ANIMATION EDUCATION - using her words

hey ya'll, shel here....with my latest animation exercise.....learning to speak. justin suggested i try some speaking by having my puppet say "hello, my name is lola" or something. i went the "or something" route...



this is definitely the longest thing i've animated so far, (it took over 10 hours not including all the after effects parts) and it quickly became not only a speaking exercise but a recording, mixed media, compositing and patience exercise as well. also, this time i used real lighting. this is a new puppet (lola gen 2) but she broke two fingers and a thumb while i was shooting....shoot! turns out i used some BAD (non aluminum) wire for the fingers. [i finished 4 other puppets last week too, three dogs and an Edwardo puppet and don't tell justin but i'm really hoping i didn't use any of the BAD wire on them!!!]

the awesome FLEAMAN voice is JUSTIN, who also very patiently helped me record the sound, taught me how to do x-sheets using a program called Magpie, helped me capture the video, and walked me through (or, more acurately, carried me through) all the photo shopping and compositing we did (Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects) to get the split screen effect. Justin and son Shamus both also helped with dialogue ideas for Fleaman.

i shot it on stop mo pro on twos but the sound didn't end up matching right for some reason, had to tincker to get it to match. i wasn't too sure i liked stop mo pro's sound deal but i have nothing to compare it with, and i wasn't all that confident about what i was doing so i can't assume it's a problem with the program.

i learned a ton of things on this exercise, alot of it having to do with soft ware, but one animation thing is to keep moving the puppet slightly and taking pics even when she's sitting "still" to avoide the freeze that happens a few times in this shot.

Nickys First 2d Animation!

Hey Guys,

My eldest son Nicholas created his first 2d animation this last weekend. I am very proud of him and it definately made Dad Smile a bunch brighter to see him take interest in the medium.

here it is.....



proud dad!!

Some behind the Fish Stuff.

Hey Guys,

Heres some pics of the process of this anim.....It was a very challenging animation that took about 16 hours to do in total. 2 nights of animation and some wire removal. I started this anim the same as my last test....brainstorming ideas with shel with only the concept of useing the Edwardo puppet...I decided on the fishing idea that has been delivered.

first thing to do was build a set as quick as I could ....building sets is not what I was tring to do....I want to animate. but the story required some minor props. I found some old blue clay laying around and quickly slapped it down on the anima board. I then cut the 3 pieces for the dock pillars. slapped a shoelace around em and sculpted a quick hat and fishing pole.

after the set formalities....I quickly set up the camera and loaded up monkeyjam.

I went down in the gym -acted out the scene untill I had a clear understanding....and BOOM.....off to the races..

I had had a goal of getting to the ending of the first section of the film in one evening. I created the walk and then set down the bucket - easy right?BUT then I thought wouldnt it be cool if the [water] animated too. HMmmmm???I thought this could be a big pain in the ass....not really what I want to spend time on...but, I went for it. Im glad I dod it looks cool and its another effect to put in my arsenal.

Then came the Cast. I had no idea how the fishing pole was going to react or what the string would be made of.I just went untill the next puzzle arose to be solved.

I quickly decided to use my thin wire which I attached to the end of the pole.It worked!!!! I then ...right then decided to do the money on the hook in post...easy to do.... which I did....hence the no shadow on the money.

on to the sit down....so by this point my hands were caked in blue and so was Edwardo...I didnt really care too much. Animation was all I really want to concern myself with.

SLEEPY TIME.......

Night 2-

Shel did a quick repaint on Edwardo.....giveing me a fresh start on the visuals.I set him up and once again off to the races. Tug , Tug BIG TUG.....at this point I hadnt planned on the hat falling off but IMPROVISATION Kicked in. I thought how cool would that be {animation opporotunity} I took it.


After that I just followed my plan of pulling and dragging the RICH FISH in. Again I really had no plan on how I was going to support the rich guy as he came out of the water but I did have a plan on his emerging

...I have alot of dead test puppets laying around the house. I sculpted a cheesy head for the first key then I had a broken puppet I cut in half for the mid key...and finally a full broken puppet for the fully emmerged puppet.


this worked really well and I added a cool splash useing the same smoke technology I used in the smoke poof of my magic test.


the rest of this anim was pretty straight forward...except by the time I was dragging the RICH FISH offscreen I was tired and you can really tell in the last moments of animation.

ohh well ....It really was a fun and challenging animation.

thats it for this behind the scenes.

jriggity

Stay Warm Justin #3 Blue Nails and Big fish.

Hey guys,

Another all nighter has produced another animation.....This was a quick brainstorm from me and shel on a silly animation test. We knew I was gona use The Edwardo puppet...and thats was all we knew.

heres the end product.....one thing I have to say about this anim is...It was way harder than it might look....it took me a while to get things to work. I more than once thought our idea was possibly too big form my britches. A short test with alot of big ideas.I just kept makeing myself push forward - push forward...and

heres the anim.....hope ya like it.



Ill show some behind the scenes pics later as well.

jriggity

Stay warm Justin #2

Hey guys ,

I busted this out the other night .....me and shel did a quick brain storm on what I could do for a quickie anim test. I wanted to use a prop Ive had laying around and I was wanting to try an effects animation in stop mo...somthing Ive never really done.

we decided on a magician animation .It was mainly shels Idea though....I went down in the gym and acted out A few different designs on the movement possablities.

Decided on some choreography and then went right to it.....after starting the animation the old improvisation bug bit me and I changed the story and direction of the movement for the better ....this subject deserves an entire post.{IMPROV}

other wise....I feel ok about the animation....the idea is strong but I wish I would have put a little more love into the animation.

hope you enjoy! More to come.

jriggity

Stay warm Justin!!!

So...Im starting to feel like my rhythm is starting to leave me. I m decideing to keep myself warm so I can jump back on the film as soon as my backup cam arrives. This means Ill be doing excersizes untill Im on the film again.....which could be till next monday....aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

feel like im falling behind ...BUT! ....I am happy to say that in theory I feel my flicker issues are going to be a thing of the past. My variac I purchased is all hooked up with a voltmeter right next to it.It seems like its gona fix all my problems...Its really made my camera breaking worth it.....Otherwise I probably would just keep on cave manning my way through the film.

so I thought Id kick off the excersizes with Edwardos puppet.I havnt tested this puppet yet and he now has a larger role in my film than he originally did....{More acting}


so heres a walk...more excersizes to come.

jriggity

BROKEN CAMERA / Production HALT

Hey,

My camera broke......This sucks!!! I wnet into the garage 2 sundays ago ready to avenge my shot that didnt make the cut. Flipped the switch and........ NOTHING!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Totaly Sucks!

Ive had the camera for less than 9 months....I have no idea what happened to my cam.
So we formulate a quick plan to find the nearest NIKON camera Fix titians.

Shel drove it over to the nearest one. They couldnt Fix it because of it being a GREY MARKET camera. I had never heard that term before. It means a camera bought from a different country.So its not covered by the one year NIKON Warranty.MORE SUCK!!

Luckily I purchased a 5 year warranty ontop of the reg......so I sent it out and it should be getting fixed as we speak....How long will it take?????????????.....
Feeling like a hapless fish I tried to formulate a way to get back to work assoonas I could...Me and Shel talked and decided we need a backup camera for situations like this as well as our next project requireing 2 shoots hapening at once.

We ordered a New NIKONd40 the cheapest of the bunch....but a fine camera for my film.

My positive thinking is telling me this is FATES way of stopping me from shooting untill my flicker situation is under controll. I recently ordered an adjustable Dimmer which will fix my light fluctuations...it should be with us next week.

just in time for my new Backup camera to arrive.

jriggity

ANIMATION EDUCATION - run again lola -- run again

shel here....putting lola through the paces again....



run lola run 2 from handmadeheroes and Vimeo.

she has a little less style this time but i'm getting a better understanding of the basic movement of a run cycle, so i'm willing to trade for style for knowledge at these begining stages. i would much rather my "styles" come from choices i have than from not knowing how to do it any other way!

this is my forth try, (2 and 3 were the kind where everything falls apart before it comes back together again). now i'm itching to practice some more stylish cycles to play with different moods......but i broke my wire armature at the knee--had to tape her leg for the last couple frames.....so.....time to make another one (big sigh).....but in the mean time i may just see how much more mileage i can get out of this girl with tape. since i'm holding her up with wire for each frame anyway (no tie downs cuz she's running in place)..... maybe i can get away with it.....

i fantasize about armatures made with really small ball and socket joints that thickish aluminum wire (cut to whatever length i want) can slip into and then get stuck in there and not come out, ever. i want a wire spine and collar bones (for smooth arches and shrugging), with wire fingers....oh....and strong ankle joints with easy access tie downs.....and i want them to be easy and cheap to make at home......(really, really big sigh).