Behind the Scenes!

In this post I thought I'd show you some behind the scenes photos. I really like seeing things like this so hopefully if anyones looking at this blog you do to!

This is the part though I should say, Max was a nightmare to animate! I didn't know whether to to include this or not but thought I should incase someone is reading this and decides they want to make a character with a big head!

As I made the terrible error of not considering the connection of the neck to the head enough during post production. The head and neck was not secure enough which meant it kept moving during each frame. I felt that I was fighting more with getting the head in the right place during each movement than I was actually animating! 

This then slowed me down a lot and was the key reason for me not finishing my film! 

But I have to keep looking at this as a learning curve and a positive one, as I now know what I need to do for my 3rd year to get a good puppet aesthetically and also functionally!

But here's some behind the scenes stuff for you to look at :) 

As you can see in the image below only the zombies head is on camera, this is because the head was a bit heavy for the wired neck to support. So instead of fighting with the puppet like I had been doing with Max I decide to animate the head and then animate the body afterwards! then comp them together on after affects in post production!



Max's photoshoot

Setting up!

It was now time to set everything up in uni.
My first thing to do was to ensure Max could actually stand on one leg!
Due to the size of the head it would have been difficult for him to stand by himself therefore a rig will need to be in place when he walks.

Now to secure my set to the table.

As you can see in the image below the table i'm working on is a non perforated steel table, I was working on this for a week as the perforated ones were being used, I thought I would be able to animate on this but this proved difficult as the magnets to secure Max's feet to the floor could not go through the thick felt and hold the small steel plate within Max's foot. With this problem I didn't know how I was going to animate. His feet kept shifting while animating, and this happened day after day, which frustrated me a LOT!



Luckily a week later another student had finished with the perforated table and I made the old switch'aroo. So I had to remove my set from the steel table and re dress it on the perforated table.
But this is how I set up and dressed my set the first time .

To secure the felt to the table I used double sided tap. This was used as I didn't want the felt shifting at all while animating, but I also wanted to be able to remove the felt from the table once I had finished animating.

For the tree I needed to find a way of securing them to the set but also allowing me to move them around for different scenes to give the illusion that Max is in a different location to the forest.
To do this I started by tracing the circumference of the trees on to a thin piece hardboard. 

A square was then cut out and secured to the bottom of the trees.

The trees were then put on set and placed in position for my first shot.
As you can see the hardboard is clearly visible therefore I now how to hide this.

I cut a hole within the felt so the trees could fit in to. The hole was not cut out however, to do the hole I started in the centre and cut 3 lines outward (Exactly like the lines in a Mercedes car logo). This would allow me to pull back the felt to insert the tree, but if the tree had to be removed I could fold the felt back down and do my best to hide the cut lines!

Once I had the felt cut I put some double sided tape within the hole. Again this will keep the tree secure but also removable. The trees had to be fairly secure incase I bumped the table or nudged one by accident, the tape ensured they would stay up and in the same position.

This is a before and after of the felt covering the tree

To hide were the felt meets the tree I applied glue around the edges and attached foliage to the felt. 

This was the finished set up for my first shot. Where the trees and felt meet are now hidden in foliage and rocks.
You can also see and the top of the image that my green screen has been tied to the scaffolding we have in the stop motion room (mainly for lights to be hung from). With the green screen tied it assured me that it would not fall or collapse on to my set.

Time to Animate!

Set Time!

All the puppets are now done and its time to make the world that Max will be in!
As you may know, Max will be walking through a forest looking for his dog.
So first up, making the trees.

To do the trees my father luckily had some parcel tubes that I could rob, so with that I now had the base of the trees. I would only be doing the tree trunk as I didn't want the tops of the trees showing. This would save me a lot of time when making them as I wouldnt have to worry about branches and leaves.
Below you'll see the parcel tubes and recycling bag ripped open... you'll see why in a minute.

The parcel tubes were not an ideal  texture for the trees as they were to smooth therefore I took a trip back to my childhood!

Any 90's child loved this show with Neil Buchanon!
And anyone who watched this knows most Art Attacks started with PVA glue mixed with water and some kitchen or toilet tissue!
So that were I started with my trees!

1:1 ratio was used while mixing the PVA and water. Once mixed thoroughly I began work on the trees. I started by coating the parcel tube in the PVA mixture, I then applied a sheet of toilet paper to the tree and then brushed more of the PVA mixture on top of that. Plastic bags were laid down all over the floors to ensure any spills would not ruin the carpet or walls!

This process was done down the entire tube, left to dry and repeated until all tubes were done.

Next was to paint the trees. I could've used acrylic paints to paint all the trees but that would have involved mixing A LOT of paint together to get the right colour, plus I wanted them all to have the same shade of colour therefore, if I ran out of paint it would have been difficult to replicate the colour. So I used spray paint.
I started with a base layer of white primer on to the tubes.
Due to having a number of tubes to paint I didn't want to go out on the streets to spray paint them incase it went on someones car or other property. So I went home and went under the house to spray all six of the tubes!
This probably wasn't the smartest idea due to not having that much ventilation, however I was very close to the door to my garden so air was circulating.It was also quite difficult to see down there as it was close to midnight when taking this photo (flash was kept on my phone for a light source)

The primer had set and now it was time to spray them brown. I used the montana black range for this, specifically the colour 'frape'

The tubes were all sprayed, and I headed back to Cardiff.

To emphasise the texture on the tubes, I used a black chalk pastel.
This was my little set up

I began by rubbing the chalk on to the tubing and then, using a sponge I brushed the chalk pastel around on the tube

The same was done to all six and I think it gives the trees a more eery look and gives a lot more texture to the trees!

Muddy Floor

For the muddy floor of the forest I found some brown felt in the stop motion room (I had a lot left over so if your in the uni and no ones used it, it may still be there)
The brown felt was ideal for the floor as it was already brown in colour and will be easy for me to punch holes through for my tie downs to go through.

The felt was to light in colour to start so I mixed up some darker brown paint and began dabbing the pain on to the felt.

The mixture included acrylic paints mixed with PVA glue. The PVA glue was added to ensure the felts texture would harden slightly to ensure the felt didn't boil while animating. Foliage was also added in to give more texture to the felt once applied. Finally some water was added to the mixture.

The set was now done and it was time to move everything in to uni to begin animating!!

Making a Zombie!

The last puppet to make for the film!
And that puppet is...... (you already know from the title) .... A Zombie!
This is not going to be post after post like making Max, as I decided, I would use Max's head mold for the zombies head and also use Max's hand mold for the zombie's hands!
Time saving 101

Lets start.
As the zombie will not be moving much during the film he only requires a very basic armature. As well as this only the Zombie's top half will be visible on screen therefore I don't have to worry about making his lower body.
The armature was twisted wire for the spine and neck with a metal sheet for a chest. The K+S to the back of the metal sheet are for it's arms to slot in to.




Now you might think the next photo jumps a lot of steps, however this is the same process I took with Max's head with one or two differences.
The head, skin tone, and eye shading was done in the same way as Max. What differs is I've added eyes with a yellow shading on them, this was done with chalk pastels. But the main difference is his mouth section.
The mouth or Jaw has had a section cut out of it using a dremel. This is because I will be filling this section in with plasticine so I will be able to animate the mouth opening.



Hands were casted in Max's hand mold. Although this time very very basic armature hands were used as you won't see the arms or hands that much.




For the neck to connect within the head I drilled a hole in the top and botton of the head. At the top of the head I threded K+S through and epoxied it around the opening. The K+S was about 3/4 of the way down in to the head for the neck to go in to the head and then secure in to place.

I done this different to Max, as the zombie will not be moving that much. Therefore I could go for the risky, epoxied K+S within the top of the head plan.

Top of Head

Bottom of Head

To cover the hole in the head and to give the puppet more character I decided to give him a skull plate thing (I don't know what to call it) That would give the impression that someone or something had opened the characters head up and then patched the opening... you'll understand what I mean in the next few photos.

But to make the cap/plate I rolled out a piece of sculpey and pressed it up against a spare head cast I had. This was to ensure I had a a perfect shape that was going to fit on the Zombies head, then the sculpey and spare head cast was put in the oven for the sculpey to harden.
Once hardened I then painted the sculpey with acrylic paints and it was done!
This was then super glued to the puppets head.

To make it look like the plate had been stapled to the zombie's head, I took small pieces of wire and superglued them to the head.

 I'm really liking how this character is now looking!

And here's the finished puppet!!
The plasticine mouth would be added right before animating to ensure it does not get dirty!