Monday, February 18, 2008

Assignment 3: My Valentine - Stage 2

Introducing the 2 main leads in my video - Their names are Whitsun & Happy!

Hello All:

I manage to do a few test shots on Whitsun. I will be showing how much he loved comics. I had done this in Adobe ImageReady and generated a GIF animated image since that will illustrate my whole idea better. The technique I am trying to achieve is stop motion technqiue.

Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by extremely small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. Software applications such as Stop Motion Pro, istopmotion and monkeyjam have made the technique popular among young filmmakers.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion

There you go:

I had positioned my camera on the tripod thus I could maintain the same position for the background. However I seem to have another problem and that is lighting. Apparently whenever I add the comics in, the lighting seems to have changed. Do advise me if you all have any good idea to ensure uniform lighting when we apply stop motion technique.

Thinking through...

I am thinking of changing the ending. I may not use the idea of proposal but instead focusing on the heart shape in this video instead.

In the previous feedback that I was advised to use people to be the main characters instead of using soft toys. I decided I might include the 2 people after all, together with the soft toys. Somewhere in the picture, the girl will be beside/watching Happy and the guy will be beside/watching Whitsun. This idea was inspired by the Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" where in the last scene Will Smith waved to a black guy which was the actual person in the movie - Chris Gardner.

Do give me your honest feedback! Many thanks in advance.

P/S: I love what Google did on V-Day.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should add in 2 people towards the end of your video. Your video will stand out (in a good way) because many others are using people in their pictures but your main characters are soft toys. By using soft toys, it gives your video an extra 'awww... so cute' factor.

I also think you should remove the proposal part in your storyline if you're plaaning to focus on the heart thing. This way, the audience will be able to retain the heart thing easier becuase that's the ost important part of the video.

jacyie huiyi. * said...

actually i thought the natural change in the lightings pretty nice as it somehow brings out a little difference and an added ambience to the whole effect..

i dunno how it'll look if the lighting on the items are casted the same throughout the entire motion.. but it'll be nice if you could try it out and finally see the differences in the outcome? (:

and yes.. i like the idea of focusing on the heart as the final ending as it'll leave room for imagination.. because with the proposal ending.. it'll be like.. the ending is fixed..

just my two cents worth.. ^^
NICE JOB!

Anonymous said...

Just a comment is that will soft toys limit the ability to convey the emotion? Cos I tried something like that for NM2208 but it is a bit hard to get them to smile or have some other expression as the soft toy's expression is fixed. Just something I encountered and thought I can share with you.

aline_hs said...

hi katherine,

good try for the stop motion part.. i think u should try making it slower...

hmm... for the difference in lighting, I'm not sure where the source of light is coming from...

the light source seems to be blocked by the books...

maybe you can try different places, as the casting of light intensity will differ...

else will need to try adjusting it in photoshop to make all the same feel...

in my most humble opinion... =)

Anonymous said...

Hey Katherine, it must have taken you ages to come with that sequence! Good technique to use with the soft toys. Perhaps reduce the speed as what aline said. Other than that, looking forward to final product.

Anonymous said...

hi,

ya i think that if you are going to add 2 real people with the soft toy would be interesting. and i really like the storyline of how the different journeys of love would end up meeting together at the same point again.

me-myself-i said...

I think the light changes for every picture cuz the books are in the way of the light source and hence blocks off some light in every shot? I suppose if you use an area where the light source is from the top it would be better? But i'm not sure too cuz i've never tried it out.

i like the stop motion. i was thinking of doing that too! :) cheers!

Mark said...

hi,

woah stop motion can be a pain to do though, that is if you are considering 27 frames per second.. =X but I liked the effect, and I guess it would be practical to use stop motion with those plushies too so yup, looking foward to see the final vid!

Anonymous said...

Katherine..

jus found out u are Chr's friend. Anyway.. I like stop motion. But probably soft toys can do a better job at stop motion ? For people will be funny right ?Yes but people do better at the protayal of emotions. =p

Joon Yong said...

hi,
i think the stop motion idea is great.
but just a thought, would some scenes be difficult to execute? like the train one.

but it would be refreshing to see something different though. looking forward to see the final work.