MC2

Hello again.

I'm happy to say that I am working at a company called MC2 in the TV department. For the past 4 weeks I've been working on two ideas.

New Website

Hello again,

A few months ago a made a website that was incomplete. I've finally made a new website which includes all the pictures of making my Sand Troll film and other artwork. Hope you like it.

www.jomotion.co.uk

Finished film

It has been a while since I last posted. With the last 2 weeks of my work, things got very busy and I was unable to post anything.

But now it is complete and you can now watch it on:
https://vimeo.com/44040152

I am also in the process of doing the final touches of my website, which you can visit on:
www.jomotion.co.uk

In other news I got 1st class for my degree and got best in show. Now I am in the process of finding work.

I won't be going on here as much, but I will post for when I do more animation. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Animation Fish

For my rock pool shot I still needed to animate the fish. So I made the fish out of foam with a wire running through it so it could bend and twist it. As for the tail, I used a wire mesh. I covered it all in tights and sewed it up.

I did a bit of research in to rock pool fish, but they all seemed very dull and I pictured something more silver and pretty.

Rock pool fish

Fish I pictured

So I painted my fish silver and added silver glitter to resemble little scales. In this shot I had to animate the fish on a green screen and then I can layer it over the top of the rock pool I did before. I animated it so it was swimming on the spot on a rod.

Animation Shot 38 - 44

This scene is after the cave scene. Sophie runs out of the cave, to the voice of her Dad. I used the camera trolly to pan across as she runs towards her Dad.

After that Sophie shows her Dad the compass and the day she has had with the Sand Troll.

The Dad pretends that he believes her but to Sophie's disappointment she turns round to see the door and the Sand Troll gone.

The Dad picks her up and Sophie sees the Sand Troll waving goodbye, as her and her Dad go back to the lighthouse.

In post production I'm going to add the lighthouse in the background.

C.V Research

I've finished my first draft of my action plan which is two pages long, so now I'm moving on to my c.v. I went on to the Futures website and watch two online workshop videos on how to do write a good c.v http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/futures/students/cv_help.php. They also have template examples and online booklets on what to write for each section.

Also, while I was working for the NHS I did a c.v workshop last summer on 'How to write an effective c.v'. I've still got the paper work. It's really good, it gives you a list of useful words for the personal profile, and gives you a c.v example of how not to do it and how to do it.

Once I've finished my first draft I'm going to go in to futures and have them check it over to make sure it is right.

Animation Sand Dune Shot

After they make the sand castle, the Sand Troll takes Sophie to his Cave which is disguise as a sand dune.

I finished making my sand dune, using PVA and sand.

Here we have them walking up to the sand dune

When finished in post production it will look like he is drawing a line in to the sand, forming a door that opens. The Sand Troll could just about reach, if he went on one foot. This was a bit tricky this shot because of him having to reposition quite a bit to reach.

Animation Crab Shot

In this shot they are walking along the beach and Sophie spots a shell and picks it up to her surprise the Sand Troll turns it in to a crab.

I used one of the shells I found on the beach and glued wire for the legs and paper mached them.

I also did a bit of research in to crabs.

This is what it looked like in the end when I painted it.

I was really worried about how I was going to animate it because it is so small. I went online to see if I could research how they walked.

In the end it worked out really well. They way I animated walking was by squishing together and squishing it flat, making the legs stretch out and close in.

Life Drawing

When I went to Annecy in my first year we found out that life drawing portfolio is something companies want to see. So I've done a bit of life drawing but it has the same person and poses all the way through. So I thought it would be a good idea to do some more life drawing to give variety to my work.

I found a drawing class in Ribble Valley in Lanchasire http://www.jeanholt.co.uk/7.html.

Bolton University is also doing classes, in my home town.

Wigan is doing Life drawing classes http://www.saa.co.uk/tuition/tuitionview.php?tuition_id=964&oscsid=nd1c6505li0jbd6amoe4ph94n1.

Out of everything the best one I found is in Preston. It's every week and they have varied models. http://www.prestonlifedrawing.co.uk/index.html

So when I finish University, I'll give this a go.

Animation Shot 24 - 26

The next scene is the rock pool. But because I am running out of time I had to quickly made a rock pool out of polystyrene. This was the photo I used to base it on.

It was last minute, but I found some acetate and it actually looked like real water and in the animation it gave off a reflection. I also used moss for seaweed and pebbles, to make it look more realistic.

In shot 25 it is from their point of view of the fish. So I'm going to animate the fish on a blue screen and compose them together.

Animation Shot 19 - 23

These next shots are where the Sophie sees the Sand Troll for the first time and they play tag.

Sophie's point of view

Playing tag

This bit was very difficult as there was a lot of running and dodging. When he picks her up was the hardest because the puppet Sophie is quiet heavy and the Sand Troll was just strong enough to hold her up on its own. I could only do this with both his feet tied down, he really struggled on one foot.

Research Companies

These are some more companies I have looked at that do stop frame.

Th1ng who are based in London. They do commercials and do all kinds of animation including stop frame.

Slinky Pictures who also do a a variety of styles, based in London.

Secretsof who have services for the entertainment industry. Things like puppets and props, based in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Puppet Animation Scotland is not really a company but a festival to show your work and promotes puppetry in animation.

I also want to get in contact stop frame animators like Linda McCarthy, based in Cheshire, and contact Barry Purves 

 

Research Loose Moose

Another company I've looked at is Loose Moose http://www.loosemoose.net/, which is based in London. Their work tends to be commercials and ranges from c.g to stop frame.

Research Jobs

I searched on google to find general jobs and found this site http://www.animationbase.com/ which has a variety of jobs from creative head to Graphics Animator. This also had other links.

I really liked this site http://www.britishanimationawards.com/ as it has competition and you get to have a look at the winning work. It is really interesting.

I also found these sites:

http://www.animationforumwm.co.uk/
http://www.creativeskillset.org/animation/
http://www.animationeast.com/

Research Laika

I really like the work of the film Coraline. So I did a bit of research in to the company Laika. Their website is http://www.laika.com/. Unfortunately they are based in America, but I going to try just incase. They do feature films but mainly commercials.

Animation Shot 17

As you know I did the blue screen of the Sand Troll and now I have animated the beach and Sophie. In post production I will add water which surrounds Sophie.

The quick time file was too big but I did a quick shot on After Effects to see what the final shot would look like. Luckily when I put it together, everything was timed right.

Animation Shot 12 - 15

As Sophie walks along the beach she kicks a glass bottle. I was a bit worried about finding a glass bottle the right size, as my puppet is very small and it would have been difficult to make one. Luckily Rob has a tabasco sauce, which was the perfect size.

Shot 13 was very tricky as I had to animate her taking off her necklace and making it swing side to side as though is was a chain. As well as animating the necklace going in to the bottle. I had two problems with this because one, the shell was too big to fit in, so I had to crush it to fit it inside. Problem two, was that the necklace was longer than her arm length, so she couldn't drop it in from above. In the end I decided to make her look like she was threading it in, which I thought look fine.

Another thing I had to do was super glue the bottle to her hand, because there was no way I could attach it due to it being glass. I was very worried that the hand would be destroyed, but it luckily peeled off

Animation Shot 11 - 12

Here is the shot of Sophie walking down the rest of the steps and on to the beach. I had to do this shot twice, as the first one didn't have enough momentum.

Research On Self Employed Work

Recently I visited an old friend of the family who wanted to show me her grand daughter's illustrated children's books. I really liked her style, as her work was designed as a collage. I thought it would be a good idea to email her and ask if she would like if I turned one of her stories in to an animation. She emailed me back and sounded interested, and asked what my idea was.

Here is one of her illustrations

www.sparkypinklet.com

If everything goes well I plan to do this over the summer and find out from futures if I can come in and use the facilities, as I would like to do my animation on the multi-plane.

Research Hot Animation

Another place I'm planning to apply for is Hot Animation. This company does 'Bob the Builder' and 'Pingu'. Their website is http://www.hotanimation.com/, which has contact details. This is another children's t.v company.

Business Cards Research

Ready for the show and applying for jobs we need to make a business card. So I've look online at some sites to get some inspiration, like http://stocklogos.com/topic/ultimate-creative-business-cards-collection. I wanted to some different, creative and interactive. These are some of the business cards that I thought stood out to me.

I want something colourful with a picture or pattern covering one side. I also would like to do a set that is in 2 or 3 different colours. My business card needs to relate to animation, so thought I could make a business card that when you spun it, it would create an optical illusion (video below). I thought I could do this with my logo name.