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!

STOIK Video Man 3.0

I've just stumbled across this website http://www.stoik.com/products/videoman/ and found a piece of editing software that seems quite good and very cheap for what it says it does.
I 'll download the trial some time this week and have a play with it to see what I think.

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.

Tattoo Design

On February 1st five of my friends from Derbyshire came to visit for the weekend. One of them mentioned that he wanted to have a tattoo done some time after they got home but the design he had wasn't quite what he was after. He wanted to know if I could alter it for him to what he needed. I said I would because it was a simple alteration he wanted and because he was a mate.

I got this email after he got back to Derbyshire:

"Hello Ali, hows you been since we left wrexham? This is wierd, its been ages since I sent an email to anyone!

Ok the tattoos, tattoo 1 is how the tattoo looked before I blew it up in photoshop. Tattoo 2 is the tattoo picture i'll be taking to the tattoo man to use as the template. As you can see in pic 1, the ends of the tattoo kinda extend, curve slightly and thin out to points; however, in pic 2 they just go blunt on the ends. ( probably because the quality of pic 1 is so bad and small, that when i blew it up in photoshop, it really looked rubbish! lol)

I've already spent ages on my comp, sharpening tattoo2 up, however I wondered if you would be able to un-blunt those ends for me, feel free to do as many different styles and techniques cuz you can send them all to me and I can pick the one i like the most. If you are wondering what the tattoo is of, its my zodiac sign for cancer the crab, but as i have 2 tribal tattoos already, i wanted my zodiac sign with a tribal look.

I've looked in the tattooists and they didn't have what I wanted, this was the only pic I could find of a tribal zodiac sign. There is no rush at all to do this ali, I totally understand you have your studies to do, and I am in no rush to get this tattoo done. Base it around your own time, when you are able to do it, I don't want it to affect your accademic and social time. There is no deadline. I can't tell you how greatful I am that you'll help me out like this. This tattoo as gonna looks ace. If there is anything I can help you with just let me konw.

Thank you Ali

Adam "

This is the picture he sent me:

and this is the one I sent back:

He was really pleased with the result and sent me a text today letting me know he'll be getting the tattoo done a week on Saturday.

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

MeView.co.uk

I finally got around to paying a visit to MeView.co.uk today to have a look at what they are about. I decided to take a look after seeing posters and postcards that had been put around the studio.
It appears to be a site like YouTube with the difference of being able to get paid for any videos that you upload, provided they meet their upload conditions.
Ater reading their terms and conditions though I'm not sure that I want to (or can) upload any of my work because they state that "we can use your clips for any purposes and you licence us to use these clips in any way we require, including using them in any media and licensing other people to use them on our behalf."

I think I'll stick to showing my work off on YouTube for the time being.

Fairy Tales: Cinderella

This week's fairytale retelling was Cinderella.
Our heroine of the title had been renamed to Cindy Mellor and was working as a cleaner at a university.
Cindy had been reading a book by Hans M. Prince who was a lecturer visiting the university and took on the role of the prince. She falls for him as soon as she sees him and has grand ideas about his theories and how she believes she can prove them wrong. The two argue with each other but slowly begin to get along as they encounter more of each other.
H. M. Prince organises interviews at the university to find a student who would be suitable for his assistant on an expedition to Borneo and was then to announce his choice at a “ball”. H. Prince agrees to give Cindy an interview but the head of faculty, the “evil-stepmother” prevents her from attending. The two “ugly sisters” are two of the faculty head’s favourite students. They constantly pick fun at Cindy and enjoy seeing her fail. One of the “sisters” is a lot crueler than the other and the less cruel of the two also gets picked on by the faculty head.
The role of fairy godmother is taken up by fellow cleaner and provides Cindy with a dress to attend the lecture ball in. Cindy can’t get in to begin with as her name isn’t on the attendees list due to not having an interview but the “fairy godmother” finds a back way in for her.
During the lecture, Cindy begins to feel out of place and decides to leave. As H. Prince is giving his lecture he realises that Cindy was correct about his theories and chases out after her. He catches up with her and says that he was being paid by the head of faculty to take along one of her favourite two but wants her to become his assistant instead and the two head off together.
The university head learns of the faculty head’s bribery and fires her on the spot. He then offers her position to the “sister” who had been least cruel to Cindy.

I find it interesting how one of the “sisters” was quite shy and also gets rewarded in this version.

BBC Fairy Tales

On Thursday 10th the BBC started to show a series of modern versions of Fairytales. The first of these was Rapunzel. The adaptation told the tale of Jimmy Stojkovic, a failing male tennis player. Unknown to Jimmy, his father concocts a story about owing money to gangsters and the only way for them to get hold of the money is to disguise Jimmy as a woman and enter him into a women's tennis tournament.
As a woman, Jimmy manages to make it through to the fourth round where he has to take on Billy Jane Brook, the reigning champion. She is well known by the name of Rapunzel due to her long hair which her mother wont allow her to cut. The two get close and after Rapunzel helps Jimmy with his game they end up falling for each while Rapunzel still believes that Jimmy is a woman although she makes it quite clear that she isn't a lesbian.
Eventually the cat is let out of the bag on national TV after Jimmy wins the tournament and can no longer keep his secret from the one he loves. Rapunzel is horrified and storms off wanting nothing more to do with Jimmy.
A year later and due to the advice from Rapunzel Jimmy is doing extremely well now as a tennis player. After a match Jimmy has a chance meeting with Rapunzel again where they kiss and make up and presumably live happily ever after. Rapunzel's uptight mother and Jimmy's schemeing father also hit it off together and plan to train the two tennis stars together.

The classic hair climbing scene also makes an appearence of sorts as one night, while sleeping over at Rapunzel's, Jimmy creeps outside below Rapunzel's window as himself and watches as she lowers her hair. He can't quite reach and so calls up to her. Startled, Rapunzel quickly reels her hair back in and locks the window. She races back to her bedroom which Jimmy has quickly returned to (now as a woman) and tells of how a "rapist" had tried to attack her.

This was great fun to watch and next Thursday will tell the tale of Cinderella. This should be helpful to me for my dissertation as Cinderella is one of the stories that I am covering.