Live Brief - 48hour Cardiff Quickdraw Animation Challenge

Making the Film 'Together' Alone

The final story idea is that of a bottle cap that realises it has to find its original bottle or else it will end up on a plastic cemetery at the beach. It supports the idea that bottles and bottle caps do not need to be separated when put into the recycling bin, often dropped and forgotten it creates waste in streets and in nature.

Here is a further edited version after the submission https://vimeo.com/408808204 .

Day 1: Initial ideas

Day 1: Moodboard

Day 2: Important ingredient, green washing-up liquid.

Day 2: More important ingredients, bottle caps (carefully collected from local street and washed - all with gloves) and clingfilm. 

Day 2: Testing the set, will the reflection from the bottle be enough? No, I will need to pour it out. 

Day 2: More set testing.

Day 2: Fun with the set. 

Day 2: Test with the washing up liquid on the clingfilm.

Day 3: Puppet, green milk bottle cap with plasticine face and wire replacement features, ready for action.

Day 2: Storyboard, with few options of the ending.

Day 3: Story timing, information for the music composer. 

Day 3: Workspace - shifting floorboards and daylight.

Day 3: Light mounting. 

Day 3: Beach close up. I found it weirdly fascinating.

Day 3: Sunlight is really getting in my way here. If I continue it will get worse but if I stop, the change in light will be too drastic.  

Day 3: An attempt to eliminate the harsh sunshine with my pet's blanket. 

Day 3: Close to the deadline, it is starting to get dark again and I am having the same issue, the lighting is nothing but consistent throughout the scenes. It is difficult to edit and put together. 

Day 3: Sending off the file

Day 3: Successfully received

Day 3: Excited moment, viewing the film on a TV after submission, the TV makes it look good. 

I signed up for this challenge, knowing myself, I best work to short deadlines and this seemed to be a perfect way to get one Live Brief out of the way. I was warned by my tutor, Dotty, that even though the challenge is only 48 hours, the recovery afterwards may take some time. I kept this in mind and got a good amount of sleep both nights - which did reduce the time I could work on the project but I did not burn out.

Afterwards:
Feeling great, animation put up on the Cardiff festival website after a live screening, lovely comments, portfolio exposure, networking. 

There were a few challenges along the way. (Drawings - Covid 19 self-isolation vs Stop Motion, collecting bottle tops, sunlight).

However, thanks to organisers who set up an online chat room on Slack, I could share where I am with others and see what everyone is up to. Really good, especially when working on the project alone. Thanks to this group chat I could approach Tom Kavanagh, who offered to compose music for guys doing this challenge. So that ended up being a very good collaboration, Tom made the music and SFX for my short film that I later named 'Together'.

I made a rough storyboard for myself, however, staying away from PC animation, I did not think to make an animatic until Tom has asked me for one and at this point, it was a little too late. I gave it a go, but there was simply not enough time now as it was the morning of Day 3. So Tom ended up working on the music with my storyboard, rough timing of the piece and tone of the story.

Result? 42 seconds of stop-motion animation, collaborations and networking, portfolio exposure and a lot of hardened cane sugar to clean up.

So what could have been better?
- Leaving more time to do the edit.
- Have a blackout room or animate at night especially it being a weekend event when the University is not open for half of the time. Alternatively, make a call to the weather Gods to keep the sky cloudy.
- Put credits and title on as part of more time for an edit. (yup, mine got screened without neither during the live screening a few days later and yup, someone asked about that in the chat)
- Have someone make the animatic by day 2 the latest.
- Have a team? Although, coronavirus, this was just two days before the University has closed and many people have been self-isolating already due to Covid-19 situation. 

Live Brief - Collaboration on One Minute For The Planet

Another Environmental Film, I Am Home

I have contacted Claire Tuton after seeing a call for a stop motion animator. It is for One Minute for The Planet competition by NAHEMI (National Association for Higher Education in the Moving Image). Never have I ever worked with a more bubbly person. Two second-year students also worked on this project and we got allocated a puppet and its animation each.

Challenges: 

• Filming outside the University, the rigging of characters and props on location, access to suitable equipment on location. 
• Making a puppet that can be fitted and animated inside a bottle.
• Knowing what exact action is required from the puppet and therefore what rigging is suitable.
• RSI, my dominant hand started hurting inconveniently before making a re-make of the puppet and so I had to leave a lot of wire twisting and some other tasks to Claire, who was happy to do it under my supervision. But we ended up with a third re-make after all as the needed longer fins which we found out during test animation. 
• Not sharing information and not putting it into my showreel - it is part of an entry into competition with extended deadline due to Covid-19 situation.  
• Having very limited time on location to animate as we had to take turns within two days. 
• This puppet originally did not require the ability to do a walk cycle and I have never animated a four-legged creature in 3-D stop-motion. But it managed pretty well when I got asked to walk it across a microwave top. White tack was my friend. I have used it to hold legs in place or lift legs where needed. Although it did not stick very well to the felted legs. 

What went well:

• Claire does not hold back if she would like something different, which was actually a great experience of working with a client. She was also very engaging and wanted to be informed of everything going on. I hope I can work on a project with her again. 
• For puppet re-make number 3, together with Claire, I have tested colouring polymorph with acrylic paint. This was a very messy experience and took a lot of time but the result is gorgeous.
• Surprisingly rigging the puppet with a sellotape across a cross-section of the bottle worked well. 
• A project filled with a lot of new experiences. 

For this project's submission, I will be making a pdf with photos of the making of, descriptions and video files of test + finished product to submit due to the nature of the project.

Week 26

Change of plans

How a haircut could be done during the pandemic

This week started with existing tension of increased worries over Coronavirus situation. The University made the decision to close down from Wednesday 25th and so I had to move my things to my accommodation if I wanted to continue working on my Major Project.

What went well:

• Video tutorial with Ben and Dotty, discussing how to possibly continue the project. Sourcing equipment, materials, adjustments in the story to allow production at home.

What went wrong:

• Increased anxiety over the next events, I have not been to University since Friday.
• In order to transport the set to my accommodation, I would need to have an arranged transport and an extra pair of helping hands due to its size, weight and fragility. My housemate's friend offered to use his van to do this but was not free until Tuesday. On Monday's briefing, a full lockdown got announced to start from Tuesday. 
• My set with all the props and 3puppets got locked up at the University, including my Jessops tripod and a battery pack for the mini LED light that I planned to use for the 4th puppet's head torch.
• The work that Jenny Leece and I started for the Sustainability Award Brief cannot now continue in the same way as we used stop-motion space to do this. 
• By the end of the week, my head was filled with worry over getting a job at the end of the lockdown as my original plan was to look for a job in April/May to support myself in the following months after studies. 
• I do not have my good panning tripod and no rigging equipment as well as very limited options of lights and no blackout room. 

  

  Making a blind from old fabric

  
   

Week 25

Finalising All Props and Puppets, Set 1

Wire armature with balsawood hips, shoulders and polymorph bones. 

Rear view, since my room is in the attic, I used a flask to keep the water hot enough for longer. Polymorph is lightweight and it cane be melted and used again so I can di that if I will ever take the puppets apart. 

Because the puppet wears slippers, it needs socks or at lease part of it. 

Slippers made from two different leathers and faux fur, glued using hot glue pen. 

Bulked out body and trousers joined with hot glue pen. 

Adding the arm padding and the shirt. 

I wish Blogger had an option to rotate images. Here are detailed props on the tree. 

I have realised that the tree and the furniture looks too unformal and so I added some darker colour and stain finish. 

Making the head and hands for Dad puppet. 

The hands have integrated bead so that it can be attached and removed from the wire wrists, 

Filing down terracotta epoxy putty creates this skin like/ handmade texture. 

Using permanent marker to colour some of the gardening rope black. 

Comparison with my hair, looks pretty realistic!

Gluing the hair on. 

Polymorph boning body of Julie. 

Her costume is also glued together with a hot glue pen. 

She has got a nice detail on her nightgown. 

Eyes attached with Vaseline, made from cut-out painted fabric. 

Dad puppet before finishing sleeves. 

The battery pack for the bedside lamp is at the back to allow easy exchange for charged batteries. 

Just few of the useful tools for animating that I use. 

Week 24

More Pre-production, Final Storyboard is Done!

Ava was really flexible with re-making my storyboards after the change in script and I am thankful for that. However, at my tutorial I have been advised to not start animating until I have sorted out my animatic. So that is what I am going to do ASAP as well as finish of props/puppets to be able to start soon.


I have met with Matteo on Saturday with a rough animatic to discuss the music composition in more detail. I was happy with the theme, catchy part of the song that he has recorded already and really happy with this bit recorded hummed. We have also discussed how the music should develop throughout the story and escalate at the end credits.

Animatic Rough 1

Integrating mini LED into a bedside lamp. 

With movable eyes technique being too complex I am turning to the technique that I have been advised at the weekly presentations. Vaseline with detachable pupils.  The inside of the head is balsawood to keep it lightweight.

Attaching hips and shoulders also from balsawood. 

In the meantime setting up shadow play scene.

Clair helped me to construct the shadow play puppet as my hand is still giving me a hard time. 

I have been testing some live action shadow play. But I was very fixed on where the actual lightsource came from in the story, resulting in unwanted shadows, that Dotty had to remind me that film is cheating and I can place the light wherever I need as long as it makes the scene work better.

Taking the advice from the Model making book, I have started making the tree. 

I am using wire, balsawood, masking tape and hot glue. 

It looks so neat!

Adding the door and props.

Mixing Polycell with paint for the tree

Testing the set up of the set. against armatures and props thanks to Jenny who helped my put the walls together and lay out the props. 

Covid-19 worries are in the air and this PC looks like it needs a wipe. 

This was not cleaned yet either, probably for the past year. 

But now it is clean. Thank you tutors for providing the wipes!