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Progress is not a straight line. Over the last three months, I have been working with Tom Tuke (Uconn MFA Puppet Arts candidate) and Kevin Marinelli (UConn Puppet Arts enthusiast) to develop an inverted zoetrope that will project a shadow image of a hopping bunny. Using a system of strategically placed magnets the zoetrope is equipped with a custom-made circuit board that allows a very bright LED light to turn on and off at a speed consistent with the turn rate of the zoetrope. It's a magic trick that requires precision and we are still fine-tuning the details but just seeing how close we are to creating this not-so-simple machine is exhilarating!
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These light up Shadow Box Puppets will be used interchangeably as Toy Theatre and Shadow Puppets in Nothing Really Matters. They are each double sided, laser cut, mat board with an inlay of opaque nylon material and outlined with black fleece. Each puppet box has led lights inside which are remote controlled.
The puppets can be manipulated as shadow puppets from behind a screen while an animation is simultaneously front projected on the screen. They are also beautiful up close and come out from behind the screen to be used in conjunction with front projected animation and as toy theater puppets. They were originally drawn between 2008 and 2018 by a team of animators for Aerial Animation and I have been adjusting the PSD photoshop images to transform the images into sturdy puppets.  Recreating the cloud from the 2023 project, "Nimbus" to use as a dimensional mapped surface for the “Work World” in Nothing Really Matters. The face projected on the cloud will express different emotions through the story to show varying levels of satisfaction with my productivity. The original cloud was created by Mathew Melis in 2008 and I am working with Eun Sok Hong, a senior in the Digital Media and Design Program at UConn to create the new facial expressions.
Over the summer and fall semesters at UConn I have been developing a series of animated forest scenes for Nothing Really Matters. These scenes are tiny in their original form but they will be projected in giant scale so that I can go behind the screen and appear in silhouette walking through the animated forest.
Each scene is about a minute long and contains a forest of hand cut paper trees. The leaves are laser cut duplicates in varying colors to produce replacement animations which progress from summer, through fall and winter into spring. I designed each tree and leaf shape as well as the three tier cranky system which allows the trees to travel across the camera at varying paces to produce a parallax effect. Kayo Tokuue, a third year MFA light design student at UConn has been assisting me in creating the footage and I am extremely grateful for her patience, attention to detail and awareness of how light affects the camera! Abigail Baird's Aerial Animation is developing a new production called, "Nothing Really Matters" which will debut in it's first iteration at the University of Connecticut in January of 2024. At the 2023 Uconn Puppet Slam Abigail performed a short clip of what is to come. This piece combines shadow performance and 2D digital animated bunnies from pervious Aerial Animation productions with a newly created stop motion animated forest.
We are finally working on creating new animation! Matt, the animator, draws short simple animations of my story and I overlay rehearsal footage to test what works and what doesn't work. This little moment lined up very nicely last week and I thought you all might enjoy seeing our work in progress. We're having fun now kids!
Can we get a drum roll please? Ladies and gentlemen Aerial Animation would like to introduce, Cheetah Platt. He’s strapping, lively and has the eye of a true creative artist.
Thanks to our exposure through America’s Got Talent, Aerial Animation is opening new doors. Things are happening fast and with all the new opportunities I need more porters to perform with in 2015. My dear friend, Rain Anya Willson of the Paper Doll Militia, introduced Cheetah to me as a possible great fit for our team. Cheetah is the owner and founder of Aerial Essentials, a L.A. based company that provides rigging and equipment for all your circus needs. When they are not running their business, he and his wife train hand-to-hand with an awesome community of acrobats. In October of 2014 I took a trip down to Los Angeles to join him for some fun in the sun. The Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California is known for gymnastics, adagio training and performances. Dating back to the 1930’s circus performers have gathered there to train and show off their skills. Cheetah and I spent a few days there testing the waters and had a great time. I met some new faces and played with old friends at JJ’s Gym. By the time I left L.A. I knew Cheetah would be a great fit for Aerial Animation. A few weeks later, Cheetah flew up to the Bay Area to do some more intensive training at Kinetic Arts Center in Oakland, CA with me and the animation. We worked hard and got our skills performance-polished. Then we booked our flights to perform at Cirque Du Chevron in Houston, TX. Cheetah is currently off enjoying a three-month honeymoon with is new wife. I wish the two of them all the best and hope they have a fantastic time. I am sure that Cheetah and Aerial Animation will have many adventures when he returns.
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These are the stories of Aerial Animation's Adventures told through the eye's of Abigail Baird. Archives
December 2023
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