Video and Sound Production / Final Project: Stop Motion
28.3.2022 - 10.7.2022 (Week 1 - Week 15)
Moey Jo Min (0350567)
Video
and Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final
Project: Stop Motion
Jump Links
LECTURES
WEEK 1
3 Visual Effects Video Recommendation
Fig 1.1 Visual Effects Video - "Magically Turning into Balloons"
I came across this video earlier on Instagram, it really confuses me even if I
watched it several times. I coincidentally found the creator while looking for
visual effects videos on YouTube, and discovered the tutorial of it. It seems
easier than I thought, but still difficult at the same time as I had never
done something like this before. I like the style of his videos. His facial
expression is very calm, but the video always ends with an unexpected ending,
which surprises me all time.
Fig 1.2 Visual Effects Video 2 - "Magically Turning into a Pumpkin"
The creator of this video is the same person as Fig 1.1, Kevin Perry. My
favorite part of this video is the transition between him and the pumpkin.
They fit so perfectly that you can barely spot as flaw, even adjusting the
playback speed to 0.25. This is one of the reasons why I chose this, I am
totally amazed by it. In this tutorial, he also showed the failed shots. This
makes me realize that video editing is is not something as easy as it seems.
It requires quite a lot of time and patience, even just to create a video
around 5 seconds.
Fig 1.3 Visual Effects Video 3 - "Printing Pets"
Zach King creates many fascinating visual effects videos that have gone viral
all over the years. In this video. he makes video editing seem like magic,
where he turns the "printed kitten" into an actual kitten. Most of his earlier
videos have shaky cameras, and I think he intended to do so. This makes the
videos look more natural, like a video shot at random. What I like about this
video is that he interacts with the viewers by making eye contacts and
gestures, so that the viewers feel connected. The idea is also quite nice,
which is that the cat "magically appears" from the paper. I think this must be
many people's wish as well.
3 Stop Motion Video Recommendation
Fig 1.4 Stop Motion Video 1 - "I HAVE YOUR HEART"
This is a stop motion video made by paper. I really like the vintage art style
of this work, it reminds me of the baroque style, which is one of my favorite
styles. You can definitely tell that this video took a lot of time and effort
in each stage, from the pre-production to the post-production. What surprises
me while watching this video is that there are different shot angles of the
characters. The creators actually created the side profiles of the characters,
which is less common to be seen in other paper stop motion videos available
out there. I also like the contrast between the story and the background
music. The story is a little dark and sarcastic, but the background music is
lively and somehow happy. Even after almost 10 ten years this video has been
posted, it is still an impressive work.
Fig 1.5 Stop Motion Video 2 - "Lost & Found"
I was attracted to the cute dinosaur in the thumbnail at first, turns out it
is a very touching story about friendship. I like how the two characters
interact with the actual surroundings, they look really harmonious together.
The animation details in this video is well done, where you can see when the
fox is struggling, there is water dripping on the edges of the container, as
well as on the fox. It is also interesting to see that the creators uses some
kind of plastic to replace for the pouring water, and it still gives the
effect of actual water. Even without a single dialog, the creators still
managed to create such an impactful video in less than 8 minutes, I am truly
touched by the story.
Fig 1.6 Stop Motion Video 3 - "Lemonade"
I followed this animator on Instagram, and I really admired her works. This
was the video that caught my attention to her at first. Everything in the
video is made out of wool, which is not a common material used in stop motion
videos, and I personally felt that the process of making the props is
time-consuming and requires a certain level of skills. The animation is really
smooth, as you can see from the fluid "wool lemonade". My favorite detail is
when the lemonade is being poured into the glass, the ice is blobbing on the
surface of it, it looks cool. Instead of having a static glass of lemonade,
the animator made some subtle movement to it. The sound effects also done a
very good job of keeping the audiences focused to the video, as they are very
pleasant to hear, and they sound like the actual ingredients.
INSTRUCTIONS
Final Project: Stop Motion
For final project, we were to choose between creating a stop motion or a
visual effect video. Mr Martin urged students who are planning to take digital
animation as specialization to do a stop motion.
1. Proposal
Fig 2.1 Stop Motion Proposal (23.5.2022)
This is my stop motion proposal. I was inspired by an image of a polar bear's
skin pealing off due to global warming. I suddenly recalled a character named
"Glim" from the animated movie "Mune: Guardian of The Moon". She is made out
of wax, and she will melt or freeze following the temperature. I integrated
the ideas and came up with the proposal.
2. Storyboard
Fig 2.2 Storyboard 1 (30.5.2022)
This is the first version of storyboard. I was kind of driven away by another
"weird" idea, but I was unable to explain it clearly to Mr Martin during
consultation. He suggested to make the ice-cream melt too, so that the theme
will be stronger and less confusing to the audience.
Fig 2.3 Storyboard 2 (3.6.2022)
After some thought processes, I agree with what Mr Martin suggested. The above
is the adjusted storyboard.
3. Shooting & Editing
First Draft
Fig 2.4 Preparing props (12.62022)
In my first draft, I only made the leaves of the tree melting. I wrapped some
clay around a plastic tree figure, so that it can support the heavy section on
the top.
Fig 2.5 Draft 1 shooting process (15.6.2022)
Fig 2.6 Stop Motion draft 1 (20.6.2022)
This is the first draft. Mr Martin said that the theme is unclear, and it
looks like a test shot. Mr Martin had pointed out a few problems of the video.
He suggested me to reshoot.
Second Draft
Fig 2.7 Rough Sketch of Changing Scenes (20.6.2022)
After receiving feedback from Mr Martin, I immediately start thinking how
could I improve. I drawn a rough sketch for the scenes that I will be changing
and showed it to Mr Martin through Whatsapp.
I had a short meeting with Mr Martin to discuss about my stop motion. Below
are our discussion:
- replace grass with a deserted background
- first scene: super wide shot, establish hot weather
- more sweat running down
- make a mini ice-cream cart out of clay, so that it can melt
- ice-cream melt > ice-cream cart melt > tree melt > person melt
- could add eyes and a mouth for the person
Fig 2.8 Mini ice-cream cart made out of clay (22.6.2022)
For the second draft, the ice-cream cart will be melting from a distance, so
it needs to be made out of clay. The height of the mini ice-cream cart is
around 3cm tall, as the background I have is insufficient to have one larger.
I spent more than an hour making it and I cramped my fingers (this is not an
exaggeration). I used short pieces of stapler bullets to secure the four
sticks to the body of the cart.
Fig 2.9 Shooting process (4.7.2022)
Fig 2.10 Applying powder onto surface (4.7.2022)
Since there will be scenes where the ice-cream man and his cart, the tree and
the main character melting, I will have to push the clay down onto the ground
while animating. However, the ground is also made out of clay. Pushing the
clay will make the colors mix together and difficult to separate them. After
some failures, I found someone online suggested adding cornstarch to reduce
the stickiness. I replaced cornstarch with cooling powder, and it does the
same trick. It is easier to separate the melted clay and the
ground.
Fig 2.11 Editing in After Effects (5.7.2022)
I imported the photos into after effects. I made some minor adjustments such
as the position of a few photos, as they did not match perfectly with the
other images, which makes the video wobbly when playing back.
Fig 2.12 Editing in Premiere Pro (6.7.2022)
After adjusting in after effects, I imported the video into premiere pro to
add sound effects and also adjustment layers.
Fig 2.13 Stop Motion draft 2 (8.7.2022)
This is the second draft of my stop motion. The sound effect credits can be
found under the description section in the YouTube video. The second draft is
definitely better than the first draft, and I felt happy about it.
I was given feedback that I should remove the background music, and add sound
effects that express the hot weather. I could also add a brownish adjustment
layer to the video.
Fig 2.14 Adding adjustment layer and sound effects (9.7.2022)
I removed the background music and added a fire crackle sound effect and a
evaporation sound effect to show that the weather is hot. I also added an
adjustment layer to tweak the color to make it slightly brownish. I didn't
want to give it too much because it doesn't match really well in my opinion. I
added a little bit of vignette effect to the video.
Final Stop Motion
Fig 2.15 Final Stop Motion: "Ice-Cream" (9.7.2022)
This is the final stop motion. The sound effects credits are indicated in the
description section of the YouTube video.
FEEDBACK
WEEK 8
[PROPOSAL] No problem with the proposal.
WEEK 9
[STORYBOARD] Why didn't the ice-cream melt at the end? It seems like it is a
mistake and it makes the global warming theme unclear.
WEEK 12
[DRAFT 1] The theme is not clear, there are things that did not melt.
Everything melted should be visible at the end. Remove the grass, replace it
with a deserted background.
WEEK 15
[DRAFT 2] The second draft is much better than the first, in terms of
storytelling and animation. However, remove the background music. If I want
the music, I can make it fade it after the character melted. Add sound effects
of the hot weather, make the panting sound effect more obvious. The color
still looks raw, Mr Martin suggested me adding a brownish adjustment layer to
create such uncomfortable atmosphere.
REFLECTION
During the proposal stage, I was quite happy as Mr Martin approved it without
having to make any changes. However, things did not go well starting from the
storyboard stage. The ice-cream that doesn't melt makes the theme unclear.
After thinking over again, I decided to change it. For my first draft, when
the whole thing was being rejected, I felt really upset and started to doubt
if having animation as my specialization is the right choice. After some
discussion with Mr Martin, I started to prepare for reshooting. It took me
almost 7 days to complete the shooting as many things happened in the process,
which I had to reshoot my reshoots. The second draft is obviously better than
the first draft and I felt happy about it. The process could be frustrating,
but it is really nice to see the outcome. I would like to spend my break to
learn more about animation and hopefully creating animations, to get me
prepared for the next semester. Lastly, I would like to thank Mr Martin for
his feedback and suggestions which helped me to improve my work.
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