the makings of previous things

this video was mainly done as a test to see how well I could animate on my own using the replacement technique. I found it incredibly hard to get the shape of the heads exactly the same so that it wouldn't make an obvious jump in the video, I didn't succeed. In the video its pretty easy to spot where the heads get replaced, maybe it would have worked better had I measured equal amounts of clay out before making each head and used a ruler to get the dimensions right. I can see how using the replacement technique might be useful for a larger project with a few more people all working on the different figures but I found it much easier to just move the figure manually frame by frame and I think this makes for a smoother animation, with no jumps.

Although Richard Whillock did do a very good impression of the first head I wanted to base it more on a abstracted type of expression than a realistic one. I think the scream by Edward munch was definitely an influence in the 2nd head.

A few influences for the grooves on the face as I wanted to make it look like they were almost wearing a mask. In many of Chet Zar's paintings (one of my favourite artists) he gives the faces very thick defined lines as if their skin was a thick kind of leather or a mask. I also like how the Darth Vader helmet divides up the sections of the face.











For the second replacement head I choose something more realistic, I originally wanted to have his face change from neutral to anger and for some reason the face of hitler came to mind, however after painting the inside of the mouth black it completely changed the expression from one of anger to happiness, everything went better than expected. I think I could have corrected this by painting on some grey stress lines on the face to balance the tone out but I preferred it this way.














the plasticine man that the heads rested on was just a stand that I fixed to the table as this was only a test.

Money

Of the topics we were given after an initial brainstorm we decided to choose conflict.
The animation was split into two parts, a material-based stop motion animation, slightly more surreal and experimental, which covered the 'real' segments of the story, and a piece on pixilation for the dream-sequence in the plot.

I was responsible for making the octopus and some of the set. As the animation was about toby the rubix cube's money problems I thought a chain smoking octopus in the background whilst the main character scrounges for money would be a great way to hint at societies addiction to material things. That is my explanation for the octopus and I am sticking with it.








































One of the influences for the making of the octopus was from the characters in futurama, zoidberg in perticular who is like a human form of a crab and an octopus and squidward from spongebob.


here are some of the light tests from the second group who were responsible for the pixilation part of the animation.

Unedited, Black removed from Richard Whillock on Vimeo.

black and white PS test from Richard Whillock on Vimeo.

something something

this is the first test we did from the stop motion side. I watched it again when I got home and immediately thought of this sound track. Not going to go with this music for the final piece but I just liked the sound of old film recording and thought it added to the creepiness. Yes, that is a chain smoking octopus in the background.