For my experimental animation project I wanted to create a stop motion
animation using various art materials. I had not tried animating using stop
motion before and my main concern was that the timing would not match up to the
soundtrack provided.
The soundtrack I decided to use was a piece of experimental music that
did not seem to have any rhythm or melody that I found made it unpleasant to
listen to. For this reason I decided it would be perfect as the backing track
to a war zone scene because of the loud, industrial sounding noises and low whistling
noises which reminded me of bombs being dropped.
To begin with I scoured the Internet for free audio samples of
explosions, gunfire, aircraft noises and people screaming. I then used Audacity
sound editing software to create a sound file featuring the experimental music
with the sound effects playing at varying volumes. I was inspired by a short
animation by Tourist Pictures in which the abridged history of The United
States’ military conflicts were represented by the food of the respective
nations attacking each other (for example; the attacks on Pearl Harbor are
represented as sushi being fired at burgers). The animation had been created by
photographing food and then key-frame animating the photographs within Adobe
After Effects, allowing food to fly through the air and the animation to be
very smooth.
I had an idea for a short narrative in which two armies made of
stationary attack each other although when I began to work out set layouts and
concept stills I realized that the audience would not be able to tell the
difference between the two armies and that the shots looked overcrowded. I
instead decided that the animation would feature an army made out of stationary
attacking small villages made of plain white paper and with this in mind I
edited the soundtrack. The only camera available as I animated the project was
my digital camera that does not have a manual focus because of this I had to
keep set designs simple as the camera would only focus on what was immediately
in the foreground and would sometimes blur. I decided to use cones made of
white paper for the village as the simplistic, primitive design contrasted
nicely with the ugly, garish machines that attack.
As I began to take the first photographs I realized that I needed to
move the set to a place where I could control the lighting as constantly
changing sunlight caused the animation to flicker to prevent this I moved the
set to my attic as it has no windows. I planned out in the animation as a
series of short scenes each lasting a few hundred frames or less and I made
various camera rigs and dollies so I could create panning and tracking shots.
The most challenging shots were the ones in which the camera tracks behind
flying missiles and planes; for these I mounted the camera on a music stand and
attached the object it was tracking in the foreground of the shot using a wire
coat hanger, this meant that as the camera moved forwards the missile always stayed
in the same place as the background drew closer. For other shots where I needed
to have objects flying I either partially photographed the object (so that the
place where it was attached to the floor or ceiling was out of shot) or had the
object attached to the floor with blue tack and a toothpick.
To create the explosions I cut out rough circles and coloured them
yellow with red centers and borders, I then photographed them and then ripped
the edges so they were slightly smaller and coloured the borders again. For
scenes in which there were fires I made several cut-outs of frames which varied
in size, I photographed them around the buildings then randomly swapped there
positions round so that it looked as if the flames were flickering and never
stationary and for smoke I ripped up tissue paper and increased the amount
around the buildings each time it was photographed.
I was happy with the final result but found that not all of the
explosions synced with the visuals so some sequences had to be repeated so that
there would not be gaps. The final part of the animation in which a bomb
flashes before exploding did not end up playing properly when animated as I had
got the timing wrong so I had to hold a still image for a few frames and
alternate between two pictures to make it flash. Unfortunately editing software
was not available as I was photographing the project and I only realised I had
this problem when I got back to university. During the project I learnt a great
deal about the importance of planning and timing; I found that even a problem
with a single frame effects the overall animation.
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