stopmotion... a real pain
polycounter lvl 5
long story short, eventhough im a 3d modeller, currently im in a graphic design course, and one of my teachers asked us students for a stopmotion short video for an exam. have about 1-2 months to come up with something.
problem is, been trying some stuff, and the only thing ive come up with is the conclusion that this is a real pain in the ass :S tried toys, drawing, papercut, even udk xD but nothing :S
just wondering, how would you guys go about this? what do you think would be the best approach for this technique? not asking anyone here to do my job, just curious how other people would do such... ehrm... thing... ^^
problem is, been trying some stuff, and the only thing ive come up with is the conclusion that this is a real pain in the ass :S tried toys, drawing, papercut, even udk xD but nothing :S
just wondering, how would you guys go about this? what do you think would be the best approach for this technique? not asking anyone here to do my job, just curious how other people would do such... ehrm... thing... ^^
Replies
In the long run, a silicon molded figure with an armature or a thick wire skeleton would work the best.
In the short run, using clay characters of decently stiff clay would work best.
What Aardman tends to do with to have a silicon mold for the body, and a clay face for more control over exaggerated facial movements.
Another option would be to use action figures, get some clay that matches the color of the figure at their joints and put it around the joints, it removes the obvious seams and it makes the joints stiffer making it easier to have control.
Hobby Lobby has mold/casting kits you could use. So you could sculpt a character in clay, make a mold, then you can make a wire skeleton and then use a liquid silicone that cures to fill in the mold around the skeleton. Not sure where the get the silicone for it honestly though. Might be able to experiment with using the cheap stuff that they have at hardware stores though. Then just paint over the thing.
Youtube has lots of tutorials and info about stop motion as well. Another option would be to use wood figures, then you could just use wires connected to the hands or something for movement in front of a green screen, then remove the wires in aftereffects or something.
An example of the use of wooden figures can be seen in the stop motion music video for Rifles Spiral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc7UaYnmqpY
For how Aardman does Shaun the Sheep you can look at this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZSLseSnWUE
If you need any more help I could try to go more in depth and stuff.
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its not as much as HOW its done (the process actually is simple i guess, pics of frames placed in sequence to make an animation)... but HOW to take these pictures, and what would be the best way to make the subjects (papercut, clay, etc). i mean, is it just a matter of patience and takingh loads of picturea, or pictures of keyframes, stuff like that
I have a canon DSLR, a mount for my tripod for panning and trucking and a modded switch to fire the shutter(to keep hand vibrations down). I need to get a new tripod though the one I have now sucks. But it works.
Here is one my 8 year old did for his winter assignment(I compiled the footage in premire):
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I tried it years ago with an articulated desk lamp and it worked wonders
Using a pre-existing object like a lamp sounds like a pretty good idea for this sort of thing like pior said, would probably save you a lot of trouble, time and money doing that sort of thing.
Then add a piece of string to the coin and animate it a tail. After that, put a head and legs on it and make it walk (work your way up to this, it's not easy).
This semi-2D style stop motion is as simple as animation can get, but even though it's a simple, look what Aardman did with it
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Legos work well. Bionicles work great too (the joints). In the Bionicle joints I put something called Gorilla Snot to make the joints stick better (http://www.zzounds.com/item--GRSGOSNOT).
there we have it, altair ^^
would be relatively easy to make him have a short run animation, then climb a not so tall wall, getting to a surface above the ground, and then jump. build a cart of sorts, and have him land there.
thing is, as a plan it might look nice, lets see if it will work practically
[ame="
yea, good point. if i wrap the body with some tape, like scotch tape? just to avoid the clay being sliced? as the cloth will cover the body, guess it wont be much of an issue after all
http://justinrasch.blogspot.com/
He's an amazingly talented Animator, lunch eater, and acrobatic guy. Sleeps about 2 hours a night and eats a whole cow daily (I think). Some of his youtubes might give you some ideas where to start.
DO NOT use clay.
Do what spitty suggests. Animate people.
There's a legendary Canadian animator who won numerous academy awards named Norm McLaren. You should check out some of the stuff he did with the medium back in the 50's.
[ame="
too late, already bought the clay :S will start trying tonight, and see if it works... if it doesnt, will try the people animation (the video was awesome btw hahaah)
im trusting the cloth covering the clay character will hide most of the eventual flaws... time will tell ^^
http://youtu.be/IPoIwopVZPg
Let me tell you about some of the issues I had (maybe you can help from them).
Keep your hands and workspace 100% sterile, and clean. Each time you handle the clay, it will dirty up a little bit. Try to get good at using tools (although if you're already not a master at those tools, you'll probably get sick of them, and just use your hands anyways).
The lights will melt your clay, so don't even turn them on, until you're ready to actually take your shot.
The more you handle the clay, the more warped/melty it will become, so handle it as least as you possibly can. Possibly even keep a replica model just to refer yourself to what it's supposed to look like, so when it does inevitably start warping, and melting, you'll know what it's 'supposed' to look like, and you can hopefully start 'warping' it back throughout your sequence.
Keep your hands COLD, and keep washing them.
Don't touch different colours of clay without washing your hands/equipment. Skin, Yellows, and Whites, are notoriously the WORST for absorbing newer colours,.
Every time you touch black, red, or blue, WASH everything thoroughly, or you will noticably get a dirtier and dirtier model as your shot progresses.
BTW, not sure about any of you guys, but I found wire to be atrociously bad. I would highly recommend not even using it.
whoa thanks, you probably saved me loads of hit and miss times
will probably model 2 or 3 of the same character, the most identical i can, so that when one starts getting "weird", lets say, i just grab the other one and replace.
and about the wire, will try and figure the best solution for a skeleton... even if its gonna be kinda tough for what i can see hehe