Here are some extremely simple and quick tests, to see how and if the crab puppet I built can move before I put the final touches to his paint work. there are no tie downs or rigs on this, it relies solely on gravity. Which is probably why it moves around a bit, I'll add a rigging point a think, so I don't have to rely on the legs to keep it up right.
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Having come from a seaside village I know just how stupid and evil seagulls can be, they are genuinely kind of terrifying. I've seen one eat an entire sub sandwich whole once, I have seen photos of them eating other smaller birds and crabs before as well. Grows. Anyway, for the film the seagull need to be devious, a little dumb but mostly visual appealing.
To start building the crab I decided to look into different types of crabs, and settled on a cross between a fiddler and ghost crab, due to there already cartoony appearance. I did a colour test to figure out what colour scheme would fit the look of the film and offer a contrast to the set and the main characters. The torso was made from plastazote, the legs are made form twisted aluminium wire. The limbs and eyes are made from building up layers of latex dipped scrim foam. the body was also cover in milli put as were the eyes and the claw tips.
I painted the whole thing in a light yellow, then teal to develop a more naturalistic shell effect. I plan to use a spray gun to add a light layer of blue and white for low and high lights. On reflection I perhaps should of added pins into the claw tips for pin downs, however on the pebble beach hopefully the revises will create purchase for the legs. A collection of quick movement tests I did on a practice puppet for my film, developed at Aardman animation during a work expearance placement. It was great to start figuring out the potential pit falls in the character as well as practicing the movement that will be necessary in the film. After this it became apparent that replacement limbs would be necessary as I went through a set of arms and legs in around a day and half of intensive animating.
Here are a range of experiment in scale, materials and strategies for the puppet of Boris and Noris, working largely on the idea of a solid puppet, mostly for ease as its likely that a replaceable limb puppet will be more useful.
Looking into the way in which I could make this puppet early on in development, it seems that the best way to go about it would be to use replacements for pretty much everything. Due to the need for limbs to extend but also be re posed and often very harsh/dramatic poses in order to create a good sense of space, layout and action, it is likely that the limbs will take a lot of staring and as the rubber hose look, removes the ability to use a ball jointed armature, why will be used which only highness the potential for breaking.
However after discussion with tutors, there is also the possibility for multiple replacement in full with the idea of changing the puppets when broken. Kirsten Lepore is another animator that uses tubular limbs to create a loose, soft often comical sense of movement in her work. This perhaps why she was selected to create the stop-motion special for 'Adventure Time'. Adventure Time as a series is largely based on a fast paced, rapid movement style that uses the characteristic of rubber hose style. As you can see in the character sheet below there are rile sin the world with famously 'no rules'. Importantly is creating the emphasis for movement such as a bent limb, but remaining fluid, how to create a sense of power with out sharp corners. I used some of these principles to develop movement in my own puppets as well as that of very traditional 'cartoony' styled animation such as Loony toons and the work of tex avery. From a model making point of view Another aspect I looked at on this project was the creation of the set, that can be seen in the making of video below. 'Dr.Breakfast' is a film I saw many years ago, I was captured by its truly bizarre narrative and often site it when people bring up odd cartoon from 90's cartoon network. Nerds work really taps into the hyper work of that time. American retro/cartoon modern animation is massively appealing. As is this upbeat energy of this film. So as a Case study this is more a look into the mood and energy I will try to translate in to my film, rather than style or type of aniamtion. The energy in his sketches translate into his animation, that impactful rough and ready/raw look to his work adds to its appeal. The mixture of equity of less and more important visuals is reminiscent of the use of blue silhouette crowds or background in cartoon modern films, but also translates in to style guides, like within the work of Tex Avery and John Kricfalusi.
modern style, something I would really love to do more of in my own work, although I try as often as I can. Max Winston also use to work for the company, which accounts for the similarity in there style. This company isn't afraid to use anything to create the right look or texture, they often use flocking and glitter in there work to achieve the retro look. They also let the materials speak for them selves, for example in the stop-frame special they created for sponge bob, they made him out actual sponge rather than creating a mould and casting in coma latex like some studio might. There use of thin tubular limbs and hose pipe lips are something I will be utilising in my own film. They often use 3D printing to create hollow bodys for there large character as well as more detailed shapes for replication such as the hats ears and faces ( as seen in the image below). From what I can see they also use foam and wire to create the majority of the puppets. this combination of texture and materials is something I hope to bring into my own work rather than worrying with moulds and fussy ball jointed armatures as it is simply unnecessary.
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DescriptionThis is a space for development work of my grad film BORIS-NORIS. A slap stick stop-motion film about NOT sharing. Archives
July 2018
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