All moving image material on Padlet:
https://padlet.com/artslondon/production-principles-unit-sgkzu5t70zqa8klq
Unlike the other rotations, the stop motion rotation was less narrative based and more about questioning and playing with material. I found this rotation the most exciting for me as it gave us freedom to play around and break the rules of traditional storytelling.
We began the first week by investigating the material (cardboard) and its limitations.
We played around to try and create faces out of the cardboard, trying to think outside the box, think about how it doesn’t have to be 2d, and think about the material’s potential.
We then got put into groups to create a cardboard puppet that we would later animate. In my group of three (Me, Santhi and Victoria) we immediately began creating our puppet with Victoria working on the head, Santhi working on the legs and me on the body and arms.
We spent the rest of the first making motion tests whilst learning how to use dragon frame. It was exciting to play around with equipment and see how we can use lighting to create a more dynamic scene.
Chris the introduced us to the concepts of replacement and displacement animation. As our tests so far had been displacement animation, moving the puppet little by little, we had the opportunity to have a go at replacement animation.
In our teams we had to transition from three shapes to create a loop (circle, square, triangle) using paper. Instead of changing the existing material to form the shape i.e crumpling it into a ball, we had to cut out transitional shapes with more paper and then photograph them to see the transition.
At the beginning of the second week we got given the brief for the animation we were going to make with our puppet. We were to keep exploring how we could use the material and to focus on the idea of metamorphosis. How could we change and transition our puppet in a 30 second animation?
We reflected on our tests from the first week to see what worked and what didn’t and what could be pushed further. We all agreed that we liked different parts of the puppet interacting in an unconventional way – the floating disconnected arms being our point of interest.
After brainstorming a few ideas we had, we thought it would be best to just begin animating and see where it would take us.
Shots from the final animation.
This rotation has been the most exciting to me by far. I have really enjoyed a more experimental approach to animation and thinking primarily about the material that we were working with.
Although I have some experience in stop motion prior to this rotation, I have learned so much; the main component being learning dragon frame. It was fairly simple to get used to but made shooting our animations really easy.
Learning the difference between replacement and displacement animation was extremely interesting and although we did displacement here, I am intrigued to explore other options in future projects.
Creating the sound effects for the animation was something I enjoyed as I could make them match perfectly to the clips we had and I think that overall made a much more successful outcome.
It was nice to work with physical material in this rotation and really feel and see what we were working with, instead of everything being on a screen – for me this meant the ideas flowed a lot easier as I could feel the material in my hands and really see what I was looking at.