Bounty: The Raw Footage Part 2

Here are more animation clips from the Bounty project.



Fun with magic paper towels.



This was actually my favorite shot from the whole project.  Our assignment for this animation was to have them flying through the air rockin' out and then end with a wave at the camera.  Luke animated the bald dude and I had a little too much fun animating the other scientist doing the robot.  We were a bit ahead of schedule at this point so we had fun the frame with random things that would eventually be cut out.  There was no sound to work off of for this one so you'll have to use your imagination.



I had a lot of fun with this shot as well.  This is basically what happens when you feed an animator enough beer to convince himself that it'd be a good idea to make one of the characters get tired of holding his arm up while freeze-framed.  Needless to say, it was cut from the final project.

Bounty: The Raw Footage Part I

Here is what the animation looked like for the Bounty project before any visual effects were applied to the footage.  Today I'm posting mostly shots involving the scientists driving in their car.  To give you some idea of the rig we built quick for it, here are some pictures:

... and now onto the videos:





This was the first stuff we shot of the scientists in the car.  The funny thing is we both wore white that day and it wasn't until a few seconds into the animation that we realized it was affecting the lighting.

Lesson Learned: Your personal wardrobe can affect post-production in stop motion.




This shot was pretty basic.  Just some singin' and PT pullin'.

This was a fun shot because we got to finally try out the rig we built for the car.  The script called for the car flying through the air & the storyboards I had drawn up called for spinning cameras and such, so we needed something that would be flexible but would also offer precision.  Also, fist bumps.

This shot was fun because not only did we have to animate the characters, we had to have the car tilting lengthwise as well as do a 180-degree spin mid-shot.

I had a lot of fun with this shot. The tiger rig wasn't super flexible to work with but I think I got some good action out of it.

... and if you're wondering, that's an MMA fighter coming out of his mouth.

Behind the Scenes: Bounty Storyboards

Here are the original boards I drew up for Bounty back when we started the project.  Some of them are pretty close to how the final turned out while others.... notsomuch.

This part got cut from the final which I was totally fine with.

This section also got cut which I was pretty disappointed about.

Having the chance to animate King Kong and a Godzilla-like monster would've been a lot of fun.

UGH the sumo wrestler was my favorite part and I was super bummed they killed him off.

I was proud of my tiger drawing in the second frame.

The Chilean Miner character eventually got changed over to an MMA wrestler.  'Probably for the best.

I mean c'mon it was going to end with them riding that flying sumo wrestler!  It would've been like poetry but that's life sometimes. 

Behind the Scenes: Bounty

More photos from the Bounty project.

We took a lot of test photos to test the perspective of the lenses.  The cardboard in my hand is a car placeholder.

We had to make a couple of trips to the fashion district for fabric.  Fish out of water.

Man and Mannequin.

Originally we were making the set green until we found out they wanted it to be white.

Working with canned snow is frustrating.  There's no better way to put it without using the [other] f-word.

"Aerial" view of the set.

The snow tiger's mouth.

Luke Rotzler doing some animation tests.

We built our own camera rig for shots that required panning.

Different tree variations

Time for some 'LAPSE.

Here's a time-lapse video of us working in the LFS Studio from around mid-November to mid-December.  There are a few days missing here and there because we were a little too busy at times to check and see if the camera was working, but I think you get the gist of what went down.  Weekends are for the weak after all!

... oh and the Kevin Rudolph video made it into the latest edition of STASH!  Hell yes.

Armature & Prop Designs for Bounty

These are the original designs I did for the Bounty spot I posted a few weeks back.  Designing the characters wasn't anything new since I've had to make character sheets for animation in years past, but the car was definitely a little trickier since I'm not much of a 'technical' guy.  Maybe I shouldn't say trickier, but technical drawings to me are boring to work on.  There.  I said it.  Wait no... maybe I shouldn't say boring. How about, "not as fun"?

... sadly the Chilean Miner never made it into the final piece.

Props to Erika Bettencourt who did a fantastic job of making all of the armatures and being the personification of glue that held the project together.

You may have noticed that the chinchilla was Shake Weight®-less in the final version.

Props to Craig Grigg who blew our minds with making the car look better than I modeled it.  The man is a living legend when it comes to props, folks.

More behind-the-scenes to come!

... oh hey it's that thing I've been working on!

This is Part 1 of why I've been neglecting my friends and cat since October.



I designed the stop-motion characters, designed the car models, was director of animation and, most importantly, played the gorilla working out in the gym.

I have lots of pre-production and lots of animation that didn't make the cut that I'll be posting in the near future.

Part 2 of why I've been neglecting my friends and cat since October coming soon.*

* ... as soon as it's done.

Chinchilla, Meet Shake Weight®

I haven't done a lot of stopmotion since college but the year 2010 has proven to be a return to form for me in that regard.  From storyboarding to designing characters, props and sets to animating it all once it's ready they've been keeping me very very busy at work.  I won't say too much about what it all entails until I have a finished product to show but until then I'll post what I can when I have time.

To get things started, here's a chinchilla exercising with a shake weight. 

More to come!