Over the weekend I visited the Upper Jay Arts Center in the North Country region of New York. About 35 minutes from Lake Placid, this arts center gives their community a variety of events like live music, experimental film showings, theatre productions put on by volunteers, and much more.
The North Country region, particularly this area, has a rich history in the fur trade. French explorer trapper Samuel de Champlain first came to the Adirondacks in 1609 and arrived at the lake that separates part of NY and Vermont. Thus Lake Champlain and the area in NY to the west of that, the Champlain Valley, got its name. Upper Jay is in the Champlain Valley, where the AuSable River flows east to Lake Champlain. The AuSable River got its name from Samuel de Champlain, when he saw the extensive sandy delta.
Bringing us back to the experimental film I saw at the Upper Jay Arts Center. The title was “GWEN ET LE LIVRE DE SABLE” (GWEN AND THE BOOK OF SAND). You can really tell how fitting it was for the location based on the name! The actual film was based in its own world, desert scenes, a journey and a bookending (as we discussed in the previous post, see below).
The film’s animation is unique, with changing color tones and even drawing styles. The sound effects and the drawings were actually making me quite anxious throughout the film, heavily detailed wrinkles and the steps and breathing sounds of the characters.
Text in motion
Below is a video about modern graphic design trends, but for this purpose we’re looking at the video itself. The design feel of the video is clean and informative.
The first clip to look at starts at 1:06, when the text begins to be typed out based on what the voice over is saying. Emboldening the keywords in that sentence to then pull them out into the brain graphic to emphasize the point and to transition the audience to another point. Rotating the key concepts around the brain and keeping the audience engaged. This type of text motion is repeated throughout the video, albeit in different ways.
The next clip starts at 8:16, again typing out what the voice over is saying and the quote mark graphics in the background pull attention to what’s being said. This would be a useful template for important quotes for a documentary or references in a visual learning guide.
This second video shows an “analog craft guide,” which means (if you’re not already in the know) that no tech is used and won’t be for any of the activities. The creator goes into different crafts they’ve done and how folks at home can too.
The collage style video with screenshots, photos and text over the recording of the creator talking really appeals to me. It’s how I would make an informational video if I was trying to convey meaning to similarly aged people as myself, and how to grab the attention of people that have the same mindset.
While the video is choppy because of the cut and paste style of the overall editing, but the content itself is good. The meaning is conveyed well and they get the point across without flashy transitions or animations.
Ambience in motion
The videos of this section are of ambience and comforting animations. Typically these videos are played on a secondary screen while you work, or are put on while you do things away from the computer. They grab your attention enough to make your brain happy with dopamine, and add that extra layer of benefits with soothing sounds.
The knight ambience animation is one of my favorites. The pixelated, game-like feel to the video brings it to a nostalgic place, and yet cozy with the fire and the repetitive rain animations.
In my search, I cam across an ambient video animated by the Adult Swim team.
Each of the videos are funky and experimental, and the transitions between them are just like that, too. It’s unique and probably unlike anything you’ve seen before.
If that Adult Swim and knight video were not your thing, we’re bringing in an extra cozy vibe. The soft and warm lighting of this piece with the cool undertones outside the window indicate that it’s cold outside and nice and toasty inside by this fire.
Each animated piece is simple and not over the top, allowing for repetitive animations that loop and maintain consistency.
BONUS: This next video is anti-AI and made by the creators themselves to be a peaceful rest from the chaos of YouTube. It’s crazy how the music is recorded, but you can’t hear what’s going on besides the lo-fi beat.
Figure 1: Explorer
My project is based on the previous post with the different story boards. Read it here if you haven’t caught up yet:
I chose the more creative route with the figure walking and the bookending. The stop motion process is very complex. I took over 1,040 photos to capture these scenes, used 10 different sound effects to create the sounds I wanted, three different Adobe programs, 20 hours of work, 4 days of photography, one ambient sound, and one music track. I am the most proud I’ve ever been with this project, and hope to share it with a lot of people.
The lighting for the shots are so different due to the bulbs I have in the lamp I was using for set lighting. They quickly flicker, making it very easy for cameras to pick it up and not the human eye.
Each sound effect was chosen after I pieced the photographs together, making sure that the sound was perfectly in place for each movement or scene (diegetic sound). The consistency between Figure 1 being above the cave and below the cave is heard through the footsteps and the different background sound like the water droplets and the dragon’s rumblings.
The music was intended to be uplifting and adventurous, with a crescendo when Figure 1 flees the cave after being scared by the dragon. Non-diegetic sound, meaning the score/music of the video, isn’t something that the characters hear. It’s meant for the audience to invoke an emotional response. Similarly, the cave ambience was meant to spook you!
What’s different from the original storyboard are Figure 1‘s movements. The little figure was harder to move in the specific ways than I anticipated. Still, I think I got their emotions down using body language.
NOTE: I recommend using headphones and not your computer’s speakers because it’s hard to pick up on the lower toned sounds.
And without further ado, my final stop motion animation production:
Sound effect attributions
https://www.soundjay.com/footsteps_c2026/sounds/wooden-stairs-2.mp3
https://www.soundjay.com/misc_c2026/sounds/book-cover-close-01.mp3
https://soundinstants.com/sound/huh-cat-meme
https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-walk-264962/
https://www.soundjay.com/nature_c2026/sounds/wind-howl-01.mp3
https://freesound.org/people/mokasza/sounds/810192/
https://www.soundjay.com/misc_c2026/sounds/squeeze-toy-5.mp3
https://soundbible.com/768-Monster-Growl.html
https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-whistle-slide-down-02-350715/
https://soundbible.com/2186-Water-Drops.html
Music attributions
https://soundbible.com/6-Ambient-Cave.html
Music: https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videos
Artist: Roman Senyk
Song name: Dawn of Change
License code: G47E7SKK37MOSMZI
Honorable mentions
This clip didn’t make it into the video because I wanted to make this using no money or new goods. Just things that were free or things I already had. This mixer is great for creating your own audio based on public audio sources and publicly submitted/created sounds.
Check out my dragon sleeping in a cave sound: https://fantasy.ambient-mixer.com/dragon-sleeping-in-cave/download
Isabella Susino 
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