Saturday, July 19, 2014

Crash! Pheewwww.........

Making progress comes only after hard work. There's still a lot left, but our crash scenes can almost be animated now.

Rubles close-up shots also need to be done, so we're going to make sure he gets the most mobility and expression. A rig was constructed in the past that I plan to use for those shots by attaching him to the rig and making a new (and cleanly sculpted) puppet.

A down shooting rig is also taking shape which is simple (and hopefully will be effective) for our wood flying and heart throbbing scenes. Stay tuned for more updates in a couple of weeks.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Anatomy of Crash Scenes

The next two shots are going to be very difficult to pull off. I will need to create a couple of rigs and a down shooting system as well.

Last November or so - I tried to figure out how to animate flying wood through the air. I opted for gluing wire to wooden parts and moving them vertically. It worked, but I don't like the way it turned out. I also used my old Olympus camera and don't think the composite will work nicely.

The solution is to make a down shooter where the camera can aim down and the wooden pieces slid where they need to be in space. It gives me a lot more flexibility to move things over a larger area without the need to remove lots of wires.

Next, a rig from above needs to hold the canon and barrel as they fall. Finally, Ruble will need a rig off to the side and out of view of the camera for him to fly into the air.

Wire replacement pieces will be added into the shots to emulate a falling motion until smaller replacements get shorter and shorter. These segments will be hidden by the debris pieces that make it look as though the ship beams have split outward.

Since I finished my latest sculpture for my client I'll have a few days to work on all this. Hopefully by then we'll have one more shot completed.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Shot 24 Completed!

After sculpting for my current client and wrapping up my work, I managed to get some free time tonight. Shot 24 is where Ruble unties rope #2, confident that he's loosening the mizzen mast rope. But is he really untying the right one? Nope!

I checked to see how many more shots were left. It looks like there's only 10 more to go until the first episode can be called "done". Some shots will be simple, some will be more complex. I do want to try and get them all done before September. That's when I'll be getting my new computer, however it might not be compatible with my current editing software. So if I don't complete it in time, I'll just need to keep the old one until I get the job done.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Ruble Releases the First Rope (Completed Shot)

I've completed a new shot with Ruble releasing the first rope from the side of the ship. Is it the mizzen rope? No it's not, and he later finds out how important it is to get it right!

This is about the 16th shot to be completed in the film. I've found that the armature still has issues, so I hope Ruble will hold together for the rest of the shots. I'll definitely need to make a clay puppet for all his close-up shots where he speaks. By that time I think this puppets body will not hold a pose very well. That is to be expected with wire armatures on a low budget. Still, I'm pretty darn happy with the results!

EDIT: It looks like it wasn't in fact the 16th shot, but the 23rd! Oops, I didn't realize I had as much done as I do!


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Rubles July 4th Fish Beer Shot

How else would Ruble celebrate July 4th? By being animated grabbing a mug full of Fish Beer of course! Here's a video that I put together to show what was involved in this simple shot.