2nd test, woody paints

Learned how to chroma key out the green, placed a random image in the background just to show that it has actually been done. I like the movement, but I think it's too shaky still, so I will aim for a smoother movement when I do it for real.

This is just to prove that it was shot on a green screen 

1st Test Animation using StopMotionPro

After doing some research into stop motion, I discovered one of the first and still most widely used softwares for this type of animation is Stop Motion Pro. This is the software used to make the amazing Wallace and Gromit animations.
So I figured while I could take the pictures and import them all into After Effects, acquiring Stop Motion Pro and being able to use tools such as onion skinning, and being able to see an instant playback of my animation would help me way more. So here is my first test using this programme, apologies for the quality, so far I have only been able to get it to export the movie straight to youtube.

Content ideas

In my meeting with Graham, he suggested I watch a documentary which aired on BBC4 last night called "Ego - the Strange and Wonderful World of Self Portraits". From watching this documentary, I have began to formulate an idea for what my mannequin can be painting.

I was thinking about this animation as a whole, and what it represented, and what I wanted it to represent, and I realised that, assuming it is of good quality, this would be the work against which most of my degree and my ability is judged. This will be the culmination of all of my years studying at university, and studying digital media. Therefore, it should represent what I have learned, and also demonstrate my skills appropriately.

I was thinking that this is fairly similar to what a CV does, and this will also be the animation which I would show to prospective employers, and a CV is essentially a snapshot of what makes you, you, and therefore, this animation would serve as my own self portrait.

Following this idea however, I have no idea whether I want the mannequin to paint me straight out, to paint himself and have it fade into me, or some other variation. But that is the plan for now;

Artist painting/drawing mannequin, mannequin comes to life, starts painting, nice visual effects with colours etc resulting in self portrait. 

Some inspiration - Patrick Boivin

I've seen the videos that this guy has done, and he's really inspired me to make decent quality stop motion. Here is one of his videos involving two transformer toys:




And here is the making of video, which has given me lots of ideas on how to do an animation of my own in a similar way:





Enjoy :)

New Ideas

So I need ideas that I can animate in a stop-motion film.

Two so far:

#1 - Lucky 13.

A man takes no heed of superstitions such as walking under ladders, black cats, walking over 3 drains etc. On Friday 13th, he carries on as normal, however every time he does something supposedly unlucky, a bad thing happens.

However, it turns out that all of the bad things have contributed to him being late and avoiding a massive accident which would have killed him.

#2 - Living Doll/The Artist

Artist's mannequin comes to life when no-one else is around. Tries to get off his stand. When he does, he begins to paint. What he paints can be CGed and visual effects using particles, reminiscent of the animation I did of the cello before.


At the moment I'm liking the 2nd idea more, mainly because I already have everything I would need for it. 

Next Animation...

Started on drafting ideas for my next animation... all I know so far is that I'm going to use stop motion and combine it with some form of CGI to keep the digital aspect.

Watch this space basically

It's finished!!!

After weeks of mostly hard work, my animation is finally finished, rendered, and burned onto two dvds. So I figured this would be the perfect time to update the blog...

I have managed to stay quite true to my original key narrative points, however I have had to scrap the trying to help people point, because of time restraints, and also because it flowed perfectly well without it in there.

So it now goes along the lines of a man leaving his house, seeing that everything is good in the world, he goes to work and has a normal day. As he is leaving work a link in the chain which holds on his visor breaks and falls off. The man then sees the world for how it really is, and runs away scared. When he gets to his house, he looks through the visor, and sees how he'd been living a lie. He tosses the visor to the ground, and walks off into the rain. He sits in a cave in the hills overlooking his town. The girl who he works with suddenly appears next to him, and sits down. End.

I have tried consistently throughout the animation to include references to Plato's allegory. For example, the chains which hold the visor onto the people's head represent the chains holding the prisoners in the cave. The cave itself also stands as a pretty obvious representation, however I have swapped it around with the prisoners leaving the cave to achieve enlightenment with the man going into the cave once he has seen the world for how it really is. Lastly, when the girl appears in the cave, you first see her shadow, which is reminiscent of the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave.

In terms of music, I bought 3 copyright free tracks from AKM Music (akmmusic.co.uk) which represented the three main emotions I wanted to portray; calm and happy, terror and shock, and melancholy. I edited these tracks together with some free sound effects which I thought would help add to the animation, such as machinery sounds in the factory, and sounds of rain and fire etc.

That'll do for now, I'll update more later on