Psalm 18:3
those manuscripts won't copy themselves
Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge. (Psalm 18:3 DR)
I’ve long been fascinated by the scriptorium, often attached to churches or monasteries where monks would laboriously prepare, copy and illuminate manuscripts, often the scriptures or the Church Fathers, but also secular works. It was a long process, involving physically preparing the parchment for writing, the actual writing, and finally the illuminating which was sometimes used to decorate and/or accompany or explain the text.
And while this was no means a ubiquitous facility or room at every monastery, it served an important role in preserving works that would otherwise be lost, and the dedication of those involved is a testament to how important the work was considered, despite its many challenges. Monks of San Domingo de Silos describe it as such:
The work of writing makes one lose his sight, it hunches his back, it breaks ribs and bothers the stomach, it pains the kidneys and causes aches throughout the body. Therefore, you the reader, turn the pages carefully and keep your fingers from the letters, because just as hail destroys the fields, the useless reader erases the text and destroys the book. (Brothers Munnio and Dominico, Beatus Commentary on the Apocalypse, 1091 AD, quoted here.)
For we humans, the limitations of our bodies circumscribe our communication, whether it be speaking, praying, or giving glory to God. However, the heavens are not bound within our limitations, the Psalmist here carries over from the previous verse. Not only do they show forth God’s glory, but they do it all the time. The very fact of their existence is a testimony of God’s wonder and of his being as know through the effects of his creative act:
For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. (Romans 1:20 DR)
In some way we are to imitate the heavens which by their nature give glory to God. Our lives are to become a perpetual communion with our Creator, and the moments in this life that participate in that are a foretaste of that which is to come.
This was a pretty straightforward animation. I found some great imagery of this monk in a scriptorium and cut him out in Photoshop. I also had to separate some layers to be able to have the handwriting motion, which meant a lot of clone stamping on the book underneath to fill in the missing pixels.
Once in After Effects I once again used the Puppet tool to rig up the monk and attached the pins to Nulls so that I could more easily control them. Then I added a wiggle hold expression to the hand so as to be lazy work more intelligently and let the math animate it for me.
Finally I duplicated the monk and flipped him, then drew some simple shapes for the sun and moon and animated them in a day-night cycle using some Mattes to reveal them inside the boxes.
Enjoy.
Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge.
(Psalm 18:3 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: