Today Hayley and I began the animation process for our Applied 2 documentary animation. We did feel a little behind but once we got into animating, we really started to enjoy the process and I felt like I was starting something new and exciting and all the stress went away.
Because we have never produced a stop motion animation which required an expensive camera and professional lighting, we did need some help with setting up and finding the right lights. This took us a good half of the day to experiment with three different lights, and acknowledging that though they look nice in real life, on camera, they look a lot different, and even more different on the computer screen in Dragon Frame.
Annabeth gave us some great demonstrations on how we can manipulate lighting to portray a certain time of day. She also talked to us about the different bulbs (tungsten, fluorescent, incandescent, etc) and how they can replicate the sun, whether it be bright white or a little warmer, for a sunset. This type of light is a key light, and was one that we really focussed a lot on to get the scene looking realistic, because our animation is about nature and the environment so this was important for us.
She also helped us set up a fill light which we used to bounce off some white plastic material to reflect the direct light and help us cast more natural shadows, instead of them being too direct and sharp. This was really helpful because it stopped our scene looking like a stage with a spotlight, and more softer and natural.
The third light introduced to us, was perfect for the blue/green screen, lighting it up so that we would be able to edit it out in post production and replace it with our own background.
Once we were happy with our set up and how it was looking on screen we made a note of everything so that we know where to place the cameras for next time, or if we want to change the time of day for our next scene which could be interesting.
In the midst of animating, Hayley and I noticed that the rock that she had made was moving around slightly so when I moved the newt, sometimes the set moved too, which meant that there was a jump in the frame and everything looked off balance. To overcome this, I suggested to stick the set down with sticky tape, because we had the camera zoomed in to a perspective where you can't really see the bottom half of the set, and if it showed up on camera, we could edit it out. This actually worked and we didn't have a problem with the rocks moving after we carried on animating.
And this is a test example of our shot. Obviously you can see the sticky tape but that can easily be fixed, and when we replace the blue screen I think with the lighting we chose, it will really fit our rainy England aesthetic. I also wanted the camera to be eye level with the characters so that they look like they are being interviewed by someone of their same species, so this was important to try and get right. I am so happy with what we have achieved so far, I am learning so many new techniques and tricks that I didn't feel confident with before, and I am enjoying stepping out of my comfort zone in order to create something that is foreign to me!
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