Sound...

Right the sound... So the voices so far have been atrocious... Me attempting to sound like a little boy and an old man. What it has been good though is for helping me work out my script! Ive gone through several.. heres a few pasted in now;

Ideas for Script.
When I need talking
• Boy cheer at beginning for old man to look round.
• Maybe boy noises playing with bugs.
• A Oi! When old man kills bug
• When old man comes out, starts explaining what he had to do.
• At the end, when theres an apology.

OM – Old Man
B – Boy

1st Attempt.
• OM - Why didnt you stop them
• B - Just grow some more its easy
• OM- Id like to see you do it
• B - Fine Ill show you

• OM - Oh dear, never mind

• B - Yay!

2nd Attempt• B - Hey! whyd you do that?!
• OM - ( ignores )

• OM - What have you done?!
• B - You killed my bug! And there hungry!
• OM - How dare you! Those took me ages to grow! I had to plant, water, prune, keep safe from the frost!!! How can you just pull them up!
• B - Oh just grow some more!
• OM - Its not that simple! (shoves seeds at boy)

• OM - Thankyou for helping me! Im sorry i squished your bug
• B - Its okay, im sorry i pulled ur plants out.

3rd Attempt• B- Nooo!
• OM - Hmph... there just bugs

• OM- What on earth?!
• B - uh....
• OM - How could you tear them up?! I grew them from seeds!! Watering, planting, weeding, pruning! You vandal!!
• B - You killed my bug! You did it before, do it again
• OM - These things dont happen over night!
• B - Yeah, yeah ( Old man shoves seeds at boy)

• OM- Thankyou for helping with the aphids... ive always struggled with them.
• B - Its alright, sorry for pulling up your plants
• OM - Im sorry for killing your bugs!

4th Attempt• B - Watcha doing?!?!
• OM - (ignoring)

• B - Uh Oh
• OM - What have you done?! My poor plants! I grew them from seeds! watering, planting, pruning, weeding! How could you be so destructive!
• B - You killed my Bugs! anywayz they were hungry!
• OM - These things dont just grow over night!!! (shoving seeds at boy)

• B -- Sorry for killing your plants
• OM - Im sorry for killing your bugs, thankyou for helping with the aphids!

5th Attempt
• B - Stoooppppp!!!
• OM - Dont be silly, there just bugs

• OM - My plants! you horrible child why would you do this!!!
• B - You killed my friends!! and there hungry!
• OM - They didnt just grow overnight! I cant just get more like you and your bugs! I raised them from seeds! Planting, pruning, watering, weeding, feeding! How could you!
• B - You squished them first! Its fair! just grow some more!
• OM - Argh! It doesnt just happen like that!!! ( shoves seeds to boy)

• B- Here you go, theyll get rid of the aphids, im sorry i killed your plants
• OM - Thankyou, I never realised... Im sorry i squished your bugs

Combination of all scripts (Final Script)
• B - Noooo! Watcha doin?!?!
• OM - Hmph... there just bugs!

• OM - What have you done?! My plants....
• B - uh oh... You killed my friends! an there hungry!
• OM - You cant just pull them out! I raised them from seeds! Planting, watering, pruning, weeding, feeding! How could you!
• B - You killed mines FIRST!
• OM - These things just dont grow overnight! (shoving seeds at boy)

• B- Here you go, theyll get rid of the aphids, im sorry i killed your plants
• OM - Thankyou, I never realised... Im sorry i squished your bugs


Right so thats my final script... Or is it! Basically In the end I managed to get my Grandad to do the voice of the Old Man which was a great help! But it meant I still havent got someone to do the little boy! So I edited the script again... Trying to keep the speech to a minimum

• B-Nooooo
• OM- There just bugs
• OM- MY PLANTS!!!!
• OM- You cant just pull them out!!!
• OM- I raised them from seeds, planting, watering, Pruning!
• OM- They just dont grow overnight!

As you can see theres even less being said! The Plan is that the images should speak for themselves... Whcih im slowly starting to believe they do! So hopefully everyone else will feel the same! =)

Now for background noise... Before I used just outdoor noise, and to be honest it wasnt the best... So ive been racking my brains for what to do! And in the end I decided to email my cousin who has a degree in music. He kindly agreed to create me a piece of music for my film! It was a great wieght lifted of my shoulders! So I Sent hi a copy of the first cut for the timings! And he has made me a magnificent track to go as the background music =D

Im still unsure about what to do about the sound effects.... Im unsure if the music will just be enough! But time is too close now! Back to editing... It is taking forever... And now im really begining to worry that I wont complete all the editing in time! Atleast all the animation will be there though, and sound, just not the sky by looks of things =(

Editing...

So Ive finall finished all the stop-motion aspects I think... Now im putting it all together! Ive sorted out all the timings of the frames in Premiere Pro! =D But whats next is the part im not so happy confident with... After Effects...

For my flying bugs I decided id be clever and try and edit out the backgrounds then composite onto a background... Well its alot harder then first thought, and photshopping out all the backgrounds and converting to a PNG in the original frames is a long enough procedure... not including then editing them in after effects... And the deadline is getting closer =S

Heres an example of me editing the bugs;



So when I get the backgrounds I then put them into after effects onto a background...



I still also need to composite the sky into the shots aswell as some of the hand sections when it comes to the planting montage =S Eep! Its all taking alot longer then I thought... And really starting to panic now...

Flash!

Something that has gone well is my flash imagination sequence in my opinion. I animated it without any hitches... Just editing it into the actual film now! Just thought id show you how it ended up! I was pleased with how smooth id managed to make it =D

Here it is;

Filming once again...

So im filming once again... Oh the joy! I thought I ought to give you some photos of my new setup =) But alls going well... Kinda running out of time but still quite confident!

The search for a better Camera...

Right so Im kinda panicing now! I have been unable to find a camera that I can use with a better picture... The camera I was planning to use I have discovered that I cant use with stop-motion pro... So what to do?!

Heres examples of the difference the camera I wanted to use would of made!



As you can see the difference in bringing out the colours is staggering!!! Im gutted the camera wont work... I dont know what to do now!

Thankfully though my friend Jess has come to the rescue! She is a photography student, and said i could borrow her super good camera, which has a shutter release cable to make my film with =D This way my plan will be to set up the shots with her camera, then I can film at the same time with the old camera and stop-motion pro to test the animation. Then import all of the photos taken on hers afterwards to create a sequence with a wonderful picture!

Heres an example of the difference her camera has made =)



I feel it brings a new lease of life to the image! Now to carry on filming!!! =D

Spread the word

Spread the word

The 1st Cut

So as promised Im uploading the video of what I showed for the first cut as we speak!!!
I was quite gutted by the feedback... I got the majority of it, but when they moved on to discuss the puppets and sets it felt like a kick in the teeth! But I shall push forwards and improve on what has been said! They said it had low production values... =( Now id spent weeks and weeks making these things, so I wasnt best impressed with these comments... I get some of them which I will definately improve on, next step is to Buy some dark varnish, to touch up the balconie some of the edges dont look good atall... And also the doors need touching up! Apart from that I think alot of it is down to the camera... it made the picture so dull and dead... It was depressing to look at...

So things to be addressed! But heres the 1st cut of what I handed in;



Also a big issue is the sound... I will be working on the script shortly! Hopefully improving it a hell of alot! Apart from that I just need to get this properly filmed... To the best that I can!!! So Im off to animate once again!

almost time for the 1st cut...

So here I am so close to the first cut, and should be panicing about getting the animation done! But Ive taken a break and decided to edit a frame lol! This isnt the final look, but probably quite close to what im going to go for! Im really pleased, something that i feel has actually worked without several problems =D



More photos of building, and proper ones of puppets coming soon, i need to get the dissetation and 1st cut out of the way first!

Right Filming...

So I have everything built, all that is left for me to film it! First cut is coming up... with the changes to the puppets and general manufacture taking longer then planned Im not sure ill be able to get it all filmed for the 1st cut. But I plan to get alot of it done to show what the general movment and look will be!

The biggest problem with filming is that after the whole first hand in, I worked out roughly when I will be ready to film taking into account what I had to make! The only problem was when I went to to the workshop booking form that my clasmates had basically booked every week up to the final deadline... So all throughout making my manfuacture ive been searching for a possible solution, so all I think I can do is set up at home and film as best as I can, ive purchased stop-motion pro and have a compatiable camera that works with it! So lets hope for the best!

Heres some photos of the set up that im using to film the film!



As you can see its pretty basic... But impovisation is the key! Im sure ill pull it of! I know at this moment in time im using a workbench to hold up my camera, but that will change shortly as I have ordered a tripod that should arrive soon!

My next post will be what ive animated for the 1st cut I do believe! Right off to do my first animation!!!

Manufacture... Bugs and the Hands!!!

I now have the puppets made and a set to film them in! But what I forget is my large versions of the hands aswell as large bugs to do my close ups with!!

So firstly how I made the Hands

They were very simple design they had to look like what was already on the puppets, so a rough triangle shape with three fingers and a thumb put simply. What I did was to cut the triangle from pine and the fingers were made out of two pieces of dowel, that were cut to 2cm long, and the tips were chiseled to be a rounded tip. I then twisted copper, and aluminium wire together to go through the fingers and hand to connect them all. I drilled through them all linking in the center of the hand, and coming out at the end of the hand. At the end of the hand I then wrapped them all together and cut the excess off. The middle strand of wire remained long and thats what I then place half a wooden Pine arm on, to help make it look as if its part of the actual puppets. I glued the fingers into place, varnished and was done! Very quick and easy, but it made animating hand actions so much easier and neater =)

Heres photos of the plans, process and finished product!





Next is the Bugs!

I already had them planned out, not much had to change when it came to the design, I think i added an extra leg, but they were same aluminium/copper wire skeleton. I then used snip foam to bulk them out. I then cut that to shape them into a bug shape. I also made sure when I was making the first legs to put a wire hook there, that protuded through the foam for me to hang the bugs from when filming them flying. Once I had them shaped with the snip foam, I went on to cover there bodies in the right colour plastercine to finish them. Once they were covered, smoothed they were finished ready to film with!

Heres photos of the plans, aswell as me making them and a finished look at them! I will get some better photos of them done shortly when I do the main puppets at the same time =)

Building the Set!

Right so I have the main two puppets! Next is somewhere to film them at. I had already set out the schematics of what I was going to build, so it was a very straightforward task of cutting out plywood to the right sizes and screwing it all together.

The Set




First thing was to cut out the back wall of the set, I marked out a guideline on a large piece of Plywood, then cut out the rectangle with a jigsaw, then the squares for the windows and the two rectangles for the doors. I then cut out a rectangle for the base and screwed them together. Very simple! =) I then went on to cut out four rectangles for the sides of the balconies, and four triangles to then glue on the front of the front sides to create the decoration in the desing. So I now had the back walls and the balconie sides built, next task was decorating it and mkaing it neater. I went and purchased some very thin skirting and measured it and cut it to be the edge of the doors and windows to create a more asthetically pleasing wall. Next was to carve the windowboxes, I cut to rectangles out of Pine wood, and then just chipped away at the center to create a groove to fill with plastercine to give the impression of mud and plants. So I had the basis of the set, doors, windows, balconies and windowboxes next step was to varnish it all.

To fill the doors in I cut some asssetate sheet to the right size and stuck it to the back of the set to give the impression of glass. And when it came to the doors, i cut to rectangles of cardboard, then cut out a rectangle inside them 1cm in, painted it brown and stuck some assetate to the back.

Heres some photos of me making it, but generally I had the basis of my set finished, it was just props to make, it was the one job that I didnt hit any problems and it all went to plan.



Next step the props...

The Props

After the feedback from the first hand in, there were some changes to the prop designs. The old mans side needed to show that he was really into plants, so I included a hanging basket from some of the original designs aswell as a pot plant on the table, and got rid of the chair. Whilst on the boys side of the set I removed all of the toys, balls etc. And made it completely bug orientated, I built an ant farm kind of enclousure for the boy, and replaced the plane in the window with a bumblebee aswell as making a quick poster of a bumblebee to go on the side of the set.

First, how I went about building the pot/hanging basket. It was very simple to do, I measured a square out of Pine wood, which I then shaped to have curved edges with a chisel. Next step was sanding all the edges to give it a nice asthetic, then I carved a square groove in the top of the pot. With the hanging basket I then drilled four holes, to glue twisted copper wire into, to create a hoop to hang on a hook. Whilst the standing pot missed out this stage because its standing obviously... Then I varnished both before adding the plants. To make the plant I purchased three different colour greens of FabFoam, which I then shaped into several leaf shapes. I then pierced each one, threaded twisted copper wire though them, to create a branch. I then placed these in the pot and held them down with green plastercine. I made several of these branches till I felt the pot/hanging basket looked full enough. I was then finished, simple!

Heres some photos of the process;





So theres the pot/hanging basket for the old man, next was a table to place the pot on, it was very simple, i already had the measurements that i had planned, so I cut a rectangle out of Pine wood, then cut four dowel legs, drilled into the bottom of the rectangle in each corner. Finally then glued the four dowels in place straight up let dry, and varnished when finished sorted!



So theres all the old mans props built, varnished, and ready to be filmed! Next was the little boys who now after changes only had one prop which was the ant farm. It was another easy thing to build. I cut two pine rectangles out, and glued themtogether to form an L shape. I then went on to cut 12 long thin rectangles to become the edges of the enclousure, they also served another purpose which was for me to be able to glue the assetate to. Once all 12 were glued in place I varnished the whole thing ready for the assetate. I then cut the assetate to length to go all around the outside of the shape in one go and glued it in place. Once that was dry I then filled it with plastercine to represent wood, with a few plastercine branches too to finish it off.



I ought to go back to the window boxes quickly to explain how I did the fillings for the groove. I twisted two pieces of thin copper wire together as a sketleton structure. I then stuck them in place with brown plastercine to represent mud. Then taking three types of green plastercine I went on to cover these copper wires over to give the appearance of plants. Very simple!



So there you have it, how I made the set in depth! Heres some photos of the finished product, and also me testing out the height of the puppets fit in with it =D

Making the Wooden Puppets

I ought to first explain how I decided what wood to use to carve with. Basically I knew I had to use a soft wood, because of my inexperience with carving and knew it would make it a little easier. So I then went on to put several different wooden textures on some puppet designs, to decide which one to pick. I decided to pick Pine, for the orangey colour to help make it stand out agaisnt the dark colours of the wooden set. Heres the pictures that helped me make my decision.



The Boy Puppet

Ill go through making the Boy puppet first, and the alterations that had to be made. Here is the initial deisgns that I was planning on using till I started using the wood, and realising the drastic changes id have to make whilst creating them.



Heres photos of carving all the items to the right size and ready for use!



I ought to say how I carved it all out, I used a saw, chisel, sander, and then when it came to the arms I bought dowel that was the right thickness and just cut and shaped it to the right side, and drilled right through the center, it saved alot of time and created some good looking arms and leggs in my opinion.

The first problem I encountered was with the heads, in my initial designs Id planned to hollow out the head and put a magnets inside. But I realised it would be too difficult and id probably end up cracking everything id made so far... So i came up with an alternative for getting the magnets inside the head, I took the drill and drilled deep enough where the eyes were, placed the magnet inside, then glued a dowel ontop of it this allowed the magnets to pull the magnetic paper to the heads, and didnt put the whole heads being broken with me attempting to hollow out the head, so in the end it proved to be the better course of action.=)

To connect all the parts of the puppet together I drilled holes throughout, so I could use the normal technique of twisting aluminium wire and copper together, to then thread through and join all the pieces together... What I wasnt expecting that the wood would have such a staggering effect on the wire. I should really of taken the wieght of the wood into concideration, as what it did was cause the whole puppet to be top heavy and be able to stand up by themselves... A major flaw in the design that I had to rectify fast if I wanted to solve this problem! So what I ended up doing with both, is drilling a hole in both the puppets backs that i then glued a dowel into, this then was able to support the wieght of the puppet, and meant id have to amke sure youd never see the bottom half of the bodies in the film. It would make animating more difficult, but theres a balcony in pratically every shot so it shouldnt be noticable. Below you can see The way i fitted the magnets and the way the dowel supports there entire weight, as they just hanged there. I then cut the dowel to the right height so the puppets look like there standing by themselves.



The next step was varnishing... To varnish all I did was buy a clear varnish, just so that it would bring out the wood grain on the puppets and help protect them abit from denting, aswell as giving them a nice finish. The final piece to make for the Boy puppet was the eyes and the finger tips. The finger tips were the most fiddlest part of the whole puppet to make them I bought the smalles dowel I could find I then shaped them and slightly drilled into them so I could glue them to the ends of the wire. At the end of the wire for the arms I untwisted them into singular strands to glue the fingertips onto. Worked quite well in the end. Though making the fingertips caused several of them cracking and braking and having to start again. It was one of the most time consuming sections of the Puppets! But worth it in the end i think =) The eyes were simple to make, I cut them to the write size and drew on a dot in black ink for the pupil, I made several sets so the pupil would be able to move, very simple, but worked well.



So thats the boy puppet pratically finished, all that was left was eyebrows and eyelids which I cut from scraps of wood from when I was chiselling and then glued the magnetic paper on the back and varnished.

Hears a photo of the finished boy puppet! I will do some proper finished photos soon.




Old Man Puppet



When making the Old Man, I underwent the exact same procedure as that of the boy, I firstly carved the basic shapes out of Pine, sanding as I went to create a smooth finish. I had the same problem where I couldnt risk hollowing them out, so I ended up using the same solution for the old man. The puppet was even more top heavy then the boy because his head is so far forward, so he had a dowel glued into his back for support aswell, then came the varnishing and eyelids, eyebrows and finger tips.
I shall upload images of the procedures but its the same as the Boy puppet, just different shapes =)

Heres general cutting, carving, sanding! In fact the top right photo you can see the magnets behind the eyes before i glue the dowel on top!



Varnishing...



Fingertips, eyelids, eyebrows...



And a finished photo, I shall get some better ones done soon!

Storyboard alterations...again

Right so when it came to the hand back and the feedback I got on the storyboard. It was mainly along the lines that the imagination sequences didnt fit, ie the bugs turning into army men, and things of that sort. That the growing sections werent exaggerated enough and quite dull. A majort problem was that the way the shots were constructed meant that there would be waaaaaay too much animating, and i wouldnt be able to get it all done in time.
So there was alot to be taken into consideration and to be built upon. The first thing was to address the pros and cons, and brainstorm some ideas.





Whilst brainstorming and coming up with new solutions to aspects of the storyboard, i kept coming up with interesting shots to use, that would be close saving time when it came to animating.



Once Id gotten an idea of the shots that i wanted to include in the story and a rough new storyline... The biggest thing to attempt was creating a new storyboard!
And here it is! Once id finished it I went to get some feedback, and was told it was alot better structured and to go ahead with the animating! First good news id had in a while!



I had finally gotten a storyboard that was good enough to proceed to animate! Though there were still some gaps in it... In particular the imagination sequence. Due to the fact that the general feedback that the imagination in the orgiinal animatics was confusing. So in this new storyboard I was planning on creating a seperate scene just to have the imagination, so i could exagerate the animation more and not be limited by the format that is stop-motion. Firstly i wasnt completely sure how I was going to get to the imagination, there were three possible ways to approach this, that i then storyboarded. I then had to think of the design of this sequence, which I now decided to do in FLash. That was that i wanted it to be similar to a young childs drawing, to help emphasise its the childs imagination and help the idea of crazy things happen be accepted easilier. Heres the the storyboarding for the sequence to cross into the imagination, and some deisnging for the childs design in it.



Heres the final sotryboard of rough sequences for the flash/imagination sequence. I decided to move across into the flash by just using thought bubbles, thought it was the clearest way to show that its the kids imagination, rather then zooming into the eye, could get very confusing.



Right so I finally have a finished storyboard, planned out flash sequence so im ready to start animating/making alot long last!

I just remebered I also looked at the bugs in further detail... Rather then having the imagination where the bugs transform into army men for example... im not sure whether I should have imagination appearing ontop of the stop-motion image. I did some tests in the sketchbook... But undecided yet, depends whether i have time at the end!



I actually did some very quick tests, to help decide how the transfer into imagination could work, aswell as the imagination ontop of a stop motion image. There below.



Now Ive got the story finished, its time to start making!

Research Boards...

Right so as I said when it came to the first hand in, I unforunately ran out of time and ink to print out my research boards for my sketchbooks... Doh! So I shall upload them all onto here, and obviously explain why I did them, and as I go along I shall add more recent research, might aswell confine it all to one post =)

So firstly why I kinda wanted to do stop-motion was other peoples work, so heres a collection of the animations that have inspired me to go for the format aswell as me just enjoying the manufacture the most out of al the aspects weve covered in the first two years!



From there I already stuck in the research about the different main themes of storys that I considered pursuing. The one I did end up developing was the Old Man and Boy storyline. So heres me researching old people to look at there characteristics, in particular how as they aged there back curled over, which infulenced the design of the old man a hell of alot.



From here to help infulence the story I went on to look at gardens, greenhouses, and then plants in particular. I went on a crazy mission with a camera around my garden photographing all plants that were out. I did notice something they generally look the same when there just sprouting, two or three leaves. This is what had the biggest impact on my design for the windowsill. It makes them look as if there all young plants, means the guy is more protective of them etc.







As my film devloped... the story drastically changed from a big garden to a confined balcony! To design the balcony I obviously had to look at whats out there to work out what to do for it! So here is what I looked at when designing it.




I also have no incorporated the bugs into the story... So had to research them to work out how to design something that people would recognise as bugs! So heres some of the images I looked into.



When making the balcony I needed to look at props, and how to design them, what people recognise as garden furniture etc etc...



After the handin, it was said that the boy needed to be more obcessed with bugs, so I looked at preivious ant farms, to build something to suit the purpose but people would recognise as a bug enclosure.



Finally last load of research was to do with the imagination sequence. So id been told to make it a sequence in a thought bubble for example, and I decided I wanted it to resemble a childs drawing/style to emphasis the fact that its a childs imagination going wild. So I looked into examples of childrens drawings and allowed it to infulence my own designs.



And thats the last of the boards of research to be shown!

So the first deadline has passed....

Right! So looking back through the new booklet, it has become clear that I need to have a clear production journal present on my blog =)
So from now on i shall work on making a coherent feedback of the progress Ive made, and how things have developed.

Firstly I think its best i give the general feedback from that of the 1st hand in. The general points were as follows
-Not enough research visable
-Story -> Need to make the boy more obcessed with the bugs
-> Scrap the bugs transforming with imagination - adjust the imagination sequences to a scene edited on top?
->Story needs work, altering the sequence of planting... more simplier.
-> Too much animating, wont be able to film it all, get the shots to be closer and simiplier.

So Ive decided to show how hte work progressed from here, it sections, firstly how the storyboard evolved. How the characters devopled, the construction of the puppets and sets, how the designs altered whilst working on the puppets etc. Then how i went about the filming process, difficulties i encountered and the changes I made etc.

Also will shortly be uploading evidence of my research! That has infulenced me throughout!

Slight Changes to Sets and Characters

Okay... so as im trying to make my puppets, Ive had to do some minor changes in the designs to allow the puppets to be easier to animate with.
Heres the altered concept images;






This was the set with alterations, but after a tutorial yesterday, it believe that my plan will be undergoing alot of transformations, which i hope will be for the best, they more then likely will be, so this is the set before i do my alterations;