31.10.22 - 15.12.22 (Week 10 - Week 15)
Janaan Ahmed (0353333)
Video & Sound Production / BDCM
Final Project: Stop Motion
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Instructions
SELECTING ANIMATED SHORTS
During week 1, we were instructed to watch stop motion shorts, and
shortlist our fave 3. We're required to explain why we chose them (art
direction, character design, style, etc).
Short 1: The Maker
The textures and and amount of detail in the props, set design and
characters are what drew me into this short. I find that the lighting
and color further enhance the mood that lends into the bittersweet
premise of the story. The compositions and framing also make it very
cinematic. Overall I find that all the elements in this short work
together very harmoniously. The nature of the story makes rewatching
very fun because of the amount of detail in the set background that hint
to the story's lore.
Short 2: Negative Space
Apart from the narration itself, I loved the seamless transitions from
one scene to another, and shift in color to mirror the main character's
emotions. I like how several key elements such as the suitcase and its
contents were used in a metaphorical sense to depict the character's
thoughts and feelings towards his relationship with his
father.
Short 3: Under The Winter Sun
I love how wholesome (and also sad) this short is. Its simplicity adds a
certain charm and reflects a very innocent sentiment. This short is
heartwarming and able to convey lots of emotion within its (roughly) 2
minute length from its sequences which makes it very cool!
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STOP MOTION PRACTICE SESSION
During week 10, Mr. Martin let us get acquainted with shooting a
stop-motion. In groups, we took turns shooting using the school camera and
our own phones (using stop motion app)
1. Shot using DSLR
Mr. Martin showed us how to import our photos for editing into After
Effects. Here are some important features he showed us:
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| Fig: Tips to navigate After Effects |
I have made 2 edits, one with framing and one without. The outcome is
shown below:
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FINAL PROJECT: STOP MOTION
This task requires us to create a stop-motion of about 30 seconds to
tell a compelling story. We are required to confine to no more than 2
characters/locations and only 1 event in less than 15 shots. Mr. Martin
advised that our animation be between 5-8 fps.
Proposal:
I struggled to come up with a story to tell and scrapped many ideas
that I thought of. The story I settled on is slightly based off of my
own experience of feeling homesick and the comfort of home-food, and is inspired by the close
relationship that I have with my grandma. She really does make the
carrot pickle though! (We call it 'Asaara' in my language, which is
Maldivian chutney or pickle; there are many different types, but I
personally like the ones with carrots).
Set preparation & shooting:
I use toothpicks and clay to build my characters:
- B
- Younger B
- B's Grandma
I made little test animations to see how much my structure could
withstand movement without breaking apart. The clay pieces often fell apart as they dried, so I put toothpicks
where some of the joints are so they didn't fall when I moved
them. Don't wanna have to redo shots because my character fell
apart!
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| Fig: Testing character limb movement (GIF) |
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Fig: Final useable characters
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I also used boxes, paper, plastic caps and other scraps I had lying
around to make my props.
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| Fig: Prop creation |
I used spare boxes and bristol board to set a simple scene. To echo
the character's somberness, I used dull colours. For the memory
scene, I replace the wallpaper colour with a green bristol board.
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| Fig: BTS of set |
I first shot the flashback scene as it has a different setting. Since
there is only 1 shot, I decided to get it over with. I used Stop Motion
Studio to take the photos which was super helpful as I could replay it
back, adjust the fps, delete bad photos, and most importantly it had the
the onion skin feature.
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| Fig: Using Stop Motion Studio App |
I got the rest of the shots using my regular phone camera, praying that
it didn't get overly shaky. I double checked my outcome using Google
Photos to generate quick animated GIFs for each shot, and did retakes if
they were too shaky.
Editing:
After going through my gallery, I discard any bad photos and I organise
all my files according to each shot. I then import everything into After Effects, and change the composition
settings accordingly. I adjust the time of some frames within a sequence
using time stretch, and move their positions to reduce shakiness/ align
them better.
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| Fig: Extending duration of frame |
I then export the file to Premier Pro and trim the output clip into its
shots to adjust the white balance of each of them.
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| Fig: Trimming clip on Premier Pro |
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| Fig: Applying Lumetri Scope |
I then move onto to create the flashback transition. I looked up a
tutorial
which taught me to apply Turbulent Displace to an adjustment layer above (the length of the cross dissolve applied between the clips)
the transition.
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| Fig: Adjusting Turbulence Displace on adjustment layer |
I then add 2 more adjustment layers above the 2 different scenes in my video and apply LUTs that match the ambience I want.
After adding the title, I then move on to the adding sound effects. I
found most of them on freesounds, but also recorded the voice of the
character (changed the pitch later). The adjusted the gain of the clips
to match the range they should fall into (-20dB to -15dB for sound
effects and -8dB to -4dB for voices). I also added a soft music to tie
my story together.
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| Fig: Adjusting audio gain of clips |
FINAL OUTCOME:
Reflection
EXPERIENCE
I really looked forward to this project from the beginning of the
semester, and had a lovely time doing it. I was very short on time though
because this semester overrall has been hard to keep up with, so I did
have to rush things. Nevertheless, the whole journey was a fun
ride!
OBSERVATION
I had to do several takes for some shots as my light stand was sometimes
unstable (it fell) or the props easily moved around while I tried to move
my characters. It's very difficult to move the figures as they are tiny
and at times I wondered if I made things complicated for myself.
FINDINGS
Though I am quite happy with the result, I certainly could've been
smarter about how I chose to execute this project with the time I had. The
next time I do something like this, at least I know to be more methodical
and will already have a feel of how the course of the project may
go.
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