Sunlight Patterns

Last Saturday, as I was walking to and from the office, I noticed a particular bit of light near the end of the day. It was one of those moments where it just stopped me in my tracks, took me out of whatever I was doing… and I paused a bit to just watch and observe.

There is a narrow walk-in closet next to the office, and a small window with blinds facing the main courtyard. We have a very large tree out there, and the particular angle of the sun hitting the leaves ended up making this pattern on the wall. To me, it looked like a slow burning fire, tilted onto its side.

When I used to do a lot more animation work with Flash, I would oftentimes get distracted by motion and light, by objects and their movement. I used to always wonder how I might recreate a particular effect or moment, via the computer. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I was reminded a bit of an old project called Abstractor, created by Ji Lee. I also thought of the morning, many years ago, when I encountered a small, blue balloon on the way to work – another moment that took me out of my routine, where I just stepped back and watched.

Related:
Abstractor
This Made Me Unbearably Happy
Inspiration on the Train
Spotlight