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.