Applied Animation- Filming More Scenes- Week 15

Filming More Scenes- Week 15

When starting to animate all of the larger scenes, me and one of the members of our team decided to work out the music to the scenes. So for this we went through the song, and I found the exact time in which each scene needed to fit while my team mate wrote down what I was saying for the timings as she wrote the scenes, I then worked out the math of the exact frames we needed to fit into for each scene to make scene. This really came in handy and was something we continuously referred to when filming so each one could be the exact right length, with a bit added onto a few for editing. So this was something that we had not thought of until filming and was a crucially important page that really, we couldn't have done without.

To finish off the outside scenes, we needed an opening shot of the forest, going into the tree. For this we needed to re-set up the camera and lighting. As this was the opening scene, it needed to be bright and happy before everything goes wrong. So this is why we spent time getting it set up to take the two main shots.

Here is the whole scene as best as we could get it. For ages I spent time trying to get the set into shot more and show more of the trees because I spent time making them so I wanted them to be seen. Sadly though, we couldn't get it to show more than this before the base sides could be seen, as well as the background ending. So this was something we struggled with but in the end had to settle with what we had and this was what we could show.

Here is a closeup of the top of the tree, what we will be zooming into. This is so the camera can fade and when it comes back in, your inside the tree with the orangutan so this tied the two sets together.

This was when we were playing around with the characters, seeing how they could interact and move together, but also so we can look at camera placement. This was to get lighting right, as well as scale. This is becuase this was a swap over of the sets so the whole set up needs to change accordingly.

Here is where the camera needed to be placed and where it felt right. Although this is a scrapped clip from when we first tried out animating. The two other teammates moved them while I was in charge of the lighting and Dragon-Frame. This was so they just had to concentrate on the characters and not the taking of the pictures and everything else. The reason for this being scrapped was that when I was playing the animation, which we did ofter, the baby monkey was moving way too slowly and awkwardly into the mothers arms so this looked odd and wasn't working. So I told them and they agreed, so it was easier to start again and try to get it right. This was something I wasn't used to because I didn't have time to do this for my last stop-motion so its nice to have time to do shots correctly and have them work out properly.

This was the next one we tried, for this I animated the baby to begin with when he starts to roll, up until he is nearly completely over. I was really proud of how this scene has gone and my role in getting it there. Although when the baby comes down it is a little slow, it works nicely for the rest of the scene and we were all really happy to have this scene completed because before this, we felt so behind and lost in how we could complete this in time. Yet once we got going, we got really into it and just kept going.

Although the camera died on us and at this point there were no other batteries available so this is only half of the scene that we could animate before charging the battery over night. This was something that was annoying as we had to keep an eye on the camera because it could die between 2-4 hours so this was quite a big window of worry for when doing stop-motion, because if the camera moves, there is no getting it back. As I tried when we came back for 30 minutes to get it back but it wasn't right even after that so we had to just carry on.

So far this is what we can see from the Dragon-Frame view. The colouring is off but no lighting can fix this because of their colouring compared to the background becuase changing the lighting either makes it too dark or too saturated. When looking through this I am happy with parts of the set and how it is going but because it looks so different from what I would have gone for, it really makes me question the aesthetic, but from an outside perspective, it looks like a nest and like an enclosed safe set. 

Although the issue for this, was that the magnets wouldn't go through the thin wood, but it was as thin a wood as they would give me or it would have snapped. So we found that the baby puppet had non magnetic bolts in his feet becuase of a mix up one of the team mates had, so they had to be changed. As well as the magnets just not being strong enough. This was something I need to consider in the future more when doing sets, as they need to be built for puppets and to be magnetised though. So this was why it was useful going to Factory and Mackinnan & Saunders, as they said use actual metal sheets. The ones uni uses for their stands. As they are sturdy as well as being very good for magnets to hold the puppets with. So this is something else I learned and have made a note of for 3rd year.

Because of the puppets not being strongly magnetised, this did make it harder to do certain scenes, although becuase of them being on 4 legs, this did mean we were ok for most of the time. They just would have added more stability within the characters.

This is the finished scene from the beginning where the baby is playing. As I said above, this was one of the best scenes because of its playful nature and how it shows the audience the characters so they can grow an attachment, which would have grown more if we could have made the animation longer. Yet as you can see, this scene needs editing, there is a split second where Marie some how is in the wrong position and sits for a brief second so this needs to be cut. As well as adding in another close-up from when Marie looks to Louie before we looks outside as this can also show the puppet, as well as have more interesting shots to the whole thing is a lot less linear.

Here is an image from the scene where the mother is cuddling the baby after seeing the diggers coming for the tree and destroying the forest. This was a good scene to do for the audience to be able to see the characters properly, so for this we have added in a cut scene where it shows a close-up of the two just rocking and being close, as this also felt more intimate and heart felt.

This is an image from when the mother is leaving, for this scene we needed to fit a lot into a short amount of time and one of our members is quite heavy handed so moved the mum too quick so in the final cut, she moves really fast as it wasn't spaced out and careful. 

So this is all adding to the learning, as we didn't see this until it got to the end when the scene needed to end and the mum wasn't in the right place so it didn't fit and had to over shot by a few seconds, so this was part of working in a team, where you have to say something if something isn't going good or correctly, whereas I didn't for some stages. Although I had way more input and voice than I did in other responsive projects so this was something I was proud of myself for doing.

This is just another image showing the two characters in the set. As well as when we were trying to work out one of the hardest camera angle shots. Marie needs to look out of the tree, for this we wanted an over the shoulder shot, or a hand shot at least to frame the digger scene. This proved to be one of the hardest, not just for filming, but for editing too. We ended up creating a structure within the set where we attached the camera to it so it was above her shoulder, shot that scene, and then did another with just her hand showing. So we wanted to see it in editing to see what we kept and what we needed to take out.

This is the scene we were able to capture from the camera placement. So we were proud to be able to get this filmed, but the door doesn't quite work well as it is mesh so bends oddly but I couldn't figure out a different way of doing this scene and neither could they so I experimented and it didn't work but this was something I had never attempted before so meant I could think of alternate better ways to do this in the future.

This is the other scene we captured, this was to either frame the digger scene where she is looking out, or to go beforehand and show she is looking at the sky background moving slightly, before she looks down. These will be difficult to edit because I dont know how to remove backgrounds or blue screens from scenes so this will be a team effort to understand what we need to do so we will need to have help from people who understand the software more. So these scenes will be a make or break in the editing section of our journey.

Here is the end scene from the cuddle, where the mother cuddle Louie and then leaves to try and go protect him. This is the scene where I animated Louie going towards the mother and going into her arms to hug her, seeing she is worried. So this was really fun to animate as I got to move him. Although looking back he does move quite quick so this is something I really want to work on so I can move him more delicately and slowly, without it being slow and awkward. So there is an art to the whole animating itself. But this is the scene where the mother moves way too quick by the end so this is the part of this scene that I would have changed the most.