Exploration #4

For this exploration we are to make an identity package for the SyFy Network in 2D silhouette with jointed paper cutouts. This project also requires us to animate to one of two given soundtracks that has timed bangs and taps. The soundtrack is 15 seconds long which makes the length the animation 15 seconds as well. I started out by listening to the soundtrack over and over to generated a few ideas. I then created a storyboard of a clown with a bubble machine that malfunctions. The clown goes to the front of the machine to pound on it with a hammer and a big bubble comes out to engulf him in it. One final bang and the clown’s sign fall down and pops the bubble with him in it.

After bringing the storyboard to Morgan, our very knowledgeable instructor, he suggested that he likes the premise but recommended that I change the character to something a little more scifi, like a mad scientist and I agreed. I also showed a stage with curtains and he recommended to eliminated the stage.

I drew a few sketches and then created the mad scientist and his machine in Adobe Illustrator. I brought the illustrator file to college laser cutter and then attached the joints onto the pieces of the character.

Because I have to care for my baby boy at night and live an hour’s drive south of the campus, I decided to set up my own makeshift stop-motion lab at home with some lamps my glass coffee table and tracing paper for a light table diffuser. I set up my tripod over the table so I could use my camera as a down shooter. I did the animation overnight as my son was sleeping and I was very happy with the resulting animation.

The next step was to go into After Effects to create the background and bubble effects. I got a circuit board image that I modified to create a blue glowing look. I then keyed out the gridded part of the image and created a fractal noise animation behind the image that looks like electricity. I also found a nice bubble pop by messing around with setting in the particle generator.

From the first critique, I got advice to make the background less busy by zooming in on part of the background image. It worked for the most part, but some said it was a bit busy still. I was very happy with the end result and got many compliments.