Prequel (Digital Abstract Art)

Prequel (Digital Abstract Art)

Design Details

  • Created by Katherine Barnett
  • Tools to create art and speed video: Adobe After Effects | Picture of ATT Station (Philadelphia, PA.) | Sony Vegas | Paintshop Pro | Debut Video Capture | :\ Windows Movie Maker |
  • Time to Create: 4+ Hours ?
  • Song in video: About U by Jahzzar

I wanted to make another design before my trip to Hartford. As I mentioned on Subway, I took a picture inside of subway car. After the got off the train, I took another picture in the middle of the street at AT&T Station. Why the middle of the street? Well… I thought it would be an awesome picture. Plus, I remember having a conversation with someone the night before. I don’t remember all the details now but I remember one part. I think we were talking about successful people. At some point, you have to go for it and not care about the hate. “Have zero fucks”… I stared at this person in silence. I was thinking that I have to be bold in my work. So, I took a detour and captured two shots. Before I decided to stand in the middle of the street, I thought about what this person said. I was nervous because there were people walking around in the area. I said those words out loud and walked in the street to take the photo. It was great timing because after a minute there were no cars and on the next block, the light was still red. The moment felt incredible.

For the design itself, I listen to About You by Jahzzar before starting the design. I wanted the song to inspire me on which path I take in using color. I thought lighter colors, specifically like purple and pink would be perfect. It’s interesting because I ran into a sweet spot using darker colors. I didn’t want to abandon the darker version of this design so I save that version and continued working on finding the perfect blend to fit the song.

I called this prequel because this is the type of speed art video I want to make for my Hartford Album. I am really happy with this video. When I started editing in Sony Vegas, I had an idea. I mentioned it briefly in Subway but I wanted the design itself to be animated throughout the song. Have the design dance with the music. I started messing around with the design until a few hours went by. Then…. I thought it would take too long to accomplish this task. C’est possible. However, I will probably have around 15 to 30 designs for this upcoming album. I don’t want to take longer than a day to create the design and music video. So, I thought I can still keep the animation in but not throughout the song. You can see the animation at 0:37.

I ran into another problem, something felt missing in the video. I had this feeling while watching Subway. I wanted to do something more with the video. I had an idea to take the crop video of design and stretch it to full screen. I was worried that the video would be blurry but it doesn’t look too bad. It’s not as clear as the design itself but the video still looks good. I will have to buy a bigger monitor in the future. Regarding the time it took me to make this design and the video, I don’t know. I make videos different now. Usually, I go by recording time on Debut but I cut a lot of stuff out now. I had some problems making the intro in adobe after effects. I know it took me several hours last night.

There are only 2 days left before I start my travels to Hartford. I just found out that there’s going to be a snowstorm. It’s definitely something I wasn’t hoping for during my trip. I’m still going to have a great time. I may have to rearrange my itinerary. I traveled in snowstorms in the past. When I did the Philadelphia album, it was snowing heavily when I traveled to Citizens Bank Park. On the bright side, I know it won’t be snowing for my next album. 🙂 It will be interesting to take a picture of Mark Twain House in the middle of a snowstorm. I’ve seen pictures of that place and I think that would be a good picture.

This is going to be last art design before my trip to Hartford. I will be blogging and recording my podcast during my trip.

January 2019 Update: The feature image shows the full art design for Prequel. Thanks for visiting B83!

Katherine