2D animation

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The National Gallery is collaborating with Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design on 'Transcriptions: Animation’, an innovative new project which involves postgraduate animation students producing short films inspired by the Gallery’s collection. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Gallery.

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From the film-maker:

I was drawn to the painting instantly because I felt there was quite a lot of scope for an interesting story. The two young boys in the painting gave me the chance to create and animate two young and funny characters who would hopefully appeal to children and adults alike.
The idea that bubbles are a symbol for the transience of human life made me think about life as a journey and also the journey that bubbles make before they pop and are gone. I decided to create a journey for the two boys in my film which exists in their imagination, and which ends when their ‘bubbles burst’ and they are brought back to reality. One of the boys is confronted with his own death but I decided to make this impending doom part of his imagination rather than a serious issue. This was because I wanted to keep the film light hearted whilst keeping true to the symbolism of the painting.

Jonathan McNeil Clarke

A piece inspired by Caspar Netscher: Two Boys blowing Bubbles, about 1670