I'm rather proud how I can convey his emotions. I really like the eye brows. I also like the texture of the character. Unfortunately, the puppet itself was a little difficult to animate. Not my best built, but it did last for the entirety of the shoot. The character was a little top heavy, so I couldn't have him walk too much. A heavier gauge wire may have to be used in his legs.
In this test, I also wanted to see how the ground would look. I used the same stage as I did with the Wayside Soil test where all the holes were pre-drilled. When I wanted the character to step his foot in a specific location, I poked through the hole in the stage and the layer of clay. I then cleaned out the area around the hole and put the screw through to tighten into the tee nut that is in the foot. When the foot lifts off, I take some clay to cover the hole back up. This will be barely noticeble. At worst, it'll be seen as a minor foot print.
The sequence itself does seem a little long, so I'll definitely have to strip it down to the bare essentials for the story. My goal is to give each soil no more than two minutes. Most likely the shots of pebble stacking will have to go. It may also be to difficult to set up and animate.
I made the rain using my 3Doodler pen and some clear blue pla plastic. The effect appears to work with each drop having a two frame exposure. For the final product, I plan to draw the mid air drops and have them scanned into the computer. They can be animated digitally, and still match with the drops hitting the ground.
The bird will appear to each soil in the film even though he is only mentioned for the wayside soil in the parable. I think It'll be a good way to show how everyone struggles with an encounter with the devil. As I work on the soil test animation, I do plan to make the bird puppet more sophisticated. Hopefully he'll turn out to be a little creepy and scary since he is suppose to represent the devil.
I'm going to stick to my guns and have no dialogue or voice over. There are too many preachy religious films out there. I want my film to start a conversation, and not be a conversation. I may use a bible verse to open up the film as well as one to close it, like bookends.
In the last post, I mentioned a film festival I thought about entering. However, I did the math and realized the idea was too complicated to complete on time. I still may make the film someday because I think it's a good idea. I did however, go to the festival as an audience member which was fun in its own right. I met new people who had similar interests, and I was able to see what was being made by others in my own area. I have come to realize I don't have much of a social life, so I went on this little adventure.
Speaking of adventures, I'm going on another one in the middle of West Virginia. My film Halloween Treasure was completed last year for a friendly competition on the animate clay website (now called stop motion magic). Just for giggles, I entered it into a couple of film festivals. It made it into the WV FILMmakers fest, so I'll be going there this coming weekend to meet more filmmakers.
This is also the time of year to update my animation reel. I didn't want to put it together until I completed the test above. So here it is...
In other news, I have started studying for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. I don't remember everything, but I do recognize most of the material I'm reading. I guess that's a good start. Sometimes I feel torn between being an engineer and an artist, but I got to do what I can to reach my full potential. Thanks for reading and may God bless you!
