Happy Easter... better late than never.

COMMENCE YEAR 2!

Finally I am up to date with my blog. Please enjoy these complimentary axolotls until my next update. :D

Live Project- Pt5

Finally with all the Cut out, CGI, and drawn animation done as well as the Live action shots finished it was time to see if this would all actually work. I hadn't been able to do the sections in the order I needed to, to make sure everything would fit due to availability of both people and resources, so everything was based on estimations and rough calculations. ...I had also never used Adobe After Effects before- my final 'new thing' to try out.

I think overall it came out quite well- a bit of a patch work job, but considering it was a learning process, not bad. Of course if I had the chance to do it again, I would be able to do it much better, knowing the techniques a little better and knowing where I went wrong. But- Its like that with every thing.


People who worked on this project:
Producer: Andrew Start
Cinematography: Caroline Bridges
Composer: Jon Wygens
CGI backgrounds animation: Peter Renton
DPP: Andrew Quinn

More information about this competition can be found here: http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/andor-book-awards/

Live Project- Pt4

Finally, sometime after Christmas- I was able to get a Green Screen stage booked. Caroline Bridges (My cinematographer) set everything up perfectly, and myself, Caroline and my producer for this project- Andy Start- got throwing some focal press books about.



Of course- they were actually prop books with covers made for them to make them look like an assortment of focal press books.

Live Project- Pt3

The CGI library was built by Peter Renton, a friend who's excellent at CGI, and didn't mind being paid in scotch eggs since we had no budget for the film. He built it using Avid-
Softimage XSI.


Using Photoshop, I created the balloon for the dog. To give it a traditional, jumpy feel, instead of manipulating each frame into the next, I re-drew the balloon each time

Live Project- Pt2

And/ Or Kraszna Krausz
I had planned for the Backgrounds to be CGI (Good for camera movement) The Balloon to be 2D Digitally drawn, Flying books and fore-ground pieces of the library to be live action (On a Green screen) and the Dog to be cut out animation, with any extra animation and composting done in After Effects.

Cut out Doggie.
Ok, so not so much of a 'new' technique to me. Unfortunately with my booking of the green screen stage constantly being pushed back and canceled, I realised that although It would have been best to start with the live action (then CGI, then Cut out dog, then 2d Drawn...) I couldn't wait to start after, so I had to start with the dog.

Squirrelled away in a storage container to escape the light, My cinematographer- Caroline Bridges set up a rostra with a glass plane to animate on over a green screen, the lighting, and
managed to get us a beautiful camera that worked with the stop motion software (Dragon)
My doggie puppet was made from photos of Hungarian Vizlas (Kraszna Krausz was Hungarian and we were asked to include some sort of a link to Hungry- Vizlas are their national dog... apparently)

By the way- It was FU**ING FREEZING in that metal container. It decided to heavily snow on the days I needed to animate. (O_O)

Live Project.

Our last project for the end of last year was a 'live pitch' project. We were given the chance to pitch and produce what would be the opening title film for the And/ Or Kraszna-Krausz book awards. Awards for Focal Press' best photography and film book of the year. I used this as a chance to try everything and anything I hadn't tried before. As it was for the opening of an award ceremony, I wanted to tap into the excitement you feel when on your way to such an event. What could be happier than a dog in a hot air balloon on his way to a party?
(Below: Frames from Anamatic)

Project 3

The sound track I received for project 3 was mostly foley sounds. Wanting to do something with stop motion outside, the story about a farmer chasing a rabbit emerged. But with a bit of an unusual twist- the bunny was massive, and liked to eat people.

Bunny Building.

Project 3- we were given one minute of sound created by the sound designers and we had to create an animation to it. We were asked to try something we hadn't before, and also to be fairly experimental with it. I decided I would try stopmotion with a puppet... only on a much larger scale, and animating outside, using pixilation too.

I had to build the puppet myself:


















She was made using Card, Foam, lots of wire, Modroc (Plaster), false fur, bamboo, air dry clay and a bit of Meccano and a few stop motion joints.

Stop motion Practice - Lego

I've never had the chance to work with a real stop motion puppet... and still haven't, but these Lego men did fine for a bit of practice.

Stop motion Practice - Cut out

I decided to stay at the school for a while during the summer holidays to practice stop motion. This is just me having a go at some animal walk cycles.