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)

Opening time!

So I haven't done much work on the film rescently - who are you to tell me what to do?

No, but now it's the summer, so lots of time to work on the film! Hopefully I will get round to shooting the first short shot within the next few weeks. I've been working on the set all the jazz. It should look something like this, with better lighting:The greenscreen is 'cause I couldn't make a set big enough, it should just look like never ending snow. I will also add digital snow. Here's what the setup looks like so far:

The snow is simply plaster and the trees are the ones i showed you before, wire and tape. I had a bit of a disaster with the plaster and had to make two layers eventually, but it seems to have worked out ok now.

Marnik

Finished MJ raisin sculpt!

Here is the finished plasticine MJ/california raisin sculpt.

RIP Micheal Jackson :)

I think Earth Song is my favourite song from him - very touching. What about you?

Titles!

Here they are!

Micheal Jackson california raisins sculpt WIP

I was gunna sculpt a california raisin sometime soon anyway, but after the dreadfully sad news I felt like making some kind of tribute!

(sorry the pictures so dark, click to zoom in)

This is still a work in progress and i will post it here when finished, with better pictures.

It's based around him from this ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HEyGY--IIw&feature=related

Marnik

Making a cobbled path - vlog

The base is plasticine, which i poked lots of holes in with a stone from the garden. I built a plasticine wall around this, and filled it with plaster. I then put on a second layer (not shown in the video) before carefully pulling it out of the mould. It looked awsome, but unfortunately it soon broke in the middle. I'll fix this some how. I need to make LOTS more pieces like this, as i need to fill a whole space with cobbles, so next time I will put on a layer of hessian (if i can buy any from anywhere) to make it stronger.
Here is how it finished out:


So what do you think? Should I do more informative vlogs? Or go back to pictures?

A picture can say a thousand words
But a video can take a thousand pictures.

The nasty thing is, for some reason I can't edit videos from my camera, they upload in a weird format, all i can do is take them straight from the camera and put them on facebook or here.

What a strange and boring post eh?

Hehe, more interesting stuff to come!

Comment!

(Picture from Claudio Antelli)

Keep watching :D

On your marks! Get SET!

I had to build a small set for the short scene involving the palace I showed in my last post. I used the good old diorama style again, like with the church set. Heres how I did it.

First, I layed out the basic shape with cardboard.
Then made it 3D with newspaper.
(no i will NOT switch to tesco. Grr)
Now I plaster on torn up pieces of kitchen paper.
You need to work very fast with plaster of paris, it dries quickly. Here it is, plastered:
Next, I paint the basic earth colours of brown and green, very watered down, onto the set.
Then I start adding the woodland scenics grass, bushes, and any other extras. Lots of this i just made myself from cutting things up into tiny pieces.

And that's where I am so far, still lots more to go! You'll notice in the last picture, the lake area is white - i'm using PVA glue in layers, and should end up looking like water.

Today I'm gunna make some evergreens, and bushes.

'scuse me, may i RESCULPT YOUR FACE please?

Yes, certainly...

I'm VERY happy with this, i can't stress enough how it looks EXACTLY like the image i had in my head, of how i wanted the film.

YAY

Finished palace:
And whats next?
Well... i dunno yet, we'll have to see...

Marnik

Soooo...I made the exterior of the Sultan's palace - still some more gold to be put on this.

The onion domes are plasticine with several layers of plaster over the top.

Also I started making the baron's outfit (yeh, I'm remaking him, i was never happy with how he looked), but unfortunately his arm broke half way through so i'll have to finish him tomorrow when it's dried.

Loving the sunshine :D
I just had a glass of Pimms so i'll have to read this tomorrow to make sure it makes sence..

hehe..

Sultan does Travolta!?

Yay he's finished! I've decided to go back to the clay look - it's more interesting and animateablebleble...

Marnik

A sultan of swing!

Hey, sorry it's been so long!

WARNING THIS IS A MEGA LONG POST - JUST WATCH THE PICS IF YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO READ IT ALL, I WOULDNT :P

During the time i've had off posting, i've done lots of things for the film, most of which was trial and error, more often then not error - so I'm gunna leave out all the boring stuff that didnt work, and put in the important stuff!

When the Baron first arrives in St Petersburg, Russia, there is an illustration of him in his sliegh, headed towards the town. So i had some spare time and decided to start making the town, and ended up getting two buildings almost done;


All that's needed now is for them both to be plastered over and painted. I still need to make some more buildings!
Next is onto something i did aagggeess ago, but i wasnt going to use it as i don't like it much. When i realised it isnt THAT bad and is only a background, i decided to bring it back into the story. So here ladies and gentlemen is the SULTAN'S palace:

I still need to glue that shelf up and put some vase/pots in it. I also need to make lots more furniture and STOOF (stuff with lancaster accent) hehe..
I've started on the first pieces of furniture, two chairs for the baron and sultan to sit in. Here is one nearly finished:
AND FINALLY....
to sit on that chair...
to live in that palace...
THE SULTAN! (headless and handless but the point still stands)
VERY fat but still cool :D

So anyways, Claudio Antonelli is currently in the process of making the title sequence for me (he's the film's editor). I've explained exaclty what I want and found the perfect music.

I love being a director.
It makes me feel powerful
MWAHAHAHAHHA

See ya round..

Progress on the armature

Balls on Rods.

A foot - if this doesn't turn out tight enough I may have to redo them, simpler.
Shoulders and Pelvis.
And here's it all laid out as it is so far. It may be a while before it's finished as I need to buy some more brass to make the 'sandwich plates'

I am also making some dipped latex hands for the armature as we speak (write/read)!

Marnik

B+S Joint!

Hey everyone, just a quick post to tell you what I've been up to today.

Well I had all the stuff I need to make a ball and socket armature, except threaded balls. Today I was looking through my room and unexpectantly found a necklace with lots of gold balls on it. Naturally, I seperated the balls, took two of them and made a ball and socket joint.


I was really pleased with this, it's the first time I've ever done this (except playing around abit with those helping hand things) but it just goes to show, if it took me all day to make one joint, and there are (?) number of joints in the body...

Marnik :)

New camera setup!

I've worked out a new setup where I can use my Samsung S1050 digital stills camera to animate, with a webcam assist.



GOD IT FEELS GOOD TO BE HIGH QUALITY!

For some reason it's not as good quality on Vimeo as the actual file is, but for now, I'm just worried about working with the camera and stuff rather than uploading it to the internet.

For the next time, I need to remember to lock up the tripod so it could't move if it tried! I also need to make sure every detail is perfect, as I'm used to a rubbish camera where you can't see any details.

Oh and I finished the morph animation last week, I'll show you once the competitions over.

Marnik

Fortress gate!

I had to make the front wall of a fortress, with a moving portcullis (this will be important in the story)

Its all just cardboard and paint!

And here it is finished: (I made it so the portcullis can slide through the two outter pieces of cardboard on the wall)


And next, I found this site with an animation competition to animate morph! I love morph! So I thought I'd better not miss out on this one, and have started animating. I have shot one scene with just morph but for the rest I need to buy some more plasticine for chas, which will have to be next week - so keep watching for that!

Marnik

Evergreens! Path!

Hellooo - For the set I made a couple of evergreens like this:
They were alot easier to make than I thought! Here's one glued into the set with a couple of dead trees too.
And here is the set so far - I added more grass and a path. Still more to come!
It will probably be a few days before I do more on the set as I want to be sure everything is rock-solid dry.

Marnik