A storm by any other name...
Several years ago when I was first learning how to use the animation features in PowerPoint, I wanted to do an animated project about a story in which there was a duel between a ghost ship and a demon storm at sea.
The storm was a one in a hundred years type storm, and was the reason the ship had sunk in the first place. But, whenever the store came that way again, the ghost ship would rise up from the ocean floor and confront the storm. Over the many years the two became old enemies, and this time the storm was determine to destroy the ghost ship once and for all.
But the ghost ship had no fear of the storm, and challenged it to do its best to send it to the ocean floor, never to rise again. And as the storm raged on, lashing the ship with huge, crushing waves and bolts of lightning, the ghost ship defiantly held its course and sailed on past the storm and out of its reach, silently disappearing into the mist. They both knew they would meet again another day. As they had so many times before.
In order to bring the story to life, I needed a huge storm like is seldom seen at sea. I wanted a visual of the storm in the story, fearsome, menacing and threatening. I searched the web and other sources to to try to find such a storm, and could not find one that would meet my needs.
But, one day I saw a picture on the Internet and it waved a big flag at me, saying, "I'm the one you are looking for. Try me!" But, it really was not what I was looking for. However, I decided to give it a try. I looked for any copyright or names for the picture and found nothing. I wanted to be sure to have permission to use, it or at least give credit for the picture. I could find nothing.
I copied the picture to my file and stared at it for sometime, trying to figure out how I could use it. I was looking, but, I could not see anything that I could use that would suit the ghost ship idea. Yet, it would not be denied. I decided to give it some time to see if I could come up with an idea and went to bed. At 3:00a I woke from a sound sleep and jumped out of bed, ran to the computer and pulled up the picture. There before my eyes the picture I wanted began to come to life. Slowly it began to take shape and I knew what I needed to do. But, not how to do it. I began to play around with the picture and suddenly it all began to fall together. The picture was right. It was what I wanted.
Here is what the picture looked like when I found it on the Internet, and some of you may have also seen it;
And here is what I made it become...
In the animated end product, the ghost ship enters at the right, passes across in front of the storm, and exits the picture on the left where it enters into the mist.
I am sure you can tell that it was not an easy endeavor, and it took me several weeks to re-do the sea alone. There was a lot of cloning done to get the color variation and the cresting of the waves.
It was a project of love. But, it shows you what can be done with editing and manipulation.
This was not a public publication, it was just for me as a means to learn how to use the animation and other features of PowerPoint. I agree that it is rather amateurish, but, the beauty, to me, is in the transition from one to the other.
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