Character walk and Timing problems

I completed my second sequence shots of the strawberry characters walking to the smoothie bottle and jumping from the fruit bowl, this seemed more realistic then the strawberries not having any legs. I feel I need to take a lot more pictures to get the timing right and for the sequence to run smoothly.
I also took some pictures of the character falling off of the notice board and walking towards the strawberries and smoothie bottle I was very happy with the character walks over all. At this stage my timing seems to not be co-ordinating with my scenes and the amount of pictures I have I do not think I have grasped the principle of stop-motion timing as of yet. I think I will start doing so more research on the timing which is proving to become my problem.

Walking with legs

I have now created legs out of plasticine for my strawberries and found it much easier to animate the strawberries walk they are now looking more realistic. At first I found it very hard to stick the legs on as I could not apply alot of pressure to the real strawberries as they would just become stoft and start leaking juice which them did not allow the plasticine to stick to them in this case I had to be very gentle and softly press the plasticine onto the strawberries. Once I managed to get the legs on this made it much easier to get the strawberries to walk and now I am gaining more confidence within my commercial.

test shot 2 with legs

Today I have taken a second lot of pictures of the walk of the strawberries from the fruite bowl to the smoothie bottle it has taken literally all day and now I am very tired. The walk has deffinately become more realistic with the legs addes I have also added plasticine lips, fake eye lashes to the female strawberries and googly eyes that I bought from the 4D model shop to the strawberries this has give the strawbberies much more personality and character which I am very please with.

Problem Jump

I have been trying to think of a way that I can create the illusion that the strawberries are jumping into the bottle of smoothie as this is my story plan at this stage, but this is proving to be very difficult. I have tried to add strings on to the strawberries and tie it up to the ceiling, then try to pull the string up and take pictures of the strawberry at the various levels of height, but this has not worked. The the strawberries are far to heavy for the string and keep falling off. Also I have tried to stick the strawberries to the wall just to make it look as though the strawberries are off of the work top, which I later tried to edit the image in Photoshop still did not look good so I think my best bet is to add legs to the strawberries or try to think of another story line.
I am still unhappy with the character trying to rip himself out of the page but I will concentrate on this once I figure out a way of getting the strawberry characters to move and jump in a realistic way.

test shots for commercial in kitchen

I wanted to see how I could get he strawberries to move so I decided to start taking some shot in the kitchen, I am still not getting the effect that I really would like as the strawberries do not seem as though they are moving by them selves realistically so in order to get that effect I think I will have to create some sort of legs for the strawberries to walk with ....

I am thinking may be some plasticine in a red colour

Shooting my stop-motion commercial

Today I have set up my scene in the kitchen and have started to shoot a part of the stop-motion commercial it has been quite difficult to get the strawberries to bounce or move in a realistic way and I have had to use mesh wire to support the strawberries to stand upright. Again this is causing great problems as you are able to see the mesh in the shoots, which means I will have to manually edit the pictures.
I am moving the strawberries and then taking a picture to create the illusion that the strawberries are moving on their own I was not very happy with the outcome.

I wanted to involve the strawberries more and have decided to shoot a sequence of shoots of the strawberries bouncing from the fruit bowl to the smoothie bottle.

I have had to use sticky tape to get the strawberries to stick to the tiles, however as the strawberries are fresh pushing the sticky tape onto them create mess as the juices from the strawberries start to run.

This is my very first animatic

I put this animatic together to try and generate ideas for my self of how I would like the commercial to look and what I would like the story to be about

My First Idea

I wanted the smoothie commercial to have a unique story line thats when I decided to create a 2D character, which will be pinned up on a board and for him to rip himself out of his world (the drawing) and to jump out into the 3D world (real world). This is where he will drink the strawberry smoothie and gain definition and colour .......
I wanted to combine both 2D and 3D elements into my stop motion as I have not really seen this done before. I have decided to use a real kitchen as the back ground and will be adding effects to the background, I have also decided to use real strawberries as I think this will give my commercial an element of realness also so that the smoothie can be associated with real fresh strawberries.

Thinner mesh and my characters walk

So I have now bought some thinner metal mesh and have found it much easier to get the 2D character to stand alone without any support from the mesh. The mesh is very flexible and easy to work with, however I have found it easier to cut out bits of mesh for the different parts of the body so I have a piece of rectangular mesh for the arms and legs and a piece of square mesh for the body I am very happy with the way my character is now moving. I tried to use double sided tape to stick the mesh to the 2D character which is made out of paper but I was able to still see the mesh as the character moved. I have decided to use white blue tack which has worked perfectly.

Getting the 2D character to move in a realistic manner problem

I found that using the thin piece of metal wire did help my character to walk in a realistic manner but it was quite difficult to conceal as the bottom of the wire needed to touch the work to in order for the character to be stable on his feet. So I have decided to buy some metal mesh and create my own rig to support the character this way the character will be able to move realistically but also the metal mesh will be concealed.

Thinking about editing my story

I am now reflecting on my animatic and think it will be a good idea to add an extra scene or change the story line as I am not very convinced with the story line it seems to basic and not much personality I would like to give the real strawberries a bit more of a personality may be add some legs on them !!!!!!!!!!!

My story line was to get the 2D character to come up with some bright ideas of how he can drink the smoothie as the bottle is much bigger than him, I was planning to get the character to try and climb up the bottle. Now I am thinking that I would like to involve the strawberry characters more within the story line.

Back to the drawing board then

3D strawberry Smoothie Commercial

I am doing some very quick tests for my commercial to see how it will look trying to get the 2D character to rip off of the page or even try to move on the page, this is my first time trying to do it soooooo here it goes ....

I can see that the background is moving and therefore I will probably need to use a tripod but I carried this out purely for a first attempt so far not bad at least I get the principle timing is not quite right yet.....

charcter ripping out of the page

Today I done some test shots of the character ripping out of the page !!!!! As this is the first time I have ever tried to attempt to do this I was basically practicing to see what types of methods I could use in order to create my final attempt well this is my very first!!!

Project - Strawberry OutBurst Smoothie

WEEK 2 - Today I have been reflecting on my animatic and have decided to create a few extra scenes within my commercial as I feel the story line is quite short. At the moment the character climbs up the bottle of smoothie and drinks it, I am thinking to get the character to try and climb up the bottle of smoothie but then fall off. He then walks off the set and comes back dragging a box to climb on to drink the strawberry smoothie. I think this will be a bit more comical, which is an element that I would like to add into my commercial and also I will be challenging myself with the character movements.

At the moment I have not mastered the art of the character ripping himself out of the page I have been inspired by this short animation on YouTube and have been looking into the effects that are used in this animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYh3h6_zCEM

Feed back from Focus Group

After carrying out my focus group the feed back I generally got was that I should not incorporate my 2D fruit characters into my commercial as they do not fit in within the commercial so I have decided to stick with real strawberries and to give them features such as eyes and a mouth I also thought it would be a good idea to give some of the femail strawberrys eye lashes as this will deffrentiate the difference between the male strawbberies and the female strawberries........

Character rig

Today I was trying to create a perfect walk for my 2D character, I knew in order to create this I would have to create a rig so I decided to buy some mesh and create a frame for my 2D character.

I cut out the outline of the shape of the 2D character and decided to stick it with white blue tack in between the inside of the 2D character.

I feel this will work well as the mesh is very thin, which means as the character is walking you not be able to see it.