Shooting Close-Ups in the cave

I have one week to do more animation so I have to shoot some close-ups inside the cave.

My set up is quite similar to the surface set but with walls. I am glad I made the walls in parts as I can move them around slightly to get the shots I want.

I used both a yellow and red gel filter to give the lighting in the cave an other worldly feel.

I failed to mention when I animated the coin in on the surface how I rigged it. I made three coins and on the back of one I put a small magnet. I then made a wire rig with a magnet on it so that I could rig the coin when it was in mid air. I did the same for the ring box.

The Mechanic needed to bend over to pick up the coin (and later he will have to pick up the ring box) but I realised that he could not bend over far enough to do this. Thankfully both of these shots are close-ups and I was able to rig The Mechanic so I could tilt him over to pick up the coin.

I had planned on making an actual shaft for the cave but the black was was created worked fine and then I attached an LED light with wire. I also but a blue filter on the light to contrast with the warmth of the cave.

This meant that I had a nice light on the ground to signify the well.

 

For some of the shots I put the camera on the table. You can see here the nice atmosphere that the blue light gave as The Man flees from The Mechanic.

I will now have to finish of The Machine so I can shoot the rest of my film.

Dressing The Cave

 Now I have everything, apart from the Machine, for the cave.

 

To finish off the walls I spray painted more wire wool yellow and stuck it to the walls to look like some kind of moss. For the floor I created another layer of Mod-Roc, spray painted it yellow and dry brushed it with some orange and brown.

 

To hide the join between the walls and the floor I got coloured gravel that is used in fish aquariums.I found one light orange and darker orange. I also bought some Mecano parts to give the cave more history and believability.

I can now film some of the close-ups in the cave.

Finishing The Mechanic

I have now finished The Mechanics cloak. I used the same techniques as making the clothes for The Man.

 I used a velvety type material to make The Mechanic more mystical and odd. I am glad that it does not look too much like a bathrobe and the shine of the cloth will hopefully look cool in the light.

 I stuck small watch cogs onto the hems of cloak to add detail.

 On the back of his cloak I created a design with the cogs to give the Mechanic more history and mystery.

Here is what The Mechanic and The Man look like beside each other.

 On the inside of the cloak I stuck some wire mesh to stiffen up the bottom of the cloak.

 This means I can slightly animate the bottom of the cloak if I need to or want to.

It also means there will be less boiling in the lower half of the cloak.

Falling to The Centre of The World

A shot in my film shows The Man falling through the well. To simplify this short shot I planned to have the background move while the puppet was static. Here was how I did it...

I first sewed a piece of black cloth in a loop and found this stand that it could loop around. I then painted on streaks of paint so that when I moved the piece of cloth around these streaks would look like bricks and things going by as the man falls down the well.

I filmed the shot upside down and I plan to flip it in the editing stage.

I 

I used blue gel filters on the lights to give he scene a cool feel.

Before I ripped the set down...

Here are some photos of my final well set before I took it down to finish my centre of the world set.

Here is the spaced that I was animating in. I used three lights. Two at the front and then one shining on the sky backdrop. This made the background brighter creating more depth in the scene.

I painted on hills in the background and used wadding for clouds to break up blue of the sky.

I also attempted to create depth by putting smaller trees in the background. I dry brushed them a lighter colour so that they looked further in the distance

Overall I was very happy with the outcome of this set. I like the textures I used and the depth that was created.

Fun on set

Ready...

Headless Animating

Watch Out For The Giant Drill!

'Where is my body?'

Flying Man

Looking Down

The Big Picture