Categories
Animation

Eggs and Spoons

Here is a much more elaborate stop motion test, where I explored lighting and camera position. No eggs were harmed in the making of this video, and the spoons were a delight to handle! <- see what I did there?

Categories
Animation

The Virgin Toenail

Based on the idea of a Virgin Thumbnail (explored previously), I wanted to see what happens if one extends the scripture to the another appendage.

Featuring my very old Skool Vans sneaker and paper-cutouts.

 

Categories
Dioramas

Inside the Egg (prototype)

To explore more delicate containers for my dioramas, I decided to try egg shells. I used a pin to poke holes in the top and bottom of an egg, and then used a screwdriver to make a larger hole at the bottom. I used the bulb of a turkey baster to push the contents of the egg out through the larger hole in the bottom.

I then bleached the inside of the egg and rinsed it with soap and water.

egg-pin

egg-emptier

I used a dremel/engraving tool to make the hole(s), and then added the scene. I can light the egg from the hole at the bottom, too.

egg-wip

egg

egg-lit-from-within

egg-lit-from-within-more

Categories
Animation

Coo Coo Cachoo

Here is a stop motion short featuring that I made with features both hand drawn frames and object animation.

I started by drawing the actor, “Egg,” using a light table. I have a round plastic peg bar, made by Lightfoot.

joie-eggman-wip

I then photographed each drawing…

joie-eggman

And I used Dragonframe to export all the images as video.

joie-eggman-dragonframe

I’m learning a lot from this process, especially the need to pay attention to the lighting. This little clip took more hours to produce than I’d like to admit, but I can see ways to streamline the production. I was very interested to see how the line quality of Egg’s tie and jacket would present when animated. I then switched to a thicker marker as he approaches his “freeze” scene. At one point, I accidentally blew on the “Jimmies” coming from his head, which scattered them across the table. I laboriously recreated the original position of each piece. And I didn’t notice until after shooting the entire sequence that I am visible in the spoon. I left it, but that was a “mistake.”

 

Categories
ART

“LASERS”

Here’s a cool thing – I got to use a laser cutter last night. I want to put the Yellow Cowboy in his own box, and I like the idea of him standing among a bunch of flowers. I do not feel compelled to hand cut those flowers out (I did the ones he’s holding).

yella

I drew some flowers in Illustrator.

ai

The focus was off on the first pass, so we did it again.

I had connected the flowers to each other in chains because the machine has a vacuum for pulling the small bits away, and I thought they small ones might get lost. But there’s also an etching plate, shown below:

flowers

Here’s a short clip of the machine working:

Categories
ART

Room of Indefinite Holding, Final

room