Week 5 - Maquettes Cont

Maquettes:

Sculptures: Why do we use them in Stop Motion or Animation in general? 

Part of the pre-production process and helps to develop the character to a final resolution. It's the final part of the process and allows it to be a much more real process, helps whoever is working on the production to visualise the space, weight and volume of the character.

Could approach the character with a traditional hand drawn approach or a much more fluid and abstract attempt, then you will finalise it to make it a much more solid design and resolve all of the issues you were faced with in the early stages of the character build. This will then allow you to develop the 'turnaround' - helps to understand how the character will behave.

The Turnaround:

Can be in full colours and must be ruler guided to make sure it's accurately placed to cross reference during the building process of the model. This is mainly to give the sculptor an understanding of the character.

Once the turnaround is complete, it will go straight into the build for a maquette. Even when you are  working on a CG pipeline, you can still create maquettes because it can tell the Animator the space it will need to occupy.

Stop Motion Maquettes: 

Traditionally with stop motion, a maquette is what you will be looking at. The exact height and measurements of the character are important, but also a clue for the presence of the character, in terms of it's own personality etc. There are many approaches you could use to do this.

You can use different metrologies to resolve the problem with building a maquette, this is a straight forward creative process and enables you to find a way that suits you best as an Animator and for your film. 

There will always be a sensibility of the design for your character because you will have to assess how the character will move within an Animation. You will have to come up with a completely different approach that will allow you to create an Animation to aid your visual research. This will allow you to come sip with a Treatment to enable you to create something exceptional.

Size within maquette are very important, and you should be making it in real life sizes. Something bigger may not be appropriate for an Animation because of the set and know the set size you will need. It will give you false readings if it is too big or too small. 

Most importantly, giving an idea about the characters 'inner' character is crucial to making a maquette. When you build a maquette it should always give an indication on what the character will be like for the film. 

You will need to explore other approaches and keep it well within your treatment and vision of your film. If your treatment calls out for the Stop Motion film, then it should be pursued through the use of your work. There is no reason your maquette couldn't take on a more delicate and light approach. This would be refreshing to see within Animation, as it's rarely ever done.

Treatment:

The most important element to your Stop Motion film. It is something that you use to convey that the approach you are taking suits the storyline best. There are many different approaches to Stop Motion, often many people will be drawn to the obvious treatments. ('ParaNorman')

Taking a unique approach will help develop a new and forward thinning way of Animating to a film. You could approach this with a mixture of found objects to make a maquette yourself - this could be enabled by using 2D and 3D. 

Research and Approaches:

The research into different cultures and approaches will allow you to work intricately within your Animation and open up different subject areas to explore with your Armature or Maquette.

You could explore variations of lighting to create an atmospheric Animation. This will then allow you to delve into 'layers' within Animation, this can be sought by using materials such as 'thicker paper, lighter paper' and the light being shone through each area for the Animation. The beauty of this methodology allows you to draw many different objects digitally and layer them together in a simple, yet effective fashion.

('Lottie Reineger' Prince Achmed)

You could make this Animation as 3D as you like, for example, a book coming to life using lighting and situations to manipulate the scene to Animate it. This will save you a lot of time if you wanted to take this approach and could resolve some issues you may run into. 

'Carousel' approach - Same format as the run cycle on a board.

Polymers:

There are several different versions of Polymers on the market, 'Fimo' is one of the most popular products to use within constructing a Polymer model. Another product is 'Sculpey' and the nicest part about using them is that they bake in the oven and after 15 minutes you can take it out and it will be rock hard for your o use.

Normal tools are; Scalpel, Craft Knife and other basic tools to manipulate the clay. 'Sculpey' paintbrush tools are perfect for making fine grain marks on the models and allows you to add finishing touches to your model.

Rubbing Alcohol can help to soften the 'Sculpey'.

'Ian McKay' - GTA Artist

You can use foil in the oven as it won't melt unlike the polystyrene used for the previous Maquette, you can then apply clay over the top of the Maquette; you can then continue to paint them to further the detail for your character.

Week 4 - Maquettes

Maquettes:

In terms of the usability, it is good because it allows you to see the physical shape of the object, understand the depth and volume and the space it occupies before developing the film overall. However, in terms of stop-motion, you could develop a series of drawings to develop a working treatment for it.

You could devise different approaches that give you the same result to help with the treatment for the animation you are wanting to create. 

Making a Maquette:

You will need a really thick wire, so it is sturdy. Don't get the maquette any bigger than 20cm because you will want to move it. Something between 16 to 20cm should be the maximum you will want to work with.

The blocks that go with the maquette and stick them into the wire to build into the arms and legs. This will help frame the skeleton underneath the actual puppet. Will be using Pleistocene, then cellophane for filing and cutting the body arts down. You could also use the 'Hot wire' to sculpt the body down and then bulk the body up as much as possible to cover it with clay.

Base for your puppet; discs to create a maquette on top.

Animate your puppets bouncing a ball against the wall 3 times.

(Reference for positioning of squash and stretch)

Attempt 1:  Using a Ruler to move the ball.

My first attempt at trying to animate a bouncing ball three times didn't turn out very well. I had completely missed the idea of using a rig to animate a bouncing ball instead of actually bouncing it. I then began to brainstorm other ways I could move the ball and then remove the prop through keying the colour out.

Attempt 2: Using Sellotape to move the ball.

In my second attempt I tried to use sellotape to change the positioning of the ball. This was definitely worse than the first attempt as it's not a very steady object to use to move an object. I found that it tended to swing backwards and forwards when I was trying to get the squash and stretch into it.

Attempt 3: Using the wall to bounce the ball.

After my other 2 attempts at this process had failed, I began to explore other options. I tried making the positions for the ball in clay and then placing them onto the piece of paper I was filming against. However, I attempted this with quite a thin piece of paper and it didn't work very well and the paper ended up falling down onto the Armature causing the positioning of the character to be moved.

Attempt 4: Using the wall (Second Attempt)

This way seemed to be a much better way of approaching the task and began to experiment with different positions after I had got more comfortable with the process and using the wall for the positions of the ball. 

Final Attempt: 

My last attempt at this task worked really well, I had completely understood what positions the ball had to be in and made sure there was a clear squash and stretch happening as the character bounced the ball three times against the wall. 

Week 3 - Brief Introduction

For the brief, you will be submitting 4 area's:

1.) Generating and Selecting Idea's

2.) Research and analysis of information, contextualisation and critical thinking

3.) Investigation, enquiry and visualisation

4.) Process/and or Concept Development

a

Research:

• Research the twisted fairytales
• Research an appropriate story
• Research variety of treatment for stop-motion
• Research necessary tools and materials

Develop:

• Develop an appropriate treatment for your story
• Develop a colour scheme and script
• Develop characters
• Develop sets, and if necessary, a lighting scheme
• Develop a short storyboard of a sequence, making sure the quality of the work but more importantly functionally

Make:

• Make maquttes
• Make armatures, cut-outs, puppets costumes and models
• Make sets and design a lighting set

Test:

• Test animation of your characters
• Test your designs through test animation
• Test animate of the sets
• Test animate the storyline based on your short story board (no more than 20 second)

All the work must be on the blog. Your submission should include the final tests and a 500 word treatment of the work you have produced. All work is submitted on this blog electronically. 

Armature Research:

Making Armatures and Electrical blocks - Terminal electrical connector blocks are an affordable way of creating armatures to allow a good flow of connectivity for the model. 

Make sure the size that you pick can hold a wire, if the wire snaps with the electrical connector, all you will need to do is replace the wire rather than a whole part of the Armature.

You can strip the plastic away and end up with the core, which is a brass tubing with screws at either end allowing you to tighten the armature into place. Can use a core of millipede in the middle to design it to be more flexible. Furthermore, it can be more flexible to have replacement hands by using one end of the block going into the twisted wire above and the hand going into the twisted wire underneath. This would then be a legitimately flexible armature to allow you to replace parts in.

Tubes:

Aluminium tubings help with the armature, they are really easy to cut by marking off the elements you want to use and cut to size. These can be inserted with aluminium wire and then glued into place. There are a variety of different types of glues you can purchase, for example a two-part proxy glue and apply inside of the tube and insert the wire to allow it to set securely. A much more immediate process.

You can purchase them in brass and aluminium which allows for precessional productions and then fit the gauges into each other for a perfect fit. This would be the next step forward for when you are dealing with more complex armatures.

Task: Next week, resolution to the story. Development of the characters, Treatment - come to class with a character ready in mind and drawn. 

Week 2 - Armatures

Armature Testing - iStopMotion

Whilst applying the structure of my Armature, I was doing a few rough tests to see how flexible the wire was for movement. I found that it was able to stay up for the movements that weren't complicated, however, the movement that involved a lot of strength didn't keep the armature in place.

This caused me problems when I was attempting to complete the walk cycle, as I didn't put the milliput on the model for the feet, I struggled with actually making sure the foot positions were correct for the walk. If i were to do this again, I would make sure the feet were secure and strong enough to hold the model in place.

Furthermore, I was testing the speed of movement, I realised that my timing in general is an element within Animation that needs to be worked on. To rectify this, I will plan out future frames to make sure there is a sense of continuity within my work, although this was a test it would stand me in good practice to make sure timing is correct throughout all my Animations and tests.

Twisted Fairytales - Research

Any environment or setting you develop has to be based upon those themes of Fairytales that are twisted.

Most twisted fairytales adopt a post-modernist style and concept which is usually found within Performance Arts, Film, TV, Theatre and Animation with the intent to make the audience distrust the theories and ideologies that are usually associated with the conventions of fairytales.

The most prominent theorists behind this work are Jean Leotard, Jacques Derrida, Jean Buadrillard and Karl Barth. Many post modernist narratives reject linear order and stable notions of chronology to abandon traditional concepts of historical development as a series of determinate causes and effects. Therefore, a running theme within these 'Twisted Fairytales' are to undermine cause and effect whilst attempting to integrate art and life. 

Although there is mainly non-linear and fragmented illusions of continuity, there is also a dissolving of borders between fiction and non-fiction, between genres and high/low cultures. 

By attempting to Animate a 'Twisted Fairytale' character OR even create an Animation based off one of these stories would include the presence of personal symbols and metaphors that are driven from the artists fragmented personal experiences. This then becomes a dramatisation of a world in which there are no depths and nothing under the surface. This allows the sense of life that is lived in a world with no transcendent meaning which leads to a nihilistic view.

Research Links:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2777.Best_Twisted_Fairy_Tales

Week 1 - Introduction

Submission: 9th May 2016

Basic Information about Brief:

• Technical craft based, only thing to consider is the way that you're making your work flow and if there is a story; are you making sure it flows together with your armatures?
• What would be the correct treatment? Would it be a full 3D or something else more appropriate?
• IF you intend to make a 3D Character, you will need a skeleton to make it properly. This process takes around a day to make. The step up from that is a longer skeleton with aluminium tubes - you can purchase them from Wilkinsons. 
• Armature can be made up of soldiering, brass tubes, metal tubes and aluminium pipes. They are known to break, therefore enables you to make another arm if you wanted to/needed one.
• You can still use clay without a wire armature; this still enables you to have movement and work within Animation. 
• Output at the end of the module is not a film but a body of work - portfolio, workflow of a particular type off story, test animations etc.
• Part of what you are going to be leaning, 'Dragonflame'. A program which is industry standard, a lot more advanced than iStop Motion; to be looking at how you can do a lot more e.g pulling focus from one object to another. You can focus on a lower level or pull the focus on to a top level. 
• Lighting systems, dim the colours, change the colours to engage with Animation. If you are doing 3D Puppets, allows you to pull the camera from one side to another for your Animation. Will allow you to come up with your own Treatment for your brief. 

Information about Wire:

• Use aluminium because it's the easiest substance to manipulate, however, it has a drawback of if you constantly move it around - it breaks easily. Therefore, it's often best that you twist three strips of wire and bend them into a form you want to achieve. If you twist too many strips of wire together, it'll be too stiff to move around in a 'bending' action. Hence why using twisted wires allows you to have strength when creating an Armature for Animation. 
• Thin Copper Wire can be added to the wires to make sure that it's a lot stronger and even if the aluminium breaks, the copper will suffice for Animating whilst you repair it.
• The thicker wires are used for Giants as it will hold the structure in place. 
• There is a 3ml wire available which isn't very good for Animation because it's too thick.
• Have to be meticulous about your design process in terms of strength and durability of the wire, if not it will affect the structure of your character.
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Gauges:

The most common gauge is  a 1.6ml Aluminium wire, 2ml and 1ml(very thin wire). 

- 2ml you will only add where you need strength in places, soft an pliable areas.

- Joints will require 1.6ml

- For the spine, you will require a 1.6ml and 2ml to allow for stiffness when you are Animating. 

Millipude: 

This isn't a tool used for Animation, it prevents leaks and is used for parts of China ornaments. The colours are useful for other attributes within modelling, but it's purpose is not used for crafting models generally. It's a 2 part poxy resin; You need to mix them in equal parts to make sure it sets properly, start with tiny amounts first because otherwise you will be wasting it. 

Once you have them mixed together you can apply them. Under normal conditions the millipude will become hard within 3-4 hours. You then have 1 1/2 hours to work with the object which then enables you to Animate. The only drawback with millipede is that it is known to chip. (Take  craft knife to the millipude and tidy the character up as you want it to look nice in Animation - and be smooth)

M3 knots/3mm steel knots:

• Bog standard gauge that is used for tie downs; mould it to the table.
• If it's tied down, you can go on to reposition it's structure whilst it is secure. 
• Having a 3mm knot is crucial because it enables you to move the structure without repositioning everything with the Armature.
• You need to make that in two parts, roll a bit of clay around the knot, dry, put more clay around the foot so it becomes one thing.

Stop Motion Rig:

• It fits into the Armature and allows you to adjust the shot and you move the rig every time you want to move the character.
• These are important because it allows you to move the rig without moving the feet on the Character. 

Devices used for Modelling and Twisting Wires:

• Tightening device that can be secured to a corner of the room which enables you to twist the wire without moving the pieces, clip it off at the end when you are finished.
• Can use an electric drill
• Screwdriver
• Wire

1.) Take a strip off the wire, cut it in half and begin to stretch the wire out.

2.) If you are doing a 2-Twisted wire section, hold both ends and feed it into the device and tighten.

3.) Then you put the end into the electric drill by feeding it through; Tighten the device.

4.) Make sure you are feeding this through the CENTRE of the drill. 

5.) As it twists, it shortens. So keep the wire tort and keep the wires loose so you are able to keep track of the length of the wires.

6.) If you over twist, it is likely to break at the end or the beginning.

7.) Try a loose one, then a tighter one.

Experimentation with Designing an Armature: (First Session Attempts)

Millipud on Armature:

Task 1 - 10 Seconds of Animation to get a sense of how they behave, test  the armatures of the characters.

Where's my head? - Testing the Armature.

I found this task relatively easy in terms of moving the Armature around. However, the hardest part was making sure the model didn't move in between frames as the structure didn't have a set build. The millipud was strong enough to hold the character in place during takes, but did start to crumble towards the end.

If I were to continue this Animation I would make sure that the Armature was stronger in order to hold the position of the character better,  although I assume that with more millipud this issue would be solved.