Main Project, Plan B, Week 4

Rest of the Props, Cat puppet and Animating

To make the puppet, I turned to one of my favourite techniques, that is painting sculpted plasticine. It is a fast technique to make. The puppet should last just fine for the amount of scenes it is used for. 

 I have limited the puppet so that it is recognisable but not over complicated.

Making the cat puppet. Balsawood inside the head to keep it lightweight. The puppet is larger than the first make. I do not think it matters too much and the first puppet fits well in the first set, but the big cat will be easier to animate.
The puppet is bulked out with two types of bandage and then felt is added on the whole body. The nose is made from coloured Polymorph and the legs and eyes are painted on. 

I could turn into a nocturnal person or try blacking out the room. I used some black bedsheets I bought for this purpose at the beginning of the lockdown. Unfortunately it is not thick enough, it does the job of stopping light reflection from wall space. 

I also got a blackout temporary foil for the windows, only to find out it is not supposed to be on the windows during the day despite it saying to be suitable for film makers - it is a risk of a thermal damage to the windows. So if I use it I need to put it up and take it down again in suitable times. 

 The props were missing something. On the set make 1 I did add texture to all furniture, this balsawood is too thin for that. Remembering a technique I did in A-level art, using bleach, I tested it on the back of the furniture. Happy with the result, I painted on these nature and Slovak folk inspired patterns.

 I also added green layer of paint on the lamp to make it more uniform and less bright when switched on.

Small chair prop, again, simplifying the design from previous set.  

 Box for the red puppet. 

Making buttons for dad's puppet dungarees. 

Set up for the first set, I have 3 light sources apart from the annoying daylight. One is a white LED bulb light dissolved by a piece of bed sheet above the set. Second one is a lamp sat on the table pointed at a was out of the scenes, covered with an A4 piece of paper to dissolve the light and avoid harsh shadows. The last one is the bulb made into a bedside lamp (remote control operated. 

I taped down props and puppets where possible and out of camera view to avoid unwanted movements. 

Happy to be finally able to start animation on this set, I did not resist taking a photo.

Really happy with how it looks even though I really miss the look of the first set, it feels more composed and detailed with all the materials and props thought through, whereas the remake is more of a result of what materials I could get hang of in the time being.  

Remake of Set 1

Set 1

Since I cannot print off the storyboard, I wrote down notes for each scene and the transitions, puppets movements at the beginning and end of each. 

This is an attempt in mapping out a panning scene guide, which I did not end up doing as it is an all day 12 seconds scene. Instead I focused on the puppet acting in this scene.  

Here is how the animating went this week:

#1 I have replaced two scenes (window still and pan from window to bed) with one still scene. By doing so I saved on making the wall with a window and I could focus on puppet animation instead.
Problem was the bedside lamp cable, Unfortunately, I had to lead it through the set and glue dots or black tack did not hold it down well enough. I did not want to damage the cable with a glue. This needs to be edited out in post production. Another issue was that it is a very long scene and so I animated some of it in natural light and some of it at night. Despite my efforts to blackout the room, there is slight change in light. Lastly, I do not own a rig and the cat puppet would benefit from one. I used dots of black tack and white tack to keep its feet down, the puppet fell over countless times and made the rug shift when walking over (despite it being black tacked down, maybe I should have glued down the whole rug, next time). Despite these cosmetic faults I am super pleased with the cat animation. Dad could have put Julka down slower but again, probably would need a different set up on the set to allow that. Reference videos I used for the cat movement:

#2 This was actually the first scene I animated, I struggled to keep the lamp in one place as my knuckles kept hitting it while animating Dad's hand. I may reshoot it if I have time, as the lamp looks gigantic compared to Dad. 

#3 I am not too happy with the puppets expressions, the scene makes more sense with sound. However, the main part, poking the nose, worked out very well, it has got the gentle feel to it that I was going for. 

#4 This scene, I was going to simply make Dad take the box. again, I do not have a rig for it so instead, he takes out the puppet. I added some lovely anticipation here. But cannot close an eye to the chair that keeps wobbling in the background.