Fishing for the Future film

So here it is! Fishing for the Future is now online. Its had more good feedback than i could have ever imagined.

Fishing for the Future from james carlisle on Vimeo.

Its also being show on the Skwigly Showcase, from the online animation magazine, which can be found here! If anyone could click that little vote button it'd be much appreciated. 

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/showcase/fishing-for-the-future/

See you over summer!

The worlds most awkward rig removal

Filming is over and the glammies are fast approaching. I've been lucky enough to be nominated for the "Best Stop Mo" category. 

One of the last things i've had to do before wednesday is take out the last couple of rigs in a couple of shots. 

This shot was particularly difficult to take rigs out of, as, being the clever, level headed forward thinking person that I am, I decided to put the rig in Arthurs shadow, meaning I couldn't simply mask the rig out. 

After talking to my good friend and after effects wizard Ted Oliver (see his blog here) and Jake Harvey (link to blog here), they suggested I mask out the entire character on every frame, luckily there were only 22 with around 5 or 6 on twos, then add in a new shadow from the masked out shape. 

So thats what I did. with each of the yellow squares (there are so many it looks like a solid line) being individually moved on each frame

around 8 hours later i'd done the 22 frames (a little under 1 second of animation) but he looked incredibly floaty without a shadow. 

this is where I handed over to Ted, whose done the majority of the after effectsing on my film and has done an amazing job! His film "Under the Weather" has been nominated for the "Best 2nd Year" category at the glammies so keep an eye out for that. 

The mask layer I had created (all be it on completely the wrong layer, but it was easily copied to the correct one) was copied again, then layered underneath the mask of the character, filled, opacity turned down (a little, i think) and feathered on the edges to match the exact shape the character is making on each frame. Ted then animated the shadow frame by frame corresponding to where it would actually be. It was then angled to match the light source (from the left) and, 

TA DA!

Its there, I promise, and looks miles better than it originally did. Not bad for around a 10 hour days work and 1 second of my film!

Filmings almost finished

Only one more day of full filming before my deadline. Once again I will catch up on blog posts at some point over the next couple of weeks but for now heres some more sneak peaks!

These are probably two of my favourite frames of my film. The TV and Set students have done a brilliant job on both the interior and exterior sets, matching the props i'd already made and the general rustic style. 

Through pre production I had planned the kind of light I wanted for both interior and exterior, and after getting some friendly advice from the talented Ben Whitehouse (Link Here) about how to light a scene to make it look moonlit, i'd say i'm very happy with the results. 

Filming test teaser

blog posts on the build will follow when i've finished filming, started yesterday, it was fun! Got some great advice from an Aardman animator who basically said the most important aspect of animating is having fun. If you're enjoying what you're doing it'll come across in the final piece.

this is what I got done yesterday, Its far from perfect but I'm going to crack on with the rest of the shots for now and hopefully have time to come back after.

This is the only shot i'm going to upload before the finished film so call it an incredibly low budget teaser trailer. 

Initial Film Shots "Fishing for the Future" from james carlisle on Vimeo.

Film update

Howdy howdy howdy! 

No major blog posts on character/props/general work recently (sorry) 

Like everyone else on my course life is getting pretty hectic with 3-4 weeks left until final hand in for our major projects. 

In short, I should hopefully be getting the first of my two sets from the TV and set design students i've been working with by the end of Wednesday. I've currently been working on the harpoon and coat for the external scene, with the intention of filming that first. 

ANYWAY, i've got various other deadlines over the next 2 weeks so there won't be an awful lot happening on here (if anything) 

BUT

if you click that attractive looking "instagram" tab just below my header it'll take you to my instagram page where you can find the development photos for my film as they happen. 

OR 

if you don't feel like doing that (im not here to judge) heres a photo of what my characters looking like at current, i'm half way through making his coat.

Credit for Whale techniques

Just realised i'd forgotten to say in the previous two posts that all credit for the process of making the Whale for my film this year goes to Reuben Loane, who used the technique to make his planet rotation machine for his 3rd year film 'To the Heard of the Matter' (online soon) 

See his blog and website here!

http://www.reubenloane.com

http://stopmotionreuben.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks Reuben!

Whale finishingness

When we left off I had a very happy looking whale. 

The next step was to take my trusty 'Gold acrylic' spray paint and move to the 'top secret University of Glamorgan' (technically now the University of South Wales) a.k.a round by the wheely bins apparently looking suspicious because someone made a complaint to reception!

Once he was sprayed, I put him next to Arthur at his current state, i'll catch up on his blog posts soon!

I then used a dry brush and a lot of brown, red, orange, white and green paint to make it look rusty and closer to my photoshopped colour. 

He still looks too happy......

Instead of jagged shark teeth, I decided to take my classmates advice and make more whale like teeth out of a garden broom. 

I also made an eyelid to make him look more angry and less like he's having the best day of his entire life. 

I also covered each corner with painted milliput rivets and made a basic tongue out of painted soft foam

He looks a lot more angry now!