Development Work
Summer Work
The Broom rider
Stop motion test, mtrying to animate the character and a prop while also erasing the rigs used to hold up the puppet and the prop.
Armature making of
Having made many different variations of armatures, I always tried to identify the weak points and make better and sturdier armatures with each attempt.
For this armature I used square brass tubes in order to be able to replace the head and hands as I have noticed with the previous puppets I made the hands break very easily since the wire used for them is thinner.
There are a couple of things that I would change in this one as well, mainly the neck and head joint.
Puppet Test
Here is the first animation test with the new armature I made.
The goal of this test was to check if the armature's range of movement, also due to the fact that the clothes are not thight on the body I was worried it would cause "boiling" effect when animating, to counter this I used hair fixing spray on the clothes and stiffened them.
Walk cycle
The next test with this armature was a walk cycle. For this, I used a rig to be able to pose the puppet without falling off.
Before and after animating I took pictures of the scene without the puppet in it because I needed a clean plate for removing the rig from the shot.
To remove the rig I used After Effects.
Mouth shapes
For the next test I drew and cut out a couple of mouth shapes to test if I can use this puppet for dialogue scenes.
The cleaner
For this animation sequence, I had 6 different shots stitched together.
I have only used reference footage for the last shot.
Due to the rigging point in the back of the puppet, I realised that I can't achieve very dynamic poses with this character and that's something I'm working on fixing.
Ball throw
This is still a work in progress, in this shot I animated a basseball throw with the main focus on the power of the throw.
Altough the shot still needs a lot of work I'm happy with the energy of the throw.
Walk cycle
Here is a generic walk cycle that I attempted during the holidays to brush up on my understanding of body mechanics.
Creature
Here is my first attempt at animating a six-legged creature. This is the spline pass.
I also added a couple of different camera angles to make it feel a bit more cinematic.
Portfolio Work
Stop-motion tests
In this shot, I was testing if I could animate a character using only clay without an armature.
I spent around 6 hours for this including the time it took to erase the rig I used from each frame.
Walkcycle
In this shot, I attempted a walk cycle using the same character. It is very rough, but the goal of this test was to check how clay behaves when animated without an armature. I concluded that it works well for morphing animations; it is very easy to shape but challenging to animate, as it tends to lose its form when it warms up.
Camera test
In this shot, I attempted to add camera movement. I used a macro slider designed for macro photography, mounted it on a tripod, and set up a Dragonframe manual camera movement with a slow-in and slow-out effect. Then, I specified the shot length and the camera travel distance in millimetres.
The software calculated each increment for each frame. The challenge with this approach is that it is time-consuming, and at each increment, the camera moves slightly, causing the image to become jerky. I addressed this issue by applying a warp stabilizer in After Effects.
Clay and wire
This character was fairly quick to make, as I only used plasticine for the body and wire with Milliput for the armature.
This is the raw shot I did to test the armature and its mobility.
It can work well for more static shots or background characters, but it's very easy to break and hard to pose.
Clay and wire composited.
This is the composited version of the animation.
I used a picture as the background of the character in the midground and I added a PNG of a railing in the foreground to add depth to the image.
Stickybones
Here is the first test I've done with the Stickybones figure, this shot took 6 hours to complete.
Stickybones_02
Here is a test shot for which I made a desk as a prop using balsa wood and bamboo skewers. For the keyboard and mouse, I used wood and clay. I utilized an old phone as a screen, then composited a screen recording on top, matching the perspective using After Effects.
Additionally, I transitioned into a live-action shot to showcase the setup of lights.
Stickybones_03
This is a rough expressions test.
I explored the possibility of making the rig more expressive through facial animation.
Stickybones_04
Here is another test using Stickybones armature, I made this shot to practice full body animation as well as timing and weight.
I took me 10 hours to complete it.
Stickybones_05
The goal of this shot was to have the CG character interact with the stop-motion puppet .
I spent 4 hours animating both characters, the animation is in blocking stage as the main goal was trying to match the lighting and having the interact with each other.
I spent 6 hours rendering different variations trying to match the lighting.
Ball and socket armature
Here is the raw shot of my new ball and socket armature, I have done this quick shot in order to adjust the tension in the joints of the puppet and get a feel of how it moves and animates.
I quickly modelled a plasticine head as I'm planning to use this armature for my FMP project.
Ball and socket armature_02
In this shot I edited the animation as I normally take more frames/pictures than I need and then I can delete some to get the timing and the spacing right, as you can see here the animation is smoother than in the raw shot.
I also managed to erase the rig in after effects without having any difference in light and shadow.
Silicone hand
I was testing many different materials and processes for hand making and I think this works the best.
I have used 1.5mm aluminium wire and milliput for the palm of the hands, then I used mouldable silicone glue to cover the palm and fingers.
Here is a test of the hand, I'm happy with the result and will used this method for my future projects.
3D work
Scene_01
Scene_01
Scene_01
Volleyball
Volleyball
Scene_01
Scene_01
Scene_01
Scene_01
Reflection
During this semester, my primary focus was on body mechanics, aiming to enhance the quality of timing and weight in my animations.
By dedicating effort to both Stop-Motion and 3D animation, I've noticed an improvement in the time I need to finish a shot and also my work is cleaner and more refined. However, the drawback of this approach is the lack of character, personality, or fun in my shots, as my emphasis was predominantly on technical aspects.
Looking ahead, my goal is to infuse personality into my animations and shift my focus towards storytelling rather than solely concentrating on technicalities.
Overall, I am pleased with the progress I have made, recognizing that there is still much more to learn and improve in the future.