imp table
animation process

Storyboards here

See Updates page for the latest on the process.

My system for converting the video of me being the imp to vectorized frames in Flash:

1. In Final Cut, cut video into short clips corresponding to specific actions (running, dragging, laughing, etc).
2. In Final Cut, apply brightness and contrast to get almost pure black on white, some cropping as necessary
3. Render and export as Quicktime .mov files at 8 fps, greyscale, photo jpeg
4. Import a video into flash
5. Export as png sequence
6. Delete every 2nd and 3rd frame
7. Vectoring every image - Illustrator CS2 does this - use Live Trace, Live Paint, and batch export as PNG files. (I looked into Wildform and Siame software for this before coming upon the Illustrator option)
8. Since flash will only import all if #s are sequential, use the batch processing to get sequential #s
9. Import png sequence into flash
10. Resize and adjust placement of objects as needed, add blur and alpha effects. This is finally where some creative decisions start to come in, but it's difficult to figure out how it will all translate in the physical world.
11. Repeat for each video clip

animation research and inspiration

Resources:

• Michael mentioned David Small, an interaction designer who has a piece at the Asia Society with a map projected from above that can be interacted with by moving stones across the table
  
• Also, Michael sent me to this similar but different table animation piece - Kobito
  
• I also saw a short video clip at SXSW of a piece shown at Ars Electronica with people touching objects on a table, causing the shadows of objects they touch to move and morph - because they weren't shadows, they were animations...

Animation Research: