Knitmation.

So this is a mix of stop motion and live action. I'd love to know how this was done?

Walking to Wai

I decided to make a stop-motion video on our way to breakfast yesterday morning. I was inspired by an experimental film that I saw recently shot in the same way. Jon said it reminds him of Google maps.

Camera: Canon Power Shot Digital Elph SD940 IS

Test Arms

Here is the first set of arms for Jon's tests with latex dipping (time lapse of process can be seen below).

The Arms are made of single pieces of armature wire (gauge 1/8). The hands are made by bending one piece of armature wire (gauge 1/8) into a "U" shape. The fingers are smaller pieces of aluminum wire (gauge 1/16) that are looped around the "palm" and twisted, then wrapped in cotton string.

Jon uses epoxy (grey clay looking stuff) to create the solid pieces of the arm that he didn't want to bend when the puppet will be moved. To allow the joints to blend in with the epoxy and still be fluid, he wrapped them with cotton string. The fingers were also wrapped so the latex would adhere better.

Jon is going to start a second pair that will use silk thread around the fingers to see which material will work better.

Constructing Test Arms - Time Lapse

Here is a time lapse of me constructing arms and hands out of aluminum wire, epoxy putty, and cloth string. These will later be encased into rubber latex.

Hand Test

Hand animation test. Quick exercise is movement, the hand (modeling clay). Shot @ 24 fps on stills from a canon point and shoot.

Jon Working on Armatures

Jon working with armature wire and epoxy.

Measuring wire for armature.

"Coraline" Wardrobe

Miniature knitting used in Coraline. Melissa is going to experiment with this once I have the bulk of the puppets done.

Armature Test

stop motion test/key in test from Jon Simmons on Vimeo.
Here is the first test I did with an aluminum armature and epoxy putty.

"BIG BANG BIG BOOM" - blublu.org

"Madame Tutli-Putli" by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski

Official Site (English Version)

The Dilemma

We kept asking ourselves this: How does one film a mouse doing very specific things at very specific times? 

Jon and I are film students at Hunter College, located in New York City. We were accepted into the Film & Media Department's Honors Program last May. Basically this means we get to produce a film under supervision of our Professor, Andrew Lund, without restrictions or guidelines that we had during our other classes. Jon submitted his script, "Fare Game", that tells the story of two roommates and their attempt to catch a mouse in the kitchen. 

We started to brainstorm ideas on how to approach shooting this project. Along the way, we came up with stop-motion animation since it will allow us the most control over the mouse's actions. Keep in mind: We both have NO prior hands-on experience with animation at all, but we're up for the challenge. 

We're still in the pre-production phase and will start workshopping our idea and Jon's script this week in class. I'm sure things are still going to evolve, but we're going to give it our best attempt! 

We'll post some of the tests that Jon has done soon.