Animation

On Thursday I was allowed to spend the afternoon creating my stop-motion piece in the moving image room. I could have spent hours in there! (Except for a bit of a headache from the bright lights). I had been nervous about approaching this task as I wasn't sure my wolf's movement was going to be successful, and because of this I didn't feel able to create a storyboard that I would have been able to follow closely. So in the end, the plot of this short film is improvised based on the movement I could achieve in the set-up.

The basic idea is to introduce the main character, Mr. Wolf. He is welcoming the audience to his woods and demonstrating how he can manipulate the nature around him. I included the flowers as they are his main tool for distracting Little Red Riding Hood with; since they are so beautiful, she cannot resist going to pick some for her grandma as he suggests. However, during the process of making the animation I realised that his movement was not easily manipulated in a rigid sort of way (like a proper stop motion figure with a strong armature structure). As I adjusted him for each frame, it was clear that I had to let the figure sway and settle as it most easily fell. The result is that the wolf's movement is quite undisciplined and uncoordinated. So, I decided to base the rest of his movement in the clip on the idea of him being drunk; a suave, but oafish villain (like Roald Dahl's version in Revolting Rhymes).

As I didn't have completely easy control of the wolf's movement, the pacing of it sometimes hides the gestures I wanted to convey. For example, at one point near the end he looks down and notices that his coat isn't covering his crotch, so he covers it up before making a hasty exit. Another potential improvement would be what is supposed to be his bow at the beginning; I'm not sure it comes across as that rather than him simply bending down to look at something on the floor! 

However, overall I'm pleased with the results. I think the simple movement of the flowers is effective, and their interaction with the wolf figure went as planned. The wire structure of the hands is particularly good for the movement of the fingers and general hand gestures, so the act of grasping the flowers is believable. The combination of the reasonably mobile head and neck with the pin-heads as eyes also meant I could suggest good contact with an audience; the wolf is clearly performing, engaging with the camera throughout. And an unexpected bonus to the improvised movement was the dishevelment of wolf's clothes after he's been rolling around on the floor; I didn't expect his bow to fall off, but the act of him picking it up and throwing it away served as a good action to suggest his embarrassment and pride, despite his obvious inability to remain composed. 

Some still frames:

Welcoming the audience to the forest...

The bow...

The flowers gather...

Mr. Wolf loses his dignity...

 ...and tries to recover...

 ...

...

Throws away his bow...

Waves...

Loses his dignity again.

Now all that remains left to do is to crop the unnecessary edges, possibly adjust the colour/lighting, and add some sound. I am hoping for the help of a friend for the voice of Mr. Wolf, as I don't think I can do a convincing enough one myself! 

This has been such a good experience, I wish I had the time to experiment more with stop motion. It is such a simple yet effective process, and would bring my animal characters alive so well. For my first attempt at creating a mobile creature, I'm surprised with what my wolf can achieve. If I were to continue creating things for animations I would benefit from the experience this time round and hopefully be able to improve a lot. Perhaps investing in some stop-motion equipment is something I could also look into in the future...