Stop Motion

Was glad we were given a stop motion to do, finally get to do some sets and works with plasticine. The theme for this was Boy Meets Girl

Mr Bump was a childhood favourite of mine the characters always caught my attention with their strange features and creepy ambiance.

Mouse Soup was the best thing ever in my eyes. The sets looked amazing and detailed and almost true to life  with its own twist.

In my video I have tried to take each component from the 2 videos above and put them into mine but with my own take on it.

I did one set as night and the other as day, the alien was blue (for day) and the cat was black (for night). This is meant to symbolise that 2 opposites attrack, the alien is the day to her night and she (the cat) is the night to his day -referring to  their colours.

I wanted the 2 places to look like they were from 2 different worlds, one more of a fantasy and one more like earth.

Some pictures are missing which I'm not happy about. I was using my Galaxy tablet again to take the pictures with some bits are a little shaky where i had to hold it but the movements from the characters i am happy with, specially at the end, I think it plays very smoothly for movements.
I used clingfilm in the middle of the sets to try show some sort of window into each others worlds and it is love at first sight.
The music I found on Youtube but I specifically looked for cello music as i think there is nothing sadder than a cello playing and I thought it would go well with the theme

Pixilation

This was really fun to do, face painting on someone. Had a good day doing this. The pixilation had to be based on a recent news event. I had recently read in the paper about a badger cull and because I am an animal lover and it interested me I chose that

This video by Gotye gave me the idea to paint on someone. Getting a body to do it one was a struggle, people canceling or saying yes then finding out more details then changing their minds. Then one person came through for me and I am very grateful for their help and patience.

This took about a day to film, did take longer than I thought but things went well. Had my own little crew- a cameraman so I could focus on the pixilation.

I researched into the badger cull situation by looking at news articles, interviews with both sides and videos. I took quotes from the videos as they are also going to be in the video to help with the message.

The only bad things that lets it down is the lighting and some images are a little blury. But I think the message and writing are clear.

Smudge and Click

I had seen something like smudge and click before, sand art and I did try have a go, was very hard and messy. I was interested to see if this was any different in practice.

We were given another theme for this one as it was close to Halloween  so the smudge and click had to be scary based.

I looked at few videos online and this one did creep me out slightly, the marks left behind do add something to the video. Plus I can see clearly how it was done.

The Corsa car advert is more complicated but basically the same withe the trail of markings behind 

I decided on doing words because I thought it would be different from animating an image. The pixilation piece was words and I enjoyed doing that and it was fresh to be doing something different from drawn images and see what could be done with words.

I chose this particular quote from Hellraiser as I could picture in my mind what I could do with the words in order to animate them for smudge and click.

I used my Galaxy Tablet and changed the picture settings to get the darkness but to still see the letterings clearly. Sometimes I used the flash to change the colorings which helped with the scaryness of the seting.

It works well with Hellraisers voice and am pleased it turned out the way it did. I thought it would be less smooth and more juddery in the wording so I was very plesently surprised

Push Cycle

using the frame method that I didn't understand when I did the morphing piece. I am glad to say that I did this quicker and better. I also understand that the quicker you want something to move the less frames you have.

I am glad I am seeing an improvement with my work it means, to me that i haven't reach my limit of learning and that I can go further.

Smoother than what I thought it would be and the jump is straight. When I was looking back through the frames on paper the jump seemed to be from side to side as it moved up.

The higher the jump got i did run out of paper so things got cut off but I still think it works well.

Scratch on Film

I took a length of film and as it was meant to be experimental, I would just make random markings and try and test different material to see what works and what doesn't but we were told nothing to bulky than could stop it from feeding through the reel or that could cause it damage.

I had seen some videos with moths wings on, i just cant remember who by

This video interested me because the movement of the etchings match with how the music sounds which I thought was clever

This I liked the use of colours and it has given me a few ideas of what i could use to make my own

I used 3 complimentary colours so then when blended they could make another colour without making brown or back. I used my fingers to try get a thin layer of paint so that the light could still come through and show the colour. When it dried i used a craft knife to scratch into the paint and make my random markings.

It was quiet something to see the film shown this way. We all joined our film together and learnt how to set up the film reels. Along with the sound and the technique of the style it was an amazing thing to do and worth the time to do it.

Mines shows around 19 seconds in to about 52 seconds. In some parts the light does come through the paint but in others it is a little dark. But i am very happy with it and i did enjoy making it.

Cut Out

I have done something like cut out animation before and stencils so I will have an idea of how things should work, and again trying to keep it simple and clear.

I re-drew the figure in parts and elongated the joining limbs. Then I used blue-tack to reconnect them but still  get some movability.

These are the backgrounds and a mirror. They were a little fiddly in the more delicate areas but I think it works well as a whole when the mind isn't concentrating on the one spot.

Somethings that I noticed while editing were wrong. In the middle it blurs and I wasn't able to fix in Premiere Pro or After Effects, infact it seemed to make it worse to I thought it would be best to leave it. The other thing that I spotted was that the mirror and the "reflecting" image doesn't stand out well enough from the black background to know whats happening which did disapoint me as the viewer wont really be able to understand what is going on.

Jingo

Anticipation- to prepare for an action

We were told to draw something simple and basic so that the movement would be easier and less complicated. Mine turned out to be a stick cat.

Sketches of  Jingo (below) to get the body shape and movements 

Final drawings of the cat

I traced the head and feet so that they would stay consistent through the animation

These (below) were to help guide me to where the body parts would end up and so it could be used on a light box.

I am very pleased and proud of this. I took my time trying to use the frame method I was told in previous lectures. I do understand it better from actually doing the work rather than being told, it just doesn't seem to process unless I am actually doing it so this did help a lot.

I think the movement is quite smooth also, again I took my time and marking where and in what directions things should move helped the whole thing to flow. The only problem was that it did take up a lot of time to do this way, worth it but I do want to try find a more time effective way. The more I do these things the quicker and better I should be which is what I want.