13 days, 2 all-nighters, 1 1/2 headaches and 33 coffee's later.. 70 seconds of animation is born..

I'm officially done animation; now off to the post production side of things.. !


Currently I've been debating over what to do with my film.. whether to enter festivals, or let sail the net..

Regardless.. you guys will hear the answer to that question, throughout the next few days..



It it a small film, so if I where to reveal any more clips, it would spoil the story..
Just a bit more patience until the whole film is ready for eyes to see!

A busy few days since my last posting...
During my absence, I reached the half way point of my film! *woo*
Also, I was a bit behind schedule, due to some set backs with rigging and other unexpected mishaps.. but during my latest animation I managed to incorporate two shots into one; so as it seems, I am once again back on schedule !




Enough of this chitter-chatter.. I have some animation for you folks !!






There are some light flickering issues that I am still working out.. but this should give you a taste of what to expect from the film!




As for my setbacks.. this half homemade rig, used to suspend him in mid air broke after 5 frames..



Also, his armature needed to hit the garage for some fine tuning, as the joints tent to come loose after too much usage..





and yes.. I made him an amputee..

So, todays post should be a fun one..

I decided to add an update to yesterdays " tricky".. "camera angle" image, with a shot just moments before I began animating; I hope you can appreciate my ability to utilize as many house hold objects as needed, to achieve a somewhat "perfect" lighting job..

As this is a quite heavily convoluted photo, I thought we could make a game of it! (hence the "fun one")

I've decided upon 6 items in the picture below which Id like you to find.. (1 being the hardest item to locate)

6- Shot list
5 - The "Dragon Controller"/number pad (a handy tool you receive when purchasing "Dragon" My frame capturing software of choice!)
4 - The head of "spotted's" main character !! (as he is standing headless..)
3 - Animation slate (the piece of paper I photograph at the beginning of each shot; to keep track of shot numbers and the date)
2 - Original box to my cannon camera
1 - Mini hand held mirror (shown in a photo below)

At the very least, we all have MS paint.. so if you decide to take part, simply circle each item and list them in their correct order - email the image to me, and if you are the genius who you think you are.. you might just win a prize : )


As my iphone took it, the photo is not the clearest.. but don't make a fuss - this will just add to the challenge !

The last item is a toughie.. if people are having trouble.. I will update with clues !



( prize's to be determined .. )

email address : jeremymurphy709@gmail.com



Good Luck & Dig In !

Day 3 was half spent re-doing the last second of shot # 2, then to completing its subsequent shot # 3. The 4am blues must of made me delusional, as to allow me to think the characters reaction would be suitable; My rested eyes begged to differ...

A second of animation is 24 frames ( individual images ) the human eye works quite like a camera does, sending streams of images to your brain, allowing us to identify and interact with the world around us. moving pictures have been developed around these premises - where by the universal video frame rate is 29.97 fps (frames per second) or to avoid dismal digits.. 30 fps.
If you were to be fed more then 30 fps, the movie would come across blurry and hard to watch.. less then 30 fps, the motion would feel slow and or, choppy.. (helps explain why a schizophernic see's this world differently..)

There have been some sneaky animators in the past, trying to find new and improved time effective ways of animating.. (i.e: animation on 2's or 4's rather then 1's) simply meaning: instead of 24fps (1's) it would be 12fps or 6fps, holding the same image for 1 or more frames within the second.

One could think that these are tricks of a lazy animator.. but thats only the case in some situations... the usage of 1's and 2's over the year's has been argued upon over what has the best effect.. where 2's can bring a character to life with broad, snappy gestures.. 1's offers a smooth, subtle touch.



My point for telling you all this is to try and explain exactly how one can spend 4+ hours on a second and a half of animation... Though, I've been making fairly good headway - to say the least, I am on schedule!.




Any who, I thought I ought to show you guys the main character of my film - and a rather tricky, but never the less, achieved camera angle.. :

Second day of shooting - A successful day/night/next morning for animation!
Don't get me wrong.. I'd love nothing more then to show you guys some clips, but I don't want to spoil the ending..

Hopefully some pictures will tide ya'll over till dinner..
















( and yes - I purchased an armature online, only to find out that it came 100% unassembled.. the hack saw was to cut the metal rods to a perfect size then for the ball joints screw onto ! At first I was thinkin'.. " Man.. what a pain... " but then I realized "Dude.. the possibilities for character creation is endless ! " So in the end it was a pleasant build :)

Dear blogger.com & whom ever else..

This is my first attempt at a stop-motion short film.

As it is my first, I've chosen a fairly short and light hearted concept which I plan to start and finish within the the time span of a month.

I say a month, because I'm a dreamer.. so please don't judge me if I don't meet my exact deadline, you know how these things go.. It only means that I am spending more time polishing the shoes of this film, for my wonderful audience (you)!

Please enjoy your own snacks and beverages, sit back and watch a some what ambiguous evolution of my film : Spotted.



Thanks for your interest,

- Jeremy