When Marking this blog please start from the beginning of the blog by scrolling to the bottom and clicking older posts until you reach the first post 'Initial Ideas'.

Next semesters Blog

To continue viewing the pre production work for this animation take a look at my blog for next semesters.

click link below to view new blog:

http://tomhallanim3010.blogspot.co.uk/

Please do not mark any work that gets posted on the blog above.

Face Replacement

In my Extension module I have Digitally modelled a face for my main character and positioned it it multiple expressions. Click the link below to view the blog for this module.

http://thomashallanimationextensionanim3005.blogspot.co.uk/

When marking please do not mark work from this blog.

Evaluation

 For this module I planned to develop a story for a 1-3 minute stop motion animation while creating the characters and set for this animation. I decided to create a wide range of character as I really enjoy character design but I feel I bit off more than I can chew with this module due to the fact that 10 characters was too many for me to make this semester, because of this I have decided to carry on with the preproduction next semester before animating as I would rather craft everything to a good quality rather than rush them and have them looking scruffier.  Aside from this I feel proud of my idea and most of my characters designs even though a few could do with more development. The demons that I feel best resemble there sin are Envy and Sloth, I had a lot of fun developing these characters and feel that Envy will be prefect for the main bad role as its big eyes will make the viewer feel on edge when he looks into the camera, I also feel that Envy's tail will be great to animate as I will be able to wrap it around the boy slowly to show the control shifting between characters. Sloth unlike all the other characters will be a blob of plasticine so I wont need to spend the time modelling the character before the animation but will actually sculpt it while animating, Sloth is the character that I am most looking forward to animating as I love animating with clay like materials.

The Pride and Mum characters in my opinion are the weakest visually as the demon looks a bit too human still and I am not as good at creating female characters so feel she could use some more development.

 Because I decided to 3D print most of the assets for the set but knew it would take me way too much time to model them as well as do the rest of my work and the 3D modelling for my other module I decided to recruit Sarah And Charlie to model them for me. After printing some of the models I realised they hadn't been smoothed in the final process of modelling because of this you can see the polygons in some of the prints.

 Even though I really like the houses Eugene has digitally painted for me I feel they still need some development before they can be combined and printed onto the wood as they will need to be resized and the colour will need editing.

 My target market for this animation is mainly teenagers and young adults as I feel they will be able to relate to the character and the emotions expressed through the animation. Saying that the animation will hopefully appeal to people of all ages who are interested in the idea of having inner demons or the seven deadly sins.

 I have really enjoyed this module as it has allowed me to develop a story of my own as well as spend a great deal of time designing characters. The biggest regret of this module is that I didn't leave my self enough time this semester to cast my characters. I will solve this buy working on them next semester but I don't think this will reduce the quality of my final product as I feel it shouldn't take over a month for me to animate once everything has been set and because stop motion doesn't require much post production unless adding CG effects I can also sacrifice some of the time devoted to post production to carry on with the filming of my animation if required.

 I also wish I has kept up with my blog while doing the work instead of posting it all at the end because posting my work helped me consider and think up some ideas that I hadn't previously though of. The most annoying part of having to rush my blog posts was that I couldn't find out how to rotate images on Blogger and didn't have time to take each one into paint and rotate them.

Plan For Next Semester

Because I spent too much time developing my story and characters, and because stop motion animation can take a lot more preproduction work (especially when creating puppets and a set) I wasn't able to complete all of the pre production work for my animation and will have to sacrifice some of my animating time next semester to create the set and characters. I feel this will help my animation as the story will benefit from the extra development and the characters will look better than if I had rushed them to meet the deadline for this module.

I plan to spend the first month of next semester and the two weeks break we have to create all the character and the set. I will spend the first two weeks modelling the rest of the characters and creating the cloths, when the module starts I will cast my characters while creating the foundations for my set with the MDF board I have already acquired. Once I have created my set I will spend a week moulding detail to my set and painting the set and assets. Throughout this time I will Source a voice actor to do the introduction and a royalty free song to play in the background of the animation, I will also experiment with sound effects.  I will spend the rest of my time making test animations of each character in the set so I can get use to animating with each puppet before creating my animation.

When it comes to setting up my set for filming I would like to book out or rent a room that I could keep my set and lighting constructed to keep the animation as consistent as possible and to stop anyone been able to interferer with my set.

I anticipate The animation taking about a month to animate doing 20 seconds a week. I will then spend the rest of the semester doing post production in after effects and preparing myself to enter the world of animation.

I don't work at the moment so if I have time I will try to get work experience with stop motion studios to expand my knowledge and try get my name out there.

Eugene's Digital Paintings

Below are the building walls I asked Eugene to create for my set. When giving him this brief I told him I would like a 'Dextor's Laboratory' style incorporating into them, I feel he has done this well by sticking to basic shapes while designing them but using so many that they look detailed.

The colour of the houses can be changed easily in Photoshop.

Hopefully next semester Eugene will be able to carry one working on the background to create a backdrop for my set and help me combine and finalize the houses

Test Animations For Sloth

Here are the test animations I have done for the Sloth demon, I plan to do this for each character after creating them so I get a feel for animating with them and test they work properly before going into production of my actual animation.

I really enjoyed making these test animation because when animating with a blob of plasticine you have the freedom to make it as abstract or story based as you want and don't have to decide until you are actually animating it. Saying that when it comes to animating Sloth for my final production I will first plan out its movements then improvise while animating if needed.

Time Management

Throughout the module I have used to do lists to try keep on track which worked well for remembering what I need to do; but when I started setting myself time limits to get things finished I started falling behind in what I needed to do, because I didn't take into consideration how long some things would take to develop or produce.

3D Prints

The following pictures are the plant pots I have 3D printed. I feel okay with how they turned out but I wish they had been smoothed on Maya beforehand because the edges have come out very clear so it's not exactly round. Another thing that happened was that the bottom of the pot faces were too close together, so instead of having a bottom to the pot it just has a hole as the 3D printer couldn't print them so close together.

Modelling Process

Envy

To model Envy I first created an armature from wire (that I forgot to photograph). I then wrapped it in tinfoil to a basic shape of the character. I then covered the tinfoil armature in Sculpty and moulded it, and I put two indents in the head for the eyes to slot in.

I will then model more detail into it to bring it to life before using it to cast the actual character in silicone around the brass armature. I will model the tail separately to make it easier to cast.

Human heads

While modelling the human heads out of sculpy I used the eye beads to mack sockets that the eyes will be placed in and sculpted around once they are sculpted with more detail. 

The whole modelling prosses is a lot more time consuming than I first thought it would be as you first have to spend time making the armature then while modelling you have to cook the model in the oven to set it then leave it to cool down before carrying on modelling.

Hands, Feet and Eyes

All of the human characters bodies are covered in clothes so I will only need to cast the hands, feet and heads. Below are the models of the hands, feet and eyes. The hands and feet will be cast in silicone with the armatures inside them.

Hands
I have made Sam's hand (left) and the shopkeepers hand (center) symmetrical on the palm and back of the hand so I can use one model to cast both hands for a character. I will need to model the other hand for the young boy (right) because the hand is curled slightly, so if I reversed it this the hand will bend the wrong way.

Feet
Like the hands above I have made the shoes symmetrical so they can be cast.

Envy Demon Eyes
For most of my characters I will use beads as eyes as they are the perfect size, and already have a thin hole that I can use to move the eye with a needle while animating. For the main demon I have had to model eyes as I couldn't find beads the appropriate size, I will paint these eyes white then paint pupils on them and the beads.

Clothing

I haven't got the skills to sew clothes for the character so have asked my mum to try and make the hoodie for me (which is below). Over the assessment week I have arranged to go home and help her try to make some of the other clothes, if we can't make them I will try to look online and find some that match them or find someone with the skills to make them. 

This is the hoodie she made from my sketch.

Research: How To Cast

Here are two videos I watched before my tutorial in casting so I had a brief knowledge of it. 

When I cast my heads I don't think I will follow all of the processes in these videos as that would make it a lot more time consuming and expensive.

Casting Tutorial

I used this model of the shopkeepers head to learn how to make a cast, but I was told to make the cast from silicone because the model has indents that would trap the head within the cast if I made it from plaster.

To make the cast I created a box around the model and surrounded the back of the head in plasticine, I then poured silicone around the head and left it to dry to create the cast.

I didn't use this cast in the end because I cant use it for casting silicone. 

Armatures

This is a rough sketch of how the armature will be positioned within a character. 

I will create an armature like the ones below for each of the side characters. This one is for the shop keeper which is why it doesn't have any legs, when it's finished the character will be raised up to be a normal height behind the counter. I have created the armature out of floral wire and the tips of fibreglass fishing rods

The main two character armatures have been made by Omid who has brass cast parts and attached them together with screws and stomach piercings. I have then taken it apart and put it back together with a glue called Locktite which stops any of the joints from unscrewing.

New Character List

My new Character list is below.

Main Boy- Sam
Main Demon- Envy
Shopkeeper
Greed
Walking Man
Sloth
Mother
Pride
Young Boy
Gluttony

I am also considering taking out the mother and pride demon due to the amount of time that goes into creating each character, and the fact that they are the weakest duo in the story in my opinion.

New Story Scene

As a way to reduce the amount of characters without changing the meaning of the story I have decided to combine the last 2 observing scenes (the garden scene and the weak demon scene). Now, instead of Sam seeing someone walking alone the street in control of their demon, he will now see the young boy being pushed on a swing by the demon of gluttony who will be exhausted and struggling to push the boy. This will reduce my character list to 8 instead of 12 which should also reduce my work load and will allow me to focus more on quality over quantity.

I haven't had time to sketch this scene out yet but will make sure I do it over the assessment week and will remake my animatic to include it.

Research: 3D Printing

For my project I want to have the assets for my set 3D printed because it will have more detail and will be smoother than sculpting them. I have also decided to 3D print some faces but this is for a separate module. There are many different varieties of 3D printers that all print using different techniques. To make a 3D print you will need to first create the model you wish in a 3D modelling software such as Maya, then when ready to print the software will create horizontal 'slices' or layers across the model which the printer can read. The 3D printer will then create the object layer by layer which blend into each other so its barely visible and will create the object you modelled. 3D printing is an amazing new technology which allows people to make all kinds of objects with intricate designs not possible before, and this technology is fast becoming very popular and used for a manner of purposes including furniture and even food.

Presentation: 2

Here is a link to the second presentation on my project:

https://prezi.com/msxtjn1gdtsq/pre-production-inner-demons/

Wood Sizes For Set

Below are the measurements for the MDF board I will need to create all the walls of my set.

Long sides of block.

Short sides of street + Front of house with garden. 

Backdrops.

Set Development

My set will consist of a block of houses with a shop on one corner, and a house with a garden which is across the street from the block of houses. All the building wont have an interior apart from the shop which is where the animation will begin. Most of the assets like the swing will be 3D modelled by other students and then 3D printed and painted by myself. Some of the bigger things will be sculpted from sculpty and some will most likely be bought like the bushes and fence. The 2D backgrounds will be digitally painted by Eugene then printed and stuck to MDF boards; I will have one permanent one behind the separate house, and a moveable one that I can position around the block of houses for difficult shots.

These are the overview layouts I will be using for my set.

Sloth Development

Sloth had definitely been my favourite demon to work on because it's the sin I feel I most relate to as I can be lazy at times. The first character I developed was inspired by the animal sloths and humans but while trying to reduce the work load of creating 12 characters; my tutor suggested that I change him to a blob which I liked as it shows he is too lazy to have a form. The Sloth demon will trail along behind a hooded guy walking away from Sam and Envy.

Pride Development

Pride was one of the hardest characters to develop as I found it hard to move him away from a humanoid form. I'm still not really happy with with him but because he will be one of the last characters to appear in my animation I plan to keep developing him while creating the other characters and making him last.