Ss2 welcome to whats new in 2012

Welcome to 2012

These are the beautiful gifts from the family thought id share with you my many interests amongst other animation gifts,Christmas was a great time to spend with the family but most of that time was taken up writing my dissertation which is,

"An Exploration of enduring appeal of Physical Comedy and how this translates to Animation"

 The dissertation has been such a learning experience so far and as far as my knowledge of comedy and techniques I'm getting then when Specialist study 2 starts i will be applying my knowledge from specialist study one but making more of a professional attempt of making a short film still with a deadline but with more time to prepare everything story,character,acting,set design,rigging and most of all my wonderful audience.
This month I'm preparing on getting my dissertation finished, start story with that character personality which also drives the narrative, also will be taking a trip down to Bristol to go to the well renown Slapstick festival to wider my knowledge and understanding of timing and how i can target my physical comedy from well acclaimed actors and comedians.

Laurel and Hardy Boxset

Much anticipated present which I've been interested in for years only being able to watch the odd clip here and there now when il be referencing characteristics when there are a dewo on screen il have what i need to know what works,with over 21 discs and more films than there are discs I'm sure to have a good starting point for my narrative and my character building.

Ss1-Compilation of tests and my slides for friday

                                     

I've come to the end the term and its that time again for presentations, here are my slides below so check them out and above a little showreel from specialist study 1 to gather all my test and my animation together.

Evaluation for Specialist Study1

This specialist study 1 has been the most beneficial term of my whole time at university being an all out stop motion fan and practitioner for many years being able to specialise in what i want its been a long time coming and from this I've learned many things the first being if you want something you've got to work for it and ask the stupid questions,test everything and target what i do to get the best result.
               First was making an armature I clearly thought I had this one in the bag using all the right materials but when it came to animate the magnets weren't strong enough and the armature was top heavy and so switched to a professional armature to get the best results when animating.
               Having my original brief of 3 ten-second clips was changed once I decided to combine a competition brief and stick to physical comedy to specialise which gave me chance to come up with an original narrative which is simple and was clear to an audience of 4-7 years.
               My set was a practical solution which made sense to be able to get movement freely with the character having magnets not work for keeping the character standing,this gave opportunity to try using tie downs and in doing so I learn't more software like illustrator and cad to make all the holes I used a Cnc machine which put the holes through from the co-ordinates I gave from illustrator.
               When animating there were many things I learnt from putting everything in place for animating main things to remember were to make sure to tie everything down,make sure charger is kept full and is in a place easy to change battery without taking camera off the tripod.
              The animating really was where I learnt to keep thinking of where each scene is going in terms of movement of character and how to space each movement for the fps I was using,also to keeping looking at the storyboard and live action referencing.
              Keeping to a deadline was a goal which I was glad I achieved for both briefs having four weeks to prepare for Canimation and then animate with focus for about four days which gave me confidence and improved my animating skills.

Ss1-Look at that wind - test

Ss1 Tests

Coming to the end of specialist studies one and to be honest I've impressed myself with my focus with all my research done filled out an entire sketchbook.Entered a competition for Red bull with a full advert which covers my age range set for ss1 4-7years with physical comedy engaging the audience to keep them wanting to complain if their internet goes half way through my advert.

From there I've been working on drawing out a few simple sketches and finding inspiration from the post before which describes where physical comedy is used best. Also to go with my earlier animation i will be doing mock up tests giving life to objects to give them a life like quality and with my puppet to create snippets to compile into a showreel ready for the end of this year to place on my website which is being made.

Here i've taken an idea and expanded it to add humour.

This snippet was done twice as the first test was lifeless and didn't really make gravity look believable or that the object had any weight.There will be three clips put together to make a short piece which will have rigging left in to show the focus, the animating.

getting back to the felts ruff of a shot in the sketch.

Another post will be up more often as soon as a test is done which will be a lot quicker as there won't be any rig removal so hope to have enough to show by friday at least then ill enjoy a talk by Director of Pirates Peter Lord this saturday in bristol pretty excited.

How i look as a Caricature - well i think its pretty accurate

Also this sketch was done by a friend of mine,check out his blog here - Joe Blakeston practicing characterise friends for his Ss1 

Ss1-Preparation Before animating 'No Bull' Canimation

Stages before animation.
Animation up next week if can't wait link at bottom of post.

Using  a junior saw to get the neck as low as possible.

The neck was sawed about 2cm to be able to get the head closer to the body as at the time was out of proportion.

Getting the set ready

Greenscreen had to be sprayed just before animating because i didn't have a board big enough to fill the entire space behind the character.

Head and hands into place

waiting for araldite to dry aprox 2 hours.

Oh still waiting but once try totally worked a charm

Keeping everything tidy and all models used before kept safe with materals i won't need while animating away safely in a box.

Lighting and shadows

Boardered up window with thick black card.

When coming to animating i new i wouldn't have the best lighting so i didn't want to hinder anything else to the animation by having flash or every frame being a shade different.

then curtains done up to make extra sure

Holding everything in place 

This picture above shows theres a clamp holding a clamp down because of issues of having the set move and the clamp didn't want to stay in place so to give it that little extra hold.

Covering the light from the laptop so it doesn't refrect onto any of the shots.

Furthest clamp away holding an area which wasn't as steady.

More clear image of the clamp holding the clamp.

Scale

Getting the scale right i used greenscreen for the background because original was to small and got an extra large size can of redbull.

As you'll notice the tie'downs left loads of freedon when walking.

Background images from original set to use as greenscreen.

this was the one chosen for obvious reasons so clear ans no refrection.

Acting out tests.

Seeing how to get the redbull easy to animate.

In the end i found a shot glass round the house used that to hold small amounts of redbull then dab it on using a paint brush.

No Bull by Gareth hirst #canimation 

Ss1-Preparation for specialist study 2 set

Ss2-Professional Set

Workshop induction today to be able to get cracking on my set for Specialist study 2 and over the past few days i've been planning how I would benefit with taking extra time to make sure this set will be completely ready for styling and making the set suit all my ideas.

Full size of the base of set.

 

 First thing today after my induction the planning for all the panels to put together the set will be ready tomorrow and will be easy from there to attach the panels and create a much more professional set look.

From there the only thing apart from dressing up the set to suit the narrative would be adding the tie-down holes to use but also would like to make space to be able to move the camera in what angle id like.

Camera angles

This image shows the camera angles i would like to portray easier with the new set, from the angles that have walls im going to see about finding a way of collapsing the walls to make shots that make you feel more into the animation and not have one angle where it may look to straight up,but won't be using them to the extend of making the audience dizzy just ones that need a more professional edge.

Ss1-Head and hands adjustments.

Latexing and hand making

Head

 Not much change with the set today because I ran the drill down and don't have a charger for it, was going to start on walk cycles but instead when I got my armature out found the skin layer of latex wasn't thick enough and was easily crumbling so took the crumbled layer off and started again with more coats of latex.

Hands

Also with some yellow foam tape purchased from amazon, used the latex to thicken out the foam and get more of a thickness but still be able to move the fingers easily.Obviously there will be tidying up with loads of adjustments also having to paint the hands after a few more coats of latex once this layer is dried.

Finding the animating should only be done once everything is at an all round standard,but will be testing the armature with walk cycles hopefully tomorrow.

Ss1-Raising the set to get underneath.

Space for Tie Down Rigging
Making the set raised for tie downs, first there was going to be four blocks which were glued together to then be attached to the floor of the set but when testing out moving the rigging there wasn't enough space for the hands to move the tie downs.
  So from there I thought about making the space a lot larger by actually making a separate box underneath the set to give total control to about 15 cm but then with that would make the set higher and less space to bring other rigs into it.
   From that I went back to using blocks but made sure there was a lot more space, going back to the workshop I found a large plank spare so put it on the bandsaw made sure all six pieces were the same six and tested them with the rigging and felt snug as a rug.

Deciding on the spacing and where the hands would need to be coming from.

 First before screwing all the blocks in place after deciding where they were going, to make sure the blocks wouldn't have a chance of moving I added a strong glue,Once dry made space for the screws to be guided to then screw in three spaces through to each block.

Drying onto set floor

space for walls of space

Space underneath for tie down.

Overview

Set walls and character tests with set, more research ready for dissertation and decide on tickets for Bristols animation Festival Encounters.

Ss1-Research into Buster Keaton

Research and inspiration for essay and when animating.

Found this on play the other day and saw it was six discs of great films which have in relation a lot of films which i've already refrenced before in my case study and when looking at films from the uni library.

The large collection will help me when coming to animate a character in the humour i want to be portrayed also the when coming to my dissertation which is going to be difficult for me personally so the more research and things i look an in the field im writting about the better the essay which come out.


Brief description from the site and the films included
A collection of 28 films featuring the 'Great Stone Face' himself, Buster Keaton.

Buster Keaton is one of the trio of great comedy geniuses that the silent era produced and, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, can still be considered one of the great comics of all time. Buster starred in both features and shorts and, as proof of his enduring popularity, his 1927 masterpiece The General was voted number 18 on the AFI-Top 100 Funniest films of all time in June 2000. 

Buster has profound things to say about man and modern life; famous for his high-speed timing and inventiveness which have never been surpassed in the history of cinema. His films remain today as fresh, modern and as wonderfully funny as when they were made. 

Films Comprise:

1.One Week
2.The Saphead
3.Convict 13
4.The Scarecrow
5.Neighbors
6.The Haunted House
7.The Goat
8.The Boat
9.The Playhouse
10.The Paleface
11.Cops
12.My Wife's Relations 
13.The Blacksmith
14.The Frozen North
15.The Electric House
16.Day Dreams
17.The Balloonatic
18.The Love Nest
19.The Three Ages
20.Our Hospitality (Thames Silent Version) 
21.Sherlock Jr. 
22.The Navigator
23.Seven Chances
24.Go West
25.Battling Butler
26.The General (Thames Silent Version) 
27.College
28.Steamboat Bill Jr. 
29.The Great Stone Face (1968 documentary)

Ss1-Problem Puppet and Set Reinventing

Fixing threaded wire into the puppets head

close up on threaded wire

After getting things together, a small job which ended up time consuming because taking out the original wire which was inside the puppets head and changing it to a threaded wire to make more compatible to the armature which is using a ball and socked armature.

workshop area for the day

If you can see the picture you'll see I finally got the job done.

In the end I don't have a picture but I used a dremmel to file down the wire to the width needed to get inside the puppets head which took some time with the wire getting hot every time so ended up having to go over the wire about ten times in the same area.

Organisation is important.

Finding myself looking for armature pieces and eyes on the floor after dropping them became annoying and time consuming,the money I spend on the box saves time in the long run.

Re-thinking set approach & giving tests a place to animate.

 (also less home made more professional)

Floor plan & Rigging.

First picked up some Mdf and drew out spacing for vertical and horizontal.

Realising lines were not matching up added correct measurements with and X.

After measurements aligned correctly

(endless grid)

Ongoing thinking about how the set will be placed together or to be able to pull apart.

To be able get get exact measurements correct and not waste time I used a machine called CNC which with the correct measurements given will take commands from software such as illustrator,Corral and Cad.

Screen grabs of the illustration document 5mm each hole.

Finished and ready to sent to cad then the Cnc machine.

 With the help of splirgion(spelt as said) a workshop technician helped so much in letting me use the CNC machine, the reason for the holes? For the rigging as you'll of noticed I will be using tie downs which consists of connecting an armature with a hole in your set using a nut and bolt.

Holes not in place? CNC took measurements from bottom of Mdf,mine are from the drawn out box.

From the things to get me to this stage I will be using this set as the before set  to test armatures mainly.

Tie down fits perfectly leaving enough room to be able to have not movements in the set when changing position.