A good day today, finalised the 12 Spotify canvases for Secret Electric Sorcery. I generally use the colour scheme and looks of the album art for these.
The Hitler in High Heels canvas uses pairs of high-heeled legs which spiral away in time to the heavy beat of this track. These were originally like a spiral stair, but I thought it might be fun to twist them at 90 degrees which gives them a subtle swastika look, a nod to the title. I also made alternative legs glowing, for prettiness, and because this reflects the black and 'glow' look in the album artwork.
Eyes of Pity uses lots of opening and closing eyes. I used black and white to match the colours of the artwork again, and this makes it look like an ancient surrealist film.
I used something similar for Out of Date, where lots of clock fall into the distance like time falling away. Be My Jesus is a fun one, a flight of crucifixes which chage the whole canvas colour between black and orange. I used a similar idea for Confidence in Kindness.
The Ones We Love breaks from the colour scheme a little. It is a slow drift through smoke with hints of faces.
The Ceefax canvas breaks from the colours completely, using stark digital blue and yellow, the colours of that old teletext service, but uses the isosceles triangle of the artwork.
The basics on this album are now complete, though I could always use a few more music videos - I haven't made one in so long and many albums need them, partly because they take so much work. Back in the old days I could write and record an album in a week, The Spiral Staircase took 10 days, a record which I considered far too long, but that album contains only about 10 instruments and the balancing was almost the same for the whole album. Now, an album takes more time, one or two months, but longer depending where you count the start and end (one could say I'm still completing this one, for example), but one music video can take a month or two or more. Film is a challenging medium for this reason. Like anything perhaps, it's easy to make quick rubbish, but good things take time and film really needs locations. These canvases are only possible in one day due to the wonders of my Argus software, and because they are only 8 seconds long.
Reverting to my older graphics card seems to be working, the GT710 seemed to lock Windows up - I blame the drivers. My ancient computer may need a replacement sooner or later, but I hope it can carry on for a few more years. People may be amazed that I can barely run my old (and very simple) games like Flatspace because my PC is so poor. I need a new synth, a new PC, time and money to remaster and release the 10 games that aren't available (principally Gunstorm and Gunstorm II), money for CD pressings of The Myth of Sisyphus, Nightfood, and many other albums. So many demands and so little time. We must do what we can with what we have.
Onward.
