Diamond in the Eye

In search of materials to represent, the sadness I felt after the robbery, 

I decided to use some jewellery beads, that I savaged from house keeping in my last summer holiday. So glad it came handy!

My animation assistant, Steph was there to help me with this scene. 

At first, we were quite sceptical as the beads kept rolling around. 

I had to draw some guidelines so that we know how to animate the tear.

Diamond in the eye...

forming droplets of tears

and the ripple...

just notice that it took us nearly 3 hours to complete this 3 shots. 

KUDOS to Steph and Pam! 

Thanks for your help Steph!

Material Test :animating Malaysian Coins

Material Test for scene: The floor was covered with money.

I am searching for the right material to animate and represent this scene. A Malaysian friend, who is an air stewardess has been collecting coins for me from Malaysia. I think it may be too literal but I have to keep finding and trying new materials.

I did a couple of test-shots but I don't think it is working very well for this film. Help!

An abstract representation of Trapped-In-a-Corner

These images are my processes to create the atmosphere using the lights and colours for 

the scene: "... I was trapped in the corner and he charged forward to reach for my money.."

I decided to create an abstract representation of this scene using found sharp slates (enemy) and round objects (me).

On my way to uni I have walked pass these sharp broken slates on the road.
I passed it so many times on my way to uni for a few months, one day on my way to uni I couldn't resist to pick it up, put it in a bag and brought it to my studio.
I left it in the shelf for days maybe weeks...

 I decided to use and animate them as an abstract representation for this scene today!

I attempted to use the lights to create the shadow and highlight on the edges of the object.  It was quite difficult to light up the slates in an interesting way as they are not very reflective objects. However,  the slates projects a strong silhouette and the sharp edges portrays a gripping effect of danger.

In addition, I tried to bounce coloured lights on a textured MDF board to create an interesting texture for the background of this scene instead of just using coloured gel on top of a Lightbox. 

I am quite pleased with the end results. If I have more time I may come back to animate this scene again and try to improve on the lighting of the object.

Stop Motion Animation of The Malaysian Flag

I have found an object to create

the Malaysian flag called Jalur Gemilang. 

In English, Jalur Gemilang means the Stripes of Glory. 

The idea to animate using paper clip happened 

while I was searching for materials to animate. 

I chanced upon these colourful paper-clips in a box;

a Malaysian friend left with me when she returned home last year. 

The blue, yellow, red and white colours caught my attention, 

I had to search for a symbol to represent Malaysia and this was perfect to create the Malaysian flag. 

It looked fun and brilliant to play with! 

It took me almost 8 hours to animate the flags. 

I had to carefully move each paper-clip frame by frame 

to make it morph to a plane then the Malaysian flag. 

I am quite satisfied with the results however I could have save more time, 

if I had uploaded the key positions as reference on Dragon Stop Motion.

I was animating straight-ahead, whereby the object is animated based on the influence of where each paper clip was positioned at the start (randomly) and moving it's position to where it needs to be finally. 

Stop motion Kuala Lumpur skyline Research

 Searching for materials to animate !!

I came home late that night and saw some pearl-pebbles on the table;

My housemate washed them and left it on the kitchen towel to dry.

Then I was folding my laundry and hey! I spotted the Patronas Twin Towers.

I call it the Socks Twin Towers! :P

Bank Scene - danger & Violation

Animating another bank scene today.

using these pictures as reference of pain and danger.

This is my set-up for my experiment.

The layer is increasing and I am having to animate higher and higher. Four and a half layers.

I wonder if it needed be so high but I actually kept needing another layer in between. 

No Eye Deer!

I'm so impressed by PES. The sound, the objects, and most importantly the animation and timing! It's so perfect and real. I hope i can master my timing and make my stop motion animation believable. I need to focus on creating the mood...

http://www.youtube.com/user/PESfilm