Constellation

Lately my life has been a little chaotic.  Many preparations had to be done to my parents' house for the holidays.  However, I still found time to work on a little short film called Constellation.  Every month the website animateclay.com (a stop motion community online) posts a fun competition where the theme is picked by the winner of the previous month.  Because the new Star Wars movie was coming out, the theme picked was Space.  I thought about it, but I didn't want to do anything too complicated.  Then an idea for a very simple story line with a simple approach to animation gave me the assurance that I could finish something half decent in time for the deadline.

One of the most fascinating topics I have ever learned was the concept of stellar evolution, a process that describes how stars go from one stage to another.  The story of a young star finding his place in the universe became the basic premise.  I drew up some story boards and realized the best way to simplify production was to use 2.5 D animation.  In other words, I was animating clay characters that were as flat as cookies.  The technique is very similar to cut out animation.  Once I figured out the story, I did some animation testing for faces and I also wanted to see if I could get some decent green screen effects.

Recently, I have been rereading The Animator's Survival Kit  which was written by Richard Williams.  The section on drawing breakdowns especially provided insight on how to create interesting animation in the face.  You see, in traditional animation key poses are drawn, and then a drawing in the middle dictates how the movement will look.  This is called the breakdown.  Choosing a proper breakdown will add more life to a scene.  Instead of going from a smile to a frown directly the expression in the middle can be something other than a face with a straight line for a mouth.  Obviously, this doesn't apply all the time.  Sometimes you need to go directly in the middle.  As I stood over my camera, I did the best I could to know when to apply this principle properly.  The result is facial animation that has real life.  I am really proud how this film turned out.

I also did my best to follow my own rules.  Mostly all the characters stay in the same relative space unless something more powerful knocks them out of their spot.

The nebulae is made out of pillow stuffing colored by markers.  The stars in the background are copies of a small clay model in different positions that were scanned directly into the computer.  For the mouths, I used replacements and added flexibility to them by stretching the lips to better transition from one mouth to another.  I used a little bit of focal blur to give an impression to depth,and to also help the audience focus on the main characters.  The highlight effects are bright colored blobs that were blurred out and given transparency.

Typically when people speak of the cosmos, they talk about being part of a bigger picture, so the concept of the constellation really nailed this film.  To further cement it, I added the bible verse at the end.  It's probably one of those few space films that combines some science and religion.  My only regret is that I didn't incorporate a black hole.  It could have made an excellent climax.  If I ever get a chance to make a film like this again, I would do it.

Thanks again for reading and may God bless you!

The Bake Sale Thief is Here!

Wow, my last post was back in January.  Time flies when you animate, graduate college, job search, work, go to church, and buy a car (aka having fun).  Yes, much has happened in my life for the past year.  Although I am proud of my accomplishment for receiving my bachelors of science in mechanical engineering, I unfortunately didn't have a job upon graduation like most of my friends.  However, I continue to cling to God and allow him to direct my life.  Believe me, that's not easy.

Part of the reason this film took so long to complete was because I sunk into a depression after I graduated.  On top of not having an engineering job, I also got my recently purchased car rear ended in Morgantown.  During that time, I struggled with my faith, but eventually came around when I started listening to God through His inspiring words in the bible.  When I started putting my trust back in God again, I got more involved with my local church.  I always felt God was calling me to the children's ministry, so I volunteered to help the youth memorize bible verses.

As my faith was growing, I decided to get back into animating.  I actually considered to abandon this film and start something fresh and new.  However, I watched the animation I had already completed during my last semester at college (the first two minutes of the film).  I really liked the animation, and I realized I came too far to simply abandon the project.  After praying about it, I decided to finish the film.  Once I animated a few shots, a new feeling of excitement was filling inside of me.  My passion for this medium was reignited.

Sections of the film were rewritten to allow the story to flow better and to simplify the animation.  The next five minutes were then completed.  Special effects were applied, sound was added, and music brought the film to a new level.  I'm so pleased with the final result!  I think it could provide a wonderful opportunity to show other people what Jesus meant when he said love your enemies (Matthew 5:44).

Although I'm proud of the result, I'll admit the film does have some flaws.  There is a filming discontinuity because some of the shots were done out of sequence and I didn't properly keep track of a minor detail.  The sound is also not the best, but hopefully most won't notice my amateur efforts.  What I really am proud of is the animation.  I think it's some of the best I have ever done because I really got into the heads of the characters to help determine what actions they would do in certain moments of the film.  I also felt I took full advantage of using the camera to tell the story.  Every shot was thought out to support the overall narrative.

Yeah, it's not perfect, but I am very proud of it.  I feel confident people will be very entertained when they see it.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!

The Bake Sale Thief!

I finally figured out the third episode!  This story took a long time to write, but I finally have it nailed down.  Let me explain.  Generally, I write these shorts on simple ideas, but they eventually get really complicated and the story needs to be simplified once again.  I wanted this episode to be a little different, so I went more with a mystery theme.  The past two episodes deal with a chase sequence, so I omitted anything of the like.  I also wanted to introduce more characters, particularly the goody goblin.  I had the drawing in my sketch and I just had to bring him to life even though I wasn't sure how to move forward with the story at the time.

The original sketches of the Goody Goblin.

Oddly enough, I built the character before I even started writing the story board.  The first step was to make the armature.  To help maintain the size and consistency of the head during the animation process, I used a head cast from resin for the skull.  This was from the same mold I used from the fur ball in The Pet Rock.  Next I drilled some holes in a cardboard egg and used it as a torso.  I twisted metal wire for the arms and legs and fed them through metal tubing.  Unlike the other characters that have rubber hose arms, I wanted him to be more rigid to make him less appealing.  The neck is a metal tube wired around a plate.  The plate is screwed onto the torso as well as the other limbs.  The head as a metal dowel attached to stick inside the neck.  The ears are made from a smaller gauge of wire to be more flexible.  Masking tape was used as a from of mesh.  Blue beads were glued into the head for eyes.  Finally, the clay was applied.

The Goblin's Armature

The finished puppet.

When the puppet was finished, I did some test animation.  The results reflect how the story would be written.  As I did the animation, I wrote the story board.  In animation, the visual should be regarded with the most importance.  Instead of writing a script with words, I use drawings to create inventive visual gags.  I use a sheet with a sequence of boxes to keep all the ideas organized.  If I make a mistake or if I want to make changes, I cut and paste (tape) the old fashion way until the story is finished. 

First page of storyboard.

When developing the story, I realized I needed at least one more character for the bake sale.  Since all the other characters are male, I changed it up once again and created a girl character.  Her armature is similar to Mr. Weebee's, a typical skeleton.  She also has a skull from a resin cast.  It was originally a mistake.  When I mixed and poured the liquid plastic, I waited to long for the chemical reaction to take place.  I was filling up the fur ball head mold when all of a sudden the plastic solidified.  Due to the flatness of this head, I decided to model this character in a more gingerbread man style.  The final model made sense since the character was to be a baker.

Final model of  the girl baker.

Once finished with the modeling, I did a simple animation test.  It turned out satisfactory, so it was the last test necessary before entering production.  I am happy with the results so far.  The Bake Sale Thief will follow Mr. Weebee as he attempts to help out with a charity bake sale.  However, trouble begins when he discovers someone is snatching all the baked goods.  As he unravels the mystery, he not only discovers the culprit, but also the motive.

I honestly can't tell when I'll have this finished.  I'm in my last semester of college.  I'll see how much time and energy I can muster to work on this along with my candle movie project, school work, work, church, job search, and so on...  Only God knows.  I plan to start production on 1/23/15.

Thanks for reading and may God bless you!