Friday, December 31, 2021

santa baby, virtual antibody puppets in p5

 My friend Sophie likes making music videos, lately in the context of the pandemic: Everything's ClosedTwo Darn Shots, and most recently with a Christmas theme, Antibodies (to the tune of "Santa Baby"):

Early on I was helping her punch up the lyrics and the script direction was 

Chorus of ten little antibodies singing “Jingle Bell Rock” on a neutral syllable so sweetly.  With a background that might be inside a human body?

I came up with a virtual puppet prototype - use the mouse to swing 'em back and forth, and either click or press space to have them open up their mouths.


I liked the idea of a synchronized choir like that! Her collaborator/puppeteer Alex had enough greenscreen mojo to create a similar effect for the final video, but using the same puppets (which admittedly was a better style match, though Sophie would have been ok with the switch of style for the "inside view")

Anyway, it's so gratifying to be able to throw something like that together in like 30-90 minutes! 

If Sophie had gone this route I would have looked for ways to make things a little less in lockstep, like a little bit of random delay before mouths opened/shut and some tweaks to the angles, so it looked a bit less mechanical. Also I might have replaced the background I stole from some google search with something more illustrated looking, maybe moving - maybe the effect I had with blurble...


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