Platypus 2 Shot 1 & 2

Well, I learned a lesson with my new camera and Dragon stop motion software today. After I capture a frame on Dragon, the camera then takes its own picture and uploads it to a high-res file; there's about a 3 second delay between the two.

So, after I thought everything was all fine and dandy with the two shots I just made, I exported the high-res image sequence and, well, just look at what happened:

Although, I think that the firefeets turned out pretty swell! Anyways, it's back to reshooting them again!

I've been using a free trial of Dragon Stop Motion software (http://www.dragonstopmotion.com/), and have found it to be pretty good. Here's my review:

Pros:

-you can onionskin your live feed with frames you just shot

-you can easily playback the frames you just shot including your live feed

-you can easily delete frames

-you can draw on your screen to help with markers and measurements

-all the functions have hotkeys on your numbpad

Cons:

-you cannot link (at least I haven't discovered how yet) different takes together to see how it flows. You need to do this in an external program, like AfterEffects

-it always takes a few seconds of waiting after you capture a shot for the program to catch up (could just be my computer??)

-the program creates about 5 folders for each frame you take: 2 low res file folders, each with a slightly higher res folder inside and finally a very high res folder. IT'S VERY CONFUSING!

Also, if you download the free trial, it only lets you take 50 frames at a time, so be careful!

UPDATE:

Here are the two shots redone:

Platypus 1 Shot 2

After I made my last post, I went right back to animating, and here's the second shot. It's 75 frames and it took me 1 hour and 1 minute (I timed myself)!

I will cut out the little hair swoosh at the end. That is all.

Platypus 1 Shot 1

Here's my first shot. After about 3 attempts, I am most happy with the result of this one, even though it's a bit jerky when he picks up the tea. It took me about 2 hours to do all 160 frames (that's nearly 3 frames a minute!). Also, there's no way I could reduce the flickering, I believe it's just the variation in voltage to my lamp :(

Steaming, it's about 24fps; I originally shot it to be 30fps, but he was moving too fast. I'm also going to cut it right before he stops pouring the tea.

NEW MATION

Long time, no mations! Well, I just got a SWEET camera (check it out!) courtesy of my fine older brother (check him out!) and I have been dying to put into into use!

As I was thinking of an idea, I was also throwing out my old school notebooks and stumbled upon a page from my third year Human Resources class that had a little animation story on it (don't pay any attention to the notes, haha).

Here's the plot: Platypus 1 (P1) is the reception guy at some store. He makes some tea and drinks it too. Platypus 2 (P2) comes sliding in from the right. Sparks fly from his feet. P 2 stops and asks P 1 "Do you sell boots?" P 1 says "We have no boots left!" P 1 then overturns the reception table and reveals that he was secretly wearing a pair of boots. P 2's eyes turn into lazers and he melts P 1. As P 2 stands there satisfied, the boots float to the top of P 1's meltedness.

Here is a picture of all the replacement parts and stuff that I made yesterday

(click on the images to make them GIGANTIC, thanks to my amazing camera from my amazing brother)

Here are some tests of the firefeet and lazereyes

And here are the two Platypi in all their glory

P1: P2:

The Fish King is done!

And the Fish King is complete!

Hope you enjoy it!

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the result. I was a little worried about the differences in camera position between scenes, but I just faded them overtop of eachother, and non are the wiser!

Also, here's a shot of my workspace for this animation.

The Fish King Final Scene

Here is the final scene from the Fish King. It took me about five hours to animate, I think I now need chiropractic treatment from being slouched over the entire time.

Here are some comments on the scene:

• I accidentally bumped the camera from the previous scene. I did my best to put it back in its original position, so there will be a slight difference in camera position between the last two scenes.
• The first half with the squid walking and the king talking is some of the smoothest animation I've ever done! Woot!
• The squid jumping away is WAY too quick! I got too caught up in the king's lip syn and forgot to start the squid jumping sooner. I had to make the jump really quick so that the King's sync still matched his "W-o-a-h!" when he falls. However, I did animate a lot of in-between frames just in case, so I'll see if I can put those back in somehow.
• Originally, I was going to have water splash out of the cart when the King falls out (he is a fish), but by the time it came around to animating that part, it was already past midnight and I just wanted to go to bed.
• I still have a lot of touching up to do on the frames and I have to fix some of the lip sync.

The Fish King is Getting Annoyed

3rd scene comments: - for some reason I can't seem to animate the squid's arms quite right anymore - not going to worry about the speed differences of the cart - two and a half hours for 4 seconds. Phew!