Hours of frustration, no sleep, near tears and a lot of hard work = one 29 second animation. Wonderful! Finally got it to a point where I'm happy enough to hand it in. I think it was the clicking the music on and off that did it for me.
Enjoy :)
Thursday 5 May 2011
Extras
The sound bit was still annoying me, so I found a clicking sound of a keyboard on youtube, cut it down, and added it to the stop motion.
Now when the music turns on and off its more effective and obvious that the character has clicked it on and off, its not just turned off on its own.
Now when the music turns on and off its more effective and obvious that the character has clicked it on and off, its not just turned off on its own.
Finishing Touches
To get the music to cut off when he stumbles on the space bar I used key frames and changed the volume of the music.
I made sure I was on the right frame before putting in the keyframe and then copied the layer so that I could start the music again at the same point that it was cut off.
After playing it through like that i decided the length of time that the music was cut off, wasn't significant enough for the viewer to realise what had happened so I stretched it out for a longer period.
Also the part where the Haribo pops up came and went too quickly to notice that he scratches his head in confusion so I stretched that out too.
I decided to have the music fade out at the end of my animation so it doesn't stop so abruptly. Also dragged out the wave from the second character so that you see him for a significant amount of time before moving on.
I made sure I was on the right frame before putting in the keyframe and then copied the layer so that I could start the music again at the same point that it was cut off.
After playing it through like that i decided the length of time that the music was cut off, wasn't significant enough for the viewer to realise what had happened so I stretched it out for a longer period.
Also the part where the Haribo pops up came and went too quickly to notice that he scratches his head in confusion so I stretched that out too.
I decided to have the music fade out at the end of my animation so it doesn't stop so abruptly. Also dragged out the wave from the second character so that you see him for a significant amount of time before moving on.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Almost finished!!
Thought I'd upload the almost finished version while I tie off all the loose ends.
There are still a few bits I'm not happy with. The whole phone section jumps around too much and the shelf section seems a bit too blurry for my liking too. If I have time I'll try and re-shoot those sections. Cutting and re-importing the new ones shouldn't take too long. I'm glad I used my desk lamp for the lighting as I think the shadow adds a lot of character to the animation. It reflects the weird and dark feeling in the music as well as emphasising his movement. I think the lamp bit might still be too fast...?
There are still a few bits I'm not happy with. The whole phone section jumps around too much and the shelf section seems a bit too blurry for my liking too. If I have time I'll try and re-shoot those sections. Cutting and re-importing the new ones shouldn't take too long. I'm glad I used my desk lamp for the lighting as I think the shadow adds a lot of character to the animation. It reflects the weird and dark feeling in the music as well as emphasising his movement. I think the lamp bit might still be too fast...?
Re-shoot!
I showed my animation to a few people and after receiving a lot of feedback on the current animation I decided to change the storyline a bit to make it more interesting. Instead of climbing over the pencil case the character now turns the lamp switch on and off, walks across the keyboard on my laptop and draws a picture with mini pencils. As he walks along the laptop he trips and cuts off the music. He clicks the spacebar buttons and the music resumes as he walks off. Also, when he draws out a cola bottle on a piece of paper it pops into a Haribo sweet and he scratches his head in confusion before walking off.
The original cardboard cut out I was using lost his feet due to the bluetac eating them up, so i sat him on the shelf and included him in the new storyline. He waves at the new guy as he climbs the rope.
Also, some of the frames were corrupt. There were two frames in between the lamp sequence that also refused to play so instead of re-shooting the whole thing I simply cut out those two frames. Thankfully it worked just as well without them!
As you can see it made me cut up the sequence quite a bit. I had to make sure that each part of that one sequence was stretched to the same amount so that they all played at the same speed. Stretching the length of the sequences slows down the animation by a certain percent. I needed to do this as the character moved too quickly for the music and the actions went by too quickly to notice them properly.
when it came to adding the music I had already decided that I wanted the first part of the track cut off so I moved it along until I came to another quiet bit in the track so that it still starts slow. The beat then kicks in just as the man starts to walk as you can see from the wavelength below the animation. I haven't yet figured out how to make the music stop and start when he trips on the keyboard so that bit is still to come!
The original cardboard cut out I was using lost his feet due to the bluetac eating them up, so i sat him on the shelf and included him in the new storyline. He waves at the new guy as he climbs the rope.
As I was putting the new shoot into after effects some of the frames wouldn't play. This was highly frustrating as there was no logical reason as to why these particular frames wouldn't work, however I merely changed the properties of the few frames and then re-imported them.
Also, some of the frames were corrupt. There were two frames in between the lamp sequence that also refused to play so instead of re-shooting the whole thing I simply cut out those two frames. Thankfully it worked just as well without them!
As you can see it made me cut up the sequence quite a bit. I had to make sure that each part of that one sequence was stretched to the same amount so that they all played at the same speed. Stretching the length of the sequences slows down the animation by a certain percent. I needed to do this as the character moved too quickly for the music and the actions went by too quickly to notice them properly.
when it came to adding the music I had already decided that I wanted the first part of the track cut off so I moved it along until I came to another quiet bit in the track so that it still starts slow. The beat then kicks in just as the man starts to walk as you can see from the wavelength below the animation. I haven't yet figured out how to make the music stop and start when he trips on the keyboard so that bit is still to come!
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Trial Run
Did a whole run through of the animation, but then when I put it into after effects it wouldn't let me (and I mean I tried EVERYTHING) change it to 8 frames per second so it's a bit fast at the moment.
Monday 2 May 2011
Begining Bit
The only part I hadnt tried out yet was the begining secton so I quickly tested it out to see if it was possible/if it would work.
I think it would work quite well but I think im going to have to shoot each section seperately because when I upload them all as a sequence it comes up shorter than it should be?! Hopefully will sort this out!!
I think it would work quite well but I think im going to have to shoot each section seperately because when I upload them all as a sequence it comes up shorter than it should be?! Hopefully will sort this out!!
Zoom!
The test showed me that a few parts of the animation need to be shot closer so I drew out some examples of where the camera could zoom in to make it more interesting.
Timeline
Decided I needed to come up with a timeline so I know how long each section needs to be to make up a 30 second animation. I broke up the animation into sections to make it easier for me to calculate how long each one should be.
Frustration!!
Ok so Im finally back into working mode and managed to film about 10 seconds of the animation. My hand makes an appearance at some point but I didnt want to take that photo out or I'd have to re-name every single photograph and, for a test I didnt really feel I had to.
I dont know why but the first and last seconds are always cut off when I upload videos here. Sorry!
I figured out how to move the music along so that the whole of my animation wasnt just the slow uninteresting intro that takes forever, and instead is the more interesting/active part of the track that suits my animation better. This is just a pre-run. The final animation will be done in the dark using my desklamp as a spotlight and I'll have to slow it down, add a few more scenes in and zoom in on certain parts to make it longer and more interesting. I think the way the character moves across the table is quite good, thankyou bluetac!! After doing this I now know what needs to be done and can figure out just how long each scene needs to be for it to make a 30 second animation.
I dont know why but the first and last seconds are always cut off when I upload videos here. Sorry!
I figured out how to move the music along so that the whole of my animation wasnt just the slow uninteresting intro that takes forever, and instead is the more interesting/active part of the track that suits my animation better. This is just a pre-run. The final animation will be done in the dark using my desklamp as a spotlight and I'll have to slow it down, add a few more scenes in and zoom in on certain parts to make it longer and more interesting. I think the way the character moves across the table is quite good, thankyou bluetac!! After doing this I now know what needs to be done and can figure out just how long each scene needs to be for it to make a 30 second animation.
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