More Story Set-Up

Aight. So I got some more feedback about the story and I definitely need to establish a connection between the dragonfruit and the boy as well as the rooster and the boy.

I'm thinking: The boy is eating some dragonfruit and is feeding his rooster some while petting it. He lifts his pipe and it turns into an old man. His rooster flies away from his lap unexpectedly. The boy looks up and sees the worm eat his rooster. He reacts but is swept off his feet by the dragonfruit plant. He observes as the worm turns into a brain and then jumps onto the pipe. As the boy gets engulfed by the plant. As a last cry for help, he blows on the pipe. The brain lifts, lights up and explodes.

Sleepy Thoughts but Still Thoughts

My biggest challenge was finding time and also not being able to clear mistakes during paint on glass. Also, making Euclid's pants fit correctly was hard! I had to attach an extra piece to cover the crotch. My hand has many burns from hot glue gun.

The funnest part of this week was blasting music in oxberry room and finally drawing stills from section 2.

Tonight I'm talking to Musa about my mock set and building a rooster armature. Tom Sito and Trixie had great suggestions today - establish a connection between Euclid and the rooster. Also, in Section 2 include elements that could be in the pipe's brain/more dragonfruit imagery. Also, have a reaction shot at the very end of the boy when he realizes he was in a giant rooster. I will be working on transitions and mapping it out more clearly but this animatic step was necessary.

Test Shot with "rooster" and FUN

Test Shot - Oxberry from Jackie Chang on Vimeo.

Gonna go over it with outlines and 2D elements.

Oxberry Amusement from Jackie Chang on Vimeo.

Practicing paint on glass.

Animatic with Section 2 Stills

Next step is to add some minor movements and transitions. But here are the images I'll be working with. You'll see in each still, there's the boy and the rooster. The boy will be looking for the rooster if not chasing it. I've eliminated the phrenology aspect since the idea was getting too cluttered.

(here's a link cause it's cut-off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQYSav8fay0 )

Puppet Almost There + Mock Set!

Gotta repaint the head because the colour did not turn out as I had hope! I want it less yellow, more dull peach. The clothing is all set and I'm trying to decide whether I want to dip the feet in latex or use sculpy. Each foot is different right now.

This is the Mock Set - half the real size and in temporary materials. I will be buying cool metal looking material for the roof and wood for the other walls/ladder.

Next puppet to make would be the rooster.

Production Goals for Next Week (Oct.26)

Mixed Media:

- Test Shot: Add Rooster, Grey Robot character

- Section 2 Map Complete and inserted into Animatic (maybe touch-up the animatic as well)

- All of these sent to composer by Sunday

Stop-Mo:

- Baked and painted head

- Pants and Feet Complete

- Mock Set Complete

Note-to-self:

Test video for the eye-composite after painting the head. (not due for next week but maybe sometime in November)

Nights at the Oxberry

Here's more progress on the puppet and props!

Last week was fun because I got to work with the oxberry. I'm still testing what works and what doesn't.

Here's a very poor quality comp of the test shot. I have about 5-6 layers of paint animation. Plus a photoshop animation of the boy. It's not done, I have to add more 2D elements (characters) and some more paint on glass. Looking at it, I'm going to make the boy smaller and the paper with a bit of texture.

The biggest challenge but most fun thing I did this week was work with paint. It's so unpredictable at times that mistakes are inevitable. At first, I kept moving the paint too fast and the blobs were really distracting thrown together. Then I blurred it a bit and it looked better but what ultimately made the difference is when I started taking certain areas and completing the motion. I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it... Sheila advised me to "follow through" on certain actions that the paint naturally follows before moving on to another thought. I guess my scatterbrained nature pops up in how I animate. Animating with the oxberry is really enjoyable since I get the room to myself so I can play music and move around freely. I get really zoned in because I don't waste time surfing the internet or getting distracted by others. Plus, I'm not hunched over using my tablet. I can really see the appeal.

So all in all, hope I can pull this off cause it can look really good or super choppy.

Eyes are the window to the soul

This is from Madame Tutli Putli where they used real eyes.

Here's my test with my friend Nelson in stop-mo class. I think this could be pulled off! Can't wait til I finish painting the head.

Making Stuff

The dragonfruit plant is made of two armature wires tied together and one layer of felt and then 3 pieces of felt on top of that. It'd very animatable! The mock set is on it's way. I finally got materials from a great art supply store in Korea town. Also, I baked some sculpy-made props and painted them with acryllic. I think I need to go over them again. One thing I have to figure out is how I'm doing the eyes and mouth for the boy. Matt said it'd be cool if I had the "Madame Tutli Putli" look where they composited real eyes and eyebrows onto the puppet. I'll ask Musa later about that!

Today I have the oxberry booked from 3pm-7pm! Going to be experimenting. See if I can have a test shot by compositing layers of animated paint on glass. We'll see how that goes!

Wild Dragonfruit

These photos were taken on my grandma's street in Gukeng, Taiwan. When I scootered around I saw SO many covering roofs and shacks. Great inspiration! Anyway, I referenced these photos when making my first dragonfruit prop.

Mappin'... Across the World

This past week I went to Taiwan. It was difficult to find time in between my parents' hectic plans, my brother's wedding and just general enjoyment of the countryside. So on the plane, I spent lots of time breaking down the process and listing materials and assets. I feel much more organized than before. Also, I started mapping the second section. I am also in the process of making my mock set and some props out of sculpy and foamcore. Heading to the art store on Thursday and will bike to the hardware store sometime then too.

Here's a sample of some map stills:

Last shot of the section: Chasin' on slippery tongues:

There's quite a few things I'm catching up on. So next week will be a better post!