Jim Carrey Stop Motion

Heya! This was a mini-stop motion project that I completed over Christmas Break. It is an animation to Jim Carrey's movie Liar Liar. During the editing process, there were a majority of frames I had to delete since the dialogue was too fast at times. I also captured a bit of shadows while I was taking pictures, partially due to the fact that my hand was in the way of the shot. 

But what I loved about this project was that I got to be as creative as I can. It was so much fun to use a camera, markers and various other utensils at my disposal. You never know what you can get from the final product! I think it turned out very well! 

I have always loved stop motion and I have animated many more in the past at the spur of the moment, like this one. I will post some more animations later on. 

Let me know what you think of the stop motion!

Stop Motion Class Project Summary (The Notebook)

Hello! I am working on a group project in my animation class. We created a stop motion animation! It's a pretty neat project and stop motion is my favorite kind of animation! We set up storyboards, an animatic and shots of still and live action footage! It's about three objects (a highlighter, notepad, and stapler) that are transported to a doodle world and have to try and find a way out. Along the way in the doodle world, they meet different sketches. They seem pretty neat, until scribbles start attacking them. That is the turning point in which they have to find a way out of the dangerous world. At first, we discussed our own ideas for what we could do with the project. We finally ended up on this idea on a group agreement.

During Pre-Production, we got to work and began drawing storyboards, discussing shots, and where the camera will be angled. We shot some rough footage for what our project is going to be like.

For Production, we mixed stop motion, live action, and hand drawn animation for this project. We had a notebook, a highlighter, notepad, and a mini stapler. We then began to record their movements frame by frame with the camera for stop motion. We used video for live action scenes and Photoshop and After Effects to animate the doodle world. Shooting was a bit of a challenge. We had to pay TONS of attention to detail. For example, we had to make sure the lighting was good during every shot. And when we came back to shoot the next day, we had to make sure the objects were in the exact same position the day before. We had to get all the right camera angles from our storyboards and we could not move the camera when we were shooting our shots. I would say it was a bit of a pain to shoot sometimes, but that is the challenge of animation. During this time, we had a bit of a rough time with time crunches, an inconsistent stop motion environment, and some trouble finding sound effects.

During Post Production, we imported our frames into After Effects to begin editing our shots. Once all the shots were completed, we set them into one composition. We began to add sound and visual effects for the final touches. Some of the effects we used were crumbling text, overlay, and getting the lighting to be somewhat similar to all our shots.

I learned a lot from this project. I learned how to correctly use a camera (stop motion-wise) and collaborating with my team as to what shots we can take, where to position the camera, and how many shots we need to take to get however many seconds of film. (15 frames=1 second, for example.) I also learned how to edit a film in After Effects and color correct lighting.

As to what I would do differently, I would have picked a more bright room to film in. Sometimes the room was so dark there were tons of shadows that we could not control. For example, when we filmed the introduction of the notepad scene, the lighting was way too dark. The shadows were interfering with the shot. We tried to make it a bit brighter in After Effects, but it was still too dark. The lighting and shadows were sometimes beyond our control.

I don't think I would do anything the same with this project. I am going to improve on what I can do to create a better stop motion. I will learn from my mistakes and see what I can do differently.

When I create a new project, I will definitely make sure I have the right lighting, a good shot, and choose a better environment to work with. I thought the room we shot in was a fine choice, but as we got further into working, we came to the realization that shadows (people walking around in the room that would interfere with the shot, for example) would be a bit hard to avoid. Naturally, we found new and improved ways to shoot that would not interfere with our environment.

In conclusion, it was a fun project, but a bit of a challenge. But that's what animation is all about, right? Filming with cameras, moving our characters a tiny bit at a time, and filming within the classroom was a new and fun experience as to what you can do with stop motion. There were a few bumps along the way, but it was so much fun to challenge ourselves. My group and I (with the exception of one person) were very committed to this project. This project was truly a work of art.

Here is the rough footage and animatic for our concept and ideas!

Here are the storyboards!

Page 1 of storyboards

Page 2 of storyboards

Page 3 of storyboards

Here are some stills!

Here is the first draft of our video! Blogger would not let me upload since the file was too big.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoCEQ0PZCC0

EDIT- We are now finished with our project! It's not perfect movie quality stop motion, but I loved how it turned out! We worked hard on this project and it was a lot of fun! Enjoy the final render! Since Blogger could not let me upload the final product because 100 MB was too big, here is the YouTube link. After many spots we had to clean up after our critique in the class, here is our final animation complete with sound effects and correct lighting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFwxGU_E_YE&feature=youtu.be

Click to see my group's blogs!
John Pace's Blog
Makella Child's Blog
Emma Johnson's Blog
Brock Townsend's Blog
Nathan Goldberg's Blog

Rumor Weed Song Typography (Test Render)

Hello! I thought I would do a typography just for fun! Here is what I have so far! The song I used is from VeggieTales' LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed! I used the Rumor Weed Song!
Hope you enjoy the test render!

Petey's Song Kinetic Typography (RE-RENDER!)

One good thing that the class said about my animation was that they loved the word type! It went great with the tone of the song! I needed to work on the styling of my drawings a bit, though.

To fix my mistakes, I created masks for the hill drawings in After Effects to clean up any incomplete spaces for consistency. I made a new, clean music note with the shape tool in Photoshop and I enlarged my tunnel drawing to keep the colors the same with my style. It took me a couple days to get everything the way it should be. 

Grass has been removed.

I was told the grass was not a good addition to my typography, so I removed it.

Enlarged tunnel

My teacher did not understand what I intended    to do with the tunnel, so he suggested that I enlarge it a bit.

Music note

Mask on hill

Here is the new music note.

When I created this drawing, my teacher also suggested that I should not remove it, but create a mask to clear out the incomplete hill.

It was the same thing with the hill here-it's the same hill, but create I created another mask. I covered up the incomplete hill.





At first, I disagreed how my drawings were incomplete. I thought at first that they were fine just the way they were. I now realize that they had to look like the style that I went with. I went back and cleaned everything up, and I must say they look pretty darn cool now! They look perfect! I never realized until now that you are never completely finished with something until you learn from your mistakes and try again.

Enjoy the re-render!

Petey's Song Kinetic Typography (OFFICIAL!!)

Hello! Here is my final rendering of Petey's Song from Fantastic Mr. Fox. With this project, I learned so many new things with After Effects! I never knew there were so many options for me to choose with 3D and 2D effects! There were hundreds of effects!

Wes Anderson has been a huge influence to me, so when I learned that we can do whatever project we wanted for this quarter, I thought why not create a typography? I have been wanting to create a project like this ever since my sophomore year in animation. I could not believe that I was finally able to do something like this!

Time management and planning was the key for me with this video. I always manage my time well and did not get behind on anything.

With Storyboarding, I did not necessarily follow my drawing sketches. When I started the typography, I improvised where the words would go and where I would position them. That was the beauty of making this typography.

At times, it could be somewhat challenging to keyframe the words at exactly the right time the singer says them. It could be off even by a fraction of a second. Fortunately, I got the timing and editing just right!

I was going to be animating a fox and incorporating the Boggis, Bunce, and Bean characters in the typography, but they did not work out. Instead, I added the fox silhouette watching the words for a few seconds, then he goes away. He only appears a couple of times briefly.

All in all, the project went extremely well. It was a great challenge for me to explore and strengthen my After Effects skills! I loved how my final product turned out!

Hope you enjoy the final typography!

Petey's Song Kinetic Typography Test Render (WITH FOX!)

Hello! So I was planning on animating a fox and adding some of the characters from the movie, but it just didn't work out exactly as planned. So the characters didn't work out, but I did have the fox appear a couple times in the typography-right at the beginning and towards the end. I did not fully animate him, but I made him look as if he was watching the words and made him sit on a hill. Hope you enjoy the test render! I am now in the process of making any last minute changes and final touches.

Petey's Song Kinetic Typography (OFFICIAL PRE CHARACTER!)

Hello! Here is my finished word typography pre-fox character. I will make changes once I have the fox incorporated with the typography. Enjoy the typography for now!

Kinetic Typography Test Images/Videos

Here are images and a video test for my typography.

Fox Photoshop type

Type mask moving along a path

Word Bubbles

More word bubbles

Getting Started With The Kinetic Typography/Scenarios

Hello! Before I get started, I always like to refer back to tutorial videos on Lynda and YouTube to take in information on how to create effects.

I have also found more effect tutorials on YouTube for my typography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvmr3hE1LJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNz3sqeZNzE
Here are some other simple drawings and scenarios that will both help me get started to see where the right place is to incorporate them in the typography. Some of them will not be added until after I get all the typography words done.

Fox Type

Grass

Grass Hill

Music Note

Tunnel

Kinetic Typography-Petey's Song Test Render (Pre-Effects)

Hello! This is the Test Render for my kinetic typography for Petey's Song from Fantastic Mr. Fox. As you can see in the video, I mainly used simple movements going from left to right, right to left, and everything in between. Everything seems to be in good shape for the official typography. I did not use any big effects yet besides the motion blur and a tiny bit of 3D movement. Of course your first draft of something is not always going to be perfect, it's just practice for the next go-around.

What I did for this test render was explore some of the main controls-positioning, motion blur, rotation tool, horizontal/vertical text, camera movement, and the 3D control. To me, this render wasn't hard or extremely challenging, but it took a while to get all the right words into place and editing them. It was fun to explore what I can do for next time around!

I will use different effects for the official typography and make simple drawings in Photoshop to import to After Effects. I will spend some time looking at effects, what I will use, and how I can incorporate them. Enjoy the test render!

Fox Drawing For Typography

Hello! Here is my Fox Drawing I will use later on post-typography effects. I thought it would be easier if I incorporated my drawing later on, mostly not to mess with the typography at the same time.  I have the fox posed in front, back and side. It took me about 30-45 minutes to create it. I also drew a couple more foxes posing, but once I drew this one, I knew it was perfect. I will use it as a silhouette in the typography. If it doesn't seem like a silhouette won't work, I will just use him as he is now. But just in case, here is the wonderful fox.

Here's to creativity and typography!

Project Outline

Herr is the Outline for my project.

OUTLINE

Typography Storyboards

Storyboards: Due August 26^th

Watch Lynda videos (at home) (2 hrs.)

Blog my inspirations/effects I will maybe use and what I will start with for this project. (30 min.)

Find effect tutorials (1 hr.)

August 27^th- Make/finish a fox drawing for project. (30-45 min.)

Blog about fox drawing and add drawing. (30 min)

August 28^th- Add song/Test Render day

Get started on typing the words from song. (Testing them for future) (1 hr.)

Blog Test Render words from song pre-effects.

Creation- August 29th

Begin to add effects/begin Photoshop drawings and start working on typography.

Blog: Blog on getting the creation started and what will benefit me for this typography. Also blog about my drawings. Render test images and videos.

Word Typography due September 19^th!! (Fox and drawings due later!)

Photoshop Drawings- Start August 29^th

Make Word Lettering (FOX) in Photoshop. Incorporate with After Effects (Due September 4^rd)

Make grass/hill scenarios (Will use after incorporating words/text) (Due September 5^th)

Make a comic book bubble (Will use with backup singers repeating) (Due September 8^th)

Add Boggis, Bunce, and Bean characters from Fantastic Mr. Fox movie. (Will be silhouettes and used briefly in song.) (September 9^th)

Add Fox drawing and import to After Effects. (September 12^th)

August 29-September 1^st-Watch more kinetic typography videos on Lynda/YouTube over 3 day weekend. (2hrs)

Editing

September 12- Add fox drawing to typography in After Effects (may be a silhouette) Add other scenarios. (Hill, grass, word art, etc)   (Test Render with Fox and scenarios due September 24!)

Blog: Blog about character incorporated with typography and the scenarios he is in.

Fox drawing w/ scenarios and typography due September 26^th!

ADD FINAL TOUCHES SEPTEMBER 28^th-OCTOBER 1^st!

Final Render-Due October 1st!

Rewatch video after finishing up, then render.

Blog: Final Render, thoughts, time management, inspirations, etc and my thoughts on working on this project in After Effects!

Kinetic Typography Project- Creative Process/Inspiration/Effect Tutorials

Hello! Right now I am starting a kinetic typography project. I am in the process of thinking what I would like to do and what I would like to get inspiration from. Since this is my first typography, I thought I would make it simple, yet a bit challenging. I did not want to make it too hard on myself.

I am thinking of making a kinetic typography to Petey's Song from Fantastic Mr. Fox. There are also effect tutorials I found on YouTube and Lynda that I plan on using. I am also in the process of storyboarding and figuring out what effects I will use and how I want a specific line/word to turn out.

In all, I think this project will be lots of fun for me! I want to be as creative as I can. Nothing extremely hard, nothing too easy. I would like the typography to mimic the feel of the song and movie and watch as many tutorials as I can to mimic simple effects. Some things may change in the typography as I go along-the storyboards are official, but they are just rough simple sketches on how I want things to be.

INSPIRATION
Here are a couple vides of kinetic type based on Fantastic Mr. Fox that I will get some inspiration from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbDjLoqFG-M
The first one seems very simple. I am going to use the Futura font like this person demonstrated. Futura is a font Wes Anderson uses in almost all his movies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPxO5uuSyKw
This one seems a bit more complicated. I loved the fact that this person made it look like the words were moving in the digging tunnels. The words are going in different places-left to right, up and down, and interceding with other words.

EFFECT TUTORIALS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fosrj5wJNIs
Here is a tutorial with swinging and drop down words. This one seems a bit challenging, but I don't think it's something that I can't handle. I will incorporate something like this in my typography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhGqjT1Aves
This is another perfect example. With motion blur, masking, transitions, easy easing, and solids, this will be another video I can base some effects on. I think I have a good idea of what effects I will use for  specific lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ8xW-NQp6E
Here is a falling text tutorial that I may possibly use in the beginning of the typography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSXyOV8PwAU
Here is one with a simple text tutorial.

My Animation/Film Inspirations

MY ANIMATION/FILM LOVE

My animation and film passion is always there. I always love watching a good film, or even animation. I've loved them since I was a little girl. They have taught me so many life lessons from-

• Never being afraid to do what is right.
• Always make the most out of any situation
• Love everyone, even our enemies
• Be passionate about what you love
• We are all unique in our own way
• Always be happy no matter what
• Perseverance, working hard, and helping others will get you far in life
• Always stay positive
• And my favorite- Never worry about what people think of you- They just want to see you feel down and hurt you.

This is what animation and film has taught me. (Well, mostly animation) There are so many other things that they taught me that I can't even put on one blog. That's how inspiring it is to me. From making me laugh and even smile, animation has just always made me feel happy and good inside.

MY INSPIRATIONS

WES ANDERSON

Oh. My. GOD. I can't even begin to describe how fabulous this man's films are. It's like everything he makes turns to gold. Wes Anderson is everything I want and aspire to be. Well, not EVERYTHING I aspire to be- I'm just extremely inspired by his works. There is no doubt in my mind that he practically changed film and animation. It's quirky, fun, and whimsical. I could go on for hours talking about his films- They just mean a lot to me, even Fantastic Mr. Fox. I was a fan ever since it came out in theaters, and I've it ever since. I think it might just be my favorite film. But I would give anything to work with him someday. Even though I've seen only half his films and I've only just begun to like him a few months ago, he is one of the most inspirational people on the planet. He is positive, whimsical, fun and quirky, and those are the best traits that a person can have, I think. Wes, if you see this, I would love to work with you- I have an animation and video/audio production background at Olathe Northwest!!

WES ANDERSON!!

TIM BURTON

Like I said about Wes Anderson, Tim Burton is an amazing person also. I've watched the Nightmare Before Christmas in third grade, and that's when I started to love it. (I had a HUGE obsession with it!) He is the reason, along with Wes Anderson, why I want to go into stop-motion. There's just something about the dark creation of the characters that really attracts me. From his dark and quirky personality, I think Tim really brings out my kooky side. (In a good way!) From The Nightmare Before Christmas to Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie, he is just one inspiring person. I would love to work with him someday.

TIM BURTON!!!

Video Copilot-Glow Animation Recreation

GLOW ANIMATION

Hiya! The video tutorial I did was the Glow Animation. The effects I used were Color Corrections, Tint, Levels/Curves and Glow. Here is the link for my inspired project!
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/light_glow/

Raw Footage texture I used for my reflected floor. :)

Getting Started...

Trying to line up the reflections.. Finally got that figured out!

To me, this tutorial project was extremely fun because you got to use whichever video you wanted, and this particular one really let me do what I love and let me use my creativity. But what I really enjoyed from the tutorial was that I got to use a mix of colors with the circles and add a tint and glow to make it look shiny and new! I also really like how we got to use a texture to make it look like a reflected floor!


But the hardest part to me trying to line up the tinted circles with the reflections at the bottom of the circles. You had to have different layers for each circle to get the right glow. It just took me a while to get them perfectly lined up. Getting the glows to line up EXACTLY on the bottom of the circles was very challenging. It wasn't a lot of trouble, it just got a bit frustrating.

Adding some glows and tint!

 But the question is- Will I use this particular   project at a later date? Of course I will! When I go into stop motion/computer animation and film, I will definitely remember what tools I needed for this activity. When I get a job like animation at a later date, I'll also need to remember the continuity and the contrast of all the circles glowing from the bottom. I loved this project so much! When are we going to get the opportunity to choose our own tutorial to make another creation again?

Here's where you can really see the glow starting
to take shape!

 All in all, I feel the tutorial was a great way for me  to learn about a new kind of animation that I never thought I could do before. I love my final product! It just goes to show that you can do anything with any program if you just put your mind to it. The tutorial really helped me learn what I should do for animation when I want to get a job for it! I really need to learn a new tutorial soon!

 

All done!

Final Animation!

Plausible Impossible

PLAUSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE

Example 1: Mickey is walking through a mirror. The moment he does this, he is in a completely new world that is topsy turvy, with furniture that is alive. The plausible is that he doesn't know it can actually happen. The reality is if you walk through a mirror, you'll probably get hurt, but the impossible is that Mickey doesn't get hurt, and discovers a whole new world. It is legitimate to the idea because he is following things in the cartoon world that could never happen in the real world.

Mickey and the mirror

Example 2: Mickey jumps from the mirror and jumps on the furniture, only to discover that all of it is alive. The moment he sees this, he is surprised but in awe of the things the furniture can do. The plausible is that he doesn't notice that the furniture is alive. The reality is that furniture can never be alive and have a face or mouth, but the the impossible is that the furniture is alive, and Mickey interacts with it in many ways. The idea is legitimate because interacting with things in a different world can make you discover new things.

Mickey and the furniture

Example 3: Mickey eats a walnut and shrinks down to the other characters' height. When he realizes this, he is confused at what is going on. The plausible is that he thinks he is eating an ordinary walnut, and does not think anything bad will happen. In reality, whenever you eat a walnut, you won't shrink or grow of any kind, but the impossible happens to Mickey, and he shrinks down to tiny size. The idea is legitimate because eating something in a new world can make you shrink or grow.

Mickey and walnut

Example 4: Mickey is playing jump-rope with a telephone cord. When he realizes this, he is excited at his discovery of the world he is in, and jumps and dances with the characters. The plausible is that he doesn't know what new things these characters can do. The reality is if you jump rope with a telephone cord, you could probably hurt yourself because the cord could be too short, or you don't really have a cord with your telephone, but you could probably damage your telephone and have to get a new one. But the impossible is that Mickey doesn't end up being hurt, and enjoys the whimsical things he does with new characters. The idea is legitimate because you could never try these things in the real world, and Mickey is having fun.

Mickey jump roping

Example 5: Mickey is marching with cards. When he realizes this, he acts if everything is normal, and tells the cards what to do for marching. This is plausible because no card could ever dance or march. In reality, you could never jump rope with cards, and the impossible is that the cards are alive and copy everything he is doing. The idea is legitimate because inanimate objects can be alive in cartoons and Mickey can interact with anything. 

Mickey marching with cards