Animation: Music of Erich Zann (remake)

  My third animation remake, Music of Erich Zann, was my first full-scale attempt to make a short animation. I had made "Dust Bunnies" a few years before, but this was more complicated with human characters and several sets. The first version took me 5 years to make. I had to learn basic modelling, rigging, lighting... the whole works. It was done in Cinema 4D and the opening POV shot walking up the street took 25 hours to render. 

Like the previous 2 remakes, I like the original version, but it lacks, mostly because of the skill and technical deficits I had at the time, the look and feel I wanted to achieve. My goal is to have online the best versions of my films on display and use the remakes to get better with Blender and animation in general for future projects now that I am retired and have (in theory) more time to work on personal projects.

Old version of the street. Not the reason this needed to be redone, I was satisfied with the look. 

Old and new version of Zann. New is more realistic and will have more emotional range. Same with the narrator. 

The narrator: old and new

New Business Card - when I don't have a business anymore

 My old business cards are sort of useless now that I don't have a business anymore, so I decided on a generic card for myself. I can give it to people I ask to photograph so they can see more of my work or more banal stuff like showing it to places that need my name and other info. I tend to stutter at times, and my name is LONG, so it avoids that embarrassment.  I never remember my phone number, so it helps with that as well. Next September, I am planning to take photos at the fetish weekend here. Some might be good photos, but I think most will be for making illustrations as some of the outfits and looks are really well made and professional looking. 

The card has no info on the back and is simple and professional looking, I hope. I used my old studio logo, which is taken from a detail on a building here at the Vieux Port de Montréal. 

Illustration: Paris Metro

 It's September and this is the first drawing I have done this year. I will sometimes do 20, but this year is a tough one. After losing my dad, I wasn't motivated to draw or do much, but this summer I was inspired by some work my friend Mike did based on photos he took on the London tube and some video tests another friend did in Paris.  This image is not like really any of my work in that it isn't an isolated subject (I think 18 figures in this one) and it's a "full painting," meaning, to me anyway, that it’s a fully realized environment and composition - not one plain or stylized background. 

It was a bear to get started. I bought a new iPad and the new Apple Pencil and Procreate had updated over the year a bit. This meant that nothing worked like it had, and I spent an 8-hour day swearing and being frustrated as a menu popped up blocking my work every time I touched the screen, and the pencil kept randomly switching from drawing mode to eraser mode, and I would constantly erase the work I had just done. I had to adjust the program settings and the pencil setting on the iPad end to get it all working again. 

I used a paintbrush for 90% of it and didn't obsess over making people look too realistic and instead tried to capture their expressions and body language in a looser fashion - something that has always eluded me. I drew it on a 30-inch canvas, so it's pretty big. I don't try and get all the details perfectly even on the train cabin. I did add a little refinement in Affinity Photo as Procreate is lacking in some of those features, but if I took those out, you really wouldn't see a difference. I think I captured the experience of looking into a passing train and not seeing everyone in there clearly defined. Some of the figures are sort of mysterious, and I like that. 

(detail)

Photography: La Voie Maritime

I saw a little fog about 45 minutes into my ride, but it was after the sun was up, so it was burning off. However, at the 2-hour mark, I was on La Voie Maritime, a long strip of land between 2 islands on my route, and there were bands of heavy fog passing long after the sky was blue and sunny everywhere else. I had my iPhone that can take 48-megapixel RAW images, so I was able to get some nicer images. 

Animated short film: 25 Years Later (2026) made by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

A cyclist on a trip from his home in Montreal Quebec to his former hometown of Boston Massachusetts is haunted by memories of the time he spent there with his best friend 25 years previously. 

This is a remake of sorts of an earlier version of this animation made in Cinema 4D. I use Blender now and thought I might do better as it was a very personal project for me. I actually planned this trip for real but was never able to do it for various reasons recurring kidney problems on my part, family issues and the pandemic happening. This is a functional film for sure but many of the events are from life and experience from that time with my friend, Jay.  

Below is the original film, should anyone want to see it for comparison. I kept some of the original animation as I really liked them. Most of my problems visually were with the characters and how they and some of the renders looked. The basic structure is the same with some cleaning up of shots and scenes to hopefully work better and I also added a subtle effect for when things are in the past to make that clearer. 

photography: Canal Lachine

 Just a few photos I took with the iPhone on my morning ride yesterday. I used the 48-megapixel raw setting. 

update: 25 Years later remake: South West Corridor

 I spent 3 days working on remaking the set for the SW Corridor shot. Most of it is made from still and video cutouts. The buildings in the rear I drew in Affinity vetcor. The animation on this was very simple so it didn't take long to do after everything was set up. There is a right wing to this set where we see the friends walking as a butterfly flies past them, which is challenging character animation and the sick friend is walking with a walker. 

The original shot is below. I am not reinventing the animation so it's very similar but more natural looking, I hope. I noticed there are vantage points on the corridor where more Boston landmarks are visible so I think it has more a sense of place now. 

Upate: 25 years later rain scene

 

I made this 2 times the duration, added different rain effects and details like the fences. I also change it from a few butterflies to one. 

photography: Mobius Meadows Farmstead.

 I spent a few days at a friend's farm. Mostly taking photos of items for his website and social media. I also took some of the animals there. 

Updating older animations: 25 Years Later (2020) Barn in the rain

 

Still chugging along. I liked this in the original version and it had some challenges in Blender but it looks OK. The idea of this shot was the inspiration for the entire original project.