Yr 1 Chloe Hebert Animation Journal

Posts

Experimental Animation - 3D Stop Motion Puppet Armature

- February 27, 2023

I used the same turn around and design for the base of the 3D puppet as I did for the 2D puppet. I printed it out in a couple different sizes to see how big I wanted the final puppet to be. I plan on making the puppet 10 inches tall. Using the printout at the correct scale, I sketched the armature to use as reference. For the armature itself, I wanted to test out two main materials: 1.5 mm aluminum wire and 9.2 mm diameter plastic ball and socket armature. After cutting each material to roughly the right size, I started testing out each one's flexibility and stiffness. The aluminum wire was much softer, and easier to bend and cut. The plastic ball and socket armature is a fair bit stiffer. It is fairly easy to snap the joints after letting them rest in warm water for a bit. As seen in the videos, the plastic can't bend at sharp angles the way the wire can, but it does feel sturdier than the wire. Unless heated, the ball and sockets aren't going to pop out or snap. I decid...

Experimental Animation - 2D Paper Puppet

- February 16, 2023

After finalizing the character design, my next step was planning each puppet. I started with the 2D paper puppet, because I was still waiting on some materials for the 3D stop motion puppet. I first planned the joints and pieces digitally. That way, I could get a rough idea of how the final range of motion would work before I start carving the black for the final puppet print. All the parts worked well digitally, so I printed out a test puppet on cheap paper to see how well it worked physically For the most part I was happy with the first physical test. There were a could weeks that needed to be made, like moving the thigh in front of the shin (video below) and changing a couple of connection points, but I was satisfied with how the the whole puppet moved. I could then move on to the next step: carving the lino block. Using the modified digital copy of all the separated, I transferred the lines onto the block using graphite and baking paper. Cutting the block in total...

Animation 2C Documentary - Storyboards

- April 02, 2022

Based on the book Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Animation 2B - Rough Animation

- February 28, 2022

Before starting in on the actual animation, I went ahead and made some headshot turnarounds for the two owl characters. That way I can use them as reference to keep all the shots consistent with each other and the character designs. The first scene I animated was the bit right after the older sibling pulls the younger one out from under the bell. I figured this one would be good to start with since it is a very close, intimate moment between the two with a far among of small character acting in their interaction.

Animation 2B - Background Art

- February 27, 2022

The background art gave me a little bit of trouble. Background art is probably one of my least favorite aspects of making a short film, so I wanted to get it out of the way first so that I wouldn't have to worry about it later on. I took some of my own reference photos around the city for the bell tower setting. I also looked at some of the background art from films such as 101 Dalmatians and The Paperman . I tried playing around with some different color palettes, but I really didn’t like how they were going. I ended up just rendering out the sketches I had made for the animatic in black and white, and tweaked the colors with gradient maps. I imagine the final film with color, but if I run out of time or decide that I’d rather leave it in black and white I can.

Animation 2B - Animatic