Spangler Studios Blog

Hello all! Sorry that my site has been down. I didn’t realize the problem until a few days ago, but now it is fixed.

A while ago I made another puppet, a mouse, using the nylon over cotton soft scuplture techinique (no foam this time, which didn’t work as well). It was cute, but kind of weird, and just needed some kind of fur or fuzz. Well I came across some very cute and fuzzy felted mouse puppets online and immediately ordered some wool and felting needles and felted the wool fuzz right onto the puppet. It’s really long fuzz, but I like it better than the naked look, at least for the mouse.

Here are some photos of the puppet-making process (in reverse):

(click on the smaller images to enlarge)

This puppet was meant to be a test, so I tried to simplify the process, using aluminum foil for the hands and to help shape the face and ears. The wool felted onto the face alright because the head is hollow (there is an aluminum wire armature underneath), but in places where the aluminum foil was especially dense, like around the ears, it was pretty tough to get the wool fibers to stay.

During the past few weeks, I’ve been working to set up a test for multiple layers of the stringed rain that will be used in the film (if it actually works out okay). The location at which this is taking place has limited access hours, well, to be more specific, limited hours during which I can get in but not work, so I have to make sure I’ve got what I need if I’m going to be staying late. Anyway, this has been somewhat frustrating, but today I was finally able to shoot some rain footage after throwing together a makeshift version of my rain animation system… it looks like a multi-layered loom when all the strings are in place.

In my very first little test, with two strings of “rain” (it’s actually sparkly colored yarn), I only animated the strings by pulling on each one individually, one at a time:

I knew this would not work when the anticipated dozens of rain strings were in place, so I had to figure out a way to move them all at once. It’s pretty simple: The three rows of strings all fall beneath the surface of the set. The back one is held down low by a horizontal rod, the middle row is held up higher by another rod, and the third front row just falls straight down. They are all attached to a long piece of wood at the front of the set, which can rotate, but is held in place by rubber bands and some makeshift roller thingys I made with metal grommets and tape. The piece of wood has four flat sides and I animated the rain by turning it one side for one move. This makes it easy to measure and keeps the bar in place. If I wanted smaller moves, I’d use a similar shaped but thinner bar.

Here are some of the results:

The above test clips seemed to work. The rain mechanism was at least successful. The layering doesn’t show up so much because the strings blend together in the final image. I think I need to exaggerate the depth somehow and maybe light them separately for a better effect. The camera moves are a little jerky feeling. They were shot on twos, so if I used ones they probably would look much smoother. Slower moves look okay on twos. Something I should also note: these test aren’t as smooth as they could be, partly because I was using a point and shoot still camera which was self adjusting its focus several times.

This next clip was made with a video camera and uses a slow move, so it looks pretty smooth. There is an additional up close rain layer in front, made of painted hot glue on a sheet of plexiglass. The movement is crazy, but I like it!

In conclusion, I would like to try adding more sheet layers maybe in the back and/or strings made of translucent materials such as hot glue blobs or beads. Later tests should experiment further with lighting options (when I’ve got more lights!). The lights I’ve been using are all from Home Depot: low cost track spot lights in front and a simple silver work light with a big soft flood bulb for the back light. I’m very happy that these have been working, as it will allow me to avoid having to purchase higher cost lights… hopefully. I’m still completely lacking in the light stand department at home, so it might be time to order some.

Below are production pics from the recent tests:
(click on the big image to advance to the next one)

Jar_Leaves_01:

Jar_Leaves_02_white:

2006_11_17
Animation Rough Sketch Notes
Jar Leaves

General Info: Leaves in a glass jar with water, lit from below and from behind. Restricted to spinning action. Tried adding paint, and later spinning wet leaves after the water is emptied.

Jar_Leaves_01:
Animated fall leaves inside a jar with water. Pretty much limited to spinning them around with a stick at different speeds and directions. Pressing them up against the glass to get clearer colors. As the dark leaves are added, I like the feeling of them piling up, moving in multiple layers –not restricted to a flat level. The mixing of fast spinning with stops in between works well.

Jar_Leaves_02_white
Was able to get some beautiful colors at the beginning here, out of the red leaves especially. Added paint to the water to experiment. Surprised by the swirling cloudlets formed by the paint water (white)… similar to smoke. I like the water more when the paint is still dissolving, than when it has all become evenly opaque.

Conclusions:
The leaves have potential, but are beginning to bore me already with their limitations. I think they could work well as backgrounds, or if integrated with other layers or with characters. I’m interested in further exploring methods of under-camera image distortion. Some possibilities: Mirrors, vaseline, shadows, water, gel ripples, colored and frosted translucent layers. Also more experiments with multiplane animation using translucent layers, with liquids, with natural objects.

Would soon like to get back into some character animation, even if mixed with the experimental. I looked at an earlier test with a single hinge, where in the middle, the hinge suddenly has eyes, becomes a character. This kind of thing affects me more than swirling leaves, so I should head back in that direction, but not leave the experimental tests behind yet.

2006_11_16
Animation Rough Sketch Notes
Red Leaves

Update: Before this test, I did some construction creating “Makeshift Multiplane v2.0″ I realized I needed more layers, and had nothing to attach them too, so I found some more wood and attached four verticle posts to hold up some plexiglass layers (yet to be ordered). This is a much more stable structure — could be better, but not as bad as before!

Red_Leaves_01:

Layers, from top to bottom:

- camera
- small thick plexi, wired to camera, supporting up close dark leaves
- gel ripples on transparency, rotating
- several free-floating dried leaves
- Chinese maple leaves (mostly), inserted into yellow folder, rotating
- backlight

Observations:

Had some difficulty with the red colors, because my image feed is from a video camera. The brilliant true reds showed up as brownish, but with some adjustments, I was able to get some bright colors out of the leaves –putting them close to the backlight, and surrounding them with yellow changed the red to an orange-red.

The movement in this clip is more frantic than the Water_Leaves test, looks harsher. I noticed that the gel ripples are clearer here and less distorted than in Water_Leaves, for a few reasons: Here the ripples layer is on top of the leaves and on top of the yellow transparency, instead of underneath, so no distortion, Also, this gel layer is not as thick as the previous one, so even less distortion from thickness. Having the layers positioned like this gives the feeling of looking down on leaves spinning in glowing water, from above, as opposed to Water_Leaves, where I get the feeling of being submerged in the water, watching the leaves from below (which I prefer). I’d like to try further tests to push the submerged feeling, which will require reordering the layers and playing with distortion. In Water_Leaves, I also prefer how the leaves are at first close enough and moving slow enough that you can observe them and take note of their details. In Red_Leaves_01, there isn’t any opportunity for that.

This is my first posting on the new version of the blog, hosted on spanglerstudio.com’s server…
a change that will allow me to have much more control over how it looks and what it contains! First I’ll try a little movie from tonight’s animation test:

2006_11_10
Animation Test Notes
Water_Leaves_01

Details: Made a makeshift multi-plane for under camera shooting out of two wide boards and a window pane section, and added extra layers with various thickness of plexiglass, plastic sheeting and a translucent yellow folder. Wired a small piece of thick plexiglass directly under the camera lens after drilling holes in the the corners for the wire to pass through. The whole construction is very unstable, but it was fast and is easily disassembled (for example, by accidentally bumping it with one’s elbow!)

It was definitely worthwhile to quickly get to the point of being able to create something and make additions and adjustments while in the flow of it, instead of figuring out beginning elements to perfection (such as the multiplane) before being able to get started and before even really understanding what elements were necessary.

Construction: I’d wanted to try animating leaves in water, in a glass pan, or submerged in a glass jar… which at the start seemed risky considering the close proximity of the water to the electrical equipment, separated only by a window pane balancing on shaky boards… but I got sidetracked in the middle of it, put the water pan to the side and began assembling layers:

• Camera Lens
• Small thick plexiglass piece, for holding silhouetted leaf bits close to lens, wired/taped to camera
• - 8 inches of space
• Yellow translucent folder, leaves inserted inside
• Heavy plastic sheet from cheap poster frame, for dividing layers
• - half inch of space
• Scrap archival plastic sheeting folder - used as paint palette previously with mulitcolored paint splotches
• Glass pane
• Two boards with upturned desk lamp inbetween (60watt bulb)
• Table

Outcome: After previous several so-so experiments that used no or few layers, I want to explore further with the layered, somewhat unfocused look. There needs to be some element of mystery to hold my attention, and I’d prefer to create the mysterious element under the camera, not as a digital effect.

The layers, light and movement feel like looking through murkyish leaf filled water, something that I think would have been more difficult to create with actual water. The paint palette layer revealed a happy accident when a blob of ridged translucent gel medium came into view: It looked like water ripples! The silhouetted leaf bits close to the lens added a necessary element, quick-flowing but not too distracting bits that add to the feeling of dimensional movement.
All in all, worth further investigation.