Let's Watch

A brief stop-motion animation test I did using my 'Construct-a-bot EVE" posable figure, in my mind the best EVE figure out of all the current others on the market. The accompanying music is the track 'EVE' from the Wall.E soundtrack.

Comments and critisisms welcome... if I get enough interest I may do a similar stop-motion test with my remote control Wall.E or my Clean 'N Go M-O.

EDIT:

I am getting a frequent and repeated in-flow of questions asking how I made EVE hover and how I achieved the visual effects. So I don't have to reply individually to each question, I have compiled a crude FAQ right here so that hopefully your query may be answered:

Q: Does your EVE figure float on its own..?
A: No. Don't be silly.

Q: What is the name of your EVE figure..?
A: It is a 'Construct-a-bot EVE".

Q: How much was your EVE figure..?
A: £10 (uk).

Q: What camera did you use..?
A: I used a Fuj FinePix S 304 Digital Stills Camera shooting at 3.2 megapixels.

Q: Did you use a PC or a Mac..?
A: A PC running windows Vista Home Premium.

Q: What software did you use..?
A: Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Jasc Animation Shop, MonkeyJam, DDClip Pro, DDClip and Audacity.

Q: What frame-rate did you film at..?
A: 15 FPS.

Q: How many frames are there all together..?
A: 446 frames.

Q: Are you a professional animator..?
A: No, I am a student of animation studying in Southampton.

Q: How did you make EVE hover..?
A: Ok, here we go. Every individual frame of EVE in full body required me to mask out not only the plastic stand, but also the 'joining rods' (actually magnets) conecting her 'arms' and her head to the torso. This was achieved by taking a picture of the background with NO figure in place first of all so I had what is know as a 'clean plate'. Then, using Jasc Paint Shop Pro (like Photoshop in many respects) I could place this clean background plate (as a seperate layer) behind the layer with EVE on it and, using the rubber and various other tools, erase the part of the frame in which the figure's stand or any support rods were visable. Of course this sounds easier than it was...

Q: Explain..?
A: Well first off this 'masking' technique could only be achieved if the empty background plate and the plate with the EVE figue were directly in correlation with each other otherwise when I erased EVE's stand I'd reveal a part of the background that didn't correspond correctly to the top layer. This meant the camera had to remain absolutely still throughout production, not so easy when I was required to manually press the shutter button to take every frame.
Also the shadow underneath the figure was very difficult to contend with because as I removed the stand each frame parts of the shadow would be removed with it. The only way to remedy this was to go through each frame and 'repair' the shadow using various tools in Paint Shop Pro (clone brush, colour dropper, marquee tool, etc...). A time consuming process.

Q: And the visual effects (EVE blinking, the laser, the scanner)..?
A: All these were created by me using Jasc Paint Shop Pro and adding them to every necessary frame. I watched and re-watched the Wall.E trailer frame by frame in order to get the look of the effects correct and then just used various tools to create them. Adobe After effects was NOT used at any time... I don't have it.

Q: Why does your EVE figure look so smooth..?
A: Seams in the plastic and the button on the back (which releases the chest plate) had to be erased like the stand and joining rods using a combination of techniques... namely the clone brush.

Q: The motion blur..?
A: Created digitally in post-production... not shot physically.

Q: How long did this take to make..?
A: About 3 and a half to 4 days overall.

Q: So to conclude..?
A: In short, every single one of the 446 frame of this test has had some form of digital alteration applied to it.

Thank you. I hope this answers some/all of your questions.

Duration : 0:0:30

The Twilight Saga Eclipse Trailer 2010 (mtv movie awards) HD

Technorati Tags: animation, eva, Eve, figure, motion, stop, stop-motion, stopmotion, toy, wall-e, walle

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