faithful enough to my vision, i began work on making an animated draft, also in Krita.
animated draft
with the animated draft in hand, i approached my good friend Artie (aka protoartie), who is a talented illustrator and musician, and asked him if he would compose an original soundtrack for my animation, to which he said: yes!
Artie composed the brilliant soundtrack, that matched in tone and atmosphere to the animation. simply brilliant, i could not imagine this project today without his music.
thanks so much buddy <3
music by protoartie
once i had chosen the soundtrack, i began working on the final animation.
this project was animated in 3 different planes: there is the foreground, in which i animated the frame of the train window; then the middleground, in which i animated the smoke people in the interior of the train cabin; and lastly the background, in which i animated the sunset outside of the other train window.
this was a lot of work, but i knew i wanted it to be this way so that later, in editing, i could create a sense of three-dimensionality, by spacing in between the planes and animating each one differently in after effects. that was the plan from the beginning.
foreground
middleground
background
after i had each plane animated into place in after effects, along with the soundtrack, i played around with the visual effects. i must admit i'm a big fan of the vhs look.
i also tweaked the music a little, with Artie's blessing, in order for it to better fit the visual rhythm.
lastly, i hopped back into Krita and animated an end card for the video to conclude with.
TV BABY production end card
the end result of all this work is this glimpse into an intimate, romantic moment that these strange smoke entities are sharing as they inhale and exhale each other while traveling together in this ethereal train to somewhere we can only imagine.
thank you for looking.
