I've finally moved on to using 12 field paper and acme registration. I'm certainly not going to run out of paper any time soon! But this is really cool, it's just so much easier to use and the registration is far more accurate than the average "hole punch"

Here is a quick animation that I did in about an hour this morning:

Also, I've been doing loads of animation-related drawings rescently to learn about construction and poses; here are a couple:

Trying to get back into puppet animation

I spent quite a while looking at traditional animation, then a long period of being lazy and doing nothing animation-wise. Well now I've bought some more resources and am trying to get back into stop motion puppet animation. Some pictures of what I've been doing in the last week:

Armature - trying out thicker aluminium wire then previously. Seems to work a lot better, would recommend 2.5-3mm thick.


Gluing bandage underwrap foam onto the hand armatures with high-tack spray glue.


Cut the foam to shape and paint on tinted latex. I've only tried this method once or twice before, so these came out pretty nice.


Beginning to spray glue soft foam on to armature.


Beeeeautiful.


Trimming the foam down to shape with scissors.


Next, I covered the whole body with the thin bandage underwrap, to give it a smooth skin. This is pretty much where I am now with the puppet. It's looking pretty nice!

If you get a chance to watch A town called Panic, do. It is litterally the best film I have ever seen. Absolubtly genius! :D



Marnik

...

Well we were in London, and one day we had a free couple of hours, so i suggested we go to the London Film Museum. Didn't know anything about it but thought it might be cool. So we went along, and when we got there, I saw they had an exhibition on Ray Harryhausen on currently. I was amazed! Such luck - but its also a shame it wasn't advertised better, because otherwise i could have planned to stay longer.

Anyway, I ran into the exhibition, arms flailing, dribbling, eyes sparkling with exitement. It was really fantastic, I'm so glad I managed to see it.
I took these photos before being told I was not aloud to use a camera in there.


Checked no one was looking, and just had to take this one.


***

In other news, just recieved Elemental Magic. A book by Joseph Gilland on the art of special effects animation. I flicked through and read the first few pages, and so far, its amasing. Really worth having - I recomend it to any one interested in traditional animation or CGI.

Marnik

Belleville Rendez-vous

Saw Sylvain Chomet's animated film Belleville Rendez-vous last night. It was frickin' awesome! If you haven't seen it already, do so.It's an animated masterpiece!

Thief and the Cobbler documentary.

I know I've posted about The Thief and the Cobbler before (look in previous posts if you havn't seen already), but I just got emailed by Kevin Schreck telling me about a documentary he is making about the lost masterpiece.

He plans to interview various artists who worked on the film in the Summer, but needs donations to help with the funding.

This link takes you to a trailer and donations.

Please, please help by giving donations, and if not, alerting others about this. I'm really excited to see it, any other animators/filmmakers should be too!

Marnik

New pencil test

This one worked alot better then the last. There is very little movement but it seems to work in a styalized cartoony way. I started this as soon as i finished the light box (you can see I've drawn the first frame in the last picture of the light box post). The audio is from the intro to a hilarious song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band called "Big Shot".
The body was drawn using the col-erase I was talking about. Near the end it dissapears because it wasn't moving and I thought I'd save the pencil for something more useful!

(let it buffer, blogger video is sloooooow)

(edit) Just watched it back on here and it's really bad quality all of a sudden! Oh well, you get the idea of it anyway.

I was gunna add smoke from the pipe but I decided it wasn't worth it...my knowledge of special effects animation (water/smoke/fire) is very small, but growing! I really like the character and think I might do more animation with him.

Col-erase

It seems to break really easily...in one day it's gone from new to less then half size. ARGH what do I do? They're so great, I want to use them forever, but not at this rate I won't...

Update!

Finished the light box. AWESOME. I doubt I'll do anything but animate for the next few weeks! The disc spins 360 degrees. The only thing that i bought for this were the two rulers and the light switch - all really cheap. For roughly £5, really not very different from the proffesional £500 ones! The little pencil holders in the top right corner are just little clips meant for holding electrical wire in place - I found they work perfectly as pencil holders.


I might take some better pictures at a later date..

ALSO, I got some col-erase pencils off ebay and they arrived today (just in time for the party!). Col-erase are used extensively by animators, because they are very waxy, so do not smudge, and are very easy to erase.

Marnik

PS, I have 18 followers but hardly ever get comments..what's that about!?

Light box/disc

(click to enlarge)

Here's where I am so far. Total cost = £0.00! The circle isn't brilliant, (at one point i got abit fed up with sanding it with the big heavy rough sanding machine, and accidentally took a chunk off my thumb with it. Didn't stop me though!), but it works just fine.
I still need to get two rulers to attach, and a light switch - all of which i will have to buy some time this week. I also need to build the rest of the box, and attach lights etc.

This is so exciting!

Trying things out.

Here's the first animation (pencil test) I've done in a while. I'm learning so much from just trying various things.

It turned out not too bad - the voice doesn't fit with the character, and the mouth shapes arent quite right, but generally speaking the lip sync is correctly timed, and it is quite smooth. Where his face sort of moves down abit - was meant to be him looking downwards. Didn't work - just shows I need to plan more next time.

But the most exciting news is that I'm building a full on proper animation light-box and disc. Should be finished by the end of next week! Awesome!

Also, check out animateclay's new design. Love it!

Good day to you, sir.

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams) is now my favourite movie of all time. It's simply incredible. Go watch the "Recobbled Cut" on youtube. (It's a cut because so unfortunately it was never finished, but every scene exists, whether it be storyboard, rough animation, or finished.)

Admitidly, it's probably more of an art film then entertainment, but i could watch it for hours.

It's got me back into traditional animation. If you're in need of inspiration, watch it.

New blog for any animation fanatic!

www.disney-animation-art.blogspot.com

Check it out.

Marnik

I just became a contributing writer in Stop Motion Magazine.
My first article will be in the new issue, released on wednesday. (It's free, and online.)
I am writing about "The tale of the fox" by Ladislas Starevich, a wonderful animation that I think everyone should see.
I will post again when the issue is online - I would be grateful if you guys could take a look and give feedback.

Thanks

More on dinosaur.

He is fully muscle'd now. Just have to apply latex skin and paint. I'm pretty happy with it so far.


Here is the first batch of skin. I made this by crumpling up a load of tin foil, straightening it out again, and pouring out a thin layer of latex onto it. Once this was dry, I added another layer, and so on until it was thick enough. The tin foil gave it a textured reptilian look, that saves alot of sculpting, casting and so on.

Now onto the set. I wanted to make a very simple set that I can use tie downs with (for the dinosaur). The base is chicken wire, covered with strips of hessian, attached with a load of plaster of paris. The hessian is so textured that this becomes rock solid. I will later cover it with strips of kitchen paper and plaster, to give it a more refined texture.
The picture is not good, but keep watching as there will be more to come.

Began build up on Dr Dino

The plaster mold went horribly, horribly wrong.
Never mind, I'm trying out some new stuff now, and will hopefully still enter an animation for Ray's 90th, possibly with dinosaurs.

Could be cool.

Back!

Got back from Uganda and had an awesome time!

I just read this:

http://wobblytripod.blogspot.com/2010/02/ray-harryhausens-birthday.html

I've been looking through loads of creatures and decided I will just do what lots of others will probably do and make a cyclops puppet. Don't know if I will enter it or even animate it as I haven't done stop motion for a while, but it would be fun to attempt to make.

Head sculpt (unfinished) :
Armature:When i've finished sculpting the face, i will make a mold with plaster, and make a latex mask from that.
Should be cool.

Marnik

YAY

Going to be in africa tomorrow - how crazy is that!?

Won't be posting for a couple of weeks coz i'm gunna be in Uganda.

Seeyou.

The craziest things happen when you're in love.

Seriously...WHAT!?

Feedback on the logo?

How to make a getaway.

Been doing some research, so i thought I might do some posts like this. Hopefully you will benefit from them.

"Yogi, it's the ranger!"

Look at how those rough brush strokes are used, but in the animation all you see is bobo rushing off the screen.

Brilliant.

Going back to basics.

So I finished that shot and watched it back, and I am really not happy with it. I could either carry on going this way, and make an awful and ugly film, or stop and wait until I have dramatically improved.Therefore I am going for the latter.
I'm not going to make a film of any kind, until I am completely sure I know what I'm doing.
I will make lots of short shots and tests, and post them on here, and try to make them interesting. I might do it in such a way that they connect together, but it wouldn't be a film, more like practice.

See you soon.

Merely ran out of tracing paper/frames. Gunna buy some today. Only a couple more seconds and this rough shot will be done. Keep watching!

merry christmas folks :)

Yeh.

Colour test and exhibition

Wheh, I havn't posted for ages, sorry about that. Havn't really done much since I last posted, but today I decided to try out some colours, see how they will work. Just filled in the parts on a photoshop like program. It turned out pretty good, and was easy once I got going.

Also, my art class put up an exhibition this week, and some of my work went in to it. Here is my favourite thing i did, its a bust made out of plaster. The picture is awful, hopefully I will take a better one when the exhibition's over.

Alright, i'm not even going to bother trying to explain whats been going on in my head in this past week. Basically, I've come to the conclusion - stop motion is not my thing. I've been having far too many problems with it.
I got really interested in classic animation rescently, and have therefore switched to that. Please no one try to convince me back to stop mo, or ask me why the change - I'm just happy with it for now.
Infact I'm very happy. I tried a little test of ole' Münchhausen, and am very pleased with it. I like the flickery look of it. This will probably be the way I make the film now, and am glad :)

(obviously this hasn't been rendered)

(he is sitting in his sleigh)

You know that feeling when something actually works :D


I'm still working out some more things like colouring, but I'm pretty sure I'll do that on the computer.

Comment!

A question

I've worked out that I can animate with my webcam, and there wouldnt be any camera flicker. I really don't want camera flicker - but I really want good quality, and I don't know which one i'd rather have. Good quality or a stable camera?

Here is a bad quality un-rendered version with the good quality camera:



And here is a similar thing with the webcam (with lighting flickers).



I don't have any money to buy anything else..


I really don't know what to do!

Done another shot!

Primarily I was glad with it, then when I put the good quality frames together there was alot of camera shakey-ness...I'm going to have to stop that somehow...

No worries!

Lost inspiration for a bit, but getting back into it....

Should be doing another shot next week (half term)

Keep watching!

Birthday time!!!

That's right folks!

Set and SKY!

I know I havn't posted in a while, but with the start of school again, arty-time has been limited. Today i spray painted a backdrop/sky for most of the snowy scenes. I also made a little section of a snowy set, but alot smaller - to put in the background for forced perspective.

Here's the setup, might be a little easier to understand:



And heres a quick shot i took to see how it would look - pretty awsome! (other than the lighting..)



Comment!

BOOYAH

First shot ANIMATED





Booyah




I may well have to do it again, I'm currently waiting to upload all the frames, but still YAYA






VLOG coming soon!

Looking at my previous posts...

...I noticed that I havn't taken pictures of the sultan's palace exterior set. So here it is:
(click for closer uppers)