Monday 24 December 2012

Feeling Inspired.

Hey guys.

A sudden surge of inspiration has hit me like a ton of bricks, not literally, that would hurt..

This however, doesn't mean I'll be jumping straight back into the project. That would be dangerous, I need to slowly ease my way back into the project by animating small segments, by practicing with a character I just made this morning for fun. (Breath!)

I want to have some real fun with these little sessions rather than trying to make over complicated messes of hell, there's still nothing worse than animating a characters legs without tie downs. That's actually one of my biggest problems when it comes to animating, since I just have a computer desk to work at I don't really want to be drilling holes through it. I think I need a stage of some kind... Actually, that's perfectly possible right now so I might get working on that soon. It'll have to be after this project though since it's all shot on my desk, it would look strange if in one shot it was on my desk and then it was randomly somewhere else in time and space.

I thought about some ideas for my next project...I don't think I'm going to jump right into another one right after this one. After a successful project, you feel a mixture of accomplishment and exhaustion, a bit of frustration sometimes when people pick at the tiniest mistakes.

So far, I seem to have given Early Battles a serious kind of feel when I talk about it, trust me guy's it's far from it! There are hands in shots, camera being knocked and all kinds of rookie mistakes, plus add that to some gory fun and you got yourself a bit of a laugh.

Now, I do want to embark on a serious project very soon but, my style stops me from being able to. The overall feel of my work is not serious or scary, but I do want to create that effect with future projects. LOADED was one of them, the characters style stood in the way though. They looked horribly childish and that makes me appear childish when I'm trying to create something "Real".

I think I'll leave it there for today. I don't know who reads this at all to be honest with you, I don't think anyone does but if you do then that makes you a pretty cool guy type thing. So keep on being cool you one person who actually enjoys me rambling about "Playdoh". It's plasticine really, this stuff:


7 comments:

  1. Guess that makes me a cool guy! ;)

    Merry Christmas, Joe!

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    1. Yep, you're the coolest of the cool guys! :D

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  2. Looking forward to your new videos! I know what you mean with the trying to get that "real" feel. I've thought about that before, and its pretty tough with claymation when you don't have a full set and professional armatures/ artists. But I personally believe your past videos have pulled off the serious/scary feel, so i have full confidence that you will succeed in your next film! Good luck!

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    1. Hey LLama, thanks for commenting! I appreciate your thoughts, and I agree with what you're saying! :)

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  4. Serious film tones are set by dramatic music and lighting more than quality/style of sculpting. If you keep that in mind, you can make your character very fearsome, especially if you focus on what makes him that way. Does he kill other characters? Does he have a short temper? If so, did something happen to him as a kid that made him sinister? These are good questions to answer to enhance character development. Consider what Bane looks like with a lot of front light. Not very scary, is he? But when the director of photography places a light under his face and has the camera looking up at him, and the composer hits some shrill notes, and the special effects artist adds a flash of lightning... There you go. Instantly terrifying (especially if he is doing something violent or uncertain toward the main character).

    A lot of modern ideas about what sinister characters look like came from the old black and white detective serials, so if you want a good basis for mood-setting, study film noir. A large component of what makes something frightening is its mysteriousness. Something in shadow that doesn't speak but has a glint in its eye, or even glowing eyes...That sort of thing works well for suggesting evil about the character and creating suspense. Sometimes having the bad guy just a bit out of focus can help as well (as I see you've explored in the image to the left). Pushing highlights (raising contrast) can also add a sense of drama to a scene. Good luck!

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    1. Very good advice Don! I often overlook these things even though I studied them last year at college... Embarrassing...

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