Digital Ciurlionis
This project aims to digitally appropriate M. K. Ciurlionis's, 1906-1907 created, "The Zodiac" painting cycle into the form of a short video, which would potentially capture the contemporary viewer's attention and in the light of modern media, would help to 'blow the dust off' the stereotypical Ciurlionis, making his creative legacy, once again, relevant and inviting for a discussion.
Challenge
The project developed as an extension of my work - placement at the National Lithuanian Museum of Art and morphed in to my Honours project at the Edinburgh Napier University. The challenge was to reconstruct the impressionist worlds from the artists' paintings in modern media applications such as After Effects and Cinema 4D. By adapting some of the principles discovered in the research stage, the first five paintings from the Zodiac cycle were digitally recreated.
Approach
In order for the digital appropriation to accurately represent symbolism genre and stay in style of M. K. Ciurlionis's "The Zodiac" painting cycle, the pre-production stage was informed by the literature review. During this phase, transitions between the paintings were thought through and animatic was developed to help plan the shots.
Images and textures were extracted from the photographs of the original paintings, 3D assets were made in Cinema 4D along with fluid simulations completed in RealFlow. Working non-destructively through CINEWARE plug-in meant that the whole video could be nested in one After Effects project, allowing components to be changed at anytime without the need to re-render it.
In order to receive feedback from a knowledgeable source, the National Lithuanian M. K. Ciurlionis Museum of Art has been involved. The video was well - received by the experts and was shown during the 'Museum Nights' event in Kaunas city.
Special thanks to:
Vilmante Juozaityte, Rita Suchockiene, John Morrison
Produced for the National Lithuanian Museum of Art