A while back I looked at some stop motion films like Evil Dead 2and some films from youtube. Needless to say it has me very interested in learning stop motion. To start me off I looked for some stop motion tutorials online, and let me tell you, for every good one you find you're going to find at least 5 bad ones. By bad I mean that they don't really go into any great detail, were hard to understand, or just had some awful music playing.
If I want to do stop motion then I needed to know where to start off. So while looking for tutorials I came by tutorials4brickfilms. This channel only has two uploads but these two videos detail how your studio should be set up, and what you will need in it and then there's the second video which explains about the lighting procedure.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Tutorials4Brickfilms#p/a/u/1/KuCirymLd6E
The first video explains about setting up and filming on a sturdy desk to avoid knocking over objects on film. It goes on to mention that daylight or any other unnecessary lightsource should be blocked out. The second video covers what lamps and bulbs you should use for good results. It also suggets not wearing white or light coloured clothes because if you move it could cause light flicker.
What I like about these is that it shows me how I could do this with a small budget which is a big factor to me.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Monday, 18 October 2010
Animator vs Animation
There is a series of flash movies which have been around for a while. They are amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxM1cnphLpw&feature=related
In this series a person creates a character in flash. Soon the two are locked in battle with the animator using as many programs as possible to get rid of his creation, and and character destroying his computer. These are some damn fine animations.
The whole thing is animated with Flash. The various computer tabs, backgrounds and icons were taken from print screens and edited in photoshop. The character is a stick figure so it is far easier to animate than a more complex character, and the characters actions can be more exaggerated.
The sounds were recorded from the pc or were downloaded from one of many sound sites.
One of the reasons I enjoy these animations so much is the action, which is all well executed. I would imagine that fight scenes are very complex so it would be interesting to animate one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxM1cnphLpw&feature=related
In this series a person creates a character in flash. Soon the two are locked in battle with the animator using as many programs as possible to get rid of his creation, and and character destroying his computer. These are some damn fine animations.
The whole thing is animated with Flash. The various computer tabs, backgrounds and icons were taken from print screens and edited in photoshop. The character is a stick figure so it is far easier to animate than a more complex character, and the characters actions can be more exaggerated.
The sounds were recorded from the pc or were downloaded from one of many sound sites.
One of the reasons I enjoy these animations so much is the action, which is all well executed. I would imagine that fight scenes are very complex so it would be interesting to animate one.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Now this is awesome
I like Transformers, so naturally I look for youtube content with them. Thats when I came across this gem;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1WasN5JFQ
'Jazz with a General Problem' a stop motion short using Jazz from Transformers and a transforming version of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. Don't read too much into it.
What I like about this is of course the animation. All of the actions were well choreographed and the camera work was excellent. Wat I still don't understand is how they did the midair stunts. If anybody knows then tell me ASAP in the comment section.
Jazz' lines and the sound effects were ripped from the transformers cartoon. While the general Lee's was all new.
If you liked it then I suggest watching the rest of Patrick Boivin's videos on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1WasN5JFQ
'Jazz with a General Problem' a stop motion short using Jazz from Transformers and a transforming version of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. Don't read too much into it.
What I like about this is of course the animation. All of the actions were well choreographed and the camera work was excellent. Wat I still don't understand is how they did the midair stunts. If anybody knows then tell me ASAP in the comment section.
Jazz' lines and the sound effects were ripped from the transformers cartoon. While the general Lee's was all new.
If you liked it then I suggest watching the rest of Patrick Boivin's videos on youtube.
3rd movie
I know I said I would write about a third movie I had watched. But after class last week I was having trouble linking this movie to what I'm thinking of doing for my project.
The movie was 'Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie' based on the show of the same name. The basic premise is, Mad scientist sends a guy into space to watch bad movies in order to take over the world...somehow. The guy is sent to the satelite of love where he is accompanied by his robot pals. Each week they watch movies and make fun of them.
What I liked about the movie is the fact that everything looks like it was done with very little budget. The sets, puppets and effects are all very low quality, but with the show it works. Everything works well with the show, in that it all goes together.
I particularly liked the puppets. Here is a website detailing how they were made
http://www.mst3kguy.com/Robots/Robots.htm
When shooting the cast watching the movies they first film the cast from behind while they recite the jokes they scripted. Then they edit their silhouette's infront of the movie through blue screen and sync them together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-2uC7RJiM
Thats all I can really say about this one. Stay tuned for more!
The movie was 'Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie' based on the show of the same name. The basic premise is, Mad scientist sends a guy into space to watch bad movies in order to take over the world...somehow. The guy is sent to the satelite of love where he is accompanied by his robot pals. Each week they watch movies and make fun of them.
What I liked about the movie is the fact that everything looks like it was done with very little budget. The sets, puppets and effects are all very low quality, but with the show it works. Everything works well with the show, in that it all goes together.
I particularly liked the puppets. Here is a website detailing how they were made
http://www.mst3kguy.com/Robots/Robots.htm
When shooting the cast watching the movies they first film the cast from behind while they recite the jokes they scripted. Then they edit their silhouette's infront of the movie through blue screen and sync them together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-2uC7RJiM
Thats all I can really say about this one. Stay tuned for more!
Monday, 4 October 2010
3 movies I have seen over the last week Part 2
Don't worry, Guyver won't be back...yet. Instead I looked at a more well known film. The 1987 cult comedy horror; Evil Dead 2, the second of Sam Reimi's Evil dead series. Because of the length of the Guyver analysis I've decided to shorten this down and focus only on the special effects, and the sounds. All I have to say about the cast is that they are your typical horror movie cast. Though Bruce Campbell is there in all his glory.
The effects are pretty damn awesome if I do say so myself. There's an odd assortment of smoke machines, puppets, dummies, prosthetics, stop motion and art backdrops.
To communicate that evil forces were leaving the woods they filmed smoke rising from smoke machines and then reversed the footage to make it look like the smoke was shrinking away. It was very well executed as you couldn't really tell it was being reversed.
Stop-motion animation was used a few times in the film. One of the best examples was when Ash's (Bruce Campbell) dead girlfriend rises from the grave and starts dancing. Her severed head rolling up her shoulder onto the neck. To me it was both comical and twisted. Another example was when Ash's hand becomes possessed and black veins start covering the hand. They most likely did a frame by frame drawing more of the lines each time.
As for puppets and dummies, the most famous examples in the movie is when everything in the room starts laughing at Ash, including a deer head, a lamp, books, cupboards everything. Like an even more horrific Peewee's playhouse. By the way the deerhead moves you can tell somebodies arm is in there. But when combined with the insane laughter it works. As for a dummy, the girlfriend's corpse tries to kill Ash with a chainsaw. When it fails and cuts itself it starts flailing about. They did that by using wranglers below the camera's view to move it back and forth. The film also makes use of some fake body parts. For example when thregirlfriend's severed head lands on Ash's lap and starts laughing. That is done by placing a fake neck below the neck while the actresses real body is beneath Ash's legs.
Backdrops were also used a couple of times. When Ash is standing infront of the broken bridge Ash is shooped into a rendered backdrop making it look like he is standing on a cliff side. The effect is good for its time and frankly if you weren't examining it like I was then odds are you wouldn't have noticed. A rendered background is also show the other characters the mangled remains of the bridge. Here the effect is that light is hitting the bridge, like a Trompe L'oeil painting. Though here, I don't know, it seems a little bit off.
Camera work. To show that the spirits were moving swiftly towards the cabin the cameraman moved with the camera. Then they sped it up in editing. Though what really made this effect work was the whinning and moaning of the spirits so part of the credit goes to the sound guys. Another use of the camera was a low angle shot used to make it look like a possessed character was jumping supernaturally high.
Finally the sound. I have already addressed some of it when taliking about the camera work. But there is also the use of silence, getting ready for a jump scare. Theres also the sounds the possessed make that really creep you out. If there's anything else I can say about the sound I will edit this post.
And that was my analysis of Evil dead 2. My next bit of research will be here soon.
The effects are pretty damn awesome if I do say so myself. There's an odd assortment of smoke machines, puppets, dummies, prosthetics, stop motion and art backdrops.
To communicate that evil forces were leaving the woods they filmed smoke rising from smoke machines and then reversed the footage to make it look like the smoke was shrinking away. It was very well executed as you couldn't really tell it was being reversed.
Stop-motion animation was used a few times in the film. One of the best examples was when Ash's (Bruce Campbell) dead girlfriend rises from the grave and starts dancing. Her severed head rolling up her shoulder onto the neck. To me it was both comical and twisted. Another example was when Ash's hand becomes possessed and black veins start covering the hand. They most likely did a frame by frame drawing more of the lines each time.
As for puppets and dummies, the most famous examples in the movie is when everything in the room starts laughing at Ash, including a deer head, a lamp, books, cupboards everything. Like an even more horrific Peewee's playhouse. By the way the deerhead moves you can tell somebodies arm is in there. But when combined with the insane laughter it works. As for a dummy, the girlfriend's corpse tries to kill Ash with a chainsaw. When it fails and cuts itself it starts flailing about. They did that by using wranglers below the camera's view to move it back and forth. The film also makes use of some fake body parts. For example when thregirlfriend's severed head lands on Ash's lap and starts laughing. That is done by placing a fake neck below the neck while the actresses real body is beneath Ash's legs.
Backdrops were also used a couple of times. When Ash is standing infront of the broken bridge Ash is shooped into a rendered backdrop making it look like he is standing on a cliff side. The effect is good for its time and frankly if you weren't examining it like I was then odds are you wouldn't have noticed. A rendered background is also show the other characters the mangled remains of the bridge. Here the effect is that light is hitting the bridge, like a Trompe L'oeil painting. Though here, I don't know, it seems a little bit off.
Camera work. To show that the spirits were moving swiftly towards the cabin the cameraman moved with the camera. Then they sped it up in editing. Though what really made this effect work was the whinning and moaning of the spirits so part of the credit goes to the sound guys. Another use of the camera was a low angle shot used to make it look like a possessed character was jumping supernaturally high.
Finally the sound. I have already addressed some of it when taliking about the camera work. But there is also the use of silence, getting ready for a jump scare. Theres also the sounds the possessed make that really creep you out. If there's anything else I can say about the sound I will edit this post.
And that was my analysis of Evil dead 2. My next bit of research will be here soon.
3 movies I have seen over the last week Part 1
Over the course of last week I watched some movies I haven't watched in years. For one of these it was for a really good reason.
May as well start with the worst one first. The first Movie I watched was 'The Guyver' or 'Mutronics' as it was called in the UK.
I am a fan of Tokusatsu (japanese live-action / tv dramas usually featuring super heroes) which include shows like Kamen Rider, or Super Sentai (the originator of the Power Rangers franchise). While watching one of these I remembered something similar I had seen when I was younger. Eventually I found a copy at a friend's house and watched it. That was 'The Guyver'.
The Guyver is based off the manga series 'Guyver the Bioboosted armour', created by Yoshiki Takaya. Though it was America that tried to make a live action adaption. For the most part... they failed, and sadly it wouldn't be the last time.
The reason I decided to blog about this was because of the good, or at least decent effects that were in there. The monster costumes are pretty good. Well most of them. The faces had plenty of detail to the point where they could be compared to more famous aliens of Predator. Sorry to say, I was unable to find out what materials were used to make this or how they were made. Sadly some of them did look completely rediculous, in particular a big lipped lizard monster. For now I want to talk about the Guyver costume. This thing looks GLORIOUS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELsDc8sAskQ
It does what it is meant to do, make the Guyver look completly alien. Its body is designed to look organic yet at the same time have a slightly mechanical look to it as well, to the point where it looks more like an exoskeleton than it does armour. They added lights to eyes and core (the piece on the forehead) to add to its intimidation. Finally, the face has two tubes around the mouth where smoke pumps out, this gives it the effect of exhaling, or that its about to move.
The effects as I mentioned were decent. Keeping in mind that this movie was made in 1991. In the link above is the first transformation in the movie. I think theres some stop motion in there, like when the Armour comes out of the unit in the form of dark tentacles, grabbing the hero's face and covering his body. Theres also the armour plating which later on in the movie extend from the back of the neck, to do this several people controlled them and held them using wires making it look like they were hanging in mid air. Theres also the pulsing and opening of the main char's neck. This was some low level special effect, most likely some animatronics. Theres a little stop motion work where a character is turned into a horrible beast. The whole transformation is stop motion from beginning to end. Finally there's the final boss of the movie. His monster form is a giant puppet controlled by wires by the puppet wranglers.
The music FAILED. It didn't really convey the mood of the scene most of the time sounding just plain awful. It was something akin to B-movies. The few songs that were in it were obscure early nineties songs that don't really work in the super hero genre. Then there was the scene transition. Every single time the movie changed scene there was a sudden loud burst of sound and a lighning bolt on screen. What I think they were trying to do was recreate the Transformers transition but just screwed it up. Frankly it was completely unnecessary.
In Tokusatsu the music they play conveys the mood very well. When someone was dying they would play a slowed down acoustic version of one of the main theme songs to great effect, or when they were fighting they would play something exciting and fast paced. Guyver doesn't do that at all.
Finally the acting, or lack there of. The only really good character was Mark Hamil's character. Granted out of the cast he was the only veteran actor. The rest of the cast were awful. The main character in particular was too freaking cheesy, which doesn't work in a story about a Dark Hero like Guyver. In short they didn't enhance the movie at all and a few of them just came off as mind-numbingly bad. To the point where they could give Jar Jar Binks a run for his ill gotten money.
Thus concludes my analysis of' 'The Guyver' sorry if its a bit long. Oh and guess what...THERE'S A SEQUEL!
May as well start with the worst one first. The first Movie I watched was 'The Guyver' or 'Mutronics' as it was called in the UK.
I am a fan of Tokusatsu (japanese live-action / tv dramas usually featuring super heroes) which include shows like Kamen Rider, or Super Sentai (the originator of the Power Rangers franchise). While watching one of these I remembered something similar I had seen when I was younger. Eventually I found a copy at a friend's house and watched it. That was 'The Guyver'.
The Guyver is based off the manga series 'Guyver the Bioboosted armour', created by Yoshiki Takaya. Though it was America that tried to make a live action adaption. For the most part... they failed, and sadly it wouldn't be the last time.
The reason I decided to blog about this was because of the good, or at least decent effects that were in there. The monster costumes are pretty good. Well most of them. The faces had plenty of detail to the point where they could be compared to more famous aliens of Predator. Sorry to say, I was unable to find out what materials were used to make this or how they were made. Sadly some of them did look completely rediculous, in particular a big lipped lizard monster. For now I want to talk about the Guyver costume. This thing looks GLORIOUS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELsDc8sAskQ
It does what it is meant to do, make the Guyver look completly alien. Its body is designed to look organic yet at the same time have a slightly mechanical look to it as well, to the point where it looks more like an exoskeleton than it does armour. They added lights to eyes and core (the piece on the forehead) to add to its intimidation. Finally, the face has two tubes around the mouth where smoke pumps out, this gives it the effect of exhaling, or that its about to move.
The effects as I mentioned were decent. Keeping in mind that this movie was made in 1991. In the link above is the first transformation in the movie. I think theres some stop motion in there, like when the Armour comes out of the unit in the form of dark tentacles, grabbing the hero's face and covering his body. Theres also the armour plating which later on in the movie extend from the back of the neck, to do this several people controlled them and held them using wires making it look like they were hanging in mid air. Theres also the pulsing and opening of the main char's neck. This was some low level special effect, most likely some animatronics. Theres a little stop motion work where a character is turned into a horrible beast. The whole transformation is stop motion from beginning to end. Finally there's the final boss of the movie. His monster form is a giant puppet controlled by wires by the puppet wranglers.
The music FAILED. It didn't really convey the mood of the scene most of the time sounding just plain awful. It was something akin to B-movies. The few songs that were in it were obscure early nineties songs that don't really work in the super hero genre. Then there was the scene transition. Every single time the movie changed scene there was a sudden loud burst of sound and a lighning bolt on screen. What I think they were trying to do was recreate the Transformers transition but just screwed it up. Frankly it was completely unnecessary.
In Tokusatsu the music they play conveys the mood very well. When someone was dying they would play a slowed down acoustic version of one of the main theme songs to great effect, or when they were fighting they would play something exciting and fast paced. Guyver doesn't do that at all.
Finally the acting, or lack there of. The only really good character was Mark Hamil's character. Granted out of the cast he was the only veteran actor. The rest of the cast were awful. The main character in particular was too freaking cheesy, which doesn't work in a story about a Dark Hero like Guyver. In short they didn't enhance the movie at all and a few of them just came off as mind-numbingly bad. To the point where they could give Jar Jar Binks a run for his ill gotten money.
Thus concludes my analysis of' 'The Guyver' sorry if its a bit long. Oh and guess what...THERE'S A SEQUEL!
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