There were times when I was frustrated and totally drained but in the end, I had a lot of fun making this video. The following are things I'll keep in mind for any future claymation or stopmotion work.
-Use MagpiePro for audio syncing-this is great software!
-Never use a mirror-it's not easy to control what's in the reflections!
-Invest time and money in highly functional puppets-so it's not wasted later!
I eventually discovered that my puppets could not do everything I wanted them to...I think the bottom line is that more advanced movement (anything which uses the full body and requires some sort of balance, such as walking) is easier to create with more advanced puppets or at least puppets with bigger feet!
-Be flexible and willing to change your vision when things go wrong-they will!
-Don't be afraid to use Photoshop to edit out supports or anything else that makes it way into the frame unintentionally-I didn't use Photoshop for this project but I understand how helpful it could be and how much more I could do if I was willing to put in the time later to edit out how I did it.
Things I'd like to try:
-Making a puppet walk successfully/making better balanced puppets
-Using a higher frame rate (>15 fps) for more refined movement
-Animating an original storyline with original audio
-Making more believable puppet eyes-I got lazy with the eyes simply because they were so annoying to change.
-Animating without replaceable mouths-that's all I ended up using on this project.
Monday, May 24, 2010
DONE!
You can view the final video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9KgWRwfX8A
Yep, it's finally done. I overcame the frustration I was feeling, shortened the audio track, and redid sections that needed to be redone. I didn't get to tell Gertrude's whole story as I had initially planned, but I feel that I was able to hit the most important point: Gertrude's little tail is just right for her kind of bird.
Lip-syncing is what I enjoyed most about this whole project, just matching character faces to the audio to create believable animation sequences. So, I decided to focus more on the characters actually SAYING the words rather than trying to create dramatic body movement TO the words. After I changed my focus to that, the process of shooting went much faster. The majority of the finished piece was shot in about five days. I also found a Cat in the Hat bobblehead doll that I already had which I was able to use for Doctor Dake. In Seussical the Musical, Dr. Dake is played by the Cat in the Hat and I was planning to make a puppet but was very happy I didn't have to do that. I gave the bobblehead a sort of doctor disguise and used replacement mouths to create the animation. The mouths I used were taken from a MagpiePro tutorial cartoon and they worked out great.
The doctor's office was a very simple set as you can see. I was able to reuse certain elements from Gertrude's room such as the furniture, the flower vase, the floor, and the BirdGirl magazine.
This picture was taken by accident as I was blazing through a scene in the doctor's office. This sort of head movement was done between each shot in addition to changing the mouth if necessary and moving the arms, etc. I just didn't move my hand out of the way fast enough before I snapped this photo!
This picture shows the flying scene setup. I hung a dowel rod from the chandelier which had two loops of fishing line taped to it. One loop of fishing line was placed around Gertrude under her wings/armpits. The other loop was placed around Gertrude's waist just above her legs. The clouds were on a long piece of bulletin board paper. Each end of the cloud paper was taped to a roll of wrapping paper. Allan helped by turning the wrapping paper rolls a small amount after each picture was taken. The right to left movement of the cloud paper created the illusion of Gertrude moving left to right. I moved her wings up and down after each shot as well and changed her mouth when necessary. The reason for this setup was that it was relatively simple and because Gertrude's center needed to be virtually motionless in order to create believable movement. If I had tried to move Gertrude left to right in addition to moving her wings up and down the overall effect would have been too jerky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9KgWRwfX8A
Yep, it's finally done. I overcame the frustration I was feeling, shortened the audio track, and redid sections that needed to be redone. I didn't get to tell Gertrude's whole story as I had initially planned, but I feel that I was able to hit the most important point: Gertrude's little tail is just right for her kind of bird.
Lip-syncing is what I enjoyed most about this whole project, just matching character faces to the audio to create believable animation sequences. So, I decided to focus more on the characters actually SAYING the words rather than trying to create dramatic body movement TO the words. After I changed my focus to that, the process of shooting went much faster. The majority of the finished piece was shot in about five days. I also found a Cat in the Hat bobblehead doll that I already had which I was able to use for Doctor Dake. In Seussical the Musical, Dr. Dake is played by the Cat in the Hat and I was planning to make a puppet but was very happy I didn't have to do that. I gave the bobblehead a sort of doctor disguise and used replacement mouths to create the animation. The mouths I used were taken from a MagpiePro tutorial cartoon and they worked out great.
The doctor's office was a very simple set as you can see. I was able to reuse certain elements from Gertrude's room such as the furniture, the flower vase, the floor, and the BirdGirl magazine.
This picture was taken by accident as I was blazing through a scene in the doctor's office. This sort of head movement was done between each shot in addition to changing the mouth if necessary and moving the arms, etc. I just didn't move my hand out of the way fast enough before I snapped this photo!
This picture shows the flying scene setup. I hung a dowel rod from the chandelier which had two loops of fishing line taped to it. One loop of fishing line was placed around Gertrude under her wings/armpits. The other loop was placed around Gertrude's waist just above her legs. The clouds were on a long piece of bulletin board paper. Each end of the cloud paper was taped to a roll of wrapping paper. Allan helped by turning the wrapping paper rolls a small amount after each picture was taken. The right to left movement of the cloud paper created the illusion of Gertrude moving left to right. I moved her wings up and down after each shot as well and changed her mouth when necessary. The reason for this setup was that it was relatively simple and because Gertrude's center needed to be virtually motionless in order to create believable movement. If I had tried to move Gertrude left to right in addition to moving her wings up and down the overall effect would have been too jerky.
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