The Rock is Moving

Well the time of the year for finals has arrived at college.  Everything is winding down, so I had some opportunities to do some more animation.  Since I was merely testing out characters, I feel that I have done all that is needed.  Despite my schedule being every busy this semester, I have managed to complete over a minute of animation.  This is encouraging since I have only worked on animation for a fraction of the semester.  If I can start production right at the beginning of the spring semester, I should be able to finish the film by May 2014.

I figured out how to simplify the story line.  The original plot had one too many characters.  The film was originally going to involve Mr. Weebee's girl friend, but I think she'll have a better and bigger role to play in the episode after this one.  This film will probably be as long as "The Booger Monster."

There's not much else to say.  I hope the goal will be reached.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!

Moving at the Speed of a Rock

Well, I'm getting through my junior fall semester okay.  I seem to be doing well in all my classes and it looks like I'm moving in the direction God wants me to go with my career.  But enough of all that silliness, I'm writing to provide an update for the latest Mr. Weebee adventure!

Title:  The Pet Rock

Premise:  Mr. Weebee adopts a pet rock which accidentally sparks the jealously of another pet from the same store.

I have completed the storyboards for this episode, but it appears to be a little too long.  It seems solid as is, but I think I should try to simplify it.  The Mr. Weebee series was never intended to be a skit of great complexity.  I hope that if I do make changes, the story will still be solid enough to progress in the film making process.

One of the first things I did was repair the Mr. Weebee puppet.  Nothing too serious.  The wire that holds his arm into position broke off of the main torso of the armature.  This took about an hour, probably less to complete.  Yes, Mr. Weebee is a live and well.  In some of the pictures you can even see him in the background exercising.

After that, I started building the pet that would be jealous over the rock.  I'm going to call it a fur ball.  It's probably not the most original name, but I'm going to stick with it!

His armature was fairly simple.  It was nothing more than a few pieces of metal frame and plates bolted together.  For his front "legs" I used a piece of bent metal tubing.

The build up for his body was merely dried out disinfectant wipes that wrapped around the armature.

What's a fur ball without fur?  I applied it by sewing it in certain areas onto the build up material.

I decided that it was best to cast the head of the creature in resin.  This way, the character will maintain the shape of his head.  Plus, I get to put my resin casting kit to good use.

The original head is sculpted in clay. 

I placed the head inside a plastic cup (the neck piece touching the bottom) and poured in the silicone mixture. 

When the silicone was cured, I cut it open to get the clay head out. 

Here is the the completed mold ready for casting!

As a precaution, I sealed the sides with clay before pouring the resin mixture into the silicone mold. 

Here is a comparison between between the clay sculpt and the resin cast.

There were seams and other small imperfections on the final cast.  To fix these errors, I covered them with some black clay.  This will also help the head match the clay texture of the other characters.

  For finishing touches, I glued on the eyes and ears for this creature.  The eyes were beads, while the ears were clay covered pieces of wire.

You know you want to own one.

I can't wait to see this character come to life in the animation process!  Although this episode won't be completed until the summer of next year, you should expect a reel of animation tests in the beginning of 2014 at the latest.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!

The Booger Monster is Here!

During my busy summer, I managed to finish The Booger Monster.  I wanted to make Mr. Weebee's return to be a tribute to the monster movie genre.  It was the first idea of this new series to solidify, so I logically took the next step of bringing this story to life.  What's convenient is that I finished it just before Fall.  I hope it'll get plenty of views during the Halloween season.  Anyway, here's Mr. Weebee's latest adventure.

In total, it took about a month to animate.  I had fun making this short because it was simple especially when compared to the rather complex film The Strong Spirit.  I want to keep this series simple, so the sets are not going to be so complex.  I like the idea that the characters appear to be performing on some kind of stage in front of an audience with a wooden floor and fabric background.

  

This very simple set design is ideal for a series like this.

I'll also continue to experiment with lighting throughout the series.  I want to see how I can get the right atmosphere for future films by using different colors, textures, and so forth.  Lighting can really make a difference in a scene.  For example, the sequence of the booger monster's birth wouldn't be the same if I didn't use an LED flash light and purple tissue paper to give a cool and other-worldly effect in the scene.

I really wanted to make this scene appear spooky, so I clipped a piece of purple tissue paper in front of my fill light and added an overhead blue light by taping an LED flash light to a rig.

I will continue to have the films run on ones and at 25 fps.  I feel this is the best way I can express myself in animation.  I believe keeping the movement of my characters fluid and smooth gives added value to the film all together.  However, I also don't mind if some of it ends up jerky.  Sometimes, I really like my animation when it pops in front of the viewer's eyes.  It gives a sense of spontaneity which helps keep the the attention of the audience.

The length of these shorts will remain at five minutes or less.  I don't want to spend so much time on an idea that can be simplified in this time line.  I spent about a year and a half working on The Strong Spirit.  While I enjoyed producing the sixteen minute film, I felt I was robbing myself of expressing a more variety of ideas by sticking to a longer and more complex story.  With three five minute films made in the same amount of time, I could have expressed more ideas because each one would have its own story.  That's partly the purpose of this Mr. Weebee series.  I want to express some of the random ideas that jumble around in my head, but I want to do it with returning characters.

For example, I had this random idea of having a monster glowing from the inside.

This fall, I will post more details for the next short.  Everything is going to be planned out before my three week Christmas vacation.  During those three weeks, I plan to complete all of the animation.  When I return to college for the spring semester, I'll do the editing.  Hopefully this next adventure will be completed before February of 2014.  Let's see what God allows to happen.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!  

Mr. Weebee's Revival

A couple of years ago, I made a few short films staring a blue clay character named Mr.Weebee.  His first adventure involved throwing a knife.  There was no plot.  It was basically an animation exercise for Animate Clay.com.  You can watch the video below.

As the year went by, I continued to make short films starring this character and entering them into the Animate Clay monthly challenge.  Because of bigger projects, I stopped making the shorts.  It also didn't help that I was running out of ideas.  However as I was working on those bigger projects, I accumulated several simple ideas for short films, ideal for a new series of Mr. Weebee.  I made sure I wrote them all down, so I wouldn't forget them.

After finishing The Strong Spirit I decided to pursue this new Mr. Weebee series as I work on my first serious cartoon animated project enLIGHTenment.  Toward the end of the spring semester at college in 2013, I started working on a few experiments.  I rebuilt and modified the design of Mr. Weebee.  I even made him an armature (he didn't have one until now).

 This is a frame from the test animation.  The main difference of the design is in the eyes.

Initially, I had a lot of trouble with the camera.  It tends to wobble in the video because it moved as I pressed the button to take each picture.  I tried applying my knowledge of physics to create a special brace to fix this problem.  It didn't work.  I soon resolved the problem by using the self timer on the camera.  When I press the button, it counts two seconds and then takes the picture.  During the two seconds, the camera settles back down to its original position after having its shutter button pressed.  This technique helped keep the frame still as you see the characters move.

This is a frame from the test animation.  You can briefly see the designs of the brace in a shot.

This new series will introduce a new important character.  So far he's a wizard with no name.  I'll give him one eventually.  He was particularly fun to animate because I was trying to see what kind of expressions I could get from his mustache.  From the bottom of his robe up to the chest area, is a pill bottle that makes up half of the armature.  The chest piece is a metal brace with bolts.  Metal wires support his arms and neck.  The head of the armature is a wooden ball.  The brim of his hat is a piece of card stock covered in clay.

A frame from the test animation.  The "table" is actually the bottom of a Play-Doh container.

Last but not least is the main antagonist of the first short, the booger monster.  The bottom of his armature is a LED touch light.  Metal wires are attached to the touch light and lead up to the top of his head, a crumpled up piece of paper wrapped in duct tape.  Despite his simplicity and cruddy appearance, I am happy with the character.  I liked the idea of having a monster that glowed from within.  I guess you can say that the Jack-o-lantern subconsciously inspired this design.

A frame from the test animation.  The character was actually difficult to control at first, but I finally got his movement down.

Here is the test animation.  The segment with the wizard jumps a bit because the battery died on me and I had to recharge and reinsert it into the camera.

The set design will not change.  This world will still take place on a table top with a simple back drop and minimal set pieces.  The storyboard is finished and I can soon move on to the animation phase.  I hope you're looking forward to Mr. Weebee's new adventure!  

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!