you are here [x]: Scarlet Star Studios > the Scarlet Letters > new stopmo demo clip
<< before #2 exchange sketchbook: mitchel hunt
after >> #3 exchange sketchbook: brian prosser

July 28, 2008

new stopmo demo clip

by sven at 7:00 am

click on image to play clip (14sec - 261 KB)

There's a job opening at Laika right now for assistant animators. I'm applying.

Most of my animation so far has been character-driven... So to round things out a bit, I put together some clips of inanimate objects.

The work was done last week over the course of two days. The forest set was recycled, but everything else was made from scratch (including the flower).

I probably could have squeezed out another clip in the time I allotted myself... But at the beginning I got unnecessarily bogged down with hi-def workflow. It was taking 40 sec to capture a frame -- and then, later, 60 sec to translate RAW format to jpg. After the first project was done, I downgraded to a DV video capture workflow -- which made things go much more speedily.

I did my first significant work with rigging and rig-removal. Obviously it was necessary for the leaf. But surprisingly, the red ball needed a rig too. I couldn't find another way to keep it from rolling away from me that didn't also make the ball impossible to animate precisely. The rig wound up acting like an axle.

Lesson learned, though: A white background will show every little mismatch between your clean plate and the frame you're PhotoShopping. Not fun.

I'm excited about the leaf clip. It's the closest I think I've come to translating my 2D aesthetics to 3D. It has my brain burbling with new possibilities.

posted by sven | July 28, 2008 7:00 AM | categories: stopmo