John Lewis Christmas Ad

When I first saw the John Lewis Christmas advert featuring the bear and rabbit I found it difficult to tell which animation technique, or combination of, had been used.
Now having read the article at the below link I am pleasantly mind-blown to discover that it was in fact filmed on real sets with cut-out characters!
Read on for more info.
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/november/behind-the-scenes-on-the-john-lewis-christmas-ad

Animation Competition News

So roughly two weeks ago now, I entered into an animation competition that was being judged by the Creative Director of Shaun the Sheep, Golly Starzak.

A selection of 62 farm yard sound effects were provided by letnaturefeedyoursenses.org and entrants had to use a minimum of one sound effect to inspire and use in their animations which could last no longer than 60 seconds. Sound effects from other sources were not permitted but you could use as many of the provided sounds as you liked.

I spent four nights filming my entry on the dining room table to create a total of 37 seconds of film. I spent between 2 and 4 hours each night animating. The purpose of filming at night was to ensure I could have complete control over the light source so that "flicker" was not an issue when the animation was watched back.

I submitted my animation on June 20th and by June 27th I had received an email congratulating me on being shortlisted for the 17-25 age group catagory. (For anyone unaware, I am 25)
That was fantastic news in itself!

Today I received a phonecall from a woman named Lynsey. She was calling about the competition to let me know that I was the winner of my age catagory! I HAD WON!

So this is my news; I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN, BY THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF SHAUN THE SHEEP AT AARDMAN ANIMATIONS, AS THE WINNER OF THE 17-25 CATAGORY!!!

You can watch my winning entry here> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBD6Y6R1MMg&feature=plcp

Red Bull Canimation

I recently entered the Red Bull Canimation competition and my entry can be found here> http://canimation.redbull.co.uk/gallery#31848476

All filming was done on a single day and the editing took place over the following two days.
Sadly the image quality is nowhere near as good as I would have liked. It appears I will have to save up for a high quality digital stills camera.

Stop-Motion Armatures

Here is a list of sites that provide armature kits for use in stop-motion animation.

Skeletoon - Ball joint. A French company. I am currently seriously considering buying one of their kits.

Model Armatures - Ball Joint. The joints on these armatures seem a little too chunky for what I would want. They do offer strong magnates for sale as well though.

Arma Benders - Ball Joint. They seem decent enough but expensive considering they don't have hands.

Animation Supplies - Ball Joint. I was originally considering these armatures but the price was putting me off despite how brilliant they appear. I know these things don't come cheap. Now I may use this site to buy puppet hands and some rigging for the skeletoon armature.

STOP-MO-TEC - Aluminium Wire. May be more useful for supporting characters who do not take up much screen time.

Animation Toolkit - Aluminium Wire. Another consideration for supporting characters.

Morphmation

I really should have posted up about this quite a lot sooner but I entered the Morphmation animation competition run by Aardman and Firebox.com earlier this year.

Unfortunately my animation wasn't selected from those that were submitted. My entry can be found on YouTube here> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me2p8MUaH5g

The brief was to make a Morph stop motion animation lasting no longer than 1 minute.

SKELEFLEX

I saw said toy advertised on TV about a week ago and decided that it looked like it could be suitable to use as an armature for stop-motion puppets. They are plastic kits a bit like Techno or K'NEX made up of skeleton bones that click together in ball sockets.
After hunting for it on the internet I found I could buy it from Amazon.co.uk and so I signed up to purchase a kit.
3 days after ordering, my SKELEFLEX turned up. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the figure as I had been worried it would be too small. The one I purchased stands at about 20-25cm tall and is the most human like out of the series. They only come in alien and dinosaur designs.
To use it as an animation armature I will have to create some new hands for it as the ones it comes with are oversized and non-posable.
Hopefully I've found a cheap alternative to expensive metal armatures.
SKELEFLEX

Animation Showreel

Today I finished creating the first copy of my stop motion showreel on DVD! In order to hopefully impress the companies that I send it to I have created and printed off a custom DVD label and case sleeve as well as customising the DVD menu with a program called 'Roxio easy DVD copy 4' which I purchased online for £19.99.
I plan on taking this first copy with me to Mackinnon and Saunders to leave with them when I visit on Tuesday.

Animation Developments

Yesterday I got back from a week long visit to Wrexham where I made use of the animation equipment to create some test pieces for my showreel. These included things such as run and walk cycles as well as some squash and stretch. I found the week very beneficial as it gave me a chance to experiment which I didn't have the time to do on the course and haven't had the equipment to do since being home.

A week previous to this I managed to organise a day down to Mackinnon and Saunders on the 2nd of September where I will be able to show off my animations and models. It has been arranged for me to be seen at 2:30pm. I am now in the preocess of finding whether it would be better to travel by bus or by train.

Final Year Animation

I completed my animation by the deadline of Wednesday the 21st last week. In the end I didn't get Kris Wilson to produce any music for me as I would have missed the deadline if I had. Instead I found some music from http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/ and found sound effects by using http://www.findsounds.com/. There were some sounds I couldn't find though and so recorded them myself. These sounds were the bucket clanking and Jack breathing. I feel that the sounds and music fit the animation very well and am very pleased with the final outcome.

carlogiovani.com

Today I visited a website mentioned to me by a fellow student. The site was carlogiovani.com.
The website showcases lots of paper models and graphic designs. The interesting part for me is that some of the paper models are used in stop-motion animation. Some examples can be seen under the "Motion" section, one of which appears to be an advert for Walkers crisps: http://carlogiovani.com/elma_chips/
I find this interesting as I would never have considered using paper models to animate with.

Work Experience?

I've been hearing talk of work experience at Mackinnon and Saunders for a few days now. I couldn't find any information on their website though so I e-mailed Nick Roberson instead. I just asked him if what I had been hearing was true and if it was, what my chances of nabbing a spot were.

Personal Animation Website

On the 22nd of September 2007 I set up a free website for myself at freewebs.com with the intention of using it to showcase my animation work. Today I finally got around to updating it with two of my animations. I plan to get all of my current work up by the end of the week.
My site address is http://stuvilleproductions.webs.com/index.htm
I have just finished looking at upgrading my site to a yearly subscription of between £25-£50 in order to ensure I have enough storage and bandwith to host and view my videos. If nobody can view them then there isn't much point in me having a site.

Use of Music

I got a reply from Kris Wilson today with regards to using his music and getting some custom made:

"As long as you give credit I have no problem. Show me if you can.
Depending on the type of music/quality we'd work something out. I keep it pretty cheap."

I sent this back:

"Cheers very much. The music I would be after would be on the classical side of things and my animation is basically a retelling of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. I'll send you the animation when its done to see if you fancy doing anything for it and to see how much it would cost."

Animation Music

I have just finished contacting Kris Wilson on deviantART to ask if it would be ok to use some of his music on my showreel when I get one together and how much he would charge to create a piece of music for my current project. He mentioned some time ago that he would be willing to create music for people so I thought I should give it a go.

"Hello there Kris,
I'll get straight to the point.I was wondering if I could get your permission to use Colico on my animation showreel? If you agree I'd ensure you got credit on the end.
While I'm on the topic of music and animation I would also like to ask about your services as a musician. How much would you charge to create a piece of music for an animation lasting roughly 1 minute 30 seconds long?
Thanks and regards,
Alistair"

More contact with Nick Roberson

Yesterday I sent and email to Nick with some photos of my Jack and Jill puppets:

"Hi Nick,
Here are some pictures of my animation puppets now that they are 98% finished. Sorry the quality isn't that great. I'll try and get some better pics sent to you eventually, probably after I have created their mouths and eyelids. (Hence only being 98% done.)

I hand stitched all of their clothing and they are stuffed with wadding. The skin on their hands and arms is made from 'Tesco stretch fabric strapping'. It worked suprisingly well.

Alistair"

Pictures:

Today I got a reply:

"Hi Alistair,
They look great, it certainly is worth all that effort with the costumes. That is an area that lets a lot of people down. I wish you all the best with the animation, Have fun. I can't wait to see more which is the sign of good work. Keep in touch,
Nick."

I certainly will be keeping in touch!

Nick's reply on my third year puppet heads

I got a reply to the email I sent to Nick Roberson today:

Hi Alistair,
What a great start!!! I love the sculpts. I would say thet the male has eyes that are set more into the head slightly by the look of it and this works well. The girls are rather 'stuck on' ( possibly something to do with the cheeks) but with all the other stuff to do this is very minor.
The hair for me is fab, its flat style is great and you could certainly push this further next time into more of a defining style.
Looking at these images, I am very keen to see the bodies and the animation of course!!
As for painting, you may want to shade the heads, (that is what I would do) but again its time that is the biggest enemy as you know.
Keep me posted.
As for me i am due to visit NEWI soon for a 2 day sculpting course which i am now doing at 11 unis around the country. Staffs have a very good stopmotion only course ( the only in the country) and may have an an M.A. if you are thinking about studying further.
Anyway, hope to catch up soon.
Regards Nick.

Some encouraging words.

Email To Nick Roberson

I emailed Nick Roberson again today to show him what I'm doing in my current project.
Here's what I sent:

Hello there Nick.

Its Alistair who you met at NEWI and then again when I visited Cosgrove Hall in July last year.
I just thought I should probably get in touch again and show you what I have been up to on my current project. I've attached some pictures of models that I'm working on at the moment. I only have their heads done so far. They are Jack and Jill from the nursery rhyme of the same name. The heads are made out of Fimo and the eyebrows and pupils are removable so that I can move them about. They're held on with double sided tape. I'm cutting their mouths out of card. They actually look really good. I can also move Jill's hair about which is held on with a piece of wire. I plan on giving the skin and eyes a coat of paint before I animate with them since they are sort of blotchy and dirty but thats just down to the Fimo.
So, what do you think of them? I would have liked to have had more done to show you but ran into a lot of problems at the start.
How are things going for you with your work? I hope everything is going well.
Regards,
Alistair Stuart

"Mime Time" Music

Today I received the music that Kev Ryder had been working on for my "Mime Time" animation. Although I do very much like the music, I wont be using it on my animation because I feel that it doesn't fit. The music that Kev provided was very techno-ish whereas I wanted something with a classical sound; something to fit the traditional feel.
I think that I will have to leave the music as it is for now so that I can focus on my current project. I may go back to it sometime in the future though.

Stop Motion Pro and Digimator

Yesterday I went to the websites of Stop Motion Pro and Digimator to find out more about them as they are both supposed to be programs used for producing stop motion animations.
I had heard of Stop Motion Pro before quite a few times and checked out the site before but I'd never seen Digimator. Both of these companies had stalls at MIFA in Annecy.

I found the Digimator website very uninformative. I couldn't seem to find a clear and simple explination of what it was. From what I gathered it seemed that it was a special camera combined with animation software. There were a lot of technical specifications which I didn't understand and a page boasting about how wonderful Cosgrove Hall Films thinks the program is. There were no prices on the website anywhere but there were two email addresses to contact if you were interested. This lead me to believe that this program is primarily for large animation companies.

Stop Motion Pro on the other hand was a wonderful website. They have given it a major update since the last time I visited. All of the information I found was clear and easy to understand. I know that Stop Motion Pro is a computer program for animating which you connect your own external camera to. It is compatible with digital camcorders, digital stills cameras and webcams. It comes in four versions with Junior being the cheapest and most basic with HD Professional being the most advanced and expensive but even this price is good for what you get.

After looking at the examples of work that have been produced with Stop Motion Pro I am seriously considering purchasing it. I already own a camcorder and fire wire cable and can easily purchase a fire wire port for my laptop for under £20.

So, if I do go through with purchasing it (which I expect I will) all I will need then is an editing program...

Chris Bowden's Reply! (At Last)

Finally today I recieved a reply from Chris Bowden (after further contact) answering the questions I emailed him just over a month ago. Here is what it said:

Dear Alastair,

Sorry your note has been neglected but things here have been rather busy with evening and weekends both taken up with our shows. I’ve answered as best I can below.

Chris


1. Have you got any advice for any future work I do?

Focus on what you want a piece of work to do for you. if you want to show that you’re an animator, make sure the character animation is great. If you want to be a director, show that the pace style, composition and ideas are solid. Usually simple well told stories are best.

2. What do you look for in showreels?

In animation reels we look for thought. Thought about the character and the what’s going on its head. Often we don’t look for smooth slick animation (though that’s bonus) because in most cases that comes with day in day out practice.

3.What job opertunities are there at Cosgrove Hall?

It depends how busy the studios are. We have periodically run training courses to get animators new to a standard where they can begin work in the studio but at present there are quite a few animators around and we have no need to train new ones at present. Of course that could all change very quickly if a new project comes in.

4. Do you have any briefs/mock briefs that I could work on as part of my final year?

Not really. I have been asked this before and we don’t really have anything that could constitute a meaningful brief for a project.

I feel the answers to questions 1 and 2 will be quite useful to know.