While observing my cat's (Joska)poo-taking habits I suddenly became aware of the similarities between his cat toilet and a helmet of an astronaut. This recognition was unexpected, powerful and crucial. I was completely sure; this space-cat, cleaning his mess, is my alter-ego.

main project

The floating, coffin-like, crap cleaning, astronaut cat symbolizes my renewing soul in the purgatory

As inspiration of my character I used Dave's sketches of the hibernation cabins from the movie Space Odyssey. I like the stiffness of the cabins and they remind me coffins so it suits well with the idea of purgatory.

first version of the astronaut

After our Monday class with Lars I tried my character with different settings. I really liked the one when I took a shot of it in the washing machine. Though I reached the most powerful effect when I put the paper cut graphic in front of a space video and put on some chill out background music.

I decided to make an animation.

The new goal is to create a hypnotic, meditative music video.

To create my own star field background video, I used these tutorials as a guide.

The more time I spend on working on the video the further I am getting away from Josef the cat. A new concept begins to unfold in my head. I would build my video around the phrase 'spaced out'. A moment you have when you just stop what your doing, freeze, and not pay attention to any of your surroundings at all. Since I happen to be in this state very often I think this concept is more relevant than the purgatory cat.

The astronaut will be my spaced out alter ego.

My new concept;
The animation begins with music and darkness and my girlfriend's voice can be heard from distance. "István are you here? Im talking to you! Are You listening to me?" Later on the astronaut in the space will be seen for long minutes then a second of darkness again and I ask back; "What?"

According to a research made with students at The Ohio State Collage, people thinking the most about sex, food, and sleeping during a day.

I was looking for food, sleeping or sex related videos online to play in the helmet of the astronaut instead of Joska, when I found a psychedelic soft porn masterpiece from two young actresses; Vikki Lynn & Brooke Marie.

In their movie called 'Twins Tantalize You (Vore)' they imitate oral sex and talking dirty on a mesmerizing tone of voice.

I made a fast test video with everything together, astronaut, girls and music. I found the result promising. I will go further with the look of the astronaut. I would like to make it more graphic and also want to animate his oxygen tube as it is unplugged and floating in the air.

I also want to find a better background music.

After long searching I decided on the track called "System" from the Swedish ambient duo "Carbon Based Lifeforms" Their music inspired from dreams their main contents are nature and technology

I also edited the sound of the girls talk. In order to make it more spatial and dream like I put reverb, chorus and flange effects on it.

I made the first high quality render from what I already had.

I wanted to build the thoughts on nutrition in my video too. So I started thinking on movies I have seen with the most memorable eating scene as an inspiration source. This is how I ended up on Zoltan Huszarik's Sinbad from 1971. A poetic dreamy movie about an old dying man looking for the meaning of life in sensual, culinary pleasures and in his memories with old lovers.

There is a famous scene in the movie, where Sinbad, the protagonist has his lunch in an elegant rural restaurant. He eats his lunch with unshakable passion and deep technical expertise.

The cameraman uses close ups on small details, like the fat bubbles in the soup, the foam in the beer, the shiny surface of the bone marrow. I would like to make small close ups to use in my video too.

I decided to make my small sequences of a heavy, oily food since my video also has a dirty sexual aspect. I took a few records of sausages while frying them in oil. In the first video the sausages are rare, in the last one they are already served on a plate. These sequences will appear in the video while the girls talk about things that can also be connected to food. For instance "eating you", "digesting you", "slipping, sliding down our throat" etc.

I made the final high quality render with the sausages and a recorded voices. I edited the picture a bit and replaced the videos in the helmet to the very center of the composition.

I have finished the second edition of the astronaut. I did not make much changes since the first version, only colored it and made it a bit more detailed.
In terms of composition I kept the medium shot which I used in the first version too. This setting is commonly used in interviews, makes the film more personal and directs the viewer on the subject. I decided on it because the video will begin with a question which I am supposed to answer.