Video & Sound Production - Final Project
07.06.2024 - 02.08.2024 / week 11 - week 15
Velicia Raquel Dewi Setiawan | 0369188 | Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Video & Sound Production
JUMPLINK:
1. LECTURE
Week 1 - F2F (May 26, 2024)
1. MODULE BRIEFING
2. INSTRUCTION
Requirements
- Adobe Premiere Pro
Submission
- Eportfolio
3. Final Project - Stop Motion
1. Research
1. Favorite Stop Motion
1. Chicken Run
Fig 3.1 Chicken Run, Week 4 (17/05/2024)
One of my childhood films brings back nostalgia. I didn't even know what stop motion was at the time. Loved the storyline and the humor in the movie. Each character and scene is crafted with clay models, known as claymation, somehow the clay is smooth and holds out well.
2. Lego Spider-Man: Miles MoralesFig 3.2 Lego Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Week 4 (17/05/2024)
First thing first it's full of dynamic movement despite it being a Lego, it popped the limbs out of the socket and used a sticky tac to hold it in place. Of course, an action-fight scene like this has a lot of camera work (movements and angles).
2. Western Spaghetti by PES | The FIRST Stop-Motion Cooking Film
Fig 3.3 Western Spaghetti by PES, Week 4 (17/05/2024)
One of the first stop motion videos that I found back then, somehow using random materials the person can make a compelling aesthetic to the stop motion. Using inanimate everyday objects as replacements for food ingredients and proceeding to "cook" it.
2. Medium
We were given the options of doing this project either solo or in pairs. But I want to do this on my own, cause I want to have full creative control over my artwork.
For the preferred medium of stop motion, I'm considering clay or paper or egos or known as brickfilm animation. Here are the pros and cons of it:
Clay:
- Pros
- Cheap
- A lot of colors
- Can be made into whatever I want (characters, decoration, setting)
- Easy to plan the movements (as long as i pay attention to the balance of weight)
- Cons
- If the sculpture is not balanced it can fall over
- It's going to be hard to redo certain scenes
- Harden after a while, making it hard to mold
Paper:
- Pros
- Cheap
- I think it's very easy to animate, plan, visualize
- Also lot of colors
- Could make origami as the subjects.
- Cons
- But I have to make it in 2d and what is the point of making stop motion if it's not 3d?
- Very light, not balanced, and easily blown away without weight
Lego:
- Pros
- I think it's easier for beginners
- I know a couple of spots where I can buy them
- Legos already have pre-built "studs" to ensure they can stand on their own without the traditional use of nuts and pins
- Cons
- Legos can be very costly especially if you want to have the setting out of legos too
- Hard to plan with the limited movement dynamics
2. Progress
Fig 2.1 Proposal, Week 14 (22/07/2024)
This final proposal is actually the third proposal that I made, the first one was scrapped due to the synopsis and the storyboard does not line up, the second one was too complicated to make in such a short amount of time. it would take so many backgrounds and settings to make, also the story is way too long for me to make alone.
So for the third proposal, I made sure the assets were easy to make and did not have complicated movements, one of my friends made the animation with a person dancing and she said that it was hard.
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Fig 2.2 Materials, Week 15 (01/08/2024) |
I bought the materials from the stationary shop on campus, I bought colored papers, watercolor paper, and tack-it as my friend recommended it to me, it makes it easier with the animation. I wanted my assets to have a 3d feel to them so proceeded to cut the colored paper into the assets immediately but realized that it was too thin without structure to hold it up. So at last I cut the watercolor paper and painted them manually, feel like im doubling the work on myself but the assets turned out good.
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To make the 3d effect I used the tack-it between the papers to give depth to certain assets such as the wings on the plane, the wheel on the card, the books, hands, and suitcases. And to think I was originaly going to to put papers between them, tack-it saves so much of my time.
One of the scenes requires a background of the school, so I did my best to replicate the image of the campus I found on the internet. It was messy and barely had any details at all, but it was mostly covered by other assets later on anyway.
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| Fig 2.5 Assets, Week 15 (01/08/2024) |
I made the stop motion in my room, on my small desk that did not have enough space to put a tripod on, So this is the best I could do with the setting. The phone will be on the rulers secured with rubber bands held up by instant noddle cups. Yep. One lucky thing with my room though, is there is a lamp directly above my desk that I can change the intensity of the brightness, so I can take pictures without the shadow of the phone ruining the picture. Besides that, the other light I use is the desk lamp I have, I put it on top of the set to have the shadows of the 3d asset visible on the bottom.
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| Fig 2.6 Set-up, Week 15 (02/08/2024) |
Even though I already measured the rough proportion for the assets, so it's not too big or too small, as I don't have the luxury to change the height of my phone as with a tripod. Some of the assets I made still vary in size and needed to add and reduce the height of my makeshift stand.
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| Fig 2.6 Set-up, Week 15 (02/08/2024) |
I used the tack-it to help me animate and make it look like it's floating above the background, also I noticed that when there is no asset on the background, the background colors look washed out, still don't know why it's like this. I used the onion skin tool on the stop motion app to help me see what the frames are before it, it really helps to keep track of what happening. I put the stop motion on 110 frames per second and at the end, the video got to 31 seconds in total.
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| Fig 2.6 Set-up, Week 15 (03/08/2024) |
But when I combined it with the music it went by too quick so I slowed it done in Premiere Pro so it fit with the song, and the video was done.
3. Final Result
Final Video (Youtube):
Fig 1.7 Final Result, Week 15 (02/08/2024)
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1b7zoaQsEUWei8kyKRFXwug8n2ht68Nnh?usp=drive_link
Premiere Pro/After Effects Project file:
Raw Materials: jpeg seqs/video/sound effects/music:
4. Reflection
1. Experience
Working on this stop-motion project was a mix of challenges and creative solutions. I had to scrap my first two proposals because they didn’t align well with the story or were too complicated to execute. Crafting the assets took a lot of time and effort, especially when I realized my initial material choices were too flimsy. Despite these hurdles, seeing the final assets come together made all the hard work worth it.
2. Observation
Simplifying my ideas was a key takeaway from this project. My third proposal was much easier to manage, thanks to this approach. Switching from thin colored paper to thicker watercolor paper gave the assets the structure they needed. My makeshift animation station was a real test of creativity—I had to use what I had, like instant noodle cups, to get the shots I needed. However, I struggled with keeping the asset sizes consistent, which was challenging without proper equipment.
3. Findings
This project taught me the importance of careful planning. Ensuring everything matches up from the start could have saved me a lot of time. I also learned that choosing the right materials and tools is crucial—experimenting helped me find what worked best. Working within constraints pushed me to be more creative, even if it meant using unconventional solutions. Lastly, when I had to slow down the video in editing, it reminded me of how important it is to consider pacing from the beginning.
Overall, this experience helped me understand the complexities of stop-motion, pushing me to be resourceful and learn at every step of the process.
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