Essential Geometries

"Essential Geometries" is a stop-motion animated video consisting of over 200 hand-drawn frames. The basic concept of the video is to "visualize sounds", that is to translate music into images. The project is inspired by the abstract and experimental works of animator and director Norman McLaren, which were characterized by a perfect synchrony between images and sounds. This was obtained drawing directly on the analog film frames and sound tracks. For the realization of the video, an original soundtrack consisting entirely of drums was composed, with special attention to rhythm, variety and atmosphere. Following the recordings, the author repeatedly listened to the song, in order to summarize its elements and sequences in "essential geometric shapes", hence the name of the project. The animation aesthetics were inspired by the waveforms of the soundtrack, which were drawn as faithfully as possible on the polygons' sides featured in the video. The frames were drawn with Indian ink on tracing paper, then scanned and edited together on Adobe Premiere Pro, where other effects such as an orange tint and digital noise have been applied.