The Shiner

This is my latest stop-mo with an adults only twist.
I've combined Lego Stop-Mo with some Flash animation.
I had a lot of issues with this one. New software issues colliding with old ones.
Nothing more frustrating than doing something by the "old" book, only to be struck with "old/new book" issues. Had to uninstall, re-file etc. Eventually got there.
I also used some non-Lego, non-NSFW animation to enhance/degrade.
I hope you enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x0RtiaSQLw

The difference between "Time Lapse" and "Stop Motion"

Todays post is about the difference between 2 techniques that technically involve the same process but deliver a different outcome. Time-lapse photography is a technique where frames are captured and viewed in sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. This is my first attempt at Time-lapse.... And my second.... Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The next 2 videos show a time lapse of a Stop motion :D I also have other "Time Lapse" videos in other posts - just scroll down and read :D I have now uploaded a video that is not really a tutorial but more a "watch and learn". So pay no attention and learn nothing :D Ok - so is this "Time-Lapse" or "Stop Motion"?

Go(ne)Pro(gress)

I went out and got myself a GoPro like every other person that has Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I only have Facebook (look up and 'like' "Free Rein"). I had a lot of issues with the GoPro. Like so many others it was and continues to be software issues. Still a great toy - even if it has 1st world problems haha. So here are the videos I've shot using it. Ironically, the first day/video I used it it worked almost perfectly. After that it became flawed but hey, What I got is enough to fill a blog post with. The first video is me riding a road bike through the bike paths in Brisbane from Nudgee up until Boondall. The best thing about this is if you listen to the sound you can hear the speed! Yes I know this sounds weird but you can. This track is a notorious high speed section. It reminds me a lot of when I owned a motorbike and hit Gorge Road in the Adelaide Hills, except slower... without a motor. A rush is a rush.... The second video I'm posting was a disaster. I had a bad gut feeling about it as I started it. It was the day before I was flying out to Adelaide, with my bike, to ride my bike, for a week long holiday following the "Tour Down Under". I've been a few times now and it's my home town. A very cycle friendly town. So it turns out my gut was right. It was a bad idea and turns out I got it on GoPro! I ended up destroying my big front crank and my left knee. It doesn't look too dramatic but it happened so fast I had no time to react. The front tyre got a puncture and went totally flat just as I hit a sand patch. Funnily - in pain, the first thing I checked was to see if my GoPro was ok! The third video is me and my Kaine. He is and always be a brother to me. We caught up for New Years in 2013/14. During this time we hit the hill with some mountain bikes. It was a bit painful riding a downhill rig cross country but still the memory of a great time remains, not the pain. So these are my GoPro videos. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them, even though 2 involved pain haha

31012 Lego Time Lapse/Stop-Motion

It's been over a year since I last did a Time-lapse/Stop-Mo of a Lego set build. These are a labour of love but I am drawn to them as a great medium for animation and self expression. Something I like to do is add a little humour or a flimsy storyline to mix it up a bit. For this one I used workmen. If anything was lacking from my other builds, It was workmen! I do enjoy them overall. But there are problems which exist within this. I need to read the books days before the day of the build. This gives me a chance to pre-build a few things like furniture and trees. I found the first few films easy until I did the modulars. Now I benefit from that knowledge so it's great. If there was any advice I could offer right now - it is don't just open the box and film. Open it - read the instructions, build some of the smaller things that may speed up the filming. Some stuff is worth saving for the time lapse - some is just boring. Go though and assess.

My Tropfest Entry "Three"

So this year I decided to enter Sydney Tropfest. The TSI, or theme was "Change". When I heard it announced at the start of the year an idea instantly popped into my head. I knew what I was going to do and didn't even need a a real script which is how I usually work anyways. I'm not really into storyboarding. I prefer to keep it organic along the way. It can make the process longer and a bit frustrating but compared to wasting time storyboarding it kinda works out. I had the idea of a guy finding a $50 note and the decisions he faced. Should he go crazy, use it for good, or just leave it. I started building the sets in March and continued all the way through until October. The actual filming of the live actor (Jarrod King) was done in September. All editing and animation took place in late October. All the puppet filming was done over a few days. Like the shooting with Jarrod, I just did take after take until I was pretty sure I had enough takes and camera angles to get the film made. I entered with 40 hours to spare. So here is the end product. The editing could've been tighter, which I will do if I enter into another competition. Here is a picture of me with all the puppet sets to give you an idea of the size of the sets....

The JasEn Show

I made 3 short films called "The JasEn Show". All contain different styles of animation. The first of 3 instalments, I didn't use any toys at all. I used a friends awesome drawings, which I animated, and a photo of a bowl of fruit in my kitchen; which I also animated. For the second, I used a brief stop-motion I filmed on my loungeroom floor with random kitchen objects, it worked out well until I decided to light the candles which melted wax and went everywhere haha. I used Adobe Flash andPhotoshop with live shots and pure animation. I took a lot of photos in an old folks home, which I ended up getting kicked out from because apparently you can't take photos in an old folks home. I still took photos on the way out to make sure I got what I need! The last part was stock footage with my own voiceover. For the 3rd I used my distraction as the main attraction, my cat Soda. He always interrupts for his own attention, which is fine. Except when I need him not too. This gave me the idea to use him in this short. For the 4th, I used Lego all the way! I decided to take the kids toys to the next level, but wasn't sure how. Most of the Lego animations used green screens etc. Maybe I should go in another direction with the actual scripts. So I did. I have been watching a lot of "Robot Chicken" and they use kids toys to produce some wonderful adult animation. This was the direction I decided to go. Enjoy....

"The Weirding Room"

This is the third installment from my "North Stradbroke" trilogy. I made this the first night of a weekend away. I basically got the idea on the spur of the moment and ran with it taking multiple photos on a 10sec timer until I thought I had enough photos to work with. I really enjoy the spur of the moment ideas. It is what I do best. Unscripted madness I guess. I never know when they are going to happen but when they do - I try and make them happen. In this case it did nicely. I really had no idea what I was doing or what the outcome would be but that was no reason to stop!

North Stradbroke Island in Time Lapse

One of the things I've been trying to do is find my own style. We all do I guess. I've tried a few styles now and one of them is Time-Lapse which I've experimented with a few times now. Both in a studio with Lego and outside in the real world. It's something that I find quite challenging because I really am not sure going into it, what I'm really going to end up with. When I say that I know what the pictures are because I took them but the end result is always a mystery. It's like opening a present that you've had hints about. "It's a teddy bear - but how big is the bear?" Recently I went to North Stradbroke Island for 4 days for a wedding. During this time I took photos everywhere I walked, every 5 or so steps. I did all the places I went to, sometimes twice, and then went back and edited them all to fit together over 2 videos. I'm quite pleased with the end results, even though they are a bit jerky, it still works well with the great music my friend Jim Stanley aka Anvilheadmusic.com provided. These really turned out quite well. I managed to mix the still photos with live video in places. I didn't expect to get as much footage in the end as I did. I aimed for about 3 minutes but ended up with over 12 minutes. Well that's enough rambling on - here are the 2 videos....

Feral Berryl

Ok so this one is based on a poem I wrote during my "poetry" phase of 1991 - 1995. Most of the stuff I wrote then was the basic A,B,A,B rhyming style. This particular poem was written in 1994 when I was in the midst of my "clubbing/pubbing" era. By this stage I knew a bit about human body language (thanks Alan Pease) and I saw this type of behaviour alot whilst sitting at the bar people-watching. The filming itself had alot of issues, mainly camera related with my lens deciding it didn't want to work properly anymore so I had to repeat a few of the dancing loops which cheapens it a bit but doesn't really detract from it so much. Well, here it is: "Feral Berryl"

Smoked by Salmon

This was a labour of love and time. Neither of which I had time for. Yet, going into it I knew both but still pushed myself to complete it. So yeah - not sure. Was originally intended for the Sydney Tropfest but I just didn't have the time to make the deadline. Luckily enough another film festival on the Gold Coast with a deadline a few weeks later was what I knew I could make and did. I really pushed myself to make this deadline. I was totally drained emotionally by the end. With work and TAFE, sleep came a distant 3rd in this equation; and it showed. I actually got caught sleeping at work. As far as the outcome is concerned. I'm still unsure if I like this. I'd have preferred more shots with the traffic to not repeat the shots I used but overall, I guess those shots were needed to show the fact that this was happening day after day after day.

Star Wars Vs Peer Pressure

This video was one that I made based purely on "well if you're animating Lego - you may as well do a 'Star Wars".... And so I did. This was originally totally scripted but after the shoot (which I wasn't fond of the outcome) - I decided against. I actually scrapped this whole project but then after a month I went back and looked at what I had and realised it had 'musical potential'. And thus it happened.

Lego Stop Motion/Time Lapse Modulars

I previously posted a Stop-Motion/Time-Lapse of the Lego "Fire Brigade" Since then I have continued on and done a further 3 Lego Modular sets, the Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, and the Town Hall. So here are the 3 videos

"The Ball"

So to escape the clutches of LEGO Stop Motion cliche - and the slight chance of either having to actually storyboard - or even having to write a script. I decided the ball I'd been walking past the last few days needed to be a star. "To shine through all the other 'ball' stereotypes!" It did take alot of character building but in the end the ball stepped up (even knocked back a role in Titanic II)and pumped himself up to be the bigger (midget) soccer ball. This was a special day for me, and a special film. I knewI was doing nothing special on this day except what I wanted. It was the 14th anniversary of my brothers untimely death, and as every year I take this day to remember the only brother I lost. We weren't that close after we turned about 18 but regardless, we were still brothers. The day he died is the day I remember like my own birthday. I do the same for the both, I take the day off. This year I took the day off, but prepared. I charged the battery in my camera. On the day of the shoot, I just filmed everywhere I could and it felt so good. I knew it was going to work. It did. This is the result:

"The Deuce"

It's been a while since I made a LEGO Stop Motion. Late September actually but that's not to say I haven't been busy with other animation. This one is probably my best to date in terms of smooth animation, lip-sync and general overall quality. I'm more than quietly proud of this one.

Walking to Work '12

So I decided to do another Time Lapse of me walking to work. I took a photo every 6 steps (plus a few videos along the way). This one worked out alot better than my first (incidently my first You Tube video - but not my first made) It worked out pretty smooth, better than I expected actually which it usually the way right. Aim low - hit higher!?

I've got two more videos to add, both are Lego Time Lapse and Stop Motion: Most people do a straight time lapse but I try to add a "bit of life" to them.

"Alien Conquest"

This was made with cardboard cut-outs.
I filmed the cars with the background upright.
The UFO's were filmed with the background flat on the table.
The fire was filmed in the backyard....

Red Bean....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zExhhzSQfL0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rotoscoping

Here's the 2 rotoscoping animations I recently finished:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pncWIPRBvrM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't mind that one but it is kinda "lazy". I much prefer the second one I animated:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MNCWCO9X9_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Alot better detail :D

"Slice Of Hand LEGO Stop Motion

This is my latest animation. (Yes, once again with Lego. But hey - it ain't Star Wars so get over it haha.... although my next maybe after watching Robot Chicken Star Wars 3) I totally prefer Stop-Mo. Not sure why but it is a beacon I shall sail my boat towards and either sink or grab as many short-shorts as I can and swim for it (obviously a Simpsons reference :D) This is so far my best effort. Some of the stop-mos I've done have been purely photo based (800-8000-ish) but when using dialogue a single photo can be used. I don't think dialogue cheapens it (look at all the common shows eg Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad) they all use single frames with just the mouths moving. Something I never noticed until I starting studying it. I dunno where this rant is going ecxept that it is making me really enjoy my new chosen career path :D