Tuesday 30 November 2010

Experimental Project

After being told that it would be smart to change my experimental project I decided to go a complete different way with my animation.
I'd almost finished the ballerina one so if I was to change everything I think she would fall apart.
She doesn't have that many hours of animation left in her.
It did make me a bit upset, because I was quite happy with what I'd done so far.
But I don't feel that all the hours I put into it is wasted, because I've learned a lot about stop motion, and I have a lot more respect for the people who do it. I do not have the pations for stop motion at all. I was not enjoying doing it...

So the second one I did is a simple cardboard animation. I had some coins laying around so I thought I'd use them too.
I saw this really cool animation on youtube where they make money explode, and that's what inspired me to use the money as ammo.

I made my own dopesheet and planned out the scenes, and I managed to get it doen in time.
I'd say it's got a bit of a childish look, but I'm happy with the result.
(I'll post some of the drawings and stuff later today.)


11 Second Club

Allrighty!
My 11 Second project is finally done! (Weeee)
Used the blake rig for the two dudes talking to eachother. I found that rig to be the best one to animate with.
Then I modeled the rest of the objects in the scene.
I'm really happy with the genie. I like the way he looks. He's got that "ghosty" look over him.

It's been a lot of work (believe it or not) but I managed to get it done in time, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Enjoy!

Thursday 25 November 2010

Experimental Update

Allrighty,
I've started animating my doll, and for a teaser I'm posting one of the tests I did.
It all went pretty well, untill the right arm fell off...
I did manage to get some seconds of footage tho. Because the arm fell of I decided to do the part where the leafs and flowers grow over her.
Hopefully when I continue today (I fixed the arm) I can make the flowers look a bit simmilar to how they where.


Wednesday 24 November 2010

11 seconds...

Right...
Last week I wanted to upload a playblast of what I had done so far, but that didn't work. And it still doesnt. I have almost finished it now, and as soon as I can get this blog to accept my uploads I will put it up here! (%&¤%&%"¤)


I made it yaay!


Sunday 21 November 2010

Experimental update

Finally, my ballerina doll is done!
Hair made out of cotton, with a band of silk around it to make her look more like a ballerina.
And I just drew the face on with filt tip pens. However, I did use white nailpolish for the eyes so it gives it a bit of a wet look.


It wasn't suppose to take this long, but when I first painted her body, the paint I used turned into a horrible alien-green colour when it started to dry. So I had to wait for the paint to dry before I could paint over it with a more blueish colour.
I used oilpaint for the colours. I was planning on just using normal watercolours, but the oilpaint made it look more even and nicer.


I'm glad she's finally done, cus now I can start making her move!


Wednesday 17 November 2010

Russel Howard's Good News

I think the title sequence for RHGN is brilliant.
When you think about it it's quite easily made, put I think that's what makes it so great.
I would love to try to do something like this one day.

Monday 15 November 2010

War is my Destiny

This musicvideo rocks!
Thought I'd put it up here just for it's awesomeness. I love the way it's made.
Enjoy!


Sunday 14 November 2010

Experimental Project

Hey hey hey!
So, one of our projects before Christmas is the experimental project where we have to do something "non computer made".
Derek told us to try something new and different, so I wanted to pick something I normally wouldn't pick.
I've chosen to do something stop motion inspired. I saw this as an opportunity to learn something new. Normally I wouldn't pick stop motion because it creeps me out. Everything from Wallace and Gromit to Corps Bride gives me tiny chills down my spine.
However, I do like the look of Corps Bride and Nightmare before Christmas. It's something about the gothic style of it that makes me interested.
I've always wanted to do a dance to classical music, and this project was the perfect opportunity.
And because it needs to be "experimental" the closest thing I could think of doing the dance graciously and elegant was to use a stop motion puppet.
My idea is a ballerina dancing on a stage (one of those music jewelery boxes), and as she dances a garden starts to grow around her. The more she dances the more the garden grows, and in the end she's become a part of the garden.


This is the first puppet I've made, and to be honest working with wood isn't one of my strongest skills.
After googling for ages I finally found someone who sells blocks of balsa wood. (I recommend R & R hobbies if you're looking. They're cheap and deliver quickly)
I carved the pieces with a crafts knife and made them look smooth with some sandpaper.
Instead of using aluminium wire I used garden wire to make the joints, as the aluminium wire wasn't flexible enough. And I put some sponge over the wires so they wouldn't show.
And then I painted her to make her pretty ;> The paint hasn't dried yet so shes not completely done.



Tuesday 9 November 2010

11 Second Club

Allrighty tighty!

For one of our projects this term we are entering the 11 second club competition (You can read more about thus at www.11secondclub.com)
This week I've been working on my idea for the sound clip that we have to use.
The Idea:
A guy is sitting on the floor looking at a magic lamp. Behind him we can see a treasure chest, gold and so on.
Guy nr 2 walks in and accuses him of steeling the lamp. And so the dialog goes on about him steeling the magic lamp.
This week I've drawn the scene for the story, and also I have modeled some of the objects for the scene.



















I've decided to take away the walls in the scene. I find it easier to move around in the scene when the walls aren't there. Some of the angles just looked weird when I had the walls up.

Also I want to keep the textures as simple as possible. I know it will look better if I texture it properly, but I think its going to save me some time when I'm rendering. Also I want to focus more on the actual animation of the piece, and I can see me getting caught up in getting the textures perfect if I start doing them neatly.

I'm going to use the Blake rig for this project. He's "easy" to animate and also you can change his appearance easily. Unlike the Norman rig you don't have to spend ages making him look a bit different.

I've had a play with Blake this week just to get used to how the rig works, and this coming week I'll be filming the scene to get reference for the animatic and the animating.

That's it for now peeps, stay tuned for more exciting stuff!