Monday, 24 January 2011
New task - mixed media stop motion
The aim of the next task is to create a stop motion animation using unconventional, 'found' materials. Below are some examples we looked at.
MUTO - Wall animations using stop motion
PES - western spaghetti - using different objects to represent food!
TSHIRT wars - stop motion using t shirt designs!
We also looked at the making of these videos. This was helpful in working out the most efficient process for planning and making our own animation.
Other ideas we had, whilst brainstorming as a group, was using body paint and people, involving pixilation.
Also using food as the medium itself to represent other objects.
Our final idea however was based on the PES western spaghetti. We decided as a group to use different materials to represent the ingredients needed to make a cup of tea and a sandwich!
MUTO - Wall animations using stop motion
PES - western spaghetti - using different objects to represent food!
TSHIRT wars - stop motion using t shirt designs!
We also looked at the making of these videos. This was helpful in working out the most efficient process for planning and making our own animation.
Other ideas we had, whilst brainstorming as a group, was using body paint and people, involving pixilation.
Also using food as the medium itself to represent other objects.
Our final idea however was based on the PES western spaghetti. We decided as a group to use different materials to represent the ingredients needed to make a cup of tea and a sandwich!
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Walk Cycle?
This is the hero. We found the 'stikfas' were hard to move and manipulate due to how stiff the joints were. Because of this we decided a 'drunken walk', where the character is drinking from a bottle, would be effective.
It was a good oppurtunity to practise some of the principles we learnt in the first term.
principles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
Anticipation - As the character stumbles and waves his arms we anticipate him falling over.
Secondary action - As the character drops the bottle it rolls away, adding more life and interaction to the scene. Also, when he falls flat on his face his whole body slides forward slightly, from the momentum.
Exaggeration - The characters actions are greatly exaggerated. This is so that his actions can be seen clearly. Also, the stiffness of the armeture meant this was the only way we could animate him.
It was a good oppurtunity to practise some of the principles we learnt in the first term.
principles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation
Anticipation - As the character stumbles and waves his arms we anticipate him falling over.
Secondary action - As the character drops the bottle it rolls away, adding more life and interaction to the scene. Also, when he falls flat on his face his whole body slides forward slightly, from the momentum.
Exaggeration - The characters actions are greatly exaggerated. This is so that his actions can be seen clearly. Also, the stiffness of the armeture meant this was the only way we could animate him.
Videos and tests
For the final battle we thought the intro to the boss should indicate that this scene is significant. We thought this was the most effective way.
When filming the last battle scene we encountered some problems with the camera. So we came in the next day to finish. However, we found we couldn't line up the camera exactly the same way as before. So instead we added a pause screen to break up the transition of the camera set up.
To do this we used lighting effects with coloured difusing paper. In the same way we accented the characters actions (attack), to create the effect of flashing lights.
This was also our first attempt at incorporating pixilation.
We thought this first test was a bit fast in places. Some of the spacing was to large between frames so we did the test again, but moving much slower to create a smoother animation
We decided upon the theme of Mortal Kombat. Mainly as this seemed an effctive way for the mutated figures to interact! We started here for research in layout, character and lighting.
This link shows a simple video of the game, where the camera shot is continuous. This seemed an effective layout for our own animation.
This also provided a story that we could use, with rounds in a battle, different bosses, a dungeon setting and dark lighting with a spot light focusing on the characters.
This link shows a simple video of the game, where the camera shot is continuous. This seemed an effective layout for our own animation.
This also provided a story that we could use, with rounds in a battle, different bosses, a dungeon setting and dark lighting with a spot light focusing on the characters.
This is the intro to the first battle, featuring the 'Scorpion'. We found this plaster set, which was perfect as a background for the battles to take place. The mirror was found and used for the floor. This was improvised but we think it looked quite effective.
To add to the effect of playing a game, we wanted to add the health bars at the top of the screen. We had seen that you could add backgrounds and foregrounds to your work, in stop motion pro. So we looked for online instructions of how to add our own.
We used a picture from google images of the combat screen from mortal kombat. Using photoshop we were able to create the foreground, which we then imported into stop motion pro.
We had to create new project for each battle as the forground was added to the entire animation. But the short animations could be edited, in final cut pro, later.
In this way we were able to do all the intros then battles for each character.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Getting into character
Sunday, 16 January 2011
STOP MOTION!
Its the start of the new year, 2011. Its also the start of a new task. This time looking at stop motion and 3D modelling for animation.
http://moodle.bcu.ac.uk/biad/course/view.php?id=974
The link provides the outline of the task and resources. Working in groups we each made our own 'stickfas', which are plastic armatures.
Armatures are the skeletons for stop motion models and puppets. Normally made from wire, but in this case we used plastic.
http://www.armaverse.com/
This link provides information on Aardman and how they use armatures for their models.
http://www.telepathy.co.uk/aardman/culture/tour/model.html
This is my finished armature. We encountered problems working with the plastic pieces and some pieces snapped. So we decided to get creative and use any spares we could find to make some 'mutants'. This also sparked some ideas for our animation. This was the final character I came up with.
http://moodle.bcu.ac.uk/biad/course/view.php?id=974
The link provides the outline of the task and resources. Working in groups we each made our own 'stickfas', which are plastic armatures.
Armatures are the skeletons for stop motion models and puppets. Normally made from wire, but in this case we used plastic.
http://www.armaverse.com/
This link provides information on Aardman and how they use armatures for their models.
http://www.telepathy.co.uk/aardman/culture/tour/model.html
This is my finished armature. We encountered problems working with the plastic pieces and some pieces snapped. So we decided to get creative and use any spares we could find to make some 'mutants'. This also sparked some ideas for our animation. This was the final character I came up with.
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