Arrrmatures

I've been creating the armatures for the characters in my film. I was lent a standard anamture kit from Adam but after experimenting with it I realised it wouldn't work for my characters. The main reason being it is too big, even if I constructed it as small as possible the joints would still be too large. Below is a photo of the constructed armature.



Here's the hands I built from the kit. They were hard to make without snapping the wire but after the 4th/5th attempt I got the hang of it and the design works well and is something I would like to use for Yuri and the Trevor in my film as they have a lot of hand movements.


I decided the best way to create armatures for my characters is to use a simple twisted wire method. To stop the limbs moving where they shouldn't I have covered all the armature (accept the joints) in fimo and baked it in the over.

Yuri's armature (below left) and the chainsaw man (right) have came out successfully and are flexible and light weight. So that's good.

Ooowee.

Tomorrow is armature making time. The first 2 characters I'm onna build are Yuri, the main man, and Trevor who's the lumberjack man who wants to cut down the beeeaaautifulest tree.

New Anamatic

Here's my updated anamatic including the backing track and some improved shots and sound effects. I'm currently working on my anamatic with the perspective cardboard mock scenes so that should be up soon.

Building design

This is my design for the style of buildings that will be visible outside the park through the trees.
This block of houses is coloured with watercolour and feltpen but I am also going to experiment with collage effects like I have with the trees.

Fat Bum Lady

Clay Model Yuri

This is a life size model of Yuri I did using modeling clay.
It is the same size he will be when he's made for the film. 140mm tall and his shoulders are 25mm wide.

I made this model to scale so I can scale the cardboard sets to the right size.

Rough Schedual

Cardboard Mock-up Sets done and put into anamatic by 11-12-09

Real sets built by 04-01-10
Set decoration and final touches all ready for filming 11-01-10

(To be continued)

Yuri's Head

Here's some photos of Yuri's head which I sculpted. Using modelling beeswax and Fimo.

1st bit of Set Building

This is Yuri's tree design placed in the beginning of the cardboard mock up set.

The Style

The main inspiration for the style in my film is collage like I discussed below. I would like to use a lot of mixed media.
The trees, benches, ben, fences, buildings.... All of the park scene will be flat cut-outs. Made from textiles, paper, card etc.
Yuri and the other human characters will be made in 3D from wire, clay, textiles etc.

This is the collage style that I am aiming to create...


This is an example of how I want the branches and leaves in the trees to look. I made this from a range of cardboard and papers.

First Anamatic

This is my first moving anamatic.



After showing a few people there are a few things I've noted from their response that I need to change.

1. People have said it'd a bit confusing at the start, some people think he comes across as a pevert hiding in a tree.
To clear the confusion I think I am going to experiment with a new opening sequence, of a book titled along the lines of 'A Beginners Guide to Attracting Nature' or 'How to Become One with Nature'... Doing this should make it clear that Yuri is not perving on things.

2. People are also confused by the bird's eye view shot of the man needing a wee when he's searching for somewhere to wee. I will most probably delete this shot all together. This will then give some time for the new opening shot.

3. I also feel that the very last shot of Yuri and his new tree friend could be better. Perhaps have the two trees holding hands.

Storyboards

Character Design

This is the main character in my film, Yuri.

Asthetic Inspiration.

The main inspiration for the asthetics and style I am interested in using is found in collage and cut-out animations.

For example....

'Crossword' (2009) by Mirjam Baker and Michael Kren

I love the bright colours and 'childlike' style of this animation and would like to achieve this kind of look in my film.

'Crossword' can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXXcLvmc-SQ

Other collage themed animations I've been inspired by are 'I Adore You' by Dominique Bloink.

'I Adore You' can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChGJ9XrlHI

'Hello Antenna' by Veronika Samartseva and Anna Samo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmB_qX_MFJY

I like this kind of style because it is childlike and innocent looking. This is the kind of style I want my film to have.

Hello!! Rough Proposal and Script

Title: YURI

Synopsis:
An eccentric, 30year old man called Yuri, who has been bullied and unaccepted by people has found a comfort in animals and nature and spends all of his days disguised as objects in the park in order to fit in.
Philosophy: The audience that this film is aimed at is adults, specifically young adults aged around 17 - 30

Overview:
Yuri is in the park disguised as a tree, a bird lands on his ‘branch’ and he looks happy, he continues to smile even after it has pooed on him. People passing by seem unaware he is there; a man comes up to him, drops his trousers and wees up against his ‘trunk’. Yuri looks angry but seems more upset that the bird has flown away.

Yuri continues to disguise himself as different objects in the park in an attempt to attract nature.
He then disguises himself as different objects in the park e.g. a bench, a bin but every time people disrupt him and make his life harder.

Yuri is standing in the park as a tree and he notices a beautiful tree nearby and he can’t take his eyes off it. Two people walk up to it and start to ‘get it on’ up against the trunk of the tree. The tree starts to shake and look as though it’s about to fall over. Yuri can’t bare to see the beautiful tree fall over so he blows his cover and runs up to save it...

Yuri catches the falling tree in his arms; the fallen tree reveals that it was actually a lady dressed up as a tree too. They look lovingly at each other they look around and notice that the whole park has come to life; all the objects in the park were eccentric people in disguise.

Time: 3mins

Method: 2D and stop motion

Resources: Paper, card, clay, wire, armature, paint, pencils, pens, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Digital SLR, lights, gel sheets,

References:
MUYBRIDGE, E., 1995. THE HUMAN FIGURE IN MOTION, New York: Dover Publications, inc.
LORD, P. And SIBLEY, B., 1998. CRACKING ANIMATION: THE AARDMAN BOOK OF 3-D ANIMATION, London: Thames & Hudson
BLAIR, P., 1994. CARTOON ANIMATION, Tustin, California: Walter Foster Publishing, inc.


SCRIPT

EXT. ENTRANCE TO PARK - DAWN

FADE IN:

Man/Yuri walks slowly into park.

EXT. PARK – BRIGHT AND SUNNY – CITY IN BACKGROUND

Long shot of tree in park.
Tree has a large hole in its trunk.
Camera slowly zooms in on hole.
Camera stops. Yuri’s head pops up in hole, his hand, holding leaves pops out of a small hole on side of tree.
Yuri looks content.

Small bird lands on branch of Yuri’s tree.
Yuri looks at bird and smiles.

EXT. PATHWAY IN PARK

Wide shot of path.
Man runs along park looking distressed clutching his crotch.

EXT. TREE YURI IS IN - PARK

Close up of Yuri continuing to watch bird on branch smiling.
Man holding crotch appears in background.
Man running towards tree.
Close up shot of man running towards tree

Birdseye view shot of man urinating against tree

Yuri looking shocked
Camera slowly zooms out
Yuri face from shocked to sad
Yuri drops the branch he was holding

EXT. PATHWAY IN PARK

Shot of feet walking along path from behind showing only feet and lower legs

Camera pans upwards. Shows backwards shot of Yuri wearing a bin

Close up of Yuri’s face through slit in bin. Yuri looks content.

Camera zooms out to show whole of bin.
Yuri is reaching out of the bin, putting seeds on the top.

Close up of Yuri’s face. “tweet tweet” is heard. Yuri smiles.

Bird’s eye view of the top of the bin.
Birds are pecking at the seed. Some are on the ground.

Shot of whole of bin. Yuri is still smiling. Birds are all around him ‘tweeting’

Football smashes into the side of the bin. Yuri looks scared and shocked. The birds fly away.

Close up of Yuri’s face. Yuri looks sad, his lip quivers.





EXT. PARK – BENCH

Long shot of Yuri on his hands and knees under a plank of wood. He is looking down at the floor.

Camera zooms out and pans across revealing a line of benches, Yuri is in the middle, pretending to be one of them.

Shot of Yuri under bench. Three birds are sitting in a line on top.

Close up shot of Yuri’s face looking up from the ground under the bench.
Yuri looks very happy.

Close up shot of birds suddenly flying away. Feathers floating around.

Long shot of Yuri under bench. No birds on top. He looks scared, looking up at camera.

Close up of a big fat bum coming towards the camera.

Screen is blank. “THUD” noise.

Long shot of Yuri squished under bench with fat bum lady sitting on him.

Close up of Yuri struggling to get out from under the bench.
After a little while Yuri stops struggling, his eyes widen and he looks amazed by something of screen.

Shot of a beautiful, colourful tree. Birds are hoping around it.

Close up of Yuri’s face, he looks in love.

Shot of the tree. After a moment a loud chain saw is heard.

Close up of Yuri’s face, he looks petrified.

Close up of a chainsaw blade.

Shot of man walking towards the tree holding the chainsaw.

Close up of Yuri’s face, still petrified.
Camera zooms backout. Yuri is struggling frantically to get out from under the bench.

Close up of the chainsaw blade getting closer to tree trunk.

Shot of Yuri lifting up bench and fat lady to get free.

Close up of chainsaw getting even closed to tree trunk.

Shot of Yuri running towards camera/tree.

Shot of man holding chainsaw against the tree.
Yuri comes flying towards the man.
The tree moves away from chainsaw.
Yuri lands on top of man.

Tree turns round revealing hole in trunk with a pretty face poking out.
She bends her branch/down down to help Yuri up.