HTML5 animation

this category started with the whimsical notion that bloom's travels could be illustrated in 8-bit DonkeyKong style, which led to the realisation that HTML5 offers a built-in toolkit for simple sprite animations, moving characters around an x-y grid.

Bloom's (and to some extent Stephen's) paths are well-known, so simple mock-ups were easy to generate, but their detailed interactions are much subtler and it quickly becomes clear that treating them respectfully will require more detailed 'cut scenes' with much more 'theatrical' staging.

html5 has enough complexities to explore and master that it's hard to foresee what will eventually be possible.

for now, i'm thinking every human interaction that joyce describes in any detail deserves a custom 'stage' with the goal of capturing some sense of joyce's artistic intent.

the first priority is to list the sequence of events, breaking down paths into straight line segments and making sure 'instantaneous' effects are actually allowed a momentary gap so the direction of causality is clear.

joyce hides lots of little clues that help trace paths in detail.

pauses should usually include some kind of jiggling to show the character is alive. speaking probably deserves at least chin-jiggling.

characters' x-y paths can be broken down into 100 segments each, with a duration setting for the whole.

their depictions can be freely changed along the way using a delicate (and unintuitive?) technology called 'sprite sheets'. editor


or wandering rocks like:

PARADISE - A contemporary interpretation of The Garden of Earthly Delights from STUDIO SMACK on Vimeo.