Monday 3 July 2017

Butch Auntie | Hangwire | Jacksons Lane

After a couple of months of working on various things with Pete Wallace over at Butch Auntie, and a hectic final week of rehearsals that required numerous edits and renders, the 1st of July brought along the Hangwire performance, a showcase of incredible talent contained within the walls of Jacksons Lane theatre, Highgate.
   

I was lucky enough to be invited along to the performance at Jacksons Lane by Pete and snapped up the opportunity instantly. the acts, of which featured aerial acrobatics, theatrical monologues and one performance focusing on feminism, were all incredible, and it was also a fairly proud moment to see elements that I had created in a contemporary theatre in front of an audience.

Over the past few weeks I've created 3D elements that I never thought were possible and worked in areas of Maya that I didn't even know existed. From crafting stars and entire galaxies to trying to work out the engineering behind nerves, I've learnt skills in Maya that I honestly think will help me in my final year and have proved to myself, after spending a lot of times doubting my skills in Maya, that I can create anything if I work hard enough.




The first element I was tasked with creating was one that proved challenging, but incredibly educational, a galaxy to be projected over the performers whilst the act was underway. After looking into particles and other intricate areas of Maya I managed to create something that both Pete and myself were happy with.



After a number of changes to the various elements involved in the scene, this was the finalized effort that was successfully projected over the performance...

          

As well as another shot that wasn't in the show but highlights another angle of the galaxy...

          

Once the Galaxy element had been finalized and tested in rehearsals, I was asked to work on another element of the show that featured a shot of what was in essence passages of the brain, although eventually Pete found a different program that was more suited to creating this element in Maya, here are the test renders I snapped up whilst experimenting on  this element...

 
The past few weeks have not only been extremely enjoyable but also educational in terms of Maya practice, but also seeing how the field I want to move in within the future works in a professional manner, utilizing mediums to create an atmosphere for an audience, successfully!

As this branch of the internship was closing Pete offered the opportunity to continue and work on another project with him and another artist, which I also snapped up instantly! the next few weeks are going to be incredibly exciting!