Burn to the Ocean 2.0 was the second phase of Burn to the Ocean, a massive concept-in-action life project I initiated in the spring of 2005. Phase 2 paved the way for the project to become a musical entity by forging an online presence that would serve as the launch pad for later iterations. I know it’s disappointingly typical, but I got busy with “life” and ended up shelving the project until the summer of 2008.
The Direction
I started with a simple sketch of a girl sitting in the back-left passenger seat of a vehicle. My goal was to illustrate the character and animate the scene around her so that all the action was happening on or outside the window. The girl takes a breath and fogs up the glass with page content as the occasional telephone pole shadow zips by. Pretty simple.
I learned a lot about Flash animation during this project, and developed a strong understanding of creating and assembling external MovieClips, which has served me well over the years. I also realized that I’m a huge fan of simple illustration. A few choice subtle details can say just as much as pixel-perfect composition.
Phase 3
I’ve spent a lot of time writing and recording over the last year, so you can now check out a few clips at Myspace.com/BurntotheOcean.
