Instagram as a collection of inspiring people
It is always good to know, who came before you.
Fashion, Actors, composition, photography, videography, behind the scenes
@myfashionbreak @iam_yissegnon @paternekougblenou @augustindehoumon @mr_brice_fdg_
actually blender but it looks amazing
Inspirational Documentary Creators
»Inspiration can come from anywhere – an image, a comment, something that’s happened to me or someone I know. It’s hard to know exactly.« – Nicholas Sparks
Nowadays we are lucky to sometimes know, where our inspiration comes from. We are looking at content on Instagram, TikTok and co. daily, and if we safe it, we know where it comes from. I have started a variety of lists on Instagram to get inspired. It is an easy, natural process, that will help me in the future. Of course, I can always check the messages, I send to people, mostly consisting of reels, but as long as there is no great way to locate specific videos on Instagram, my method is practical. I have structured my collection into the lists: Master Thesis, Cinematography, Animation, Stop Motion and Inspo [Inspiration in general]. All the fields, I could see myself doing my Master Thesis in at this snapshot in time. I wish I would have started this sooner, because everything before that system is a mess of reels that I saved. From cooking, to vacation, to interior design, over to fashion and plant care – even Marie Kondo couldn’t organise it now. Better late than never to start a working system.
What am I looking for?
For cinematography, I am looking mostly for editing styles, mood, music and cuts. I do get inspired by the way the videos are filmed, but in this area, I am more attuned in already. I have the visual eye, the hands, the vision but I am missing the experience in post production in film.
Animation and Stop Motion is a field, where I have a lot of theoretical knowledge, through constant consumption. My practical skills are in the beginning phases. So, I pretty much put every reel I like, no matter if it is the style, drawing, cuts, composition, idea, everything goes in there. These fields are exciting to me, because I am so new at it, that I enjoy every improvement, like a child learning to take a first step. It is all interesting, and I am proud of myself for just making something move, or being able to draw something on my iPad. Hopefully, I can stay in this stage for a long time, even as my skills progress {hopefully!}.
The Master Thesis List was the one, that started my collection. I suddenly saw many surf videos on Instagram, probably cause I have been saying the word „surfing“ a lot. It is not a full-on conspiracy „our phones listen to us“ {duh} seeing as I have surfed in the past, and went to a surf camp just last year. It is a list of either great female surfers, or surfing documentaries/videos or surfing in general.
The general Inspo List is as it is in the name already, for anything that I find inspiring. It does not have to be study related, it is just something, where I mentally go „ah, nice, never thought about it like that before.“. As I am a collector of random ideas and thoughts since I could walk, I believe that anything can be useful someday. So if you need a random object to fit into something you have broken, knock on my door, you might get lucky.
To answer my own question: I am looking inspiration. In any way or form.
Looking back up the lines of text of this post, I can see my mind wandering from one place to the next, without addressing my chosen title. Therefore, I will give you some names, that I have collected. Names of people, who I believe make great content. Do with that what you will.
Animation:
stories are great, relatable, simple drawings (achievable for me), fun, great body language with simple figures
style is amazing, mixture of drawing styles, great text and music, interaction with real life, creative, feeling of „everything is possible“
It’s an animation studio, so a variety of creators.
very „right“ drawing style, powerful, feminist, relatable, versatile, 3D and 2D
showing process, comic style, drawing, great character animation, full of love
*My taste has started at „drawings that look cute“ to animation that tells as story. I just reflected that because I had to look at my list. I also saw, that I put a surf video into the animation list – mistakes are normal.*
I am going to make an extra blog post, showing more inspirational creators. I realised that I have saved still illustrations too, so might be interesting to creators from all specialisations. I believe it is interesting, because I always love to discover new „role models“.
An Inspiration
I just finished watching Ted Lasso. It is an incredible show. The humour is great, the jokes are new, the characters are loveable and interesting, the story is great… I loved everything about it. Except that it has only 3 seasons. The writing is really inspiring, because it is so fresh and unexpected. Also it is filled with smart, touching and funny quotes. But not cheesy or embarrassing – that is a very difficult line to walk.
What is it about? In short: American college football coach Ted Lasso heads to London to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League soccer team [Ted Lasso, IMDb].
I am in awe of the writing and direction. So, who made it? It was created by Brendan Hut, Joe Kelly and Bill Lawrence. I was actually surprised that it was created by men. I was sure that it was a more diverse direction crew. Turns out that there were many female writers too. Like Executive Story Editor: Phoebe Walsh and Staff Writers: Sasha Garron and also, Keeley Hazell, who has her name counterpart in the series. Otherwise, I do not think that the series could have understood women and their feelings so well.
The character writing was incredible. Taking a strong female lead, making her the antagonist and turning her into the saviour of all in one season is amazing. The show might be called Ted Lasso, but it is all because of Rebecca Walton.
A must-watch for everyone who wants to know how to tell a story, how to have perfect character development and basically how to make a masterpiece.
Loui Psihoyos is an American photographer and documentary filmmaker, best known for his work on environmental and conservation issues.
Some facts about him:
Louie Psihoyos is a prominent figure in the world of environmental documentary filmmaking, using his skills as a photographer and filmmaker to raise awareness and inspire action on pressing conservation issues. A role model for sure.
Documentary Review
It is a documentary by director Louie Psihoyos, that follows a scientific experiment evolving around nutrition. It is based on an 8-week study conducted by Stanford University that put 22 sets of genetically identical twins on opposing (but healthy) diets: omnivore and vegan. It was released on January 1, 2024 on Netflix. Of the 22 sets of twins, the series focused on four pairs: Carolyn and Rosalyn, Pam and Wendy, John and Jevon as well as Michael and Charlie.
Why did the twins, the documentary focused on, participate and what were the outcomes for them?
Carolyn and Rosalyn participated in the study with the goal of „increasing Filipino representation in scientific studies“. After the study, both returned to an omnivorous diet but now include more plant-based meals. Pam (vegan) and Wendy (omnivore) are chefs who run a catering company. After the study, they returned to an omnivorous diet but reduced their intake of meat and cheese. John (vegan) and Jevon (omnivore) are nursing students who also like to work out. After the study, they both returned to an omnivorous diet but cut out most red meat from their diet. Michael (omnivore) and Charlie (vegan) own a cheese business and are known as „The Cheese Twins.“ Prior to the study, Michael was a pescetarian, and Charlie an omnivore. After the study, Michael became a vegetarian, and Charlie now follows a mostly vegetarian diet [You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, Wikipedia].
What did I think of the documentary?
I thought it was a great documentary. I have watched many documentaries, and also a lot produced by Netflix. This one was one of the best. The study was very well followed, and it was hardly manipulated for the viewer. They did not show all the outcomes, and probably showed the ones working towards their agenda. But I really liked the different journeys, the documentary took me one. From the mayor of New York, a Michelin Chef to a family, living next to large pig farms. They touched based with many topics, and I learned a lot. Even though my knowledge level in these areas was already rather high. Especially the part about the salmon farms was new to me. Also that there are different types of fats in the body, which are more or less dangerous, was news to me. The only critic I have is that it is very focused on showing minorities. It does seem to have an Agenda in that regard, but I thought it was not a problem.
Apart from the informational value, the documentary had nice aesthetics. Especially the food was nicely filmed. It reminded me of Chef’s table even.
The overall experience was great, and I would recommend watching it. It was also not too preachy, which I liked. It is definitely for everyone.
Also great:
Ich habe das erste Mal mit Character Animator von Adobe gearbeitet, und ich finde das Tool echt super. „Animation in real time“ – ziemlich einzigartig in der Creative Cloud! In diesem Beitrag wird das Tool vorgestellt.
Rigging: Einrichten der Charaktere
Einfach Riggen lernen. Vom Erstellen einer soliden Struktur bis zur effektiven Nutzung des Puppet-Panels kann man die Charaktere flüssig animieren.
Gesichtsanimation
Eine der Stärken von Character Animator liegt in der Fähigkeit, Gesichtsausdrücke in Echtzeit zu erfassen. Gesichtsanimationen funktionieren mit Face Tracking und Lip Sync über die eigene Kamera, und das macht es wirklich authentisch. Und macht auch Spaß!
Körperanimation
Man gibt den Charakteren ein Allround Auftreten vom Gehen, Gestikulieren und Verhaltensweisen bis hin zum Interagieren mit der Umgebung. So werden es dynamische Charaktere.
Das Handling ist auch relativ einfach, und es gibt zahlreiche Tutorials, weil der Anfang bei Programmen meistens schwierig ist.
Ich finde, dass der Character Animator animieren zugänglich macht, und man fühlt sich als hätte man ein kleines Studio mit Greenscreen zuhause. Oder als würde man auf einer verbesserten Wii spielen.
Ein funktionierender Workflow zwischen Illustrator und After Effects spart viel Zeit. Ich habe erst vor einigen Wochen das erste Mal mit Illustrator gearbeitet. Sobald man versteht wie Ankerpunkte funktionieren, und das alles aus Formen besteht, ist die Lernkurve steil.
Außerdem kann man, nachdem man eine Illustrator Datei in After Effects hinein geladen hat, in Illustrator noch Sachen anpassen, die automatisch in After Effects übernommen werden. Das funktioniert sogar besser als der Workflow zwischen Photoshop und Lightroom.
Learnings:
Nützliche Tutorials:
Für mein 3D-Projekt habe ich R2D2 in Blender gebaut. Ich habe sehr viel länger gebraucht, als es eigentlich notwendig wäre. Hier sind meine Fehler, Learnings und ein praktisches Gratistool:
Ich bin viel zu spät draufgekommen, dass man wenn man zweimal „G“ drückt einen Schnitt verschieben kann, ohne seine Position so zu verändern, dass man die Shape zerstört. Das hätte mein Projekt sehr viel einfacher gemacht. Ich hätte die Achsen auch besser einstellen sollen, sodass ich leichter damit arbeiten hätte können. Zusätzlich ist es schwierig, wenn man wie ich sehr perfektionistisch ist. Dann fehlt einem am Ende die Zeit für Shading, Materials und Composition. Ich habe mich sehr in Details verloren, die kaum jemandem aufgefallen wären. Außerdem muss man nur ein bis zwei Seiten bauen, wenn man ein Foto abgibt. I learned that the hard way. 😅
Was jedoch hilfreich war: ein Tutorial zwar offen haben, aber erst selbst Lösungen überlegen an statt jeden Schritt einfach nachzumachen. Ich habe erst nachgeschaut, wenn ich nicht weitergekommen bin. Das Wichtigste war es, sich zu überlegen, aus welchen Formen das Objekt besteht. Das habe ich bei jeder kleinen Ergänzung gemacht.
BONUS: Hilfreiches gratis Tool, dass ich für schnelle Materials verwendet habe:
// Einfach auf Download BlenderKit klicken. //
!! Aufpassen: gibt unterschiedliche Licenses für die Materialien !!
Sports documentaries aim to provide a factual and in-depth exploration of people, events or issues related to sports.
These aspects make up a good sports documentary.
Source:
Malitsky, Joshua. “Knowing Sports: The Logic of the Contemporary Sports Documentary.” Journal of Sport History, vol. 41, no. 2, 2014, pp. 205–14. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.41.2.205. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.
More scientific sources, for future use:
Ourand, John. „Underexposed No More: Inside the Rise of Sports Documentaries.“ Sports Business Journal, 27 Apr. 2020, https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2020/04/27/In-Depth/Sports-docs.aspx.
Spangler, Todd. „Data: A Deep Dive into Sports Documentary Viewership.“ Variety, 2023, https://variety.com/vip/data-a-deep-dive-into-sports-documentary-viewership-1235015077/.
Zahran, Omar. „Balancing Act: The Evolution of Sports Documentaries from Journalism to Propaganda.“ Medium, 2023, https://omarzahran.medium.com/balancing-act-the-evolution-of-sports-documentaries-from-journalism-to-propaganda-3ec646b611ad.
„The Power of the Sports Doc.“ Broadcast Magazine, https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcast-magazine/the-power-of-the-sports-doc/5164913.article.
