Post #22 FINISHED VIDEO.

Wow what a journey this has been to create this!

I am extremely happy with the end result as it feels almost like a music video. 

Take a look: 

Post #21 Importing and adding Music and SoundEffects with FinalCut Pro

In Final CutPro, I have imported my images at 30frames per second (fps) and then changed my speed to 10fps, by changing my duration to 3 (30/3 = 10).

Originally, my stop motion animation was going to run at 12fps, however my character walks a little too fast. I have imported the music "Pumping Blood" by NONONO, and have cut it at various areas to make it one minute long. 

Timing of the sounds is very important to get right otherwise the audience won't believe in the story. I have aligned the highs and lows of the song "Pumping Blood" with my StopMotion Animation to make it engaging for the audience.

I have added sound effects, such as a book opening and a camera flashing, to engage the audience and to make them believe that the video is real. The sound effects are subtle so that it doesn't sound out of place.

Here are a few screenshots of what my magnetic timeline looks like in Final Cut Pro:

Post #20 Music

Music is a very important tool that adds emotional impact and enhances the mood of the film. For my video, I would like an upbeat, cheery song to pair with the cheery theme of the video.

I am considering these three upbeat songs by Nonono, Grouplove and Colbie Calliat.

Personally, I prefer the song Pumpin Blood by Nonono, as it includes whistling (for when my character is walking through the street), and a fast beat that matches my video.  

The lyrics of the song pair greatly with my theme. The first verse of the song:

Hey heart on the road again
Moving on... forward
See the stars, won't break the bones
They're in the car... on the highway
It's so magical feeling, that no one's got a hold 
Your heart can list the all, happiness you know

"Heart on the road again", "Moving on… forward" and "They're in the car.. on the highway" all have meaning for traveling and following your heart. As my video is about traveling through countries and following your dreams, the song makes perfect sense.

The chorus:

This is your heart, it's alive
It's pumping blood
It's your heart, it's alive
It's pumping blood
And the whole wide world is whistling

"This is your heart, it's alive. It's pumping blood", doesn't have too much meaning in the song. However the song's beat and the music's climaxes make it extremely addictive to listen to.

Post #19 The process

I started and finished shooting the 288 plus photos within my bedroom. I borrowed a photography lighting soft box from the University to light up my bedroom during day and night. It was very time consuming to re-take every photo and sticking them up. Luckily I had help with the photography so that I could position each photo while my partner held the camera still.

Here is what my bedroom looked like after sticking all of the photos up.

This scene is where the girl walks across my desk and enters the chair lift across the Swiss Alps.

Here is the scene where the girl walks through London. 

I have created a background from photos of the Swiss Alps, from when I visited Switzerland. This is where the girl travels across in a chair lift. 

Above my bed, is where the girl leaves the chair lift and travels across the shelf.

I have uploaded all of the photos in Final Cut Pro, setting the frames per second to 6-8fps. Now it's time for the editing........

Post #18 - Final shots

Next stage of my stop motion is taking photos of the 288 printed photos. In this scene, the photos are in the travel book before she floats above the Eiffel Tower. 

I wasn't happy with how it turned out as the background changes too much. I definitely need a second person or to use the light box setup at Uni for this scene. 

Post #17 The making of!

I've decided to change my theme slightly. Instead of my first idea of a person drawing an image, sticking it on the wall then the girl in the photo comes to life, I have changed it to my travel book opening and the images in the book come to life. This will slightly change my theme, as the girl will discover four major cities/ countries: Paris, London, Switzerland and Mykanos. The idea came to me when I started reading my Europe travel diary from 2013.

Here are a few photos of my progress:

She catches a balloon up the Eiffel Tower (but really flying up my bedroom) 

Next scene in London - Landmarks such as Big Ben and the London Eye will be displayed in the bedroom.

She walks across a magazine

Last scene where her boyfriend tries to catch her.

I might change the background as it is hard to see him….

They're finally together…. the camera will zoom out and show my photos from Europe.

Post #16 Making of the cutout animation!

Today I started creating my cutout animation. There is an awesome setup at the University with a camera and two lightbulbs on either side. I began testing my animation....

It was quite fiddly to move each body piece. I used the software iStopMotion to automatically take a photo every 20 seconds and to see if each photo aligned.

iStopMotion on the Macbook Pro

Here are a few photos shot from today. I spent a lot of time working on the positions of the arms and legs to get it right. When I watched the photos at 12 frames per second, the walking looks realistic.

However, I may need to change the face as she is only looking straight.

Post #15 The Process

This is my home studio where I set up the camera and lights. I have used natural lightning here as I didn't have any other light sources. 

Manual settings for the D90. ISO-auto 600 

Here I cut up different black and white faces for my cut-out animation.

For the second part of my animation this is where I take photos of the photos. The photos will go across my walls, shelves and lights.

Post #14 Testing cutout animation on Photoshop

Here I have begun detailing what my characters might look like in the cutout animation. I have copied the arms and hands for each side, however the each pairs of legs have been photographed separately. The outcome didn't look as good as I expected as it was difficult to photograph myself walking. I believe I will change the legs so that I only use one pair (like the arms).

I have chosen to make the head bigger to look cartoon like as I believe it looks more interesting to look at. As a technique to engage my audience, I have left the dress coloured to stand out from the body. 

The girl's walk doesn't look as natural as intended, so I may need to study on how a person walks.

This has taken me a whole day to put this together on Photoshop. As simple as it looks, I spent a lot of time trying to get it right.

Here I began cutting out my heads that I photographed myself.

Like the Youtube tutorial, I put a green background behind the subject so that I could cut the edges out smoothly.

I changed the photo to black and white here. I also watched a tutorial to make a cartoon BIG head by using the dodge and burn tool. I believe I put too much dodge and burn on this face, as the exposure was on 22%.

I have made eight different cutout heads for the animation. In the animation, I will make the same head move up and down so that I don't have to use a different expression 500 times.

Here I have assembled the body, playing with brightness/contrast and angles.

I played with different legs so that I can master the walk. 

 I have sourced this image from "Phantomcoconuts's Blog" . It shows each step to a person's walk. I find this very useful for my animation as I need to make her walk look real.

Post #13 Testing!

I have borrowed a Nikon D90 from the university to start my cut-out animation. I spent hours playing with the ISO, aperture and contrast as the photos were blurry and wouldn't focus. In the end, I realised I was on manual settings - as soon as I change to automatic, the photo was much clearer (centre image). I'm not happy with the orange lighting in the middle photo - I would prefer the lighting in the bottom centre photo. 

All in all, I had fun shooting 200 photos of myself posing in different ways. 

Next stop - photoshop!

Post #12 - Final Story Board

A hand made stop-motion animation about a girl within a photo, unaware of the outside world, as she walks across the walls of a bedroom to find her boyfriend.

I found my inspiration from a YouTube Video named, ‘The PEN Story’, where the artist shot thousands of photos of a boy walking through streets. The artist then printed the images and re-shot each photo inside his house.

My Stop Motion Animation will have the same concept as ‘The PEN Story’. In part one of my animation, I will create a cut-out animation of a girl walking through the streets like the children’s show ‘Angela Anaconda’. The girl will be cut-out paper figure; her body will walk slightly disjointed and her large head will bobble on top. Creating a cut-out animation will allow me to produce high quality photos using a light box. The girl will be black and white, contrasting against her colourful dress to engage the audience.

The second part of my animation consists of printing the cut-out animation photos and creating another stop motion in my bedroom.  I have estimated that the film will be approximately 45 seconds long, 540 shots (12 frames/second) and with over 450 photos printed (approximately costing $45). Detailed in my storyboard, the girl will step on other photos, real life books and walk through magazine covers to interact with her background.

The intended materials needed for this project includes: A high quality camera, camera stand, digital prints, double sided sticky tape and a bedroom with books, lights, bench, teddy bear, wire/string of lights and a magazine.

I have chosen these bedroom items for the audience to feel like it’s their own bedroom.

The story will be told from different perspectives. Firstly, when the girl is drawn on paper, we will see the human’s point of view. This allows the audience to see what she sees. When the human leaves the room, the story will be objective, as the audience becomes an outside observer of the girl walking in the photos. We only get to see the girl’s point of view when she travels on the chair lift and looks out the window (frame 11).

Composition plays a large part role in making important elements stand out. In frame 11 and 12, the horizontal line is below the centre of the frame to comply with the ‘rule of thirds’. In shots where there is subject in the distance, I have added a secondary object in the foreground to emphasize the size of the girl vs. the bedroom (frame 2,3, 11, 12). I have made sure my subject is shot at an appropriate size, with a sense of depth to add visual interest (frame 4,9,12,13).

The mood will be uplifting through the music and lighting. I am considering a few uplifting, fast beat songs including: “I’m With You” and “A Ways To Go” by Grouplove. There will be a few diegetic sound effects, such as scribble marks and a door opening (frame 2, 17). This will allow the audience to believe in the story. Non-diegetic sounds such as the music will be used to enhance the mood and engage the audience.