Eagles of the Omphalos

One of the short animations we are working on for UG3 is called "The Belly Button of the World". Rather than going into the explanation I'll let you look it up. It does involve two eagles and something called an Omphalos. Here are two flight cycles of the eagles. These were created in Flash.

The Complete Thunderstone

I first posted pics of Thunderstone's Head here. Well here's the head attached to the finished body to complete an animatable stop-motion puppet.

 

 

What follows are pics of the armature making process and then the fleshing out of the form and clothing. Here are the rough sketch/plans I made before beginning the body.

 

Here is the armature made from aluminum wire, balsa and hard wood, plumber's putty and metal foil rolled into tubes.

 

Here are a few detail shots.

 

Next came a body made from foam rubber and some exposed areas covered in latex and painted with acrylic. 

A good deal more work went into the clothing. Most of it was made from white gym socks and an old sweater. Sounds gross but it was all clean. I hope to have some test animations of him up soon. 

Opening to BugWorld

Here's a clip from the opening of BugWorld. Mostly traditional puppetry.

Varmints Bug World - Intro. from Lee Waller on Vimeo.

Thunderstone's Head

 

This is the head of a stop-motion version of the main host - Thunderstone. 

 

View from the other side.

This model will be animated using mainly interchangeable parts, so I created an extensive set of replaceable eyes and mouths.

 

They were drawn and colored in Adobe Flash then exported out as jpegs and printed. Then they were spray mounted to thin foam or metal foil and cut out. Then I glued wooden dowels or brass tubes so they could be used then removed over and over from the head piece. 

 

Now they can be inserted into the sockets for the eyes and mouth for good registration.

 

I know it looks a little creepy.

 

Along with the interchangeable eyes and mouth the eyebrows can be moved up and down on the forehead using a removable adhesive and the antennae are pose-able. 

The original design of Thunderstone has changed a bit. You can see the beginning sketches here. I'll be working on the body next and hope to have the pictures of the completed stop-motion model up soon.

The Bridge Camera Test

The following video is a look at the bridge with the camera in motion. This really shows off the 3D space and gives a first look at the use of 3D objects with the banister  in the middle of the bridge.



The Bridge Camera Test from Lee Waller on Vimeo.

The Bridge

Using After Effects I have taken the artwork Al created in Flash for the bridge of the ship and constructed a 3D environment. Using this 3D version of the bridge we will be able to ad life to the animations. This gives us the opportunity to do camera moves, special lighting, and some cinematic flare using depth of field. The screens will be able to have video in them and the doors will actually open and close. I am working with Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro to make the banister in the back into an actual 3D object instead of using the flat 2D pieces in there now. There is still more to do and hopefully soon we can test with some actual characters in the room but at this point I think it is looking good. Lee Waller.

Preproduction Process: Rough Animatic

In the previous post I showed some examples of the first three steps after the initial brainstorming and research phase. They included the script then thumbnails and then storyboards. Next we put together a rough soundtrack and then create a rough animatic from that. 

This animatic was created in Adobe Flash using the same parameters that will be used in the final animation.

The next step will be to look at the animatic for timing and other aspects. Does the dialogue work? What is missing? After initial views I'm pretty sure we'll be working on a score along with sound effects. The voice track is rough and we'll be re-voicing some of the parts. An animatic is a very good way to get a sense of what is working and what isn't before you get into too much work.