Project03: Pixelation| W.I.P.

Posted on by Sammy Liu

Our creative process/brainstorming

We initially took inspiration from music videos that used pixilation/stop motion, such as OK GO’s ‘End Love’, ‘Last Leaf’, and Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘Home by Now’. Choosing music was the first step; we wanted something punchy and energetic to match the pixilation style. We decided on Time Voyage by Just A Gent because it both had a punchy beat and title/lyrics that alluded to a story. In fact our storyline was inspired by the title: a sci-fi space journey telling of an alien abduction.

Prop Making
We scripted the making of the props to be part of the film. It was a challenge to figure out the shots while also actually needing to complete the props. We used cardboard, tinfoil and construction paper as the main materials, and ink and sharpies to draw and color.

Filming

We had an extremely ambitious trip – to film on the busy streets of Sham Shui Po. It allowed to overcome our fears and insecurities of doing art/drama in public.
_(:з」∠)_

We got a lot of stares from people in cars and buses that passed by, however, even with those many distractions we carried on persevering as a group; discussing and coming up with solutions to unpredictable problems.

Chandi Marsh
Sydney McPherson
Wendy Kong
Claudia Lau
Sammy Liu
(*¯︶¯*)

Pixelation Post WIP 1

Posted on by victoriacourchesne

Our group was Marissa, Hazel, Lily, Mary, and Victoria.

For the Pixelation project, we spent about good week without having the slightest idea what we should make. We knew that we wanted the film to be outside but had no idea to what the plot should be.

Then the idea came: a fighting game film!

The idea was perfect and easy to execute because it required only the 2/5 people to act while everyone else could helping film it. We also were debating on if the film should be outside or inside SCAD, but SCAD having SCAD day be on the day we needed to shoot helped our decision. We chose to film the park just across the street. This ended up being the perfect place to film because there was little foot traffic and we had the SCAD building in the background. The fleshing out of the concept really came when Mary drew storyboards for the project. On the day of the shooting we referred back to the storyboards quite frequently for planning out the shots.

Project 3-WIP 1- Pre-Production

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

For the pixilation project we now are working as a group of four instead of a group of three. My group members now include Julia, Bobbi, and Cameron. Originally, our concept was going to be a rendition of a scene from a fighting game like Street Fighter. We had planned for it to be shot outside by the Gold Coast bridge and we would have a moving camera. However, our schedules didn’t line up well enough to allow us to shoot the production in the day light also the logistics were getting to complicated and would require us purchasing equipment that we would only use for this project. Also, when our schedules did line up it left very little time for Julia and Cameron to edit.

All that taken into account, we decided to change up our idea a little bit. We decided to keep the idea of a fight but scale it down to a type of food fight. The concept is now Bobbi and I fighting for the last Bao. We have planned some fun scenes and left room for Julia and Cameron to edit in some really fun moments. We drew inspiration from the Kung Fu Panda training scene, that I will link below.

LeAnn, Julia, Bobbi, Cameron

Cut out animation WIP 2

Posted on by victoriacourchesne

Work in Progress Post- Project 2 : Production. Posted by Victoria Courchesne,

Team: Eunhae Mary Park & Victoria Courchesne

For the cutout animation project, our production process required us to have a homemade set up. We made sure to plan a whole day just for the creation of the assets, which in all took 7 hours to make. Then on the day of filming we set up the “set”, taping down the edges of both the frame and the camera so the shots would be consistent.

Overall, the hardest part was animating the astronaut. The original plan was to put pins in his body as joints, but the pins were too big and so we went without bindings of any kind. This turned out to be rather difficult since every piece then had to be carefully grabbed with tweezers and moved slightly over. If you’ve every played the american game operation, just imagine that but 1000 times more intense. If we were to do another cut out animation, we would create a much larger puppet with pin joints to animate.

We decided to use a ironing board as a camera tripod and hovered it over the table upon which the cut outs were laid.

For animating the silhouettes, we looked to Lotte Reiniger in how she animated the silhouettes in “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”.

In conclusion, we learned from the process of creating a cut out animation and was able to appreciate the grand efforts  Lotte Reiniger went through in the creation of “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”. It is impossible to imagine the difficulty she undertook with the materials available to her at the time, but it also allows us to appreciate her film even more.

Project 2 – WIP 2 – Pre-Production

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

LeAnn and I have revised our creature concept. We thought that the original concept would be easy to manipulate and pose, however, we underestimated the size of the paper binders (pegs) that we used. Because of the size of the pegs, this limited the maximum movement of the puppet. The pegs would collide and it would cause it to get stuck together. As well as lack of resources we couldn’t gather because of unforeseen occurrences. So that it would be easier to animate, we revised the design.

So for the final design of our character, we chose to have it to be worm-like. It would be easier to rig and would have enough space for each peg to move – thus it will have a more fluid movement. This creature haunts and roams the depths of the ocean. The creature’s purpose is unknown but we have yet to see what’s to come.

Aside from the creature, we also have foreground and background elements that will move throughout the animation. We’re currently still working on the animation. Here is a behind the scenes look at LeAnn creating more elements for the animation.

Julia Reymundo & LeAnn Schmitt

Project 2 – WIP 1 – Experimentation

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

For our second project, Chandi and I wanted to be a little more ambitious. Before we met up to brainstorm an idea, I started doodling a character to practice the cutout technique. I made some quick sketches of a girl in a dress and I drew out each body part separately. Then I cut out the dress, legs, arms, head, and so on. Soon I realized I might need more poses for her legs, so I drew a couple bent legs and one of her standing on her toes.

The coffee table in my dorm has a glass top, so I used my phone and an app called Stop Motion Studio to shoot a quick test animation. The character isn’t connected at the joints yet, but I was still able to learn a bit about the technique we’ll need.

I went out and bought some fasteners that we can use for the joints on our actual characters and they’re quite big, so I know we can scale up our characters and backgrounds a bit. I also bought some scissors, so I don’t have to keep borrowing my roommate’s!

Chandi and I came up with a fun idea about a girl who is performing on the street for tips. She will trip and fall into a sewer that has toxic waste in it. She’ll then emerge as a mutated monster will glowing yellow eyes. As a monster she will now force all the people watching to dance for her. We might add an ending where someone comes and gives her an antidote, but for now the plan is to just have the camera pedestal towards the sky and it fade to black.

Storyboards and Character Experimentation
Test animation

Sydney McPherson

Chandi Marsh

Project02: Cut-out Animation| W.I.P. 1 | Inspiration and Hot Chocolate

Posted on by Sammy Liu

To start off our idea, we looked at some of our favourite concepts and vibes.
We decided to dive right in with a Deep Ocean concept, the protagonist being a girl with some typical Disney scenery and ‘magical girls’ vibes like in Bee and PuppyCat.

We used platforms like Pinterest and Instagram as well as They Drew as They Pleased – Volume Four Concept Art Book for inspiration and to create our desired mood-board for our scenery and character.

Having found a relaxed setting in a lush cafe near SCAD (:9) We brainstormed for our own possible scenes, actions, storyboard and character designs, accompanied by a sick spot of hot choco.

This is our very first rough sketch of a potential storyboard: Where it starts off with our protagonist’s point of view > cutting into a scene where she is sinking into the DEEP.

Project 1-WIP 2-Production

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

Once LeAnn Schmitt and I finished shooting the stopmotion sequence, I started editing it on Adobe Premier Pro 2019. This is where we focused on placing sound effects for the actions show in the stop motion. From the previous post, our concept is about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. Due to the simplicity of the concept itself, we agreed on using a lot of different sound effects but not too much of it.

The sound effects that were used both came from online and done in person. Although, it was quite difficult to do it in person since using a phone microphone captures all of the surrounding audio. I did however try to lessen the noise once I added it onto the video editing program. Finding online sources, was easy if you know how to find them properly. I was able to find a website that sourced free mp3s that had a good search engine. The sounds I used may have come from the literal object, however, I did also use sounds that came from random sources. (ex. mac and cheese). Once it was done, I double checked the video for any mistakes and exported it.

Julia Reymundo and LeAnn Schmitt

Project01: Object Animation | Documentation 2 | Production

Posted on by Sammy Liu

On the day of the shoot, it was boiling hot and extremely sunny.


Sammy: “I’m sure we got 3 shades darker after this, but the lighting was pretty and we initially wanted a natural environment.
We hit some problems with setting the tripod and getting a stable camera position at the first location of the shoot, so we had to decide to move else where.”

Wendy: “I think problem solving skills is definitely what we needed during the production process. We imagined lots of silly things that the food can do such as the using ketchup to do the explosion of the volcano.
We asked for only 3 little bags of ketchup from McDonald’s, but it was not enough at all. We wanted to pinch some holes on the package and squeeze it to make the explosion. It was just not working out as we imagined and our hands are full of ketchup. 🥫🥫🥫
What we can do better next time is to do a rehearsal before the acting shooting, so we can encounter and prepare for the problem we might have.”

Please check out our short “behind-the-scenes” clip we made for fun!

Wendy Kong

Claudia Lau

Sammy Liu

Project01: Object Animation | Documentation 1 | Planning and Storyboarding

Posted on by Sammy Liu

To start our brainstorming process, we met up in Macdonalds to look at possible props and eat lunch.

We wrote down immediate, silly ideas from looking at our possible props, noticing the capabilities of the food (e.g. the layers in the chicken wings, the chunky-ness of the burger), and potential objects and/or animals that they resembled.

Brain storming notes
Storyboarding/potential camera angles and shots

This is the video we looked at for inspiration and guidance, as it was all of our first times to attempt stop-motion.

Wendy Kong

Claudia Lau

Sammy Liu