Making armatures part 2!

Most of the puppets are allready done and some are only missing some few stuff, like hair.. 

So some pics here is kinda old but whatever. As earlier written we tried to go for allot of replacement parts and we're both really happy for making that choice because things have broken allready! 

Heres some steps on the replacement process.

 By using a dremel connected to a stand thingy its a higher chance of the drillbit not to break because of an unsteady hand..

Then we pulled wire through and bent it so it stays locked. 

It works quite well but we experienced that the joints sometimes still got a little loose. To fix this we just applied a tiny amount of super glue . It stays in place and if its necessary to remove the joint its no stress.

It didnt take long into the animation before the man had an accident..

                                     

The poor man is clearly shocked for breaking his foot. But dont worry manio!

                                     

Earlier we had just two wires for one leg. This was not enough because his head became much more heavy than expected.
So after allot of drilling, cutting, twisting, milliput and epoxy glue both versions of the man got new legs.
We increased the wires to 5 per leg, so this is hardcore! The area where it bends is small aswell which is not good for the wires since all the pressure gets forced to one spot. This is something we just gotta live with since we wanted it so small.. :P But if they break we've made it even easier to switch them out! The wire now has two ends with K&S (not fully pictured) one slides into the shoe and the other up on the leg. Hopefully this works :)

Cheers

Emergency in the basement!!

The other day we had a not so happy surprice in the basement: After spending almost a day on lighting and camera settings we were finally ready to animate the scene (friday evening) when we suddenly discovered a stain of water in the middle of the set! It was waterdrops that came from the ceiling, dripping down on the set. And after a moment it was dropping from two spots in the roof.. We where terrifyed that we have to remove everything and do the lighting all over again, but problemsolvers as we are, we found a meanwhile solution: tape and toiletpaper, sticked on the roof with a broom:

Evidence

of the waterstain.

Plastic cups to save
the set from water.

Genius solution.

And then we could animate the scene
witout any water dripping from the roof!

First animation done!

The man arrived from Sweden with a super excelent knitted sweather knitted by Martha Mantzaris, Eirik got a haircut to sacrifice some hair from the man, and today Sirid Garff finished the first shot! 

But milk is Important from sirid garff on Vimeo.

Hallway with Postboxes Set finished

Only the plant is missing!

  Making of Stop Motion Sets:

The postboxes was cut out in styrofoam. Black was painted inside th boxs to make it the holes we cut to look deeper. Then the postboxes was painted with acrylic and drybrushed.

 

Directors in discussion.  

 

The floor just a thin mdf board that we carved and then painted.

 Testing.

 The miniatur cablels is aluminium wire painted with acrylic.

A small detail is that all the people that helped or is involved in the project have their names on the postboxes. Details on how we made the walls is comming soon!

Sending away the Man!

The man's shoes and pants are now finished on the main character and he is now ready for a trip to Sweden! We bought thin wool yarn and are now sending him to Annas sister, Martha Mantzaris. Martha is really good at knitting and also at making miniature things, she will knit a small cardigan for both copies of th main character. We are really happy to have her heping out and we are looking forward to see how he will look when we get him back again!

Music Composer: Phil Brookes!

Yeah! We're really happy to have brought Phil Brookes on the team as our music composer for But Milk Is Important!

Eirik, me, have been working with this guy before when I made my shortfilm in Cardiff. He just graduated from Cardiff University of Glamorgan as a Music Composer. A real talent and a pleasure to work with!
He got married last summer with his wife, Leanne Jay Brookes,, in the Norwegian church in Cardiff Bay ;) , been around in the US, but is now back in the UK ready for making some more awesome music!
I got really really satisfied with the music for my last project so I have no doubt that this guy wont deliver.  I can say if it wasnt for Phil the film wouldnt have had the right feel to it, and the crows journey wouldnt be as strong if the music wasnt there.
So lets just hope that we can deliver the footage! We're working hard and its going forward :)

We're really excited to hear what he's been working on lately! :)

You guys should check out his blog and listen to his portfolio! Do it! Do it now!

Portfolio by Mr. Brookes

cheers people, thanks for reading :)

Floor and Walls for the apartment!

The floor is carved our from planks, painted darker in the cracks and then varnished. And it is made with great help from Julija Scura who is helping out on the project to build sets and props. We ar very thankfull to have her help and would never be this far in the production without her!

 When making the walls, we first we attachd the wallpaper that will be 

visible underneath the normal wallpaper.

 Then glued on normal wallpaper, a lot of glue was sacrificed.

 Then we ripped off small parts to make the wallpaper underneath visible. 

We got help to make the walls from Sirid Garff who is here from The Animation Workshop 

to help out with the project.

 Putting back the puzzle-walls to see the result.

 

Painting with coffee to make it look older.

 The lightswitch.

 Dying the curtains with tea since they are too white for the camera. - Before and after.
More photos from finished apartmnt comming soon!