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.