Brunel's Sketchbook

Commission by Brunel 200 to produce a short film for the 90 Second Challenge website.

Researching his workaholic life, I imagined Brunel huddled over a sketchbook in the early hours of morning, drawing by candlelight in a frenzy of activity. Lines on paper that, over time, would become the starting points for his greatest engineering works.

His sketchbooks, diaries and letters are now archived in the Brunel Collection at the University of Bristol. Full of energy and vitality, they tell us a great deal about the man and his ambition.

Scans were supplied as digital files, which were printed out so that a 90 second sequence could be storyboarded. The biggest challenge was to 'lift' the drawings off the sketchbook paper and find a way of animating them. Using Photoshop and the motion graphics package After Effects, I was able to experiment with different ways of achieving this effect. The final piece required an ambient soundtrack, which was overlayed afterwards, and an introduction screen, for which I used Brunel's original box of drawing implements. If you look closely the initials of IKB can be identified on the tools!

I'm interested in the creative interpretation of historical archives and bringing them to life in new ways, particularly online. This commission was an opportunity to discover more about Brunel, while bringing his sketchbooks to a new, and wider, audience. (more)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Brunel
• Sketchbook
• Bristol
• Engineering

[123retrogamer]

brunel is imagination

[KateJosTube]

Beautifully done...

[dan23951]

Remembering imagination

[wheaty64]

Fantastic! I love what you have created here.

[joeralt]

loved this very much