Tartan motion graphics design kaleidoscope

Scaled video of George Heriot Tartan, part of my Tartan series of back drop motion graphics for a 3xHD video wall. I've set up my own render farm / cluster using Apples QMaster & Compressor, with some difficulties I may add! Hope to post about how I got render cluster up and running, there's quite a lot of issues & problems with setting up.

Atom Design - Tartan George Heriot

George Heriot tartan. Another piece from the digital video motion graphics i'm working on. I'm doing these as limited edition prints, available shortly through my Infinity Photography website.

Wikipedia:

(15 June 1563 - 12 February 1624) was a Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist. He is chiefly remembered today as founder of George Heriot's School, a large private school in Edinburgh; his name has also been given to Heriot-Watt University, as well as several streets (and one pub) in the same city.

Heriot was the court goldsmith to Anne of Denmark, the wife of King James VI of Scotland, as well as to the king himself; he became very wealthy from this position, and wealthier still as a result of lending this money back to the king and the rest of his court. He moved to London along with the court in 1603, at the time of the Union of Crowns, and remained in London until he died in 1624. He had married twice, but had no recognised children surviving at the time of his death, and he left the bulk of his estate to found a hospital to care for "faitherless bairns" (orphaned children) in his home city.

eyetees on HideYourArms t-shirt blog

Big thanks to Andy at HideYourArms t-shirt blog who recently blogged about my t-shirt design brand eyetees and my photography t-shirts designs. Hopefully Andy will write a few more posts on my other unique t-shirt designed tees. Guy tees & Girl tees available starting from £20 and ship worldwide.

Scottish Tartans video abstract art

Rough edit of my Tartans video wall project I'm working on. The original video wall is 3 HD screens linked together. I split the final rendered movie into 3 separate HD videos which are played together over the 3 screens using ~sedna presenter.

I can schedule the content and upload remotely on behalf of my clients.

Blogger has unfortunately reduced the size and ratio of my movie. I'll post a final version on my graphic design, motion graphics website in coming weeks.

Scottish Tartan Pattern video graphics

Thought I'd through up a 100% crop from part of my motion graphics video Tartan project. You can see I've added some noise to create texture in the flat colours - I think it creates more depth and interest, however, it's a killer in rendering times!

You can also see the detail and 45º cross weave effect found in tartan.

I'm intending to do limited edition abstract art prints of Tartan which you can buy from my photography website.

Scottish Tartans patterns motion graphics video wall

I'm working on a new series of Tartan background motion graphics for a video wall. I've based my designs on famous Scottish people/inventors and tartans associated with them or where they were born.

I can't decide whether it's good or bad timing but STV are running a program on TV around who is the Greatest Scot and a number of people on their list is the same as mine, I guess we've both looked at Wikipedia for inspiration & common knowledge.

I'll try and produce a full blog on how I've created the above motion graphics piece but here's some images of my rough edit.

This piece is inspired from the Sutherland tartan. I've produced it by creating the tartan pattern using warp & weft's (vertical & horizontal lines that cross when weaved).

I've created individual boxes for each thread count in Apple Motion which I can change for each thread colour/tartan pattern. I've a 'group' for warp and 'group' for weft, each of these then have a MASK to simulate the 45º cross weave you see in tartan. When two threads of the same colour (vert & horz patterns) weave together you get a solid square of colour.

Each warp & weft animate, the boxes scale on the 'Y' axis, effectively grow in height. Why go to all this trouble when I could just use an image? good point, however, building it this way I can animate individual threads and adapt their timings, plus I can then apply filters, behaviors, make particles and replicate items to completely change the output. I can create depth in 3D environment and move a camera around or travel through layers/weaves.

My tartan pattern 'group' has spin behavior, kaleidotile filter and kaleidoscope filter applied to rotate, tile and mirror the tartan pattern which is animating individually. By changing variables/filter values (which can also be adapted over the timeline) I can produce quite different results!

I'm working with The Scottish Tartans Authority who are providing tartan patterns associated with my list of famous Scottish people and Scottish inventors. This information will be detailed on the video wall so onlookers know which tartan is being displayed and who it's associated with.

Each piece will run for 1 minute, building from nothing to full design back to nothing before the next piece plays. Individual frames make great abstract art and I'll be producing fine art prints, I'll be adding these in time to my photography website.

I hope to add a fuller blog on building this in Apples Motion, likewise provide videos to view, check out my other motion graphic videos on my graphic design website. Thanks Dave.