During today's lesson, we got into groups of four to do some more stop motion animation. Unlike the bouncy ball task from last week, this exersize did not include paper, instead we were using real life objects. Each table in the class had a different set of objects on it. When we got to our table we found a box full of pennies on it. We were then told that we could animate our objects in any way we wanted. So we linked up the video camera to the laptop, opened up "istopmotion" and got to work. The group and I immediately began to bounce ideas off each other. We decided that we wanted the box to fall over so the pennies were scattered all over the table, the coins would then arrange themselves and get back into the box. Just before we began, our teacher handed us some bluetac. We then assigned ourselves roles, Holly was the laptop operator and Scott, Dan and I were the "animators". As the animators our job was to move the objects around step by step whilst Holly took photos of each frame. The first stage was to show the lid of the box unhinging itself and falling onto the table. The lid was secured with four clips, so we undid each clip and took a still image every time one was removed. For the box to fall over we somehow needed to take a picture of it while tilted. This is where the bluetac came in handy. By securing a large bit of bluetac underneath the box, it gave the impression that the box was tipping over by itself. It then came to moving the coins. By moving the coins step by step, (inch by inch) we managed to create the illusion that theey were moving around the box and organizing themselves. We replayed what we had done so far and the team and I were pleased with the outcome. We then proceeded to make the coins get back in the box. The next stage was the most difficult to "pull off". We had to give the impression that the box was getting back up or righting itself. This was more difficult than we had expected. We tried securing bluetac to the bottom of the box again, this worked up to a point where the bluetac could no longer support the weight of the box. We overcame this problem by skipping a few movements, which created a jump cut. The final stage was to place the lid back on the box. This was not a complex procedure. By using the bluetac to secure the edge of the lid to the box, it gave the overall impression that the lid was climbing back on top of the box. After taking stills of the clips re hinging themselves, we were finished.
The task for today was to produce a sound track for our coin istopmotion animation. We had to produce and record the sounds in relation to what was happening in the video. We took the laptop and the box of coins into a quiet classroom. We then opened up the Final Cut editing software, clicked on "tools" and opened up "voice over". This tool allowed us to record straight onto the timeline through the laptops built in microphone. The first thing to record was the lid clips unhinging, then the lid falling onto the table, then the box tipping over. I then needed to record me dragging a coin across the surface of the table, I did this to resemble the sound of the last coin making it's way into the box at the end of the animation. The last sound to record was me dropping the box (full of coins) onto the surface, this was to resemble the box righting itself. Once all the sound had been recorded it was then my job to edit the sound clips and sync them up with the visuals of the animation. I edited the sound clips in order of appearance. The most complex bit of editing was the lid unhinging itself, when recording this sound we only unhinged one clip of the box lid. This meant that I had duplicate the clip (by pressing Cmd V, Cmd C) three times and then match up each clip with visuals. As the movements of this part of the animation were fast and drastic, I had to look at the clip's wavelengths to try and match them up to the visuals as accurately possible.
Once the whole video was completed, we uploaded it to the video sharing website (Vimeo).
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