[ explorations in audio and moving imagery ]
World backup day is March 31st. Even though I’m writing this in July the topic seems relevant at any time and the sooner the better if you are not backing up already. Stopmotion, or most animation productions for that matter, are very time consuming endeavors. Even though stopmotion productions involve real puppets and sets, a…
I viewed a work in progress video by Justin Rasch and Shel Wagner Rasch recently. The support rig is still visible, which is fascinating to see. What appears to be a free weight is being used for the base. I had previously been drilling holes in the floor of my sets to hold wire support…
Watch on Vimeo My short experiment titled VICTUAL 1 is now online. I did the animation one evening during the week and completed the audio tracks this weekend. Sven Bonnichsen’s recent “mutate” project inspired me to try something quick and improvisational. I haven’t worked with clay before, but wanted to try something simple and organic…
Sven posted some intriguing ideas about utilizing pop-thru in a project as the actual method of animating for stopmotion. The idea appeals to me especially in terms of time. Wanting to see what it felt like to I threw my character on the stage and tried some poses and here is the result. The total…
Recently I read some information about camera rigs and the concepts found in model railroad designs inspired me. So, I browsed the “orange” home improvement store and found some items to build a dolly over the weekend. All photos are on the Flickr site (click the photo to see them). You can probably get the…
I have a printed copy of some info attributed to a Ron (aka RF) from the Fantomized web site [around April 2004] but I can no longer find the information online. [UPDATE: the info appears to be located here: http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?t=2735&p=19561 ] So I’m reproducing it here along with my visual representation of the grid he…
Ok, so I’m done with the exercise. Here is a photo of the final board. I forgot to mention in the previous post to work the exercise quickly…do not over analyze anything…it’s more stream of consciousness in that respect I suppose. Just go with the ideas that come to mind as disjointed as they may…
Some time ago I posted my analysis of “The Frogs Who Wanted a King” by Wladyslaw Starewicz on stopmotionanimation.com as a benchmark for developing shots and scenes. I am running through the exercise for my next project tonight as I draft storyboard cards so I thought I would re-post the info here at my blog.…
Well, while brainstorming ideas for future projects and researching things on the web I came across the MonoMyth site. What I like most though is the interactive MonoMyth creator and also the preset MonoMyths of some films to help illustrate the concept. UPDATE: Actually it’s only sort-of-nice. I thought it would let me create a…
In both Man Drawing a Reclining Woman and the Sword of Damocles I have what looks like ghosting in the animation. My process is to shoot 12 photos for each second of animation then stretch that sequence in Sony Vegas to 24fps. Vegas then blurs every other frame. When analyzing the footage within Vegas frame…
There is a thread on stopmotionanimation.com about walk cycles. Here is a test that I did many months ago. I used the trial version of Stop Motion Pro and my web cam.
I had an interesting email exchange with J. Roche regarding non-linear editing using Sony Vegas and wrote down what I do when editing a film. My goal is to output DVD or HD-DVD resolution projects while also being able to edit that project using very small file sizes. The result is: improved performance of the…
I am in the process of relocating my studio over the next month or two. I plan to hold off on further filming of the Vitruvius project until I have the studio and lighting re-assembled. I have some compositing elements that I can work on in the mean time and I’m also exploring a new…
I needed to get some business cards to hand out at various times and decided to try the Flickr / Moo option. I have a Flickr site and read the specifications for sizing photos as Moo cards and made 10 card designs in Photoshop. I got the Moo 100 card pack for approximately $20 and…
The lighting that I have been using for my films so far consists of incandescent bulbs and inexpensive Clamp Lights that you can get at hardware stores. I believe Karl at Between the Frames may be using the same lighting system. I modify them by putting 4 holes around the rim which allow me to…
The Sword of Damocles is a short stop motion animation that was made in response to the StopMoShorts December 2006 contest. The contest provided three words (sword, cave, and fear) to inspire animators. I focused on the sword with the idea of doing something related to the legend of the Sword of Damocles. I would…
I just got the new Zigview S2 (model B) with video out which is intended to help with video assist. I tried it out tonight with my Serlio puppet and here are some photos, info, and some thoughts about the product so far. There is also a thread at the StopMotionAnimation.com forums with another Zigview…
A couple of quick behind-the-scenes photos of the Serlio prologue stage sets. I’m in the process of shooting footage with the Serlio books and will finish the set design for the Serlio puppet when I begin shooting those scenes next. You can see my set framework in these photos which is constructed with pine…
View Quicktime Movie I used the Flash pre-visualization test (see previous post) to assist with a very short test using my actual set and objects. I printed out the Flash movie as a series of small thumbnails on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. I then used the printed sheets of individual frames for visual reference when…
I spent [another] hour with Macromedia/Adobe Flash tonight to experiment with animation timing and choreography of multiple objects. The result is the clip you see above. I used motion tweens to smooth everything out and added rotation to the objects to make the movement more dynamic. View the first version which was has very rough…
May 2006 was character development month complete with armatures, mask-making, and clothing. The puppets for the Vitruvius project are made of aluminum wire and epoxy putty for âbonesâ? in the arms, torso, pelvis, legs, and feet. Iâm using the Nick Hilligoss T-shaped tie down method for the feet. The head construction starts with balsa wood…
The main set for the Vitruvius project was constructed between April and May 2006. The following is a general description of the process and some photographs. Materials used: Pink insulation board for making set mock-ups, the background hills and buildings Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty to cover the insulation that make up the background hills…
These are the anatomy pattern sheets that I have been using for my wire armature development. I looked through some “anatomy for artists” books and made the figure design based on 1″ units for the male pattern and 15/16″ units for the female pattern. The nice thing is that I can just pick any size…
I’m researching for cameras and lighting, mainly using the archives of stopmotionanimation.com right now [ read this thread ]. Since I know I’m going for a DSLR the information I’m trying to find out falls into the categories of lenses, focusing, apertures, and possibly flicker and light issues in regard to camera settings. Video assist…
I needed some trees for the set have more detail set so I got some poly-fil and something called “cluster stuff” which looks like very tiny cotton balls. I’m using a flat green interior latex paint for coloring the ground and foliage. I’m waiting for the paint to dry and will then attempt to put…
I sometimes paint on canvas with acrylics. The big easels at the art store always grab my attention but they can cost a large sum of money. Some time ago I stumbled across this web site with plans on how to build your own easel with 2×4’s. The advantage is that you can build an…
I recently completed my draft set design. (Photos 1 and 2) I used a sheet of foam insulation and hot glue to form the basic shape. (Photo 3) I also threw together some architecture props to see if using foam and watery putty was going to work. (Photo 4) I covered the foam with two…
I’ve been working on my armature development for the current project. The picture above ( click to enlarge) is of my latest armature tests. I’ve been using the aluminum wire and epoxy putty to make the skeleton of the armature then I use Sculpey Super Flex Bake & Bend to add muscles and body mass.…