When I started this project I had large aspirations of Tim Burton Claymation or just a Pingu/Mister Bill fun approach to animation. However, I had a hugely difficult time story boarding. I'm not used to laying out framework and ideas before hand. I've always been a "let's do it I'll fix it in post!" kind of gal. Figure out the issues while I work, experiment and play as I do, and it generally turns out ok in the end.
So I just got to work. First I drew the bodies and cut them out. Here are the initial bodies for the main family. I wanted different heights and widths for my people.
Next I cut out a bunch more bodies in various sizes.
I stacked them all together so I could start figuring out the heads. I knew I couldn't just cut a perfect circle out (I'd tried, it wasn't pretty) so I scrambled for ideas.
I realized my small pair of crafting scissors were the perfect size for little oval like heads! So I drew several of them on a folded piece of tan ish paper and cut them out.
With the heads created I thought of my protagonist. I knew they needed some sort of facial expressions, so I drew three.
In the pile of heads you can see two of them. Sad and Confused.
Here's a close up of Confused and the third face, Happy.
During the 'filming' I wound up adding the eye balls with pencil and a few tears in pencil as well to add depth and movement. The eyes could go from coffin to parents as quick or as slow as I pleased with a few marks of my pencil.
Then it was time to film. I sat down far later in the time frame than I'd hoped and got to work. At first the heads were free floating in hopes of adding small details like moving heads to signify talking/chatter. This dream was quickly lost and heads were taped on (small square applied to the back of the neck). Grandma, however, was glued together from the start, along with her flower arrangements. The flowers are probably my favorite part.
As for the scene I took four 8.5x11 cardstock pieces and laid them out for floor and walls. The wall on the side was for close ups of the child/parents as they enter the scene.
It didn't take long before I felt the pressure. My story wasn't conveying right, my frames were out of focus, and I didn't take enough pictures!
Thank God, Goddess, and all things that preside over us for my fiancé who went to grab me Starbucks for energy and to help me relax, listened to my issues and helped figure out solutions, and for previewing what I thought was hot garbage but he thought was good recycling.
I realized if I didn't do a voice over I could always do thought bubbles! So more little pieces were added to the fray. But my story line was coming through. Better at least.
My last foe was lighting. When I transitioned from funeral home to grave yard I knew I had to make a change. The sun was against me! So I closed the curtains and worked from a lamp.
Once finished I had 606 frames, a story that made some semblance of sense, a sore neck, and 2 minutes of cut paper stop motion action. All I needed was a song. I went to a free site to download copyright free music, since I didn't want vocals and I wasn't sure where else to look, and I typed in sad. The song that came up worked well, I thought, and didn't convey emotions one way or another. But to add it to the movie I had to either pay $5 or find a new app to add the music.
I paid the $5.... I added the music.... I uploaded to the google folder for class... thought I should watch it over again.... Hot. Garbage. And I had no idea how to fix it. So next time around I will probably do more digging for a free/low cost video editing software to help with adding music. But overall I don't hate this piece. I just see where I can do better next time. I honestly would love to grab some figurines and a nice lamp/desk situation and play around with another story line and 'filming' set up.
But until then here's what I made. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. I won't judge it you watch it without sound.
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