Photo Animation - Part 2

Paternal Great Grandparents Come Alive

My great grandmother, Scholastica Ostrokolowicz, died in January, 1921, twenty-seven years before my birth. Her earliest picture in my possession is from approximately 1888, about one year after her arrival in America from Poland. A colorized version of this picture is shown next. Scholastica sits with her bearded husband, my great grandfather, Jan Ostrokolowicz. Standing to the left is her young son, Xavier. Her approximately 15 year-old daughter, Ursula, stands behind. I believe my grandmother, Barbara, sits on Scholastica's lap.

I was able to animate Scholastica's 31 year-old face from the old, faded picture.

Unfortunately, I could not animate great grandfather Jan's face from the same picture. The animation tool would not recognize his beard and faded facial features. 

About 6 years years after the first picture above was taken, in approximately 1894, another family picture was taken which I was also able to colorize. Now Scholastica is about 37 years old, her daughter, my grandmother, Barbara, on the right, is about 7 years old, and Barbara's younger sister, Johanna, is on the left. Enhancement of the colorization put some erroneous purple and red tints on dresses, but made faces sharper.

Next are two animations of Scholastica's 37-year-old face. The first colorized animation had trouble keeping Scholastica's hat attached to her face. For some reason processing a black and white photo version resulted in more natural movement in the second animation.

Years pass before Scholastica's last picture was taken. Colorization gave life to an old black and white photo. I can only guess at the year. Her daughter, Johanna stands beside her as a young woman. Perhaps the date is between 1914 and 1921. If so, Scholastica is between 57 and 64 years old.

Animation of the black and white photo worked better than the color animation. I was able to chose a version which included a small smile to soften Scholastica's otherwise stern expression.

Enhancement worked miracles on this portrait of elderly, dignified Scholastica which hangs in our bedroom.

Only two old photos of my great grandfather, Jan Ostrokolowicz, produced reasonable animations. The most interesting picture, from about 1892, shows Jan in his Polish cavalry uniform standing with his son, Xavier, on the right. Jan is about 45 years old and sporting a huge beard. The original photo was damaged, making it impossible to repair Jan's missing foot and rifle bottom. 

The animation tool frequently has trouble keeping hats and beards attached to faces. In this case Jan's helmet followed his head, but the beard movement is a bit odd.

The next picture is from about 1898. Jan is approximately 51 years old and has lost his beard. I colorized the original black and white picture, but didn't enhance it. This prevented erroneous purple patches on dark clothing. My grandmother, Barbara, now about 12 years old, stands on the left.

Below are two animated versions of Jan's face with slightly different movement in each. I chose these because they exhibited the least hat distortion. They both show brief hints of smile which really bring Jan to life. 

 

Jan Ostrokolowicz is like a ghost. I've searched and searched for any documented record of him and failed to find any beyond his name on a passenger list from the ship that brought him to America from Poland. I know almost nothing about him.

I continue to be fascinated by these animations!