I Can Now Make an Army

So today I visited the sculpting area at ECUAD to meet with David Morgan, whom I have been consulting about puppet making for my project. David directed me to Camrose Ducote, another incredible technician who showed me how to operate the Vacuum Form Machine.

Here how it went...

He's on the plate.

 

Here's the Polyethylene sheet.

The plastic being heated up.

The heated plastic got vacuumed with the model.

The model got pulled out.

And it's a failure...

What went wrong was that the space between the model and the plate was too little, so the plastic wasn't properly pulled down. Another problem was the design of the puppet itself as it has what's call an undercut, meaning he's doesn't have a flat back, and this created a tear when the plastic is being pulled down as it became too thin in the said area. And the puppet was kind of destroyed, the air dried clay was too crumbly, next time if I ever going to cast a mold again I probably would create my object or character with sculpy.

But it was the first try, we tried again.

And it's a success! 99% I'll say. By using a bigger sheet of plastic there was much more room for stretching that it got pulled down nicely. Though I said it's 99% because the plastic still got punctured during the vacuum process and so the fine details between the finger ans the feet of the model didn't really get folded between. But it's a satisfactory mold in which I can now make numerous casting of the puppet in various materials. Cheers. 

Taking Shape

The little guy has now begin to take shape. I first made a prototype of him from aluminium wire and oil-based clay just to get some ideas of how he will look like and the limitations of his movements.

Later on the week I went and meet with David Morgan, a studio technician here at ECUAD who are extremely knowledgeable about puppet making. I learned from him that there are MANY methods in making a puppet, in which the load of information is quite overwhelming. First and foremost is knowing what you want, so a pre-visualization of how the puppet's appearance is and how it's going to move is crucial in deciding what method you are going to use to create the puppet. From all the options David has told me I boiled them down to two stages:

1. Making your original: In order for me to go any further I must have my original model. And the best thing to do is to create two types of model, one hard and rigid for making soft mold and one pliable for making hard mold. It's good to have both options just in case you want different types of puppets for different scene. for instance, I can make rubbery puppets from my hard mold for scenes that he got stretches or make a sturdy puppet with replacement parts to retain his proportions. 

Here are all the materials am using to make both of my models.
- Pliable silver frame wire, 32 feet.

- Air-dried sculpting clay

- Oil-based modeling clay

- Ice-cream sticks
- Tape

- Styrofoam Spheres

Let's start with the hard model. Since this model doesn't have to move, the structure is built from ice-cream sticks, tape and styrofoam. The exterior is covered with air-dried clay. I simply rough out his outline and work to towards achieving a 3D sculpture from his 2D design. 

I probably have to spray him with protective spray or brush him with modge podge so that he won't break during the process of making the mold. I especially worried about his hand.

Hopefully by this Wednesday the 23rd a complete puppet will be finished.

Lastly, I found an incredible sight as my resource: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAMARU_380r9WmECHunDhcA
Almost everything I need to know. 

The Looks

As previously stated, our little guy (who is yet to be named) will travel through his memories, taking others along with him.

The idea I have for his room is that it is a consistently shifting room, it changes sizes and appears to be extremely vast or claustrophobically small at any given moment. It is best describe that the room is cell-like, similar to an interrogation room with minimal lights and just overall empty. 

Components

As for this week I have been working more one my sketches, designing my main character and mapped out his movements.

Not yet to be named, this little fellow is best describe as an entity from another universe similar to earth. Nobody knows why he ended up in the room he is in, but they all are interested in his stories and ask him questions about his past. He is full of memories and nostalgia and able to describe the thoughts in his mind so vividly to others that they can experience them.

And this is where all the animations work kicks in. I planned to create three different scenario based on three questions that the my main character will be asked. In each scene there will be different animation components that I will composite together (an expected heavily composite work lies ahead, yay).

I went back to the first messy which is animating glue under the camera. The blob-like texture of glue that looks in between liquid and shiny solid is the kind of texture that really strike me and so I decided to revisit the experiment again. My first try was not a success, I wasn't prepared enough with my equipment and patience. This time I was ready, I have water, towel and a good brush to help me clean up and manipulate the shape of the glue as I learned that the most frustrating thing is to clean out the previous glue. It worked out much better. And I was mentally prepared too,

Some movement tests is made in flash.

Then blob-manipulation under the camera.

And composite in after effects.

The result satisfy me. Of course some more test is needed in order to get the movement, color and lighting right, but this outcome gives me encouragement that this method is working. Some changes is probably in the material itself that I need to find an alternative one, and also a more even lighting so there won't be undesired shadows.

Gathering and Preparing

I now starting to gather some reference works from artists and animators that I like to set examples of the aesthetic for my animation. 

Juan Carlos Paz (Art Director/Illustrator), "Family Portraits".
This is exactly what I would like to achieve for my animation, a flawless (yet noticeable) marriage of the imaginary and the real. 

Don Hertzfeldt (Animator), "It's Such a Beautiful Day".

I could go on and on about Hertzfeldt's work. His simple stickman animation is so rich in both visual and content. He's one of the animators that I admire incredibly, in which not to imitate but I aspire to be able to capture the melancholic though hopeful visual story telling employ in his animations. The techniques that Hertzfeldt uses borrow a lot from experimental films, so I should probably study some more film visuals these up coming weeks to both gain inspirations of various experimentation that I can try. Above all I need to write up an uncomplicated script that will take my viewer into the story with just a few words.

Julia Potts (Illustator/Animator), "The Event".

Another example of a rich visual combination of live footage and animation. Potts's story is a twisted perspective of simple subjects: love, lost of love, boredom. The non-linear narrative and surreal but still understandable  dialogues of Potts's work might be what I incline towards rather than Hertzfeldt more coherent script as I do know that one of my weaknesses is script writing.

The writing will be the most challenging part for me. As for now my little guy is forming.

Some Ideas Forming

We are at the end of our messy period and now entering full experimental production. These past three weeks has been a great experience trying out different methods in experimental animation.

Here's a little wrapped-up of the three messy animation test period:

Messy 1: Morphing.

I started off with big plans for my animation, aiming to create a full on animation each week, even just a ten second but a finished-looking piece would be acceptable. However, that did not happen. First of all I encountered the frustration in working with my first material, glue. The nature of liquid is that it has no shape and thus to animate it is not an easy one time thing. I underestimate the time consumption the process will take and ended up rushing the animation, resulting in an unfinished work.
Though it has given the experience in working with glue, I must admit this first unsatisfying test intimidates me as I realize that producing a professional quality work while also "play" might not be quite the easy task I thought it would be.
So I went back and start thinking again, scrapping my overtly ambitious goals and revisiting simpler ideas. And that was when I decided to try again and animate papers. The experience might not have given me any novel animating skill as I have worked with papers before but it restored my excitement to keep trying.

Messy 2: Replacement

This week we did some paper cut out animation. This is not an unknown territory to me as I have worked with paper cut out puppets since first university year. Since I did not have to concentrate so much on how to make the material work I was able to focus more on the theme and movement of my animation.
What I've discovered about my work is that I always produce surreal, mystical world. I'm not quite certain that this is a good thing because I can't seem to break from both the aesthetic and content of the weird and the uncomfortable. I feel that I should start producing a more narrative work where there's a beginning, middle and an end. Many discussion with both professors and peers ends with the conclusion that this is my style and that instead of trying to find a story I should focus more on developing a strong piece with visual that strongly impact viewers. I am confident in my style but I think I probably will continue to explore with stories.

Messy 3: Clay

The final piece has actually led me to many explorations. There's an aesthetic that I always find intriguing, it's the combination of live photography or live action and hand created element (illustration and animation). Probably it lies in the surreal vibe the visuals emit, it crosses between the imaginative and the real.
In this test I tried out combining different mediums of animation: 2D Flash animation, realistic texture (photographs) and claymaation.
The result is half way between success and failure. I succeed in combining 2D with realistic element and seeing this test convince me that this is the visual that I will go for in both the upcoming project and my grad film. As for the claymation part, I find that the problem lies in technicality, the camera set up was not right; the footage came out shaky and with light shifts. I must consider more about my working equipment.
What is most fruitful of this assignment is my discovery of this guy:

In this chair:

Once I've seen this little guy moved and talked I've come to really like him. He turned out to be a shy, melancholic character and his displacement from this world charms me. I really want to investigate with this character further. Right now a story is forming.

From all the things that I've tried out, I've discovered that frequently the challenge is not the difficulty in manipulating the chosen but more because my patience did not reach the level that was required.

Jeff and Peter part1

We are doing a two and a half D this week. In my case I think I'm doing a 2.5D in a sense that my character has no legs movements, in any case I this is only a first draft and I will definitely add more relief claymations later on.

The idea here is an interview of a weird creature, though I will explore and extend this interview further to include the sensation of memories.

Initially, I planned to combine computer Flash animation with photo realistic textures and claymation together. This will require quite a bit of compositing work.

Also what I did this week is setting up my own station at home. Though with lack of equipment I tried the most primitive methods and frankly, not the best. The camera moved around and the light shifted...I stationed my camera down with duck tape...failed.

Two basic principles that I must approach more carefully:

- Use proper equipment.
- Have proper work station set up.

These two are technical stuff that doesn't really concern me as an animator in the sense that I can still get my timing and emotion right, BUT it does have a huge effect that my animation will be poor in presentation quality.