Not all Stop Motion

This film will be employing both "Practical Effects" and CGI FX, this is a test I did a while back for a demolition FX. I was testing out a Maya plugin called Fracture-FX. I liked the plugin a lot, so I shall be purchasing a licence in the near future.

Update coming soon

Even though there hasn't been much activity on this blog, I have been busy. I will posts some updates very soon. Starting with my collection of figures and props. I have acquired a large number of items over the last year and feel like we are getting close to going into productions.

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Audio Recording

So, if anyone out there way wondering where I have been for the last few weeks, I have been involved in a project. Not my own but a paying gig for a client. It happens from time to time. Unavoidable. It is these little projects that pop up that help fund my Stop motion film. Any way, for this video I needed to record a voice over, and seeing as I am on a budget these days, I decided not to splash out on a Recording studio. I did it DIY style, in my living room. I made some sound damping barriers, and invested in a descent mic and plug into my laptop, and Bobs your Uncle. The sound quality was better than I expected. I love technology, it is making my life  easier.

Luckily for me, there is a Shakespeare festival here in my little town. So I didn't have to look to far to find a professional voice talent.

By the way, this relates to this blog. Audio is a big part of animation, and now this little gig just paid for the right gear for me to record all my voice characters. As a self produced film, I need to avoid booking studios as it will eat up any money I have put a side really fast. Now I have a mini recording studio here in my home studio.
Down the road a bit, I'll post some behind the scenes material when I start to record the characters voices.

 

IAN FARTHING, recording a voice over for me in my little home studio.

Ian is the Artistic Director for the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, in Prescott Ontario. 

Many thanks Ian, job well done. 

Bad Times for VFX

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/vfx-artists-need-more-respect-better-pay-ross-n08JeuXQRLiEL~mXVhuDkA.html

The Cast has all arrived

So as mention in an earlier post the cast of this stop motion film is made up of 1/6^th scale plastic sculpt heads. Basically the type found on an old G I Joe, or an everyday Ken doll. I was so excited when I stumbled cross these celebrity sculpts. As you can see there is a resemblance to the movie, The Expendables here. I hope you notice Sylvester plays two roles in the film, his Expendables version and good old Rambo. 

When I ordered these little heads, I had no idea just how good the detail was. I am impressed. The little guys look pretty good. I can’t wait to get animating.

Dusting off the airbrush

Today is a rather exciting day for me. In order to proceed with my plant stop motion project, it was necessary for me to order various bits of equipment and other supplies. The first little tests assignment I’ve given myself is to build a plastic model kit of a Browning 50 caliber machine gun.

 That model has shown up in the mail. I also had to go rooting through the storage box to find my old airbrush. I saved up money from a summer job back in the early 1980s to buy this airbrush. And it still works. However, I haven’t used it since the early 1980s. For those of you who don’t know how and airbrush operates a rather simple procedure. The airbrush has little reservoir that holds your paints and it connects to an air hose on one end and the other end of the hose connects to an air compressor. Luckily for me I already own the compressor that I had used in the past for my nail gun. However, the nail gun adapter was much larger than my teeny-weeny airbrush. So I had to figure out what type of adapter I needed, then order that as well. That has arrived, and so has some specially formulated lacquer paints designed to replicate gunmetal. So it seems as if everything is in place to start my first little test.

I picked the 50 caliber machine gun for very good reason. As you can see in the pictures below, I’ve already done extensive work in 3D with this type of weapon. So I’m interested to see if I will be able to port my skills over from 3D to this real world of tangible model making.

 In my hand are 2 bottles of paint that, if used correctly should make my model look like metal. We'll have to see if it works.

 Here you can see what I normally do, I feel comfortable with this medium. Never to late to try something new.