Snow Animation

It is magical to see ideas coming alive. My thesis film is in full production mode these days. There are snow scenes in it, and I looked for ways of animating snow from scratch with no use of any preset effects.   I'm sure there are many ways of doing it, and people end up with most creative ideas of animating snow. I carried the idea of animating snow for a few days until, in a shower, it came to me! 

Each line represents a path of a snowflake. I chose the amount of 35 frames for a complete cycle of a snowflake, so that the last flake drawn right next to the first in the cycle. In that way I can use the snow for 5 seconds or 10 minutes, for whatever length I need it in a shot.  Lines are color coded for my own orientation, I animated paths of one color at a time. Indulge my geeky post this time! The process took half a day, but I think it payed off eventually. Here is one of the shots with the result.

The Hermit Poet

Saigyo Hoshi (1118-1190) - a hermit and one of the most prominent poets of his day. Last night I painted this and thought of his tanka being as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. Below are three of his tankas.