Glow bugs

Here are some shots of the final designs for my glow bugs.

I wanted to make sure that the shapes for the glow bugs didn't seem too perfect, as they are meant to hint that they could be washing tablets and not 'hit people in the face' with it. I have had to try to find a balance, until I found what worked. I'm happy with how the legs connect to the body now. I have pushed back the sections around where the legs meet the body a little, so that it seems as if the legs are part of it and not just stuck on.

Volkswagen: The Making of the "Black Beetle" Commercial

A friend sent me a link to this the other day. Although I've seen the actual animated advert I hadn't seen this before. I think that this making of is brilliant. Especially considering the similarity in the subject matter to my own work. I think that what this piece does is highlight the importance of 'making of's' in showing the amount of work that goes into a piece of work. The way that it breaks shots down is great in terms of how the different mediums are composited together, for example the 3D animation onto the backgrounds. This is definitely the way that I want to go with my 'Making of' for this project.

Popping Lid

After talking through ideas with Ste, I have had play at folding the legs back inside the tin. As the shoehorn, head shape pops the lid the legs rush back inside. At the end of my scene when the cupboard door is opening all of the bugs need to hide/be camouflaged so that they can't been seen as 'bugs' in the end shot.

When I have been considering this I have been looking for reference in a few places. I have looked at how tortoises retract back into their shells and also snails in order to see how natural/or not the movement is.

Here is a test, showing how the insect will retract into its shell:

Insect Development (2)

Character, ("Elephant Beetle")

This insect is based on the "Elephant Beetle".

Here is a basic mockup of the bug design. Obviously at this stage this looks as it does, a shoe polish tin with legs stuck on. So now, I need to play with the design so that it suggests the tine but its more like a natural bug shape that has evolved in sections to suggest the tin design.

Beetle Design: What will it be made from?

I have been exploring for a while now the possible things that the 'elephant beetle' could be made of from under a sink. The way that I imagine this character is for it to be the older 'matriarch' of thbe group, he's the boss! In an earlier test in which I had a play at animating  walk cycle, I animated him so that the rolled a little from his shoulders and had a bit of 'attitude' so to say.

With this in mind the type of objects from under the sink that I want it to consist of are things that might have been under the sink for a while.

If something was to evolve it would take a long time, so I want to choose objects that might not necessarily be used all the time, things that might sit in the back of a couple for a while.

I have decided to use shoe polish and related objects in order to create the bug as I think that this type of objects could feasible sit in a cupboard and not be touched on a regular basis.

Creature Comforts

"Each juxtaposition of voice and creature, even or especially the most unexpected, creates something wonderful. The domestic version, which like it s predecessor is made by Aardman Animations, is every bit as good as the original. While the animation is masterful – beautifully timed and fully attendant to character, even when a character is merely listening – what makes "Creature Comforts" valuable is the unscripted, and unscriptable voice of the people."

Robert Lloyd, LA Times

I think that Robert Lloyd from the LA Times sums it up nicely when he says "what makes Creature Comforts valuable is the unscripted, and unscriptable voice of the people". This is the main reason why I decided to approach the voiceover for my piece in this way. The unscriptable nature of the recording with Dmitri meant that it lead to a very natural sound. It was nice that the recording was fluid and it was nice just to hear someone that was just passionate about their subject area. This is something which I think I would struggle to achieve if the voiceover was scripted. I understand that a script is important in most scenarios, however this time I found this to be the most effective way for this particular brief.

Voiceover

For this project I have spent a lot of time considering narrative and sounds. Initially in order to develop narrative I used David Attenborough's  Madagascar as a way to cut up ideas and build a sequence. After finding a sequence that I was happy with, I started to consider the possibilities that I had open to me in terms of a voiceover.

Although Attenborough's Madagascar was a great inspiration I wanted to feel like the piece was mine. So I decided to use aspects of cut up narrative that I created in terms of inspiration for creating my own voiceover. One thing that Attenborough's voice has is a sense of culture and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just searching for an 'Attenborough' impersonator to read a script.

With this in mind I considered how I could get around this and started to think about what it was about his voice that made it seem so natural and work. I came to the conclusion that it was because he was an expert in his area and what he was saying just seemed natural and seemed to flow. The only logical thing for me to do at this point was to get in touch with Dmitri at the Museum, as he had been such a help already and see if he would let me record him to use as a voiceover. I decided that I wanted the recording to flow so I created a series of questions which stemmed from the sequence that I had created previously based on the edit taken from Madagascar. As I was happy with the way that the sequence ran I wrote a few questions covering the main areas of the narration.

By using these questions as a starting point I wanted Dmitri's responses to form the final voiceover. This worked extremely well and I'm really pleased with the outcome! With just under 30 mins of recordings I've got a heafty edit to come as I want my piece to roughly last 1:30 mins - 2mins, however I feel that I'm in a good position now to start that process.

Paul Bush

I've been meaning to put this film by Paul Bush here for a while now. It's really interesting for me to see how he has used found audio in order to create a narration, something which I have been considering myself.

The thing that I like about this Paul Bush film is the way that it has a documentary style feeling to the piece. I have been considering what I would like my piece to be in terms of the type of animation and one thing that I have avoided is making it seem as if its some form of advertsment. In terms of the messages that I want to convey in my piece, I am using it as an exploration about the idea of ecosystems and the use of camouflage.

Re Camouflaged Butterfly

Here I have had a play with caomouflaging the butterfly onto the packagaing. I'm happier with how it looks here, however they're are a few aspects that I would like to develop. For example there is still text within the design of the butterfly and I think that this would be more effective if I block the colours surronding it out.

Flicker tests

Flicker tests with the little lights within the scene:

Firstly I put the lights within the scene. As they have been wired up to a dimmer switch I played with bringing them up from dark to light as if they were glowing.

I decided to have a play with covering them with some green filters:

The test below shows some of the problems that I have had:

There are quite strong hotspots on the lights.

Outcome: LEDS

This weekend I'm going to get some green LEDS that can be wired up. As they are slim I can drill holes into the shelf and lot them in, it also means that in terms of wiring them up that the wires and battery can sit underneath the shelf and it means that there will be no need for wire removal. This is beneficial as I ma trying to refine my process and reduce the time that it takes for particular aspects without jeopardizing on quality.

Animatic

I have several animatics for this brief as I keep refining them as I am going along, however as I am filming next week I have decided that I want to nail my shots this weekend. This means that come Monday I can effectively start to get the shots that I need and replace them in my animatic as I go along.