Experimental Animation: v2.3 - Test Animation Success!

Kind of proud of this...


Awwww yeah.

Experimental Animation: v2.2

This is my home-made rostrum setup on my dining table.

Awesome, eh? I can't show you the camera setup but that little wire-thing coming in from the left is a DSLR remote I use to take the photos so I don't bump the camera. Unfortunately it drains the battery like nobody's business and I had to stop shooting tonight because I ran out of power completely. I keep my laptop open with the animatic at the appropriate spot in Toon Boom so I get an idea of what kind of movement I should be making under the camera. The camera itself is just precariously perched on a tripod which I have manipulated around so the camera sits parrallel with the table when shooting.

Anyway, here, have some light tests...

Lamp too close on the right.

Done with my awesome vintage blue-shade lamp, but not strong enough for shooting.

Using the overhead light in the room. Lol camera shadow on background.


I call this one, "Kidney Failure".

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get rid of that yellow tint when shooting at night. The white balance on my camera is always hard to get right, even during the day.

More to come...

Experimental Animation: v2.1

Had a rethink of my idea and figured out a way to still get the texture of the beads without having to fiddle around with the damn things all the time and extend my shooting time to a ridiculous amount I just don't have.

1. Make a drawn template for my animated objects. In this case, you can see the two fish models I'm using, with one smaller than the other.

2. Stick double-sided tape onto clear plastic sheets (in my case, ripped out of a display folder).

3. Cut tape+plastic into required shapes.

4. Peel off the double-sided tape backing. In this case, I'm using the bubble I made as an easier example, because the fish were really fiddly.

5. Stick beads to sticky plastic shape.

6. Make sure they form a good shape and are mostly covering the plastic.

7. Coat the whole thing in clear adhesive (you know, the kind you get with the awesome fumes?) and leave it overnight until it sets, and now you have a bubble!

8. Or a fish!

9. Which you can then segment using your handy craft-scalpels. The beads aren't friendly to scalpel blades, though, so don't use a really favoured or expensive blade for the cutting.

To Be Continued...

Test Result: Fail

Attempted to animate the beads today.

Didn't work out too well.

The beads were less fiddly than sand but still too uncontrolable to get a decent action of changing movement. Also I had trouble getting the manual focus on the camera right, since the viewscreen is pretty dodgy on my old Pentax and you don't get to see the image until after you've taken it.

Back to the drawing board.

Experiemental Fish Animation: Pitch & Storyboards

For my 2D & Alternative Techniques experimental animation assignment, I want to focus on the exploration of texture and movement by using beads to animate on hand-drawn backgrounds. Though partly inspired by Ishu Patel's Bead Game (1977), I am not intending to use the beads in the same way, or focus on a non-traditional experimental narrative and theme. Instead I am going to depict a more traditional - though simple - narrative of a goldfish following a small bubble through the lily-filled waters of a lake, employing the beads in a more organic and randomised pattern, whilst still retaining the overall form of the goldfish and the bubble.

To properly render this animation I will be first creating storyboards (see below) and an animatic to guide my filming of the stop-motion beads using a home-made rostrum camera setup, utilising a digital SLR camera and my dining table at home. The soundtrack I will be using in this assignment is Camille Saint-Saëns The Aquarium from his Le Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) suite. I have chosen this piece of music as the rise and fall of the different sections of the composition I feel best matches the movements of the fish through the water I am trying to depict in synchronious fashion.



1. The fish swims through the space in the lake between the lily pads.


2. The fish swims to the surface of the lake and creates a bubble with its mouth.


3. The fish follows the bubble deeper into the lake.


4. The fish chases the bubble diagonally across the background.


5. The fish follows the bubble in and around the stems of the lilies and out of shot, back and forth.


6. The bubble spirals down to the bottom of the lake, with the fish following.


7. The bubble settles on a small stone at the bottom of the lake.


8. The fish bumps the bubble and it bursts, causing the fish to be sad and ending the animation.