Open Source Art Animation
"Motion is just more interesting."
While I would love to one day even get close to the skills of the world greatest painters and artist, that likely will not happen unless I put more hours than I currently have. So instead, I wanted to learn more about these artists and use their work to create an engaging animated view. Each animation is in a seamless loop.
Tools & Methods
The tools:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
Multiple art museums are digitally providing works in their gallery that are public domain and free of other known restrictions. The main galleries used in this project are the following:
The end result of each piece is reached differently, but to generalize the process.
- Read up on the background to see if there are any insights in how the image should move. Plan the movements beforehand.
- In Photoshop, duplicate the base layer and mask any pieces with unique movement within each individual layer. Use content aware fill on the original base image to make the background displaced by the movement.
- Bring it into After Effects. Use puppet pins, displacement maps, and more to create the desired effect.
Works of Art
The Gulf Stream - Winslow Homer
"The Gulf Stream is named after the strong Atlantic current that connected many of the locales where he liked to paint. Homer based this dramatic scene of imminent disaster on sketches and watercolors he had made during winter trips to the Bahamas in 1884 and 1898, after crossing the Gulf Stream several times. A man faces his demise on a dismasted, rudderless fishing boat, sustained by only a few stalks of sugarcane, while threatened by sharks and a distant waterspout. He is oblivious to the schooner on the left horizon, which Homer later added to the composition as a sign of hopeful rescue." - Met Museum (Source)
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Lacquer Paintings of Various Subjects: Butterflies - Shibata Zeshin
"The strong color effect seen in this album is achieved by using lacquer as a painting medium. Painting with lacquer on paper was one of the techniques Zeshin developed into his own style." - Met Museum (Source)
OriginalAnimated
The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria - Jusepe de Ribera (called Lo Spagnoletto)
"Spanish by birth, Ribera lived all of his adult life in Rome and Naples, then part of the Spanish Empire. During his early years in Rome, he adopted Caravaggio’s practice of working directly from posed models, enabling him to give vibrant presence to figures inhabiting a sacred realm." - Art Institue - Chicago (Source)
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The Drinkers - Vincent van Gogh
"For this image, Van Gogh copied a wood engraving from Honoré Daumier’s Drinkers, a parody on the four ages of man. The exaggerated figure types capture Daumier’s characteristic humor and convey his sad message about the horrors of alcoholism. The greenish palette may well be an allusion to the notorious alcoholic drink absinthe." - Met Musuem (Source)
OriginalAnimated
The Drinkers - Vincent van Gogh
"For this image, Van Gogh copied a wood engraving from Honoré Daumier’s Drinkers, a parody on the four ages of man. The exaggerated figure types capture Daumier’s characteristic humor and convey his sad message about the horrors of alcoholism. The greenish palette may well be an allusion to the notorious alcoholic drink absinthe." - Art Institue - Chicago (Source)
OriginalAnimated