Stop-motion: examples of the animation

Here are the original puppets/models used for the Stop-Motion Animation of OOD for my Foundation Diploma. Each was fabricated out of plasticine.

• For the first part of the construction, Gardening wire was used the make the skeleton of the body.



• Plasticine was added next to form muscle areas, less for skinny areas while more plasticine was added for bolder or thicker areas of the puppet.



• More plasticine was added such as balance and details: eyes, fingers and mouth.



• I had the initial idea to paint over the skin with acrylic paint only to realize later that it cased the plasticine to crack.



• Clothing was added last.

The Villains:

Here we have the two Hexoright, minions of HEX and represent the greed and corruption of human society. They are portrayed in this thin, dark form to resemble cunning and devious villains. The long arms and fingers prompted up together while the main body is almost "hunch" looking. Their skin is usually a yellowish green. For this animation, according to my story board, I had intended to have more than two of these puppets I ran out of time due to the sudden change in the date of when we had to hand in our Final Major Project. Nevertheless, the two puppets were worth the 3 to 4 minutes of my ever first animation.

Hex is the main director or "boss" of his enterprise; Hex Industreis. He is a ruthless businessmen who takes pleasure in the harsh conditions of others. He is usually a calm character not a cold, brutal sort. made him a slight bit bigger but the Hexoright have the exact height. The only difficulty was straightening the legs. If i had the proper equipment, such as a stronger wire, my models would stop falling over. It was difficult to get them to stand up so I placed the black, hooded clothing on them to cover their legs, also to give a secretive atmosphere to the scene they would play in. The Hexoright are in a scene in which it is held secretly and only the high ranking employers may attend. I portray them as nasty but not brutal and tough for those skinny arms would not win a fight therefore they would rely on others to do the "dirty work".

The Hero:

OOd is the hero of my story. He is personified as small and cute with no vi sable "villain" parts on him. He is a "C" shaped body with his arms at the back of his body and four large eyes. He does not look menacing and is the main character of the story board and as well as my future projects of "Arta".

I used gardening wire for his armature and wrapped it with tin foil. The plasticine came afterwards, I also used acrylic paint for the skin only to realize it gave cracks in the body so there was a lot of patching up. He is not the best looking character for a hero but I find him interesting. If I had more time and proper equipment, he would not appear so basic and primitive looking. Originally he was supposed to have just two legs but because of his form, I had to add two extra legs for balance. It was very difficult making him walk and hold objects. The rubber glove was the solution to hold the broom or mop, this time not painting on the arms and hands.

In conclusion, as though I had no experience for my stop motion and doing animation for the first time I am still pleased of accomplishing something. I want to continue with this but with a different style of animation during my years at Falmouth. OOD and ARTA will live on.

Here is a breif sample of one scene(s) in the stop motion. The whole 3 to 4 minute animation is still in Bournemouth and Poole College in the Art and Design section. I used my camera to take pictures of each individual scene and action of the puppets since I did not have a stop-motion software of my own.

Woodlouse - Circle Animation October 2009

Circle 2D Animation

Assigned by Andy Wyatt, our animation tutor, we were to practice 2D hand drawing by using a circle and morph it into whatever shape, animal, character etc. we could think. For my part the circle reminded me of how some animals wrap themselves into a ball for protection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlouse




The animal I chose belongs to the Arthropod, category of Crustaceans called the Woodlouse. It is covered with a scale, armour plated body similar to the armadilo. The Woodlouse is a small invertabrate that feeds on the forest floor. When threatened, it curls itself up into a ball. I like these type of Arthropods also they date back millions of years ago and gave evolved from prehistory. They were large in size untill they suddenly got small due to new climate conditions during the forming of the earth.




I first started out with small circle sketches of how the Woodlouse would appear in the 12 frame animation. At first I was thinking of drawing an almost alien appearance but it is not enought for 12 frames so a normal Woodlouse drawing would do. I looked on the we and typed in Woodlouse and drew down the animal's appearance.

During the actual drawing of 12 sheets of paper, I drew each step of the Woodlouse unravelling itself of its ball like form, legs and antenae tucked in its body and spreading out. I used water colour for its inital colour last of all. Small strips at first before completely covering the animation.

I had the intial idea of drawing a alien or simiam like woodlouse but it proved to much. I also intended to have the Woodlouse fully unravell itself from the ball being more straight. However I am pleased of this basic test.

The Story Board

ARTA is both a world and a god or "Great Being". It is also the name I am referring to this project along with other future ideas that I have yet to present.

Here is the story board, in which I drew the scenes of how the story was meant to be. I wanted to try out the animation as an experiment at first, create a short or "teaser" trailer for my ARTA projects. The initial plot is that OOD, the only one of his kind or species, working in HEX Industries as a cleaner. He lives his life, not knowing the world of ARTA outside him. A small speck of light appears in one seen and gives him happiness and as well as enlightening his hope of leaving the facility. One night, while working late, he stumbles across a secret meeting involving the other Hexoright and Director of the Industry: Hex, the owner of the factory. OOD Discovers that the Hexoright are creating a secret army for an unknown customer and is draining their profits. In this world, the Industrial corporations are absorbing the bounty of the world and usurping it to their own purpose. Hex mentions a previous project and then proposes to clone OOD, rid of the original (him of course), brain wash the copies and creating the first organic drone. Horrified OOD decides to escape from the factory, a burst of courage into him saying that he must warn the outside world with the unfortunate of having alerted the guards of his presence. The end shows OOD running away from a guard and an alert call decrypting his capture.

The design of the first characters

The following project is part of a name I like to call "ARTA" because I had an idea to use the word art in the title as the subject is what I enjoy the most above all as a hobby and as work. I first started to have the idea of a world inhabited by fantasy creatures of my own design. This idea was inspired by a series of three games in which as well had a world of its own called "ODDWORLD" link to website: http://www.oddworld.com/firsttenyears/index.shtml I looked at the concept designs of the characters and wildlife of these games and just imagined my own but from a different concept. I juts thought it was extremely fascinating to see a world of monsters and strange animals in a world of which the society is very similar to or won. I wanted to create a world similar but with different plots, characters and many other aspects because I do not wish to copy wright something that is not mine.

It first began with an animation project for my "Final Major Project" at the Bournemouth & Poole College for my Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. I decided that it should be a stop-motion animation because modeling the puppets involved the topic of sculpture. I first began to draw the characters and how they should look like. OOD was the main title and principle character of my story. Now most of my drawings have insect traits for physical appearance and I personally think it suits best for my creatures as insets mostly ruled our planet Earth before. OOD is a "C" shaped creature with four large eyes, ears and arms at the back of his body. He is able to reach out which is why I gave him long arms. He is smaller than a man and is equally at running very fast. OOD is a good natured creature and is to be known as the "hero" of my story who will be involved in the future events of my future projects. The design on the left is the very first concept drawing of my character.

The villains of my story, I like to portray them as the industrial corporation of our society, representing the bitterness, the greed and corruption of humanity but placed into the bodies of hideous insect creatures. The first one I call the "Hexoright". Hex is defined as a curse. They are portrayed as tall, very skinny creatures. Long thin arms with long fingers, eyes at the side of their head. On the left are the first drawings of what the Hexoright appear. This lack of physical strength means that they are cunning and intelligent creatures, built in by enormous wealth and own many industrial and strange medical facilities. Also, hobbling alongside them are short creatures, thought still bigger than OOD, I call the Parakecium. They are based upon the guards called "Sligs" in the "OODWORLD" series: http://www.oddworld.com/firsttenyears/universe/industrial/characters/sligs/ow_worker_design.html#scrollAnchorw_worker_design.html#scrollAnchor

The Parakecium body form slightly resembles the Slig but do not have "bionic legs" The Parakecim wear armour plated trousers. Instead of tendrils they have an insect mouth like the Hexoright. They do no have strange masks, the Parakecium have a "visor" or sunglasses gear on their eyes. These characters I like to portray as the comic relief, villans or "henhcmen" that sometimes get the work correct but "goof " the situation at some rare occasions.