Foundation end of year show

Running from this saturday (21st) to the following wednesday, not entirely sure what the times are but i'm sure they're somewhere on the hereford website.....

This is my area of the show.

My final animation is shown in the post below.

The Wrote and the Writ

This is my final video, the summation of my foundation year. Many thanks to Nick in IT for helping me edit it. I wish i'd had more time to animate speech and increase the length.

DONE

Filming is now done. I'll put the video up on here on Friday or Saturday after the start of my college show

Filming issues

I had planned to start filming a week ago (27th of april ish). In doing some test shots, i realised just how much the character and the guitar moved when the hands were altered. On a small scale this wouldnt be too noticable but as it was it did not look good.

(ignore the head in the background)

The above is how the problem was resolved. A metal loop was attatched to the base of the seat and glued up the models back, up to around where the shoulder blades would be. It was then secured by glueing the jeans to the same loop, overall attatching him to the chair.

The guitar movement issue was sorted by attatching a 'loop' of metal into the guitar, around the back (glueing onto the recently attatched support) round the other side and back into the guitar. It has not been glued to the guitar as i didnt want to if i could avoid it.

I could now start shooting.

I've also accepted my offer to study animation at the University of Glamorgan starting in September 

Pre filming prep work

The first two photos show my character as it was when i brought it home for easter. I had planned to begin shooting my film in the first week, but due to my room being uneven, everytime i walked from the set, to my laptop or anywhere for that matter, the room would shake slightly and the camera would move.

I decided to relocate to a different room (which i couldnt do until the following tuesday due to having family round, this worked out nicely as i got to spend more time with them and less locked away in a dark room). 

This is the relocation, looks the same but its the opposite end of my house. In the week i had off, i remoulded the wrists of the 12 hands and shortened the wire of them to make them all the same. I also shortened the length of the arms drastically as it looked wrong. I am incredibly glad i did and didnt just think it would do as it was.



Hand Production

For my character to be able to play guitar, i needed to do one of two things. Have two hands (left and right) which were bendable, and stuck in a specific shape. Or make around 10-12 individual hands which could be swapped over when neccessary. As the thinnest wire i had was copper, I went for the second option and started making 12 individual hands. This is how they were made.

In order for me to be able to swap these hands over quickly, without having to remould the wrist after each change i have made a tiny watch to cover the join. It is also partially covered up by the neck of the guitar.



Head Moulding & Clothing

I've been really busy these last few weeks so havent really had time to update my blog, so here is what ive been up to,

Initially I started moulding the head, eyes nose, mouth, ears, hair etc which took a lot longer than expected as i had to remould the jaw to make it look more realistic and generally alter.

These next photos show the development of both my set (and props) and the bulk of the character. Including prototype hands and the clothes.

 

  

 I then started (and finished) making the clothes, i wasnt looking forward to this as when i went to textiles, Ellie said it would be hard enough for someone with my sewing background to make real sized clothes, the ones i have made are approximately 1/6th scale. I am incredibly happy with the outcome. I have also made a leather belt, watch and plasticine shoes. The jeans took me a couple of goes to get an accurate leg thickness.



Props

After the basic armature had been made I moved on to props, I needed to make a guitar, a stool, a basic capo and a microphone.

Musician Stop Motion

I have recently been working on a new armature for a stop motion video, where Johnny Flynn will play 'The Wrote and the Writ'. These images show the progression in manufacture of the armature. 

Gym Animation.

This is the final video from my most recent project, I played around with sound effects and music on my mac but it all seemed a bit mediocre so i left it without sound. For my final part 3 project i want to record my own sounds so i get specific noises for what i need, dont really know what that is yet.

A series of photos from the shooting of my most recent gym inspired project. 

I'll put the video up as soon as its finished. 

Final Plasticine Model

I remoulded the right hand as its arm was slightly longer than the left and with more massive help from Em Beas made a vest top, which vaguely fastens at the back to make it easier to put on.

Gym Animation Idea

I have started to develop my work to become more personal to my own life. Characters (not necessarily me) interacting with environments I know well. At current I am working on an idea for a gym character, either and advert for a gym or just general 'work out'. I have been playing around with the idea of speech and am not sure if its too complicated, the story idea is still in the process but the character will be as follows.

Above shows the process of making the armature for my current project, I am planning on making a vest type top for him as my sewing is appalling, (Thanks Em Beas for helping me with making the shorts). I'll put up another picture when I have finished.

Museum

 Museum stop motion animation project. At the end of part 1/start of part 2 (i cant really remember) of my current course (foundation diploma in Art) I had been working on this 40 second ish piece about a museum where the pieces come to life. I had a minor obsession with army men at this point (the toys, not the actual men fighting wars and what not) and managed to get hold of some original looking army men, who would fit in the toy story films quite happily. Having these, I bought some green plasticine in order to make some of my own which I could animate. On a budget, I decided to play around making other models of things on my desk out of green plasticine, always with the museum idea in the back of my mind. The below figures are the result.

The image above is an idea I considered for a while, but realised it would be immensely complicated to animate, let alone animate well. I also wanted to move on to animating characters I have made, not just ones I found in my house. It would have taken approximately...... 14 years to make all of the above characters out of plasticine. 

Call of Duty: Green Ops

This is a video made by myself and Jake Page in a stop motion workshop. Although very basic, it really helped me to see that animation was something I am greatly interested in. The story was not planned at all, just spontaneous random...... violence. I don't know about other computers but the only way I can get it to play is if i click the very top right part of the play button, otherwise it just doesn't work.

These are two drawings I did of Transformer toys I had on my desk, (Optimus Prime and Ironhide if anyone cares). These, along with the image below of a street corner in Amsterdam are where my work gets an illustrative feel. Combining pen drawings with photoshop gives an effect I am very happy with. 

Not overly sure what to put on here, this is some of my earlier work which originally linked my project into animation. For some reason I was fascinated with lego men. I figured it would be a good starting point in animating movement.