Thread: "String" - an animation

Hello,

I decided to make this short animation after viewing some of David Firths work with "Crooked Rot".
Its all stop motion using things found around my house and shot with a Cannon Vixia HV30.

It is the first animation that I have done so I would really appreciate some advice on things to improve on.

Please tell me what you think.

-Thanks

It looks like we shall have to wait until Youtube is working properly before we can have a look. Feedback will be along shortly.

Ok youtube seems to be back in action.

Your videos sound is in the category that would provoke my wife to shout 'turm that row off'!! Thats not to say the sound is bad but it certainly is on the painful side at times. The animation is certainly in the style of David Firth but I think you need to make it smoother. You have captured much of his style.

I think the clock shot is held far too long and some of your animation is so fast its difficult to see what it is. I enjoyed the candle wax dripping on the skull though.

Lighting was generally good. Certainly worth you doing some more though.

Well if that was a Halloween message it did send the right message to me. I found it very menacing. It's not the sort of thing I can watch. When ever things flash on the screen for just a frame it makes me uneasy as this is in the realm of subliminals which I don't like.

Having said that your have good shots lit well complemented with perfect sound to make the viewer uneasy.

Certainly different from the other sample's you've posted here. I had a look at some stop motion by David Firth via the link you posted and you've made a good effort to capture the style. I have to agree with Shrimpy that you need to make it smoother.
I'm an insensitive bugger and so I just spent my time thinking "What the heck?" rather than finding it affecting me in any way (like, say, MB above).
Lighting pretty good, quality of pictures pretty good, sound excellent.

It did create an air of mystery which I held to the end (and beyond) - "What is the significance of the clockface going out of focus?" and "Why is the clock ticking, but the second hand not moving?"

Tim,

First off thank you for watching and replying to this thread.

I would agree that the animation isn't very smooth i think at this point it is a matter of doing more animations to work that out. Im still not a hundred precent sure on what the exact frames per second is best for animation, if you have any tips on that it would be appreciated.

Also, the reason for the clock face is really just to build tension and i felt that fading the focus just put some action in to what was originally a still frame. the reason the clock hand does not move is for the reason that the clock is not a real working clock.

Again thank you for the help and will keep these things in mind for next time.

-Keller

Originally Posted by kellersmeller

the reason the clock hand does not move is for the reason that the clock is not a real working clock.

The question I was asking myself was it it part of the PLOT that the clock doesn't work (in which case why?) or was it just that your prop wasn;t up to the job?

I can't help with animaton, I'm afraid. My comment (or agreement with Shrimpy) wasn't so much that the animation was BAD - very jerky animation can be be quite styalish - rather that in order to look more similar to the David Firsth stop motion, it needed to be smoother.