TRAVIS ANDERSON
Travis Anderson remembers spending eight consecutive hours in front of his computer monitor to work on an animation project.
"My parents weren't very happy," the 17-year-old Gleneagle secondary student said, shaking his head. "They were like, 'Get off. Time to get outside.'"
He also admits it was too long but a lot was accomplished during that recent period. The self-taught digital artist had been painstakingly crafting Time Lapse, a three-minute, 14-second piece for the Port Moody Youth Arts Festival; it will be screened on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The narrative centres in on a gentleman in a time machine with a hitchhiking lizard who has trouble with his flux capacities. The idea came from Steampunk, a 30-year-old genre that includes science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror and speculative fiction.
The Grade 12 student not only hand-drew each of the 5,000 frames, he also did the titles and sound effects; for music, he partnered with his friend Samson Li.
Anderson got into the medium seriously while taking a class in animation at Gleneagle after his teacher introduced him to Flash software. He cites realism-fantasy as his forte.
"These days, a camera can do the work better than you can so I take things that can't get seen and incorporate the weird elements," he said, noting he's influenced by the imaginary world of James Gurney, an oil painter who puts dinosaurs in modern landscapes, for example.
The Coquitlam resident is pleased to be part of the Port Moody Youth Arts Festival "because it's a chance to get your stuff out there, which is very important in your graduating year. I'm hoping to get into the film industry, either in art directing or animation. Just as long as I get to hold a pencil, I'm happy."
