Stop Motion
For the 10th, 11th and 12th week of our course we were given a brief that required us to explore the traditional principles of human performance animation through the process of stop-motion. The brief isn't focussed on character design, instead we have been told to focus on a walk cycle that has a range of performance tasks and a short narrative that carries the short. For this project I have made sure to consider some of the restrictions within stop-motion, e.g. time consuming, the animation can only recreate real movement. On the other hand though, I have never created a stop motion film, so there is still a lot of other techniques I can learn from this project: different camera angles when filming, visual look of the set, the stop motion of the character
Our film had to showcase our character: stand up from sitting/laying down, short walk cycle, have body gestures movements. Therefore, before I drew up my story board, I had to think of a narrative that would feature all these movements. After thinking a few ideas, I came to the conclusion of having my narrative focus around my character waking up and pursuing their morning routine. The image below showcases my story board.
To help me put together my story board, I used the video below from Youtube to help me get a better understanding on HOW someone wakes up, I wanted a reference so I didn't make the character look stiff and lifeless. I also used the picture below to help me get a better understanding on WHAT camera angles to use because I sill struggle with photography/filming.
When ever I hear someone mention stop-motion animation, my mind instantly goes to all the amazing films that have came from LAIKA Studios (Coraline, ParaNorman, Box Trolls, etc). The animation in their films is smooth and fluent, making what happens on screen blur reality. The clip on the right is from their 2012 ParaNorman, it showcases the main character, Norman, walking to school as part of his morning routine. The walk seems normal at first but then we see how Norman talks to mid-air, it's later revealed that he's talking to ghosts. I really like all the different camera angles used in the scene, there are a lot of wide shots showing us Norman's town and environment. Before I watched this clip, I wasn't going to have any wide shots in my story board because I didn't think it was necessary and that the character should ALWAYS be central focus. However, after seeing Norman's environment, it already tells me key things about his character: his family is not that rich, he doesn't have many friends, he's not an average kid. Therefore, I want to put wide shots in my film and hopefully reflect some of the character's personality from the furniture in the bedroom.
Unfortunately, I was unable to collect the equipment for this project, therefore I had to order my own figure. I had ordered a male figurine, however, a female figurine arrived instead, this meant I I had to change some of the props to look like a female's bedroom. After planning out my story board, and knowing what props I needed, I began putting together my set. Luckily, I was able to find a doll-house sized wardrobe and an old doll sized t-shirt, meaning I only needed to make the bed myself. I was able to find the video below from YouTube on how to make a doll sized bed out of card board.
Top and bottom of my cardboard bed. Prior to creating the bed, I measured my figure (13cm) and added a few more centre meters onto the height of the bed (16cm).
The wooden doll wardrobe I was able to find, I decided to paint it pink to make the set look more feminine.
I wanted a pink blanket on the bed to make it look more 'homely', for this I folded and hemmed the top of an old sock to make it wrap around the figure better.
On the right shows the piece of clothing the character chose from the wardrobe, looking back I wish I had created my own clothing for the wardrobe. The black and white on the top makes it look too 'gothic' when compared to the rest of the props.
These are some pillows I made for the room to give the it more personality.
The pictures below show my set finished, for the floor I also used recycled cardboard. For my first time making a set, I do like how it turned out all together, however, I think I should have painted over the cardboard to not make it look so dull against the vivid colours of the furniture.
Due to the current pandemic I had to film my stop motion film using my phone camera and a tripod, as shown on the right. The equipment I had at home to make my film was a bit limiting from the equipment used in university, however, I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would. For my film I used the Stop Motion Studio App recommended to us by our tutors, the app was fairly easy to use and I was able to take my 400 frames on the app. The lighting in my room isn't too good, unfortunately through out the film the audience is able to see the shadow of the set's surroundings making it a bit distracting. If I could go back and change anything I would have also ordered a bright lamp to get rid of the shadows on set, and also have ordered a sturdier figure as the figure couldn't hold its own weight when standing, even with blue tac. Because of this, I had to use a stand when recording the walk cycle, this just like the shadows, takes the audience's attention away from the animation.
The video below shows my final product. Overall, I don't like this film, I think it's one of my weakest animations so far. I believe my film is flawed because of all the distractions in the film that I mentioned prior, these problems make the film seem amateur and unprofessional. The animation when the character is 'waking up' is smooth and I really like it, however the actual 'walking cycle' is very jagged. I did struggle animating the legs the most out of everything, I think this is mostly due to me never doing stop motion before going into this project. However, I could have resolved this if I had primary reference of someone walking, it would have saved me struggling. Therefore, if I could go back and have changed anything prior filming, I would have had primary reference to use as a source of inspiration. Despite everything though, I do like how my set looked, I think I was able to portray to an audience through the props that the set is a female's bedroom and not just any random environment.