Walking

For the first half of the film the protagonist is bed ridden, now I'm past those scenes I'm starting to discover the difficulties of animating a realistic walk cycle.... I should have just built a wheel chair.

The Magic Of Post-Production

The first third of the film has been filmed and edited! The entire second scene uses red screen so that has been an interesting challenge to work with. I hadn't really had that much experience with After Effects before this semester but so far it's been a very powerful tool. A lot of colour grading has also been done with a high contrast approach as well as the application of cooler tones than most of the original images had. This will hopefully give the final film a much darker aesthetic and moodier atmosphere.

Now I just need to go shoot the rest >_>

Sound Design

So I'm writing part of the soundscape at the moment, looks as if its going to be a blend of guitar and synth with a lot of ambiance. The way I want to do it is not as one single track but as a series of motifs which will be complied together in the editing software. This means that the soundscape can be developed in direct relation to visual elements so things could be cued directly on cut as well as allowing a cohesive integration of both foley and melodic components. It's hard to say where inspiration the soundtrack is coming from, its not really mimic anything in particular, more just coming out the way I think it should feel.

Shooting The First Two Scenes

A lack of updates on here doesn't mean a lack of progress - I've shot around the first third of the film! Still a lot of work ahead but it's looking really good so far. Animation-wise it was quite difficult to start with considering I hadn't done any stop motion in over a year. Luckily the movements of the character are fairly passive in these parts so it was a good way to ease into the project. The hospital scene is looking really good and the materials came out great on camera. The 'darkness' is quite obviously just clay but there's a sort of real, material aesthetic which I quite like and in many ways it actually suits the medium. The next scene is going to use a lot of computer generated effects and was shot on my home made red screen (a piece of A3 taped to a box!). Hopefully by the end of next week this will all be edited and some new footage taken.

A few shots from production over the last week:

Decaff

Decaff - an interesting series of films by New Zealand (originally Hamilton) animator Greg Page. Although the dark yet comedic tone is quite different to my own work, this film is quite inspiring in terms of the animation process and the associated aesthetics.


Decaff (1994)

Despite the simplicity of the sets and low production values this film is still highly engaging and for me, a lot more enjoyable than many animations which I have seen with far greater technical qualities. In relating this film back to concepts of animated space and on screen realities it is interesting to consider that regardless of the aesthetic disconnection to our own world, that in the context of the film and by nature of the stop motion medium, a cinematic reality of its own is formed which is entirely compelling.