Building The Hill

Day 4

Hill = Clay + Chicken Wire + My X-girlfriend's XX-boyfriend's quilt cover.
Tree = Chicken Wire + Scrap Metal + Wire + Plastic Bag

I built the set about three month ago and started a different project after that, so I haven't touched the hill  since. Frankly I had a small problem to get back working on it, but luckily my flat mate came round and helped me to "open the paint". I have to say that it was fun to paint the set. I took out my acrylic paint and just went mental on in. It all went very messy but smooth. My target was to make the set vibrant and three dimensional and not flat with pure light green. I'm happy with what I ended up with. There is a lot of randomness and dirt that in my opinion looks like a real hill. Nice.

Sewing Machine

Day 3
I got the sewing machine to work!!!
I need the machine to sew the rabbit costume. And it could sound easy for some, but the first time I tried to do something with the machine I ended up breaking it. So I have been kind of avoiding the problem for some time now, but its about time to face the mechanical creature.
A grown up lad is spending the evening playing with a sewing machine... that's just not right... I took some parts out, loosen some bolts and added some oil here and there, and got the machine to work, but still it did not sew properly. It takes TWO grow up lads to figure out how it's suppose to be done... Thread here and then there. Bobbin in here and like that... nee bother... How many guys these days know how to use a sewing machine... that right... only gay fashion students and me. Quality.

Rest of the evening spent on sculpturing the boys face... not happy with what I've end up with though.

Rabbit Puppet Armature.

Day 2
Long day at work, long and not very enjoyable evening on Sepulturas concert, but luckily I managed to do some work just before I left for the gig.
Rabbit armature for the "Not Growing Up" project will be made with screws, that are suppose to work as joints. Its a technique that I have already tried out in the "A.R.T." Project. Was it successful... I wouldn't say that. There were cons and pros. Screw armature gave me a very stiff robot that moved in the joints but nowhere elsewhere. The plasticine puppets move all ways and every direction... which is not always good. The screw armature tends to loosen up and requires tightening and the puppet always loses balance... but that last one could be cause of a bad puppet design.

The Rabbit armature is a new design and has, I hope, better solutions for joints placement. The arm should be capable of moving more precisely, than in the previous armatures, as it's placed in a different dimension. I'll use spring washers to get less traction in the joints, I hope that that will make the armature movement more fluent... Well I just can't be bothered explaining what I did with it, its all on the drawing.

"Not Growing Up" Animatex

I did the Animatex some time ago to submit for university. Since then the script changed several times and now it looks quite different but nevertheless watching this animation was very helpful in script writing process.

Not Growing Up Project Starts

Its this time of the year again. Middle of the summer, girlfriend away to London and its raining in Scotland... perfect time to make a animation. I'm starting my next best production. Its called "Not Growing Up" and its a short clip for my friend's music. The story's about a boy who does not know that what he's trying to do is impossible and even more than that its silly and pointless. He is being naive and childish but that is why he succeeds.  He is pure and innocent. The story could be understand on several different levels. It about friendship, sacrifice, nature and if you're weird you could think that the film's about YOU... and vegetarians.

DAY 1
Finishing the script. I have been working on this script for the last few months. I modified it loads of times but could not get it quite right. Sometimes the story did not go well with the sound, sometimes it was expanding into pointless directions, and most of the time I did not like what I was getting. But day 1 was very successful as I finally made up my mind on what the story going to be like. Lets just see if its flawless and I won't have to change in the middle of the animation making process.
It looks like I have discovered my way of script writing. It is much quicker, and the script I end up with is something that I can really rely on. Sounds silly, but it makes sense to me.