Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation. Show all posts
Due to the hot conditions of our room during the stop motion shoot it meant our character and set would often melt, and time had to be spent fixing this every so often, for continuity purposes as we didn't shoot the scenes in a linear manner. However, there was only so much we could do to get it looking similar throughout, so we thought to assist this we would fix things up ever so slightly in post. This was a really subtle thing, done only on shots that had patches that were really messed up and required a bit of fixing. I wanted to make sure Clay's textured skin was still on show though, and the indentations and changes as an effect of us touching / moving him could still be visible in order to contrast with the very smooth CGI universe. 

To do this I used NukeX, using the blur tool. This allowed me to focus on only particular areas that needed attention, and change the opacity of the blur to low so as the smoothing was very slight. I'd never used NukeX before, so this was a learning experience for me and I now feel more confident using the software. 

Before
After

Here is a time lapse of my working method, as I smooth each frame :

When we got to the room it took quite awhile to set up and arrange everything so that it would fit in the film editing room i.e. the space where we're working (it's quite small even without the equipment in it!). We also spent some time on the first day attending to the models after travelling, such as smoothing the skin out a bit more and re-arranging clothes to sit nicer on the body etc in preparation to get straight into shooting the next day. The room is set up with two lights on the left hand side at varying heights (acting as the sun), a tray holding the model on a rig, the set placed at a further distance away on the editing table, a blue screen behind the set for a digital sky in post, a tripod and camera directly in front of both model and set, the laptop with dragonframe running connected to and controlling the camera and a monitor for the animator to view positioning the model each frame. This can be viewed below :


We start animating a scene by looking at the animatic as seen in this screenshot : 


This gives us a better idea of what will be happening in the scene for us to replicate. 


At each frame (we're working at 25 fps) Tom had previously written down the syllables (taken earlier from our work on the indiegogo trailer) and over how many frames each movement would be over. In the screenshot below the big "E" alongside the arrow represents eyebrow movement (up or down) and the big "H" represents head movement. Seeing this at each frame allows us to work faster and generally better as we don't need to flick back and forth between the animatic and the live view etc. Also as shown below each sound can be heard at each frame, making it easier for us to place accurate mouths based on how Lawrence said certain words. 


This is the end of our first week of shooting, having about another week and a half remaining. I think we've learnt how fiddly stop motion can be (replacing mouths, fixing finger pressed skin, slight movement changes etc.) and even though I knew it'd be time consuming actually living it has reinforced this to me even more. We've been roughly arriving at 10am every day and most of the time working until 8pm when the caretaker often comes and tells us we're "the last ones in the building." Each day we're getting around 2-3 scenes done, each being about 5-7 seconds long.  We've had a few set backs (a light bulb blew, a hand fell off and a piece of hair snapped in two at one point) but we've always managed to work around them. Even though we're really exhausted (I can't stress this enough!) it's been so worthwhile and really fun at the same time. It's very rewarding seeing the character actually coming to life and noticing how our hard work has actually made this happen. Normally I'm very self critical of my work, but at the moment this isn't too bad! (I hope).


So let's hope the rest of the shoot goes smoothly! (eeeeep)




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. 



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. 

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. 

Today I further developed the Synopsis and wrote a treatment for the film which can be seen below : 



Tom also put together the shot list, from what we had discussed the other day when writing the script, which can also be seen below : 

I've been very into Parks and Recreation lately, and noticed that we incorporated some of the style from it, as well as The Office into our film when writing the script. We liked the idea of using a lot of B-roll style material, with a voiceover at times, intercut with the character actually speaking in the interview - something both these programmes do.  This can be seen close to the end of this clip from Parks and Rec :


We also liked the idea of having a character give a look to the camera instead of using dialogue, to give away how they're feeling. This brings me back to the Chuck Jones documentary discussed in a previous blog post, about questioning how the character moves. It says that how the individual moves is dictated by what is going on inside, so hopefully using a mood specific look to the camera at some points will achieve this for our own film in an interesting manner. I think this works well as it doesn't exactly spell out what exactly is happening through a normal dialogue to the audience and gives something a bit different, and much more animated to the visual aspect of the scene. Here are some examples from Parks and Rec and The Office :

Parks and Recreation Gif Examples


     The Office Gif Examples





Today we had scheduled for the completion of the script, so we took the laptop and decided to work in Starbucks for a change of scenery. I actually found this really progressive, as there weren't many distractions and we were able to stay very focussed throughout.



Tom had begun writing a rough version of the script over summer, however a lot of work had to be done, especially after all the research that we've been looking at, such as how to do comedy. We started from the beginning of the rough draft and re-wrote things / added new material accordingly to how we felt they would sound and work from our imaginations of what the film looks like to us. 

We swapped the order of the timeline around a lot, to make it flow better and tried imagining how we would react to scenarios - "What would you say if you were the character?" was asked a lot!


The one thing we had to decide on, previously not discussed was a conclusion. We tried to think about what we wanted to say from the film and work further on that. I didn't really want to have a complete "animation vs animation" film, where one over ruled the other, so that played a key piece in how I wanted the ending to go.  We decided to show love for both animations. 

After four hours of writing new material, changing and swapping we finally felt we had got a script we were both happy with and proceeded to send it to a friend script - writer from film production and also our actor Lawrence for feedback. 




I actually really enjoyed writing the script today, even though I consider myself to be far from a scriptwriter. I feel like my confidence with developing ideas is getting stronger and I feel more comfortable with the process. One of the things I enjoyed most was seeing my ideas in my head actually become some sort of substance that is making sense - it's exciting when you see things starting to come together and form! I'm excited! I am very happy with the progress today and we shall be motoring on to get more done in the next couple of weeks!


I found this Google Talk while searching for behind the scenes of various animations on Youtube, and after watching the first five minutes I thought it would be very beneficial for both Tom and I to watch it. The directors of The Boxtrolls, Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, discuss various aspects from the making of the film as part of Laika Animation Studios. 

Firstly they show one of the trailers for The Boxtrolls which features a lot of behind the scenes, such as the puppet and landscape modelling and designing. This can be quickly seen below :


Originally when the directors saw this trailer for the first time they suggested that they couldn't show a trailer that displays such behind the scenes before the film even comes out, joking about showing the characters with no faces. However they admit that they were "totally wrong" as it turned out that it was what audiences were most interested in due to how they were "hand-made" and really existing in the real world alongside us.  I find this element really interesting as personally it's what appeals about stopmotion to me quite a bit. I like being able to see and feel these characters and how much substance they have to them. I feel like they have a deeper connection to our world, yet they can still have that cartoony - animated, magical vibe / style to them. I could picture myself being very excited at that google talk, and not just to hear what the directors were talking about, but also to see the characters in person and how intricately detailed they are. It's funny seeing the film with these animated characters and sets and then suddenly seeing them in real life, so still but being able to use your senses to explore them. 

They talked about how the key was to find one sequence,  referred to as a "tent-pole sequence," which really works and makes you know that this is the movie. Once you find this, then you can expand outward to the rest of the film. Finding the core of the story is very important for building up the film. 

The advice they gave in the talk from Joe Ranft (who used to work for Disney / Pixar) was to trust the process and even if it feels like you're not progressing and hitting dead ends, just trust that you actually are progressing and will find the story eventually. This meant a lot to me as there have been plenty of times over the past 3 years of making pieces where I've felt the project isn't good enough or questioning will it actually be made *cough Elysian cough* but after working very hard it's always came through (to some extent).  So maybe be more relaxed and confident in trusting in my abilities and that things will hopefully be okay, even in darker, seemingly unproductive times. 

It was very interesting learning how everything has to be made that's in front of the camera. They can't just take pieces from other Laika films, such as Coraline or Paranorman, because each film has a different style and therefore the props have to be made in co-ordinance with with the style of the film. 

I think the main goal for our film is to keep it simple. Find clever ways, such as framing or story-writing that means we can achieve our goal without over-doing anything and making it too complicated. 




Ever since summer when I developed the idea for the animation I always had Lawrence Simpson in mind for the roles. I remember on the alumni days his amazing reels and demonstration for voice acting and his element of fun in them really pushed me to want him for my characters. I was like 'Tom we NEED to get him for our animation!' so when Rosie and Kathleen suggested him as a possible voice actor in the presentations I was like 'Yes - exactly what I've been thinking!' So naturally, right away we composed an email to send to him, enquiring if he was interested. 

I composed a synopsis and some, brief personality traits of each character to give to Tom to include in the email, as well as a quick description of who we were and what we were doing (obviously name dropping DFSA ;) ). 



Luckily Lawrence got back to us, saying he was interested in helping with the project - exciting news! We are currently keeping him up to date with all of the progress of the project and asking him for any feedback he wishes to give as I find it very important that everyone involved has their own creative input. I am really looking forward to hearing his interpretations of the characters, once they've been developed more! 


After watching Chuck Jones - The Evolution of an Artist, I found another video by the same person, Every Frame a Painting, discussing Edgar Wright's style of comedy. Even though this isn't directly about animation, I decided to watch to see if anything can be translated between the mediums to help our film comedically.  

The first thing that is commented on in the video is how many modern films only make use of dialogue to provide comedy, rather than using the full amount of what film has to offer. There is a lack of visuality for comedic value.

The video states that the key between a mediocre director to a great one is the ability to take simple mundane scenes and find new ways to do them. So once again not going for the obvious and thinking more outside the box.

There is an emphasis on the framing, specifically  how things enter and leave the frame, which can be done in a comedic manner. Does the frame hide anything that can later be revealed by a pan or a zoom?



Sound effects and dramatic lighting can also play a big effect in the comedy of a scene.


What I've learnt from the video and from Edgar Wright, is to try and make the use of all aspects of the film, rather than just what the characters are saying. When writing the script I'm going to be considering what else will be going on the scene at the time to add to the comedic value. I definitely want to play around with sound, framing and lighting to see how it can all come together to make a piece, especially within animation. 


Items Used
  • Wooden Base
  • Saw 
  • PVA and Super Glue 
  • Synthetic Grass
  • Glitter 
  • Beads 
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Synthetic Soil
  • Markers and Pencils
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Foam
To begin with the base I took the measurements of the entire board and then marked the point where I wanted to cut to make the set smaller. Then using a saw I cut down this line as best I could (I'm not the most proficient with a saw) until I had two separate pieces of board. I selected the larger of these two to work on. 




I marked on where I wanted the house to be on the board, using the pieces of house I had built as a guide to the size and angle to be placed at. I made the area of the house bigger on the board so as I could include a garden and fence surrounding it. 



I also sketched in where the path would lead up to at the door of the house. I also marked on a continuation of this leading across the entire board, as well as placing a stream outline in front of this.



After this I cut out pieces of foam that went over the top of the board, everywhere other than the stream. This was to elevate everything and allow the stream to seem lower than the rest of the set. One layer of foam was placed, other than around the stream, where an extra layer was added to deepen it further.  This was then glued using PVA directly to the board. The foam required a lot of pressure to maintain it's security to the board so I advise having an extra pair of hands around (in my case my mum!) to help keep a larger area pressed down in order to make sure it will continue to stick as the glue is drying! The outline of the path was re-marked on top of the foam using a yellow marker. 






After allowing the glue to dry, I decided to give a base coat of blue to the stream. To get the colour I wanted I used white acrylic paint and added a hint of light blue. I then carefully painted this in between the gap of the two pieces of foam. 




I then got a roll of synthetic grass to apply over the top of the entire board. I laid the roll over the set and then cut following the line of the stream underneath as a guide. Using a paintbrush I then placed glue underneath the grass cut outs and placed them carefully around the stream, making sure to push it in between all the crevasses, as I didn't want a smooth appearance.





I cut out a piece of spare foam in the shape of the path and placed this on top of the grass so as I could keep track of where it was going. I then painted on a brown path line on either side of the foam across the board, as a guide for the later placement of soil. 


After this I went back to sprucing up the stream. I painted on some PVA glue the entire way along it and then sprinkled on some bluey-silvery glitter. Beads were also added around the edged to give some more definition. 





Next I used some synthetic soil on top of the path line to give a more 3D effect. I did this in a similar way to the stream, placing PVA glue first and then sprinkling on. This time the small granules had to be pressed down more than the glitter, as they were a lot heavier.




The final look was something like this : 




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Lauren Fox
Third year at UCA studying Digital Film and Screen Arts
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