Giant and Micro under camera work by Aardman

Gulp was filmed on a beach in wales using large scale pixelation.

And Dot was made using rapid prototyping to create replacements for the protagonist, Dot. The set was made using found objects

Handspring Puppet Company

This is a company i am desperate to see. I must book tickets for their new show "Or you could kiss me" in cardiff. I know technically its not animation but i am really obsessed with the idea of using live puppets in my work, or at least to gain more understanding of the fabrication of these puppets so i can make them work in an animated film.

Just watching this and seeing the level of attention that has been made to the horses movements and emotion is really impressive.

paper mache

I paper mached over a plasticine mould of the old man's face. I wanteed to try a process to make the puppet's head as light weight as possible. However it didnt work very well...

The head with paper mache befor removing it.

and after--- it got a wee bit distorted, didnt put enough layers on.

open brief

Background design for circus flash back

Scale drawings for puppet

Simple Wire armature

Ball and socket armature

Model sheet.

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!

`This is bloody ace!

OPen Brief

Been doing some digital collage stuff for my open brief. Im playing around with textures i scanned into the computer and using them as costume for my circus characters.

(cant load up others for some reason)


I also did some concept work for the main character. I used a photo of my preferred head macquette and used photoshop to draw in a body.

Hopefully you can also see the colour difference between the two images- in the circus flash back i want the colours to be really flamboyant with lots of pattern. But in  the old man's reality the colour is much more muted. I want it to reflect his state of mind.

Goodbye olympics brief..Hello Open Brief!

With the Olympic brief semi- out of the way (still have the line test to do) I can get fully into my open brief.

Synopsis

Lights come up on an empty circus. There is an old man sat in the back row.

In his lap is an old book, stuffed with collected papers and photos. 

He stands slowly. The book is heavy.

He moves slowly through the seats, down the aisle to the main arena. He stops and looks up at the towering trapeze rig. He turns his face from it, ashamed.

He sits on the ring leader's podium and opens the book.

He sifts through it, pausing everynow and then on photos. He lingers longer on one:

A young man in the circus. He wears a leotard and holds a trapeze swing with one hand. Next to him is a young girl also in a leotard holding the other swing. His arm is around her waist and he is looking at her laughing out at the camera.

The photos start to move. The pair begin their act. They glide effortlessy through the air performing daring stunts for the amazed audience.

The girl leaps from her swing and the young man reaches to catch her but the timing is wrong....

The book snaps shut. The old man shuts his eyes tight. His breathing sharpens, his brow breaks into a cold sweat. He starts to weep quietly.

I've started to do some studies of elderly men's faces- shape, how age affects it, expresssions. I'm going to be designing for the film to be stopmotion. I want to keep my characters quite realistic. 

I have made some macquettes of heads. 

  

I've exggerated some of his features. i was thinking about old people- especially men- have larger noses and ears. Apparently they're what just keep growing.

I do like this as a character but want to make one with facial hair to see what that looks like.

I then made another head macquette but this time i made the nose and ears smaller.

He needs more work- add some wrinkles. I'm not sure wether the mouth is maybe too sad? He is a verry sad man....

I used some sketches from my sketch book and recreated them in silhouette form using ink on tracing paper. I then scanned them into photoshop and adjusted the contrast to achieve sharper image. Then i scanned in some textures i made using masking tape and ink and changed the colours so they were warmer. I used these as backgrounds.

This what i'd like the finished aniamtion to look like. 

Chowder

I watch this everytime i'm at my brother's. It's one of the funniest and weirdest kid's cartoons, but what i really like is the design of it visually. 

All the textures are seperate drawn patterns that are on a still layer. When characters move, the texture of their clothing doesn't. I think its a really nice effect, sort of digital collage. 

horsing around

i went to my friend's workplace, she works at a stable looking after rich people's horses. So i took some sequential photos and videos of them running about to break down the walk/run cycles.

Lunging- trot and canter cycles.

essay....

Ment to put this up aaaages ago. how i worked out structure of my essay: a giant mind map....

Caroline Leaf- The Street

I've been looking at Leaf's work in my essay as she mentored Suzie Templeton during the filming of 'Dog' and was also a visiting lecturer when Templeton was at RCA. I think that Leaf had some influence to the shot transitions in 'Dog' in how they transform from one to the next- mainly when the boy is curled up in the feotal posistion on his bed and then there's a cross fade to the father in the same position.

But i've just watched it again and noticed that its these transitions that are what i ment by the transition sin my Olympics Ident....

Design for Animation Essay....

I've been looking at what i think are Suzie Templeton's main influences. So far i've said that i think she's been influenced by Svankmajer but i also found out that for her film 'Dog' (which i've been focusing mainly on) she was influenced by Jean- Pierre Jeunet who directed and wrote 'Delicatessen' a French film from 1991. Jeunt and Svankmajer's films are films i have watched since i was little and i was very pleasently surprised to find this connection.

still from Delicatessen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. 1991.

I also made links between Templeton's first film "Stanley' and Svankmajer's 'Little Otik', with response to the theme of food and obsession.

Olympics Ident

I've started to mock up the background with the figure. I still need to add trees, clouds and possibly some greek style decor...

Olympics Ident

Some rough character and background designs....

Trying to replicate the texture of old terracotta pottery

Charcters based on Ancient Greek figu

dont know how to rotate the images, sorry

Design Essay

'An investigation into the influences and visual appeal of Suzie Templeton's work'




http://www.suzietempleton.com

The Boy from 'Dog'

I'm looking at Templeton's work because I'm very interested in puppetry (both for animation and live theatre) and think hers are beautiful...

Already there are a few creators i have in mind that I feel may have had some influence on her work- primarily Jan Svankmajer. The poetics and eeriness of his work are echoed in Suzie Templeton's earlier films 'Dog' and 'Stanley'. 

Alice Doll from Jan Svankmajer's 'Alice'




Templeton's puppets have the similar qualities of antique dolls, they are grubby as though left forgotten about in an attic. 

So, first post...i need to do some backdating.

My mind is completely blank. But at least i have made a blog.