This armature was built in a similar fashion to the wire one in my previous post. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures of the process of building it, as all of my time was devoted to making it. I actually found this armature easier to build, despite it looking a lot more complicated, as no wire had to be cut to measurement etc. It was all about securing the ball and sockets to each other (using loctite adhesive. Once built, I applied the same foam onto the armature, securing with tape, to beef out the model while still maintaining flexibility and good movement. As seen in the photos, the armature only reaches to the end of the upper arm - this is because the lower arm and fingers are made using 1mm aluminium wire (in exactly the same way as my previous wire post). This is to allow adequate movement in smaller, more fiddly areas, not making the hands too big for the body. The lower arm was attached to the upper using loctite again. 





Requirements
  • 1.5mm aluminium wire (for legs and body)
  • 1mm aluminium wire (for arms and hands)
  • 2 joints (for breast and hip)
  • 2 steel with brass feet
  • 1 joint (for head)
  • 10 grub screws
  • 2 M5 bolts
  • 2 M5 washers
  • 2 M5 wingnuts 
  • Pliers 
  • Scissors


To make legs for the model, 3 1.5 aluminium wires were wrapped tightly around each other using 2 pliers. This was to add more strength and stability for when heavy clay is added later. 




A joint was place between the two legs to connect them and secured using some grub screws. The feet were also added in a similar manner at each end to make the model stand upright with no help.



Using 5 1mm aluminium wires, and using the pliers again, these were wrapped around each other tightly to make arms, leaving the ends free to be spread for fingers. 


A piece of wrapped (using three pieces of 1.5 mm) aluminium wire was placed into the hip joint and secured with a grub screw in the centre - the torso.


Joints for the head and breast were added, attaching the arms with 2 grub screws (one on either side). These were bent in a way to create shoulders, as seen in the photos. 


So as to not make the model too heavy, I added a light foam to the body, moulded around the ligaments and secured with tape. This means the model's body is plush, while the head, lower arms, hands and feet will be made of clay. 





The final model should measure around 270mm in height without the head, estimating 300mm with the head. This entire process was repeated a second time, creating two out of three models for the final production. 



After we did the trailer shoot, I took the files and edited a trailer in Avid for the Indiegogo page for Debbie. This consisted of a teaser trailer, followed by a pitch done by Lucy to give more information about the film and what we need.



The final edit can be viewed here :

For the Indiegogo page, I was in charge of compiling everything together and placing it in a relevant, interesting order. 

Firstly I had to come up with a tagline, that would promote the project and gain interest from the public when viewed on the home page of Indiegogo. I quickly summarised the project into a question to get the audience's attention and make them wonder more about it : "What is a day in the life on an animated character like? We want to find out and we hope you do too!"

For the main section of the page, after observing what other successful films that were similar to our own, had pitched, I came up with a running order as follows :

1) An interesting and quirky introduction, that is relevant to the film and talks directly to the audience. 

I wanted to set the scene with this section, giving a bit of a back story and showing our main aim for the film - to give characters a voice! It was written in a way that hopefully speaks more directly to the audience, to try and immerse them within the our film's world.

2) The Synopsis 

This was next on the list obviously to give a brief outline of what will actually happen in the film to the audience. 

3) Meet the Characters 

After so much work on characterisation I wanted to give the characters a proper introduction to the audience, by describing a short paragraph for each. This hints at events that happen within the film and acts as a bit of a teaser, as well as allowing the audience to get a sense of the personalities of the characters. Concept art for both CGI and Stopmotion is included in this section. 

4) Meet the Humans

I thought "Meet the Humans" would be a funny title after the previous one, playing on our reflexiveness within the project. I read on the Indiegogo website advice section about how it is good to introduce your crew, even in a personal manner, as people can often donate to people rather than projects. I thought personal statements would be a good idea for the audience to get to know us better and our relation to the film, so I wrote one for me and also for Katherine based from her learning agreement when she couldn't, and made Tom complete one as well. I hope the audience can see our passion for the project in these and it helps with the decision of whether to donate or not.

5) What we've already done...

Letting the audience know how far we have come so far and where we are at with the project. 

6) What we still need to do...

A time chart showing where we are and everything ahead of us. A short description about this as well.

7) Budget

This will show where the money will go to in bettering our project. A pie chart is also here to give a quick indication.

8) Perks 

A graphic version of the perks and a brief description of why we are giving what we are. 
9) Other ways to help...

Publicising us on social media and thank yous. 





Idea
I thought since our film is animation based it would be nice to do our trailer in a similar fashion and use animation. So far we have used quite a lot of graphics, such as of the characters, throughout much of our presentation materials (production pack, presentation etc.) and thought we could make use of them in the trailer. I thought about how we are bringing the animated characters of Chip and Clay into our world in Through the Medium, and how maybe we could reverse that to turn ourselves into animated characters and be a part of their own world, such is the reflexive nature of what we're trying to do.

Trailer Inclusions :
  • Motion graphic style animation 
  • Say my name, role and name of film
  • What the film is about
  • Talk about how the concept was developed
  • Introduce the characters - Clay and Chip 
  • How much money we will need
  • What it is going towards 
  • Thank you 
Based off of these bullet points I came up with a few paragraphs to include in the trailer and then we recorded me saying them to be put in the trailer. 

Animation and Lip Sync 

 The trailer was animated in After Effects as seen below :





I'm very please with the result of the trailer, seeing as it was done in a very short time period - mainly working in the evenings for about a week. I think the style works well for what we're aiming to do and how the characters interact with it as well. It's amazing sometimes to see what can be done when you really knuckle down to something - hopefully all our efforts and passion for the project are being injected into everything we do, such as the trailer. 

Josh asked Tom and I to help out with camera work for his documentary film, which I was very excited about as I find his project really cool and something I'd be really interested in! It meant we got to tag along and watch the performances and meet some band members which was super awesome! More film - wise it allowed me to test my camera skills on the EX1 - camera being something I haven't really been on other than in workshops and my own personal projects etc. It was nice being able to try something different and go a bit out of my normal comfort zone from roles that I've become more acquainted with. I had a great time and hopefully helped Josh a tiny bit on his way to accomplishing his amazing project!



Feedback

  • Think about how the vines and branches relate to anxiety, what we want to say with them and how to incorporate them into the film.
  • Is the piece meant to be fairytale - esque? 
  • Are we going to use an infra-red style or use elements from infra red?


Inframen is a series of portraits using an infrared technique that reveals blemishes that lie under a dancer's abused skin such as scars and sun damage. The photographic process strips away the dancers' outer shell, exposing hidden flaws - the surface of the skin becomes a metaphor for the dancer's inferiority. It represents the relationship between the strength of the body and the fragility of the soul while using male dancers subverts the heteronormative idea of emotionally suppressed masculinity. 

"I use this infrared technique to challenge the model's beauty and find a great intimacy. You are seeing what is already there but it reveals and emphasises these marks."

I think this is a great inspiration for looking at male dancers and challenging the male stereotype. In Inframen we can see that despite their beauty and strength, there are flaws underneath and that everyone has them. This relates back to our film to try and subvert the idea of men always being these strong, fearless characters that are meant to protect, and in reality are just as susceptible to "flaws" as women, despite that this may be seen to be overlooked. 












After our brief tutorial with Kathleen we discussed about what gender we wanted the dancer to be and how this would effect what we are trying to say with the piece. We thought how it would be interesting to use a male dancer as a subversion of stereotypes. I wrote this brief summary to outline the new idea for the film : 
A 5 minute contemporary dance film featuring a young man, aiming to explore and challenge the male stereotype of having strong, fearless characteristics by contrasting with a quivering wreck. The choreography is based around an analysis of anxious states and the movements they create, their exaggerated sounds creating a sort of rhythm. This will be done through the use of live action and animation, in which the dance represents fear and panic, while the animated branches reflect pressure and problems, ultimately closing in on the dancer. 

I also came up with a revised mood board, as previously the focus was very much on women, while now we want to concentrate on men and how they can be viewed through the camera. 



Stylistically we still want the visuals to be black and white, consisting of a light grey background. This is so we can contrast with the much darker vines and branches. 
We wanted to make our production pack reflect the style of the film, making use of colours and shapes, and in the process decided that it would be nice to have a logo / title that we can use on publicity websites, in the production book etc. 

As an initial draft, Tom presented me with a design that made use of the characters' heads in creating a shape around the title text. However I felt this was to clunky and didn't fully represent what the film was about - I felt something more simpler / clearer with an obvious play on the forms of animation would work better. 
Initial Draft



As a result Tom and I looked into how related items have been incorporated in titles in the past, and I created a mood board showing a variation of uses and effects to inspire us. 



With more research into what can be done with text, we revised the logo to incorporate our two main characters in what we feel is a more clever manner than before. Our stop motion character, Clay, can be seen incorporated into the "O" of "Through," while our CGI character's face (Chip) can be seen within the "D" of "Medium." We also included the use of an animator's hand for stop motion and a cursor for CGI, to put in more of a reflection of the film, hinting towards their individual mediums. The colours are also representative of the characters themselves, we associate Clay with various red items of clothing and accessories and Chip with blue, as can be seen within the concept art. These colours have been placed on the text in accordance with where the character is situated. The fact they are distinctly separated between the two words also reflects how the two characters are cut between (in the edit) within the film - they appear to be from separate universes of animation, yet still are linked. 


Final Logo Design


I thought as the production is giving a life to the characters, that I'd do the descriptions in an interesting, related manner - giving them mock interviews as if they are publicizing "Through the Medium" as the actors. This allows a further reflection of the medium, as they are essentially having a mini, even more realistic interview, about their role in our film in which they are interviewed about life on set. I feel their answers give a bit more away about their characters and attitudes, particularly to those who haven't seen the script. It serves as kind of a written teaser to our film. We thought this would be useful to put on fundraising sites, publicity pages and even as flyers to put up / hand out, as it is quite a fun part that plays off the rest of the entire work. Even if we don't use it as something public in the end, it's useful for us to look at to make sure we know as much about the characters as possible (their back story) to assist in putting their lives into their models in the best possible way.  Once the article was written, we turned it into a magazine style design and layout to add a bit more of a realistic interview vibe, that can be seen below, in the fake magazine Animation Nation : 


Here is the original transcription of the article :

Clay

Clay was born on the 22nd July 2015. From a very early age, Clay was handled with a lot of love and care by his creators assembled with the most delicate of touches. After initial problems with his balance, requiring assistance to stand alone to prevent toppling over, he established a close bond with his human animator counterparts who he relied and worked with to rectify the problem into a more stable condition. He became a popular character within the workshop, and as a result grew to be a very social and friendly being. Clay considers himself to be a professional actor and takes his roles very seriously, however he always has time to hang out and have fun with the rest of the crew on breaks. Despite never gloating, if questioned, he will quietly confess his dreams of one day being the first animated character to attend the Oscars.

Here is a brief interview with Clay to get to know him better before the release of "Through The Medium."

Interviewer : How would you describe yourself? 

Clay : ...Oh...tough question! Mmmm...let me think. I'd say I'm a pretty patient character *chuckles* 

Interviewer : *chuckles* Well you'd have to be! 

Clay : Yeah definitely! It's a massive part of the job I'd say. I like to think I'm pretty chilled, the key to establishing a good work ethic is just to be friendly and have fun with the job. It's nice being able to have a few laughs every once in awhile with these guys *points towards film crew*

Interviewer :  Sounds like you have a lot of fun on set! Do you bring that into your personal life too? 

Clay : Yeah I would say so. I like to get a bit of socialising in behind the scenes as well, there's perks to working with some of your best friends! Seriously though, it is important to take a lot of breaks throughout production, especially when you're standing all day like I am. It's essential I get my stretching exercises in - it's part of the risk assessment! Off set I also enjoy watching a lot of films to draw some inspiration into my performances, although to be fair I like to incorporate a lot of my own style into the roles as well. 

Interviewer : What do you think of "Through the Medium"?

Clay : I really love the concept of the entire film. I feel like a lot of the time animated character's voices get lost in amongst the rest of the behind the scenes footage and it can get really frustrating, especially after all the hard work put in to make the performance good. I'm really hoping the film will provide the audience with some new knowledge of what it's like to be an animated character on set, working in adverse conditions when you're only a few inches tall and gain a new perspective on the film making life from a different angle. 

Interviewer : Rating out 10?

Clay : Do you even have to ask? *chuckles* 



Chip

Chip was born on the 20th of July 2015. In early stages of development, Chip had a rather unfortunate scenario with the so - called evil "Cursor" that left him muscle-less and nearly ruined his career in looking good for himself - he has lived in fear ever since. Right away Chip knew he was very athletic, and for one little CGI animation he had big dreams - to have the biggest muscles and smoothest surface in the entire of 3D space. Self appearance is a very important part of Chip's life, with around 16 hours spent in his mirror and the other 8 flexing in his sleep. However, various run downs with his Kryptonite, the "Cursor," often leave Chip in awkward situations and interrupt his  self titled flawless physique. Despite life not always going Chip's way, he knows he can always find some solace in his favourite coffee, the triple mocha frappa lacka macha chino latte and even occasionally him and the cursor manage to put aside their differences, showing it's not all tricks and games between them.

We also spent some time getting to know Chip! Here is the interview :

Interviewer : Hey Chip! How are you?

Chip : *Proceeds to fix hair in mirror* ...uuuhhh...I'm...Good...Thanks.

Interviewer : Great to hear! Can you tell the audience a bit about yourself?

Chip : *Immediately puts down mirror* Where do I begin? My favourite element of me has to be my award winning smile *Smirks* although my hair is pretty good too, perfect even! Wouldn't you agree?

Interviewer :  Yeah! Don't forget about those muscles though!

Chip : Oh trust me, I haven't. I've got a solid round of built up polygons. *flexes*

Interviewer : Nice! Do you use those muscles to stop any evil lurking about?

Chip : Mmm...there's not too much evil around here...other than the...the...the...

Interviewer : ...the?

Chip : NOOO! Nothing. Never mind...you'd better be careful or you'll soon find out! And neither of us would want that. The interview would have to be cut short.

Interviewer : Very well... If there's "not too much evil" I'm guessing the universe is a very positive place?

Chip : Definitely! How could a universe with me not be positive! Although the coffee contributes a lot of positivity, especially after a stressful day of running from...stuff...and gives me the energy to keep maintaining these dashing looks you see here.

Interviewer : And lastly can you describe "Through the Medium" to us to get a better sense of what it is about?

Chip : Sure! It's a glorious two hour feature length that delves deep inside the inner workings of my amazing body, displaying the craftsman ship of every chiseled high definition ab, my shiny radiant texture...

Interviewer : ...mmm...it's actually supposed to be a short, documentary....say around 3-5 mins?

Chip : Pfft you're wrong...that's obviously not nearly enough time to take in all of my stupendous action. You'll love it though, it truly is a work of art!

Interviewer : *Chuckles* I look forward to seeing that! Thank you Chip.


Stopmotion
My idea for Clay is to have him in warmer colours to represent his more physical, classic nature and relationship to the human world. This includes various tones of red, probably leaning more towards the mid-darker shades. Subtle hints of gold could be used, such as on buttons etc.

Related personality types to the colour red that fit with Clay are :
  • Optimistic and Courageous 
  • Practical and grounded attitude 
  • Explorers and pioneers of the world
  • Passionate and enthusiastic about life
  • Hard worker and enjoys physical labour


Related personality types to the colour gold / yellow that fit with Clay are :
  • Happy disposition / Cheerful
  • Creative - coming up with ideas
  • Smart dresser


I feel as Clay is aware of the human world and interacts with it, he understands the principles of dressing in a smarter way for work (providing his role calls for it). Therefore with his outfit I want a kind of "casual - chic" effect - not a complete suit and tie, but within professional standard boundaries. He is not an uptight character and his outfit should reflect his more casual - esque nature, so comfort and freedom for movement is essential. However, as he does express an interest in style within the film, he still has to withhold a look that makes him seem thoughtful to his fashion sense. 



CGI

For chip I wanted to express his relationship to technology and the CG universe, using more cooler toned colours such as light, icy blues and silvers. 


Related personality traits to the colour blue that fit Chip are :
  • Need for peace and harmony - doesn't like having his feathers ruffled (cursor)
  • Confident, but may be hiding a vulnerable side
  • Unpredictability overwhelms him
  • Can be quite emotional
  • Cautious and worry about everything
  • Prone to self pity

Chip's outfit is a lot more futuristic, mixing elements of technology, metal, space suits and superheroes - pushing him further away from the human world and acknowledging his lack of connection with them. This was a lot harder to find images on, however elements from this mood board provide a good basis to work from on creating something. I particularly like the use of the metal bands around the wrist and shoulders. 



As a big animation company from Northern Ireland, I've known of Flickerpix (who's website can be viewed here) for a significant amount of time now, specifically of their Progressive Advertisements that were on all the time in between programmes on UTV! A lot of their work has inspired me to want to have a go at animation and was a significant contributor in leading me to developing an animation concept which would later become "Through the Medium." 
After we confirmed we were going to continue with the idea for our third year project, immediately I had plans that one day I'd contact Flickerpix in the hope of learning something new about animation and gaining some valuable advice we could lend to our own film - however I was a bit unconfident in myself to do so. However, after all the excitement and fun of beginning the project and through using their website, I got in contact to ask for advice. Creative Director Joel Simon got in touch, inviting me to meet up to discuss my ideas with him - however within such a small time frame, going back to N.I. unfortunately wasn't going to happen - so I asked if a Skype session would be possible, to which he agreed thankfully! 

By the 22/10/2015 we had prepared questions to ask Joel to make sure we were making the most our time with him. We found his advice very useful and learnt a lot more about the workflow of animation, and he made us consider things we hadn't even thought of, such as keeping models clean after all the handling.  We have also recorded the interview via quicktime, with Joel's permission, for future use and he said to get in contact if there is anything else we need. Here is a transcript, summarising the main points of the interview :


One of my favourite shorts by Flickerpix, specifically Joel Simon, is Macropolis. 

"An animated film from Flickerpix Joel Simon, is the story of two toys with impairments discarded from a factory production line. Coming to life, they rebel and chase the factory delivery van in the hope of rejoining their friends. Lost in the unfamiliar, urban big city, they are overwhelmed by the challenge ahead." 

The use of time lapse with the stop motion is really effective and I love the way it looks. The way the light flickers occasionally through the time lapse effect is a really nice and unusual element, and isn't distracting like how you would think. The film even won an IFTA award. 

I created a rough shot list to gain a first idea of what the film may look like and the kind of visuals we might want to gain from it. I separated the detailed movement within the piece into three categories, Animation Description, Camera Movement and Dancer Description, to try and give a clearer idea of what is occurring, especially to the individual roles such as the animator and camera operator. It also made it easier for me to suggest things within each category without becoming muddled. Due to the nature of the piece and how we want to collaborate with the dancer, the descriptions will most likely change through the development of the dance, however I feel it's best to have a solid starting point from which we can all discuss from. 



I gave this shot list to our storyboard-ist Shahid in order to carry out a rough, visual transcript of the film that we have developed so far and then I compiled everything together in a template.

How anxiety displays itself between person to person is very different - panic attacks can occur out of nowhere or certain thoughts or events can trigger nervousness. The one thing that is commonly found is a "persistent or severe fear or worry in situations where most people wouldn't feel threat." 

I found key words from the symptoms listed that could help us establish movements with the dancer:

Emotional Symptoms 
  • A feeling that something bad / unpleasant will occur
  • Loss of concentration
  • Tensing up and feeling jumpy
  • The expectation of the worst possible scenario
  • Feeling irritable 
  • Restlessness
  • Mind blanks

Physical Symptoms 
  • Heart pounding
  • Excessive sweating
  • Dizziness
  • Shortness of breath
  • Tremouring
  • Twitching
  • Muscle tension
  • Headaches
  • Tiredness
  • Insomnia
Living with Anxiety (Documentary)


Chris states in documentary "The anxiety pretty much closed me off from the rest of my family" and discusses how he felt "embarrassed" a lot of the time about his condition. I think this would be a good element to incorporate in the film - the idea of feeling cut off from the world. 
The Body (2012) // Directed by Kazimir Kolesnik and Eero Heinonen 



I particularly like the focus on the body and it's movement in this piece, and I feel I can draw some nice inspiration stylistically from the extreme close ups, for example on the back. I like the contours  and movement of the skin - the way it folds and stretches.

Restricted Space (2007)


I like the idea of the dancer being restricted to one small space on the floor, as ultimately our dancer is going to be covered by vines / branches. In Restricted Space (2007), the dancers are restricted to the area where there is light, and they are only allowed movements that will fit within this. I think this technqiue could be useful not only for the final outcome, but in auditions and rehearsals to establish the types of movement that we could do with such a limited space with restrictions. 

Dance for Confined Space // Paola Napolitano

This follows similar ideas to Restricted Space, where the dancer is within a limited space (in this case a roof space). However in this case I liked the use of the framing and camera angle shown below, as it provides a sense of claustrophobia and an idea of just how tight the space is. This is something I would like to put in my own dance film, and will be considering how to do so, not just through the dance and animation, but the camera as well. 

Frictions



This short is a mixture of live action and animation, similar to how our dance film will be. I took inspiration from the way the animated "post it notes" appear to attack the dancer, attaching themselves on to his arm and around his body despite his resistance, as pictured below :



I liked these shots of his arm and hands, as the stickers travel around them. We plan to use a similar style with our vines / branches, as they slowly take over the entire body of the dancer. Firstly they will begin with the hands, and feet, before completely restricting any more movement. 

Sia's Big Girls Cry // Directed by Daniel Askill and Sia, Featuring Maddie Zielgler



I really like the framing of this music video, getting the dancer's upper body and head and establishing a focus with these body parts. I like the use of the hands with the face to show emotions such a frustration. I like the idea of mixing and using the body parts with each other to show the anxiety as it progresses through the film. 

Elena Gradkovskaya 


I like the use of camera movement, the constant motion, as well as the framing within the video. I feel like similar angles would allow nice shots of the vines and branches on the roof, walls and floors around the dancer. 

Painted (2012) // Directed by Duncan McDowall



While the movement of the dancer and style isn't really related to my piece, I enjoyed the camera movement at times in this piece, particularly around 1:53. It gave me a better idea of framing, particularly for the wide shots.

This Place Was a Shelter



This gave me a nice idea of what can be done in just a wide shot, which we will be making use of to show the extent of the branches and vines around our dancer. Stylistically it is similar in the black and white style.

The piece's focus is of the movements associated with anxiety, and therefore I want a lot of close ups of hands, feet etc to show this. These mood boards are not exactly the movements I'm looking for, but are an inspiration for the style and shots we could possibly use. 

Hands


Examples for hands would be tapping, fidgeting, clenching together....


Feet


Set and Visual

For the style of the film, we're thinking of filming in black and white, so that the background is a light grey colour. We are then going to animate the trees and branches darker shades of grey as a contrast. 


We've also looked in to filming with a black curtain and animating in white, as well as doing the inverse. However as there are no smooth white walls in uni studios, and I feel that having the trees / vines white instead of dark with a black background detracts from their demeanour, we think it might be better to go with black and white to achieve our ideas. 



Projections / Animation

We want tree like vines and branches to interact with the dancer. These will be done through animation in after effects, most likely. They will begin subtly and grow more and more throughout the piece, to ultimately entangle the dancer. Here are some stylistic references :


Costume

Laura suggested making the costume nude, to make the dancer / performer look more vulnerable, which I totally agree with. Possibly using a plain nude outfit would keep distraction low and give off her vulnerability. Also the idea of it being plain could relate back to anxiety and the "I'm not good enough' thoughts that may occur. Even in black and white the lightness of the leotard should blend with the tones of the dancer's skin to give that smooth and vulnerable effect. 



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Lauren Fox
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