LAUAN503 - Weekly 11

Tale Telling

This week we are continuing shooting. Issues occurred were when we wanted to borrow some equipment from the Photography or AV suite because of the Christmas loans that were already in place.

Other obstacle was that Zhama and I both have job outside of the University what did not help with the CoP intern deadline and pressure of finishing the Stop Motion by the end of this week.

However, we did our best to distribute the scenes so that we could be shooting 'non-stop'. :)

We had to adjust some scenes because of the limitations of the equipment and the puppet, as well as time. Also we left the blood scene to be the last as the paint imitating the blood would stay permanently on the set.

When I was finishing off one of the scenes animating, for the sake of time efficiency I also set up the next scene for the next day that was Zhama's to animate. Yet we did not have the Interviewer puppet that was going to show in the shot. So I made this tripod-puppet. Because when I made a rough head and tried positioning it within the set, it was too close and obstructing the scene and I was not sure how to hold it in place. Using the tripod allowed me to move it around and adjust the height. Also it was flexible for Zhama to move it around if he needed in the next scene.

Tripod-puppet mock-up

Tripod puppet mock-up

In the end, we finished shooting before the Christmas break in just under a week time. :)
Zhama will be doing the post production editing and sound and I will be focusing on the production log. 

LAUAN503 - Weekly 10

 Tale Telling

During Saturday last week and Monday this week I have finished off effects on the walls (Thanks Damian for introducing me to the technique of how to do this) and made the burger and posters.

Foam for the sandwich

Finished sandwich made out of foam, plasticine, hot glue gun and acrylic paints. Napkin made out of tissue paper with wire armature. 

Painting the posters. 

Dry brush technique with acrylic paint and streaks with wash paint.

I feel extremely stressed out as we are already super behind and the 2nd remake of the puppet that we tested against the set did not have enough motion in it because of the bulkiness of silicone.

Testing spotlight

However, finally I could test some spot lighting on the set with the puppet. What made me realise that we will need couple of filler lights and really good position of the lights overall to avoid unwanted shadows because of the scale lights vs. set.

Harsh shadows and over-exposed parts on the puppet - one light

Bad shadow on the piano keys and shadow casted by the puppet - one light

However, Zhama was very swift and remade the puppet in plasticine in only one day. I mean well done! :)

That meant I could finally set up the camera and lights on Thursday and we could start shooting the first scene on the same day.

The issues that we faced during the set up were mainly the position of the table so that we could access the set from all required angles and distances with our camera. We moved around every piece of equipment away from its original place before we found the perfect layout. Second issue was that the cable that connected the live view from the camera had to reach the PC. So we ended up moving the table with the PC to suit the position of the camera.

Also some of the equipment did not worked as I hoped. We ended up lending extra light and 2 light stands to provide enough filler lights. Also, the camera that we were using had poor contact with the lens and crushed us several times in the middle and at the beginning of shooting a scene. We managed to get a new lens which was also a zoom lens - that made some scenes easier to shoot for sure. 

Testing different camera angles and the lights.

With the main studio light on.

The final set up of the lights was like a tight spiderweb. Too tight to fall if tripped over but hard to move or adjust. since we had at least 3 lights and a camera tripod packed in such a small space at the same time. 

Me setting up the lights

Set, camera, lights, animator, story boards on the wall for reference :)

Set up of the lights and detachable wall taken off to allow for the first scene and animator's access to the puppet. 

LAUAN503 - Weekly 9

Tale telling

This week we are meant to start shooting. I still have to make the props and finish off the set.
I have finished painting all the tiles, and using glossy lacquer to finish it off with more gloss for reflection.

The floor and piano making in progress

I glued all the lolli sticks and used emulsion paint to paint the walls and gouache paint for the wooden floor.

Making the piano keys

I have finally decided how to make the piano keys, using milliput and black & white glass paint.

Piano legs

I have made the piano legs that can be screwed onto the piano with adjustable hight. To make it fit the puppet perfectly. However, due to the nature of the material used for the base (thick mount card) it was bending a little making the piano stand not straight. So I had to hot glue gun the legs at the desired height. The legs are made of combination of milliput, wooden sticks and screws. filled down to shape and painted with brown glass paint.

Work in progress with a little helper

I have also made the chair and found out that the glass paint works well as a wood stain effect too - saved me buying one.

Set at the Stop Motion studio space

I moved the set to University on the 5th, rescheduled starting date for shooting. mainly so that we can start setting up the lights and equipment while the wall effects (as highlighted at the students presentations that there is a big need for this) and rest of the props can be finished.

The silicone puppet was taken out of the mould on this day. However, Zhama chose to remake the puppet for a good reason - better functionality and aesthetics. We did not get to test this puppet against the set on this occassion. So I am continuing on improving the set and props for Tuesday when the second puppet should be ready.

LAUAN503 - Weekly 8

Tale Telling

One other decision I was facing was the material for the walls. The stables/ barns I have been to, usually had stone or brick walls. Whereas typical symbolic barn would look something like a red house with white support cladding. I was for long tempted to have white, plastered walls but I could not quite imagine what material would be suitable with the short time left for any tests. It should not be too porous, to be painted. Etc.

In the end I decided that recycling old boxes into the walls will be sufficient with some extra support. So I ordered the lolli sticks to use as cladding. I had issues with payment details I weren't aware of at first and so it took a few tries ordering until it came through couple of days delayed. In the meantime I found some lolli sticks in a shop in the city that allowed me to test the technique.

I ended up glueing down over 1000 lolli sticks on the walls and the floor, clipping off both ends of each so that it would not be round.

As I tested last week, the tiles itself took the paint nicely. The glass paint has the advantage that it blends the brush marks before it dries as well as being glossy. Two layers of paint are sufficient to cover the surface nicely :).

However making the tiles itself was complicated. The flat I live in is naturally cold and does not heat up well. So I opted to use the radiator for fast drying. This shrank and curled up the tiles a little and that is the main reason I had to sand down the imperfections. However it was still more time efficient then letting these dry naturally in such a cold place.

Adding walls to the piano armature

Fitting the tiles, ready to be taken off and painted white.

Glueing down the tiles and painting over these with glass paint

Sanding down tiles to fit the gaps

Lolli sticks on cardboard walls and trimmings,